New Antiabortion Laws and the Federal Court

Yes, we knew it was coming, but it was unknown exactly when.

Lawsuit Tracker:

Ohio: ACLU, Planned Parenthood file lawsuit challenging Ohio anti-abortion law - Reuters

The law, which was passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature in April, bans abortions if doctors can detect a heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

Anti-abortion advocates know any laws they pass are certain to be challenged, and courts this year have blocked a restrictive Kentucky law and another in Iowa.

Idaho: Planned Parenthood Files Lawsuit Against Idaho Over Invasive Abortion Reporting Regulations

This law (will) require providers in the state to report on more than 37 new “complications,” ranging from medical conditions that have no link to abortion, like breast cancer, to the inability to come in for a follow-up appointment, which is not a medical condition. The reporting requirement doesn’t exist for any other medical procedure. The bill was signed into law by Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter in March.

Peter J Barban said:

I think we need 1 or 2 more conservative justices to reverse Roe.

Even if it is reversed, there will be civil disobedience, talk of secession, court packing, and impeaching the supreme court. Furthermore, many lower judges will ignore the ruling.

The game is never over until the left wins. We live in interesting times.

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Or, as we've seen demonstrated by the radical left, it will be not-so-civil disobedience.

The abortion bills are hurting matters for sure. Can you imagine how much money states are spending on preparation for court hearings they probably will lose that could have been spent helping girls and women get reproductive health care during the short time they have left to find out if they are pregnant?

mark kennedy said:

Rest assured there will be mello drama and protests but I'm not expecting acts of civil disobedience. Roe v. Wade could be reconsidered, am I the only one who this this is an historic moment for the right to life movement? We should be in prayer about this, I mean how long has this been in coming. The outcome is likely to be unsatisfactory but it could represent significant progress and I'm not sure these antiabortion bills are helping or hurting matters.

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It's hard to know what exactly will happen. 23.7% of women get an abortion. Making an action that 24% of people do illegal can't end well. You can claim that they'll stop, but statistics from before Roe and in other countries don't support that.

I'm not sure you'll have civil disobedience in the usual sense. What we will have is another profitable line of business for organized crime. Prosecutors won't prosecute a quarter of the female population, but the reality today is that you can't get by with just prosecuting doctors, because women can buy pills online. There's a service in Europe that does it right, with online consultation with women. I'm guessing the FDA will shut them down; illegal sources will be more dangerous. While you can't prosecute a quarter of the population, the war on drugs gives you a pretty good model for what can happen. We'll have occasional prosecutions of people who can't defend themselves. Just what we need: even more people in prison.

I doubt any doctor will risk prosecution. I think these states will find it harder to get OBs though. I also think they'll find it harder to get major companies to locate there.

I'm beginning to think it's better in the long run if Roe falls. That will remove the only rational reason for evangelicals to vote for Trump. I'm not sure it's the job of the blue states to keep the red states from turning into a third-world enclave. (I'm not referring just to abortion. The same states tend to oppose universal medical care and other things.)

hedrick said:

It's hard to know what exactly will happen.

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One more prediction: We'll see a kind of mini-replay of the slavery issue. I predict you'll see an underground railroad trying to help people in Alabama get abortions. Alabama will try to outlaw it, so we'll next start seeing Supreme Court cases on whether they can do so. We may also see interesting test cases if Alabama tries to extradict their citizens from other states to prosecute them. Normally states honor each others' law, but I wonder whether NJ would extradict someone to Alabama for violating anti-abortion laws.

hedrick said:

One more prediction: We'll see a kind of mini-replay of the slavery issue. I predict you'll see an underground railroad trying to help people in Alabama get abortions. Alabama will try to outlaw it, so we'll next start seeing Supreme Court cases on whether they can do so. We may also see interesting test cases if Alabama tries to extradict their citizens from other states to prosecute them. Normally states honor each others' law, but I wonder whether NJ would extradict someone to Alabama for violating anti-abortion laws.

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I read a New York Post article about high school students scratching colleges off their lists because of new abortion laws, even though none of them have been enacted yet. No, the girls are not pregnant.

https://nypost.com/2019/05/25/scare...colleges-in-states-with-strict-abortion-laws/