The Supreme Court ruled, rightly in my opinion, that restrictions on abortion are something that should be determined by the legislature of the states or of the country and not the Supreme Court. The foundation of the ruling was that unlike many of the individual’s rights questions that come before the Court, the question of abortion involves the potential rights of a second potential individual.
With this ruling, there has been a flurry of activities of various states related to abortion restrictions.
Some states like Texas have imposed tight restrictions. Some states have seen very strong turnout opposing tight restrictions or favoring limiting restrictions (e.g. Kansas, Ohio.) There are efforts to bring the abortion issue onto various state ballots.
I believe this abortion question had been leveraged by Democrats in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles and will be continued to be leveraged by Democrats in the 2024 election cycle securing more votes from and for women concerned about their rights.
Ideally, the US legislature would develop a common sense approach, maybe similar to the European Union. However, this is highly unlikely because this issue can be used by the parties to motivate their potential voters.
In the meantime, I can only hope that states quickly establish reasonable restrictions and this issue is removed from the ballot.
Texas
Restricts all abortions unless a pregnancy places the female at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.
Florida
Restricts abortion after 15.9 weeks unless the abortion would save the life of or prevent serious injury to the mother or there is a fatal abnormality of the fetus.
(If the Florida Supreme Court rules the above is constitutional, a contingent law comes into effect that restricts abortion: after 6 weeks 6 days unless the abortion would save the life of or prevent serious injury to the mother; after 26 weeks 6 days if there there is a fatal abnormality of the fetus; or, after 15 weeks 6 days if the pregnancy was result of rape, incest or human trafficking)
EU
With minor exceptions/variations between countries, restricts abortions after 12-14 weeks unless the abortion would save the life of or prevent serious injury to the mother.
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