Post-Dobbs, “the anti-abortion movement is regrouping around a new goal: using the federal government to ban abortion in the rest of the country,” warns Vox’s Adam Freelander.
In the explainer video above, hear from Carrie Baker, chair of the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College, and Ms. contributing editor; Mary Ziegler, law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, and Ms. contributor; and Vox reporters Ian Millhiser, Anna North and Rachel Cohen.
“Whether the U.S. bans it completely is basically up to the next president. …
“If Republicans take control of Congress in the 2024 election, it’s very possible they could pass a national abortion ban law. But experts don’t consider that the most likely way a national abortion ban could come about, for two reasons: Polling shows it would be extremely unpopular, and it would require the elimination of the Senate filibuster. Instead, they point to a different branch of the federal government — the president’s office and all the federal agencies it oversees.
“In the federal agencies, opponents of abortion could fashion a de facto abortion ban by chipping away at abortion access in numerous ways, for example limiting access to medication abortion, which now constitutes two-thirds of all abortions in the US. The biggest way that the president’s office could limit abortion is by deciding to enforce something called the Comstock Act: a 150-year-old abortion ban killed by Roe v. Wade and brought back to life by its repeal.
“The final way the next president could determine the future of abortion rights is through federal court appointments. The anti-abortion movement’s “next Roe v. Wade” is the national legal recognition of fetal personhood, an idea that would by definition outlaw all abortion. The current Supreme Court isn’t yet right-wing enough to endorse this idea. But after another Trump term, that could change.”
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