The Supreme Court’s decision to sidestep key legal questions in its abortion decisions sets up another showdown as early as next year. The next wave of lawsuits around the procedure — including challenges targeting the ability of patients to cross state lines for abortions, the regulation of abortion pills, and minors’ ability to get an abortion without parental consent — is moving toward the high court, says Politico. As President Biden campaigns on a promise to restore federal abortion rights and former President Trump calls for leaving regulation to states, it is the Supreme Court, as much or more than any elected official, that will shape access in the years to come.
“It was ridiculous when the court said two years ago that overruling Roe was going to get the court out of the business of abortion,” said law Prof. Leah Litman of the University of Michigan. “There’s an entire new frontier of abortion litigation that’s going to make its way to the court no matter what happens in the election. While the court did not address the merits of either abortion case it heard this term — punting on abortion pills and the right to an emergency abortion — some justices offered clues to how they would approach future litigation. Conservative justices appeared open to the argument that the 14th Amendment confers legal personhood to fetuses, a holding that could create a national ban on abortion at any stage of pregnancy. The court invited new lawsuits with its decision overturning the Chevron doctrine — stripping leeway federal agencies had to interpret and implement legislation — and Monday’s ruling lifting the statute of limitations on challenging older government rules. This could create an open season on whatever future abortion policies the next president attempts to enact as well as rules already on the books. Experts anticipate lawsuits testing the protective power of "shield laws" more than a dozen blue states have adopted, some of which allow their doctors to prescribe abortion pills via telemedicine to patients in states with bans without fear of prosecution.