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Here’s How ‘Gonzales v. Carhart’ Still Affects ‘Roe’ Today

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion in Gonzales helped usher in a new wave of anti-choice language that still resonates to this day.

Justice Anthony Kennedy during a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House. Eric Thayer/Getty Images

Ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Gonzales v. Carhart decision, Gonzales still poses a threat to the abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade. As Rewire‘s Vice President of Law and the Courts Jessica Mason Pieklo has stated, in 2007, the Court upheld the federal “partial-birth abortion” ban, “a law that criminalizes a form of later abortion known as intact dilation and extraction terminations (D and X).”

On Tuesday, the tenth anniversary of the Gonzales decision, Pieklo explained via Twitter how Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion helped usher in a new wave of anti-choice language that still resonates to this day, including in legislation restricting reproductive rights around the country.

To read Pieklo’s recap, check out the Storify below: