Demonstrators for and against abortion rights outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington during oral arguments in the Louisiana abortion clinic case “June Medical Services v. Russo,” on March 4, 2020. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
In 1992, the fate of Roe v. Wade hovered in the background of a challenge to Pennsylvania anti-abortion restrictions. An ACLU lawyer, who represented the challengers in the U.S. Supreme Court, took the offensive from the start.
The case was Planned Parenthood of S.E. Pennsylvania v. Casey. The lawyer was Kathryn Kolbert of the ACLU’s reproductive rights project, who, with her colleague, project director Janet Benshoof, was about to leave the civil rights organization to launch what would become the premier abortion rights organization in the nation, the Center for Reproductive Rights.
