Roe v. Wade Reversal a Real Threat following Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

It remains uncertain if the Senate will hold a confirmation vote before the November 3 election, and how it would respond if Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden before the vacancy is filled.

But Trump has urged the Senate to move quickly, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said there will be a vote on Trump's nominee.

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If a Trump nominee is confirmed and a reconfigured high court did eventually overturn Roe, the likely outcome would be a patchwork of laws in various states.

Some states would protect abortion access, others would enact near-total bans, and many would struggle over what new limits they might impose.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, says that if Roe were dismantled, sweeping bans could be imposed in 20 states that are home to an estimated 25 million women of reproductive age.

The high court has plenty of options if it wants to reexamine Roe. Planned Parenthood’s president, Alexis McGill Johnson, says there are 17 cases involving state-level abortion restrictions that are pending in federal courts “only one step away from the Supreme Court”.

Julie Burkhart, who operates abortion clinics in Oklahoma City and in Wichita, Kansas, already has a sense of the consequences of a Roe v. Wade reversal, based on events this year in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.

The governors of Texas and some other Republican-led states issued executive orders banning most abortions on grounds they were non-essential medical procedures.

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