If the USA Supreme Court does overturn Roe v. Wade, as Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health would do, other constitutional rights would be vulnerable. They include, respectively, same sex-marriage; gay sexual contact; contraception within marriage; and interracial marriage.
One or more probably would fall, in part because, as Steve M. explains
There must always be a liberal menace just over the horizon. Maybe the focus will be on a whole new set of crimes we're guilty of, but the draft abortion decision makes it awfully easy for the GOP to take aim at the sexual and marital liberties we've been taking for granted. They won't stop until they're stopped, and they won't stop whining no matter how many times they win.
Nonetheless, before the Supreme Court is able to invalidate any of these constitutional guarantees, various states, most or all Republican-controlled, will severely restrict any right to abortion. The Guardian notes
Lawmakers in Missouri weighed legislation early this year that would allow individuals to sue anyone helping a patient cross state lines for an abortion. The law was ultimately blocked in the state’s legislature, but experts expect such legislation to gain more support if Roe is weakened or overturned.
“I think states are not going to rest with just saying ‘there won’t be abortions in our state.’ I think they’re going to want to ban abortion for their citizens as much as they can, which would mean stopping them from traveling,” said David Cohen, professor at Drexel University’s Kline School of Law and lead author of a forthcoming article on cross-state legal issues that could arise in the abortion context.
“We’re going to see state-against-state battles that are really going to divide this country even deeper on this issue,” he said.
If the supreme court overturns abortion protections, such travel bans might also be permitted to stand, Cohen said.
“The supreme court does not have well-developed case law regarding extraterritorial application of state law,” he added in an email. A court that has gone so far as to overturn Roe, he said, “would likely take that unclear precedent in the direction that is most anti-abortion.”
Steve M. realizes that the GOP's cultural agenda is far-reaching and radical,. He quotes The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel recognizing that conservatives employ
a politics that will manage to use its victories to stoke additional fears inside its voters. For the media, there is no amount of evenhanded or both-sides coverage that will get the right to back down from calling the press illegitimate, biased, and corrupt. For non-Republican politicians, there is no amount of bipartisan language or good faith attempts at dialogue or engagement that will inspire bipartisanship, compromise, and a desire for majority rule. For the right, even in victory, there is only grievance and fear.
A sense of grievance is less common on the left, and appealing to fear generally is discouraged. But this is the way to go. The ad below is succinct and chilling and should become a staple of Democratic messaging on reproductive rights:
Cops in UT used to sit right at the WY/UT border & wait for people buying kegs in Evanston to sneak back across the border with them. Kegs were illegal in UT. https://t.co/YiTxWeujGY
— Rachel Bitecofer 📈🔭🍌🇺🇦 (@RachelBitecofer) May 10, 2022
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