Abortion Can’t Be Settled by the States

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4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For years anti-abortion activists have argued that Roe v. Wade wasn’t just immoral, it was federal overreach, and abortion laws should be written on the state level. Only months after Roe’s overturn, district courts are hearing cases that demonstrate why that won’t work—and Republican senators are proposing a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks.

Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer covering courts and the law for Slate.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I think that the holidays feel like frozen noses. I love walking with the dog for long periods of time.
0:10.0	Hopefully it's snowing and you've got to wrap up warm. So I think a frozen nose is a sweaty armpit
0:15.0	because your wrapped up so warm but then you're climbing hamps and heath and you get to the top
0:20.0	and you're like, and then you can see the breath but then your nose is still freezing to touch.
0:25.0	Joy in every sip with red cups now back at Starbucks.
0:37.0	For a long time, Republican politicians have had this way of talking about abortion.
0:42.0	They say it's wrong, sure. But they also use these two words again and again. States rights.
0:51.0	This has been the go-to line from Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, Supreme Court justices too.
0:58.0	The idea here is the Constitution doesn't say anything about abortion. So let's kick this to the States.
1:05.0	Let local legislators make a call on this hot button issue. This line is so well-worn.
1:11.0	It seemed to me like it had been around forever. But when I asked Slade's Mark Joseph Stern about the origin of this argument,
1:19.0	he said actually letting states decide on abortion, it was kind of the bee plan.
1:26.0	So the States rights line really only came to being after Roe vs. Wade and after the anti-abortion movement
1:37.0	failed in its immediate response to Roe, which was to try to pass a constitutional amendment banning abortion across the country.
1:46.0	In the 70s. In the 70s. And so just as this grand dream of a constitutional amendment banning abortion is falling apart,
1:55.0	the strategy shifts to, you know what? Let's just say Roe vs. Wade was a gregious overreach.
2:02.0	It tried to create this single federal solution, but this really is an issue for the States. And every state should decide for itself.
2:10.0	So that became the anti-abortion argument out of political necessity more so than any deeply felt conviction that abortion is a States rights issue.
2:21.0	But now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe and states are deciding things when it comes to abortion,
2:28.0	conservatives seem to be realizing there's a problem with their States rights vision. It's chaotic, even dangerous.
2:36.0	Since the courts ruling last month, doctors and States with abortion bans have struggled to figure out how to care for patients with high risk pregnancies, including miscarriages.
2:45.0	And all of them express concerns and new laws will put their patients health at risk.
	...

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