When it does, Professor David S. Cohen wrote in an essay appearing in Slate, there is little reason to believe that Justice Anthony Kennedy will uphold a woman’s right to accessible abortion facilities. 

Cohen noted that Kennedy gained a reputation for being a “swing vote” on abortion from his vote in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey case, which struck down a Pennsylvania law requiring married women to notify their husbands before obtaining an abortion.  

But that reputation is undeserved, Cohen said, observing that Kennedy has voted to uphold all of the other 21 abortion restrictions that have come before the high court since he was sworn in and has written opinions that “have become increasingly hostile to abortion rights.”  

Cohen is an expert on constitutional law who focuses his scholarship on gender and the law.