"For almost twenty years, abortion policy in America has been controlled by the courts"
About this Quote
A politician’s polite way of saying: the people you elect aren’t actually driving one of the country’s most combustible moral questions. When Robert Casey complains that abortion policy “has been controlled by the courts,” he’s not offering a civics lesson; he’s staging a legitimacy argument. Courts are appointed, insulated, slow-moving. Legislatures are elected, accountable, messy. By relocating authority from voters to judges, Casey frames abortion not just as a rights dispute but as a democratic grievance - a procedural wrong that many Americans can resent even if they disagree on the substance.
The timeline matters. “Almost twenty years” points straight at Roe v. Wade (1973) and the long aftershock of Supreme Court rulings that refined, narrowed, or defended it through the 1980s and early 1990s. Casey, a Democratic governor with anti-abortion convictions, is speaking from inside a party coalition that was splitting: civil-libertarian lawyers and feminist organizers on one side, Catholic and working-class voters on the other. His phrasing tries to give that latter bloc a principled rationale that doesn’t sound purely theological: this isn’t only about fetal life; it’s about who gets to decide.
The subtext is also strategic. If courts are “controlling” policy, then legislative action becomes the cure - restrictions, funding limits, consent laws, incremental barriers. It’s a way to normalize regulation while casting opponents as defenders of an unaccountable judiciary. In a single line, Casey turns abortion from a private decision into a referendum on institutional power, and invites frustration with the courts to do political work that moral certainty can’t always do on its own.
The timeline matters. “Almost twenty years” points straight at Roe v. Wade (1973) and the long aftershock of Supreme Court rulings that refined, narrowed, or defended it through the 1980s and early 1990s. Casey, a Democratic governor with anti-abortion convictions, is speaking from inside a party coalition that was splitting: civil-libertarian lawyers and feminist organizers on one side, Catholic and working-class voters on the other. His phrasing tries to give that latter bloc a principled rationale that doesn’t sound purely theological: this isn’t only about fetal life; it’s about who gets to decide.
The subtext is also strategic. If courts are “controlling” policy, then legislative action becomes the cure - restrictions, funding limits, consent laws, incremental barriers. It’s a way to normalize regulation while casting opponents as defenders of an unaccountable judiciary. In a single line, Casey turns abortion from a private decision into a referendum on institutional power, and invites frustration with the courts to do political work that moral certainty can’t always do on its own.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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