The Supreme Court has delivered a major ruling striking down Roe v. Wade. We’ll dive into the ramifications and where abortion stands in states following the ruling.
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Roe v. Wade is struck down. What happens now?
The decision Friday striking down Roe v. Wade leaves abortion laws up to each state, leaving a patchwork of laws across the country.
- Thirteen states have immediate trigger laws to ban almost all abortions: Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
- More to watch: States including Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, Alabama and Ohio also have pursued laws that would ban abortion, but they would not go into effect immediately.
- Other situations: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law a 15-week abortion ban in April, which will go into effect on July 1. Like the Mississippi law at issue in the Supreme Court case, it bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy and doesn’t include exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
The pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute estimates that 33 million U.S. women of child-bearing ages live in states that have laws on the books or set to be implemented that would ban or heavily restrict access to abortion. Guttmacher estimates 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion.
“Those who have struggled in the past are going to be forced into possibly untenable situations to travel great distances or could be forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term,” said Bethany Van Kampen, a senior policy advisor for Ipas, an abortion rights advocacy group.
Map note: Three states — Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi — have a trigger law for a Roe decision and have also passed pre-Roe decision abortion bans, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
View the full map and read more here
Biden reacts to ruling: Court paving ‘extreme’ path
President Biden on Friday accused the Supreme Court of taking an extremist path with its decision overturning Roe v. Wade, arguing the court made a “tragic error.”
- What he said: “It’s a sad day for the court and for the country,” Biden said at the White House. “The health and life of women in this nation is now at risk.”
- Biden specifically called out the court for completely overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving the decision on abortion rights entirely to states.
- He noted a person who is the victim of rape and incest would no longer be able to get an abortion unless a state law provides such an exception.
In the room: Biden delivered the remarks just after noon on Friday, roughly two hours after the ruling was issued.
A group of about a dozen female White House aides, including domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, watched on silently during his speech from a corner of the room.
THOMAS OPENS DOOR TO OVERTURNING OTHER PRECEDENTS
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday called for overturning the constitutional rights the court had affirmed for access to contraceptives and LGBTQ rights in an opinion concurring with the majority decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
- In his separate opinion, Thomas acknowledged that Friday’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization does not directly affect any rights besides abortion.
- However, he argued that the constitution’s Due Process Clause does not secure a right to an abortion or any other substantive rights, and he urged the court to apply that reasoning to other landmark cases.
His argument: Thomas wrote, “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”
Why it matters: The three cases Thomas mentioned are all landmark decisions and deal with contraceptives, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.
Since Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion overturning Roe was leaked earlier this year, Democrats and liberal activists have warned that the conservative majority would soon turn its attention to other rights that the court has previously affirmed.
COLLINS: RULING ‘INCONSISTENT’ WITH WHAT TRUMP NOMINEES TOLD ME
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Friday said conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch misled her about their views on the importance of Supreme Court precedent during their confirmation proceedings in 2017 and 2018.
- Collins, who voted to confirm then-President Trump’s first two nominees to the court despite her support for abortion rights, has said she believed the justices would hold up important precedents such as Roe v. Wade.
- A court majority that included Kavanaugh and Gorsuch on Friday struck down the landmark 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.
What she was told: “This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon,” Collins said, explaining her votes for those nominees during the Trump administration.
“The Supreme Court has abandoned a fifty-year precedent at a time that the country is desperate for stability,” Collins said in a statement. “This ill-considered action will further divide the country at a moment when, more than ever in modern times, we need the Court to show both consistency and restraint.”
Biden vows to protect access to pills, contraception, travel
President Biden on Friday vowed to protect access to abortion pills and contraception in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
- In remarks from the White House, Biden lambasted the decision as a “tragic error” carried out by an “extreme,” conservative-controlled Supreme Court.
- “It’s a sad day for the country in my view, but it doesn’t mean the fight’s over,” he said, calling for Congress to codify abortion protections through federal law.
White House action: Biden vowed that his administration would protect women’s access to medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including both contraceptives and oral abortifacients such as mifepristone.
“My administration will also protect a woman’s access to medications that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA. Like contraception which is essential for preventative health care [and] mifepristone, which the FDA approved 20 years ago to safely end early pregnancies and is commonly used to treat miscarriages,” the president said.
Abortion travel: He also said his administration would defend the “bedrock right” of a woman living in a state where abortions are now outlawed to travel to another state where it is available and terminate her pregnancy.
“If any state or local official, high or low, tries to interfere with a woman exercising her basic right to travel, I will do everything in my power to fight that deeply un-American attack,” said Biden.
WHAT WE’RE READING
- Covid-19 vaccines prevented nearly 20 million deaths in a year, study estimates (Stat)
- From joy to anger, faith leaders react to Roe’s reversal (Associated Press)
- Can I still buy Plan B? Where can I get it? What to know after SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade (USA Today)
STATE BY STATE
- A Post-‘Roe’ World in Georgia Will Mean More Restrictions — And More Political Battles (Kaiser Health News)
- West Coast governors promise to defend abortion rights (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
- Mississippi Abortion Clinic Will Remain Open Until At Least July 4th (Mississippi Free Press)
OP-EDS IN THE HILL
We must end the public health emergency carefully
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you next week.
