State abortion laws megathread

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm going to make a bold prediction and say that Kavanaugh and Roberts will strike down the ban, because this goes in clear violation of Roe and Casey and an outright ban is far less likely to pass SCOTUS than heavy restrictions.  Roberts doesn't want this hill to die on, and he knows the fallout that would ensue from letting this pass.

I'm not certain that SCOTUS will even grant cert on this one.  It certainly won't if on any of the other cases likely to get there sooner, they don't uphold some lesser restriction.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The only legitimate reason for the state to act to prevent abortion is the sincere belief that it is protecting a human life. While I favor allowing abortion in the first trimester, once whenever the limit is set I believe there should be no exceptions for rape or incest as they do not affect whether the fetus is now a human life.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Is abortion a generational issue where opposition is literally dying out like gay marriage is? I do remember back in 2004 how united the country was in opposition to gay marriage. It would seem to me that the abortion issue should be similar with the youth being less religious, but the intense opposition in red states to abortion is perplexing. Red states have mostly given up on gay marriage, and the national polls have it around 70% support.

It's been pretty bizarrely consistent, actually, especially considering the decline in religiosity.

Why?  Irreligious people can't be ethical?  After all, the question of what constitutes a human life is one of the most basic of ethical questions and does not need religion to be answered. However, the answer one has to that question largely determines under what circumstances someone will support allowing abortion to happen. There's no contradiction if an atheist is pro-life.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

SCOTUS refuses to revive Alabama ban on dilation-and-evacuation abortions.

The total abortion ban passed this year is almost certainly DOA.

Why? Courts are not legislatures. At least in theory, they make decisions based on principles, not effects. Any decision SCOTUS makes about individual procedures won't provide a way to lay out a presumably principled challenge to Roe. Indeed, it would have to assume the Roe line of decisions are valid. Conversely, a total ban provides a way to challenge Roe and potentially reverse it. I don't think this court will reverse Roe, but not because of this decision to not review a lower court striking down a ban on a single procedure.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

SCOTUS refuses to revive Alabama ban on dilation-and-evacuation abortions.

The total abortion ban passed this year is almost certainly DOA.

Why? Courts are not legislatures. At least in theory, they make decisions based on principles, not effects. Any decision SCOTUS makes about individual procedures won't provide a way to lay out a presumably principled challenge to Roe. Indeed, it would have to assume the Roe line of decisions are valid. Conversely, a total ban provides a way to challenge Roe and potentially reverse it. I don't think this court will reverse Roe, but not because of this decision to not review a lower court striking down a ban on a single procedure.

Why wouldn't this have been a good opportunity to address Casey and it's "undue burden" standard?   They could have at least greatly limited it's application by putting greater weight on the state interest in protecting unborn life.

Two reasons. First, it didn't ban all second trimester abortions but only a particular procedure. So one can't rationally argue that it trying to protect unborn life. Second, If one starts with the premise that abortion is constitutionally protected, then again one can't rationally say that the undue burden test isn't a reasonable standard.

Basically, for a ban against a procedure to be upheld while leaving other abortion rulings untouched, you'd have to argue that it doesn't place a burden to ban that particular procedure, and considering it is the usual method for second-term abortions, that would be an impossible standard to meet.