Post-Dobbs, The Abortion Battle Hits Activist State Courts
By: Margot Cleveland
June 27, 2022
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court declared it was returning the authority to regulate or prohibit abortion “to the people and their elected representatives.” The abortion lobby, however, has no intention of leaving the legality of abortions to the American public. Instead, it will seek to create an abortion-on-demand regime via activist state judges. Countering this strategy must take priority, or Dobbs will be for naught.
In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and held there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. Contrary to the misperception of some, the reversal of Roe and Casey did not make abortion illegal. Rather, Dobbs removed stringent judicial oversight on abortion laws.
Pre-Dobbs, under the controlling Casey framework, any law passed by a legislative body, whether Congress or a state legislature, was subjected to judicial scrutiny to determine whether the statute imposed an “undue burden” on a woman’s alleged right to have an abortion. That standard of judicial review prevented elected lawmakers from regulating abortion in most ways and left many universally supported laws, such as bans on abortion after 20 weeks, voided by judicial fiat.
What Dobbs did in overturning Roe and Casey was restore “the Constitution’s neutrality” to the issue of abortion and return the “authority to address the issue of abortion through the processes of democratic self-government established by the Constitution” to the people.
more
https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/27/post-dobbs-the-abortion-battle-hits-activist-state-courts/
