The decades-long effort by anti-abortionists brought the court to the edge of the Roe v. Wade.

At a time Roe decided in 1973, abortion is no longer a partisan issue. As governor of California, Reagan signed a law in 1967 authorizing abortion, and Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.), the first vice-presidential candidate on the Democratic ballot 1972, became known as a prominent abortionist. Even President Biden, as a US senator from Delaware, voted in 1982 for a constitutional amendment to allow states to have illegal abortions.