If the federal right to abortion is erased by the U.S. Supreme Court in a few weeks as expected, the legal spotlight will shift immediately to state courts, where experts say judges in some conservative states could surprise everyone and uphold the right to abortion.
“Hundreds of attorneys for abortion advocates across the country are no doubt poised to go into state courts to block enforcement of multiple state abortion laws the minute the decision comes down,” said Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel at Americans United for Life, which opposes abortion. “There will be attempts in all but a few states to create the equivalent of Roe v. Wade.”
Such challenges can’t happen in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia, where lawmakers opposed to abortion rights already have amended the state constitution to clearly say that it does not protect the right to abortion. Kansas will have a similar measure on the ballot in August, and Kentucky in November. A similar proposal is pending in Missouri.
