Good morning. This is a special edition of the NPR Politics newsletter on the fall of Roe v. Wade — and its far-reaching implications. Want more political news and analysis? Subscribe to our weekly Politics newsletter.
6 questions after the Roe overturn
Tyrone Turner for NPR
It’s hard to overstate the importance of what the Supreme Court did Friday with its outright overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that made abortion legal in this country nearly 50 years ago.
"It’s the legal equivalent of a nuclear bomb,” NPR’s Nina Totenberg, the dean of Supreme Court reporters, noted.
We have lots of questions about what this means for society and politics. But here are six:
What happens for access to abortion? Leaving it to the states is going to make for a confusing red-and-blue patchwork of laws and uneven access to abortion for millions — if they have any access at all.
Does the court go after other rights — like contraception access and same-sex marriage?Justice Clarence Thomas wants the fight. His colleagues don’t appear ready just yet. Will that change?
What will this mean for the Supreme Court’s credibility? It has nosedived this year and this decision puts the court woefully out of step with the majority of Americans.
Will the idea of doing away with the filibuster and packing the court become more mainstream? Adding judges to the court has been thought of as fringe, but expect there to be a drumbeat from the left, hoping to pick up more people on the parade route, particularly given the relatively young ages of the conservatives on the court.
How do Democrats and liberals respond more broadly? It took conservatives half a century of meticulous planning to get to their victory. Will Democrats invest the way Republicans do in statehouse races that are going to matter more now than ever?
Will it shake up the 2022 election? Because of inflation and high gas prices, Republicans are still favored to take back at least the House. But it’s worth watching if the landscape changes at all — and what the impact will be on 2024.
Just moments after the Supreme Court delivered its seismic ruling overturning Roe, Missouri became the first state to effectively outlaw abortion, with the swift signature of the state’s attorney general certifying the ruling.
In Washington, on the steps of the nation’s highest court, abortion advocates and opponents — both wielding signs with sparring messages — filled the air with a mix of elated cheers and exasperated chants of “I will aid and abet abortion.”
Justice Samuel Alito suggested in his majority opinion that it would be impossible to foresee what would happen in the wake of the decision, but the cascading effects are already on full view. Even before the ruling, 22 states were poised to ban or fully curtail access to abortion.
The decision to strip Americans of their constitutional right to abortion — augured by former President Donald Trump’s appointment of three justices, tilting the court to its most conservative posture in 75 years — is now setting off a flurry of sweeping prognoses about the future of reproductive rights in America:
Doctors, who take an oath to “do no harm,” are caught in an impossible legal and ethical gauntlet. The decision is now forcing them to ponder “how imminent must death be,” as one OB-GYN put it, for pregnant patients who need the procedure because of life-threatening complications.
The ruling will likely disproportionately affect people with disabilities and women of color — and heighten the risks of people falling deeper into poverty. People with disabilities are over three times more likely than non-disabled people to be sexually assaulted, according to federal statistics — putting them at high risk of needing access to the procedure. Black and Hispanic women seek abortions at higher rates than their peers in conservative states, and financial constraints may prevent them from traveling for care. And a landmark study that followed women for a decade found those denied an abortion were four times more likely to be living in poverty years later. Data shows the potential consequences don’t stop there.
States where abortions remain protected are already worried about the demand from out-of-state patients. Minnesota, currently an island in a sea of abortion bans, has just eight clinics that provide the procedure. Wait times can last two weeks, pushing some patients outside the window of viability. One nonprofit says the cost of care can exceed $1,000 — inevitably widening the chasm in access among the rich and poor.
Restrictive abortion laws could lead to a wave of mass incarceration. A woman charged with murder for having a miscarriage, and awaiting her fate in front of a court of law, is now no longer just a hypothetical. The laws could give rise to a legal trawl net targeting patients who seek abortions — and those who aid them — that is tantamount to the War on Drugs, experts say. Lawyers are already gearing up for a fight.
The unraveling of nearly a half-century of precedent will play out more clearly in the months and years ahead. But one thing is certain, as our Nina Totenberg noted: The Supreme Court no longer has a center. Could it tear through other enshrined American rights? Only time holds the answers.
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