ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the political climate,

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partly cloudy with a 90 percent chance of gridlock.

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Yeah. And idiocy. Yeah. Those guys.

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All right, check out this excerpt. Right here.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right.

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And the question:

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How did the decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey

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contradict the political climate of the United States at the time?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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Well, Planned Parenthood v. Casey may have delivered

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a major victory to pro-choice groups,

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but it caused a pretty big disturbance in the predominant

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political force at the time.

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Did Planned Parenthood v. Casey contradict

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the political climate because A - the public had less trust

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in government following several political scandals?

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Well, hmm. There might have been a dip in public trust

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in the early 90s, but it was more related to economic performance

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rather than political standards.

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Would this case have contradicted things because B -

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conservatives had achieved several victories in

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reducing taxes and deregulating industry?

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Well, this period was a time of major conservative gains

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including tax cuts, but those decisions were related to

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fiscal issues, not social ones. So that shrinks B.

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Could this case have contradicted the political atmosphere

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because D - Republicans were focused on reducing

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the size of the national government?

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Well, reducing the size of the government was also a major

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focus of the Republican party,

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but it wasn't necessarily related to why conservatives

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opposed access to abortions.

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Which means that the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision

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contradicted the political climate because C -

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there was increased government participation

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of fundamentalist Christian organizations.

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Well, during the 1980s and 90s, there was a large increase

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in the number of fundamentalist

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Christian groups participating in government.

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The Planned Parenthood ruling upheld a woman's right

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to have an abortion, something many fundamentalist Christians

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fought against. So the decision came as a bit of a surprise.

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And that makes C the right answer.

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Though Planned Parenthood v. Casey was a big part of

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the 1990s culture war,

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it didn't come close to the infamous

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Pepsi v. Coke conflict.

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[ singing ] I'd like to teach the world to Shmoop...

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[ singing ] In perfect harmony...

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