Ed Kilgore: ‘Imagining a Post-“Roe” America’

From New York magazine:

 

Last week, the Supreme Court finally took up the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, raising the specter of a clock turned back to 1973, before Roe v. Wade created a constitutional right to abortion.

For those who favor greater reproductive rights, the Supreme Court’s decision to reconsider long-established precedent is deeply ominous. There won’t be a ruling until spring or summer of 2022, and it’s impossible to guess exactly what the new conservative majority might support. The Court could surprise us, as it did with the 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey; rather than making it illegal to terminate a pregnancy, the Court reaffirmed its prohibition on banning abortions that occur prior to fetal viability (around 24 weeks), while opening the door to limited state restrictions. Or the Court could return the country to the pre-Roe status-quo ante, in which states could effectively set whatever policies they wanted.

What might the latter scenario look like? Below is a preview of the savage landscape of inequality and culture war that could be unleashed by the Dobbs decision.

 

 

Read the full article.