Jun 29, 2018 - Politics & Policy

Several states ready to outlaw abortion if Roe v. Wade overturned

Women's March 2018 in New York. Photo: Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images

President Trump vocalized during his 2016 campaign that, if elected, he would appoint judges that would put an end to the historic abortion ruling Roe vs. Wade. And now, with the announcement of Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement, Trump has his chance.

The big picture: The future of nationwide abortion rights is uncertain. While a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 67% of voters don't want Roe overturned "[a]s many as 17 states are poised to effectively ban abortion" if that were to happen, reports the Los Angeles Times' Evan Halper.

The bottom line: "Four states — Louisiana, Mississippi and North and South Dakota — have laws designed to ban abortion if Roe is overturned. And seven — Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio and North Dakota — have laws that express the intention to limit abortion as much as the Supreme Court allows."

What to watch: If Trump stays true to his word and appoints a pro-life judge to succeed Justice Kennedy, the issue of abortion would be catapulted to the forefront of state political campaigns. Patrick Egan, a political scientist at New York University, told Halper, "The extent to which states prohibit or make it more difficult to access legal abortion could become the battleground in the politics of many states for decades to come."

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Axios
Updated 5 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 10 p.m. ET: 32,471,119 — Total deaths: 987,593 — Total recoveries: 22,374,557 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 10 p.m. ET: 7,032,524 — Total deaths: 203,657 — Total recoveries: 2,727,335 — Total tests: 99,483,712 — Map.
  3. States: "We’re not closing anything going forward": Florida fully lifts COVID restaurant restrictions — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tests positive for coronavirus.
  4. Health: Young people accounted for 20% of cases this summer.
  5. Business: Coronavirus has made airports happier places —The expiration of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance looms.
  6. Education: Where bringing students back to school is most risky.
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Biden pushes unity message in new TV wave

A fresh Joe Biden ad, "New Start," signals an effort by his campaign to make unity a central theme, underscoring a new passage in his stump speech that says he won't be a president just for Democrats but for all Americans.

What he's saying: The ad — which began Friday night, and is a follow-up to "Fresh Start" — draws from a Biden speech earlier in the week in Manitowoc, Wisconsin:

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Trump prepares to announce Amy Coney Barrett as Supreme Court replacement

Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Photo: Matt Cashore/Notre Dame University via Reuters

President Trump is preparing to nominate federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, a favorite of both the social conservative base and Republican elected officials, to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Republican sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: Barrett would push the already conservative court further and harder to the right, for decades to come, on the most important issues in American politics — from abortion to the limits of presidential power. If confirmed, she would give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the high court.

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