Roe v. Wade overturned

It has long been the leftist/liberal nightmare that a right-dominated Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion nationally. Many conservatives have long been unhappy with how Roe happened: this was a case of judicial activism in which a court essentially gave something the force of law without running it through a federalist process per the 10th Amendment. That wrong has now been righted: abortion is not a constitutional right and never has been.

That said, Brett Kavanaugh, who went through a tumultuous confirmation process, assured his congressional questioners at the time that he considered Roe the law of the land... but now that he's a Supreme Court justice, it appears that he either changed his mind or never believed what he said: he voted along with the 6-3 majority on the court to overturn Roe.

What does this mean, practically speaking? For the left, it means that the fight now widens: the Supreme Court, in embracing federalism, has basically moved the matter of abortion to the individual states. The left must now fight state-by-state to preserve the right to abortion. Overall, not much is going to change. Many states, if not most, will decide on their own to keep abortion legal. Some states will choose to make the act illegal, which means leftist girls who get pregnant in those states will need to cross the state line to get an abortion. Abortion hasn't been stopped by this latest ruling; it's merely been made more inconvenient for some.

Meanwhile, the left will go through its usual exaggerated weeping and gnashing of teeth, just as it did regarding the Bruen decision (about gun rights: the Supreme Court went pro-2A, as it should). Considering how many levers of power the left currently holds, though, they should stop their collective sniveling and take heart that they still dominate the country: on the news, in academe, and in entertainment.

The Epoch Times:

Supreme Court Strikes Down Roe v. Wade Abortion Precedent

By a vote of 6–3 on June 24, the Supreme Court formally overturned Roe v. Wade, the seminal 1973 precedent which struck down a swath of federal and state laws restricting abortion and largely legalized the procedure nationwide. 

 

The 116-page ruling also reversed the 1992 companion precedent known as Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which held that states can’t impose significant restrictions on abortion before a fetus becomes viable for life outside the womb.

Well, it's the ongoing culture war. America really is two countries at this point, and I'm beginning to wish people would figure out what this means geographically. Let the left occupy the coastal states, and let the right have everything else. California (mainly southern California) is a shithole, so it'll add nothing to a left-dominated economy. Good riddance. My home state of Virginia might seem to be waking up from its leftist haze, but I think the place is too far gone for this to be a permanent change back to conservatism. Let it rot with all the other coastal states. But seriously—at this point, the country has become so deeply fractured that, I think, nothing can be done to un-divide a divided house. Time for a mitotic split.

ADDENDUM: saw this comment on Instapundit; it gave me a chuckle:

After two days of leftists yelling, "Federalism must allow guns to be confiscated!", the left now finds federalism, regarding killing gestating babies, an anathema for "true believers of 'democracy.'"

ADDENDUM 2: Glenn Reynolds, who is a law prof, weighs in:

A FEW MORE THOUGHTS ON DOBBS: First, it’s a big win for the rule of law — by which I mean not so much the opinion as that the justices stood firm in the face of unprecedented threats ranging from Chuck Schumer’s “pay the price” language to mobs and an actual armed assassin showing up at their homes. A Supreme Court that can be bullied is a Supreme Court that will be bullied. Unlike Roberts’ flip in the ObamaCare case, the majority here held firm, which will discourage bullying in the future.

Second, the likely result is that a few states will ban abortion entirely, a few will permit it for the entire term, and for most it’ll look something like Europe, with abortion easy to get for the first 12 weeks or so, and much harder after that. (The Mississippi law in question here was actually more liberal than many, perhaps most, European laws).

States won’t be able to ban interstate travel for the purpose of getting an abortion because interstate travel is a separate constitutional right. Congress will not be able to guarantee a right to abortion because its 14th Amendment power to enforce the rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to abortion, which the Court has found isn’t protected under the 14th Amendment. It will not be able to either protect abortion or ban it under its commerce power because abortion isn’t interstate commerce, and is a traditional subject of state regulation.

It’ll take a few years to shake out, but we’re likely to wind up with what we would have had by 1976 or so if Roe had never been decided — a spectrum of laws around the country that will be adjusted over time based on experience and the views of the electorate. Though, of course, the norm may be stricter than it would have been without Roe, which called into being a huge pro-life movement that probably wouldn’t have existed otherwise.

UPDATE: It’ll be interesting to see if this reduces the flow of immigrants from blue states to red. That’ll be a measure of how much people actually care. To be honest, I kinda hope it does slow the flow.

ADDENDUM 3: my previous thoughts on abortion. To be clear, I'm happy that the Supreme Court decided this was a federalist matter and not something that should have been legislated via judicial fiat. Whatever the morality of abortion, this was the right tack to take.