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Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s voluminous record, his opinion of the Supreme Court’s landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade, and his views on legal precedent have deservedly been scrutinized in the lead-up to his confirmation hearings next week. But the Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, more than Roe, holds the key to understanding the stakes of Judge Kavanaugh’s potential confirmation. It is Casey that now protects women’s access to reproductive health care in states whose restrictions on health care providers and patients threaten to close clinics or ban abortions outright. And the political lesson conservatives learned from Casey all but guarantees that a vote for Judge Kavanaugh is a vote not only to endanger abortion rights but to turn back the clock on a century of progressive reforms. (Serena Mayeri, 8/30)

Roe goes beyond the right to choose to have an abortion. Overturning Roe threatens so much more than the right to an abortion. Roe’s importance enumerates, to use Rehnquist’s own words, the right to both personal choice and privacy in matter of marriage and family. And while Roe hangs precariously by a thread if Kavanaugh is confirmed, we need to start thinking beyond the judiciary to the states to do the right thing for women. We need the states to act and protect our right to abortion. (Julie A. Burkhart, 8/30)

College students seek abortion at a higher rate than other age groups, demonstrating the need for accessible and affordable care. For nearly 20 years, students have safely and effectively used the abortion pill. They’ve just been forced to do so off campus, which for some involves significant — and unnecessary — obstacles. (Daniel Grossman, 8/30)