What explains the magnetic pull of Roe v. Wade when there are other culture wars: around guns, race, the rights of same-sex couples, and many more subjects? Scholars never liked the decision, feminists derided it, and most people know almost nothing about the workings of the Supreme Court. Yet Roe was by a long measure America's most famous Supreme Court decision. It made the phrase "litmus test" relevant to judicial nominations; it was the only case that regularly made the presidential platforms of both major political parties. No other Court decision in American history was as controversial for as long. Over its half-century of public life, Roe took on meanings that extended far beyond its original purpose of protecting the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship. At various times, it forced us to confront hard questions about judicial activism and restraint, the believability of science, racial justice, the suppression of religion, and much more. In this book, timed for the decision's fiftieth anniversary, the nation's foremost historian of abortion law explores the transformations of meaning that have kept abortion on the front lines of our political and social battles.
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