When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

by John Ganz

The Supreme Court was hearing a challenge to Roe v. Wade—Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The defendant was Bob Casey, the pro-life Democratic governor of Pennsylvania who was defending his state’s Abortion Control Act of 1982. The law required a twenty-four-hour waiting period before an abortion, minors to get consent from their parents, and married women to inform their husband of their intent to get an abortion. This looked like the big one: William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall had been replaced by Bush’s picks, David Souter and Clarence Thomas. Eight of the justices were Republican selections, and five had been chosen by Reagan or Bush. Officially, the Bush administration said it wanted the court to strike down Roe: the solicitor general, Ken Starr, filed an amicus brief to that effect. But behind closed doors, the White House fretted over the potential bombshell of reversing Roe in an election year.