Free Republic

Four years ago today, Roe v. Wade died, predeceased by over 65 million preborn children. On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, overturning the ruling that had mandated legal abortion in all 50 states. Within weeks, near-total abortion bans had gone into effect in Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. An additional four states — Georgia, Iowa, Florida, and South Carolina — now have six-week “heartbeat” bans on the books. Twenty-eight states ban abortion at later stages. All these laws were impossible...

Nobody who favored overturning Roe ought to be particularly surprised by the result of the Kansas referendum on abortion. By the margin, maybe — but a Republican state voting to preserve a right to abortion emphasizes what’s always been apparent: With the end of Roe, the pro-life movement now has to adapt to the democratic contest that it sought. Right now, majorities of Americans favor abortion restrictions that were ruled out under Roe, but only slightly over one-third of the country takes the position that abortion should be largely illegal, a number that shrinks if you remove various exceptions. That...