Overturning Roe v. Wade would send issue back to states. Then it gets complicated
By Judy L. Thomas
July 17, 2018 05:54 PM
Updated July 18, 2018 09:59 AM
https://www.kansascity.com/news/poli...214820175.html
Almost half a century has passed, so forgive Dave Heinemann if he doesn't remember every single detail of how things went down that long spring day in Topeka.
But one thing the former
Kansas lawmaker hasn't forgotten is the intensity of
the 1969 debate on a measure that made abortion more accessible in the state.
"The Legislature was rewriting the state's criminal code, and there was one section on abortion," said Heinemann, then a Garden City Republican serving his first term in the Legislature. "That was the only section that really became a lightning rod."
At the time, Kansas — like most states — banned abortion except to save the life of the woman. But some states had begun to propose measures to loosen the restrictions.
In the end, Kansas became one of the first states to liberalize its abortion law, allowing the procedure if three doctors agreed it was necessary to preserve the physical or mental health of the woman, in cases of rape or incest or if the child "would be born with physical or mental defect."
Four years later, Roe v. Wade legalized abortion and granted women more rights than the Kansas statute allowed.
Now, after nearly five decades, the decision on whether abortion remains legal could go
back to the states as President Donald Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court raises
the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned.
The outcome may not be as clear-cut as some think. Even in
Kansas, which
now has some of the nation's
strictest abortion laws.
Sending abortion regulation back to the states would likely result in a patchwork quilt of laws across the country.
Four states — not Kansas or Missouri — already have "trigger laws" that would automatically ban abortion if Roe is overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
Another 17 states have laws on the books that could be used to restrict the legal status of abortion, Guttmacher says.
Ten of those states have
retained the abortion bans put in place before the 1973 Roe decision that could be enforced if Roe is reversed and their legislatures don't take action to change them. And
seven states — including Missouri — have laws that declare their intent to restrict abortion to the maximum extent permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the absence of Roe but would
require legislative action.
"I think it would be one of the biggest debates in the state legislature ever," said Samuel Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri. "The debate would probably even include whether it should go to a vote of the people."
To prevent further dismantling of the provisions established in Roe,
nine states have passed laws that protect the right to
choose abortion prior to fetal viability or when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman, according to Guttmacher. Abortion-rights groups note,
however, that such state-level Freedom of Choice Acts would be
nullified if Congress passed a
nationwide abortion ban that was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Lee and others say they don't think the Supreme Court would reverse Roe right away if conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed. It's more likely, Lee said, that the court would simply uphold state laws already on the books that regulate abortion.
"But let's say for argument's sake that Roe is overturned and it's returned completely to the states," he said. "On a state-by-state basis, there would be various laws passed that would regulate or restrict abortion."
Currently, Lee noted, there's no case before the Supreme Court that could be used as a means to overturn Roe.
"Are there some cases in the pipeline? Sure," Lee said. "Missouri has some cases in the 8th Circuit right now. That's a potential one, depending on how the Circuit Court rules. But it could be from Missouri, it could be Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas. If the court wants to take a case, it'll take a case. But it's a ways away."...