Karen Ramspacher of ACT UP NY and Wham! was arrested, on April 26, 1989, when abortion rights opponents, backed by the Bush Administration, urged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. Pro-choice activists clashed with opponents outside the court, with more than two dozen demonstrators were arrested.
In Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the Court upheld several provisions of a Missouri law that regulated the performance of abortions. The Court refused to invalidate the law’s preamble stating that life begins at conception.