Lost in the anxiety this year over the fate of Roe v. Wade is the reality that state legislatures nationwide are already taking steps to effectively ban all abortions.
Not even three months into 2019, lawmakers in a dozen states have proposed so-called heartbeat bills, which would outlaw abortion at around six weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, and thus make it all but impossible for nearly all women to get the procedure. Six of those bills have passed in at least one legislative chamber, and on Friday Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky signed one into law. Hours later, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Kentucky law, which was to have taken effect immediately.
The court’s action is not surprising. Courts are nearly guaranteed to block these laws — because they’re flagrantly unconstitutional. (With its Roe decision, the Supreme Court enshrined the right to an abortion up to around 24 weeks of pregnancy.) For that reason, heartbeat bills were not given much thought until recently.
Still, the current increase in heartbeat legislation is concerning for some reproductive rights advocates. Opposition to anti-abortion laws can backfire: Anti-abortion forces push them in part because they want to prompt legal cases that could grant the newly abortion-hostile majority on the Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn Roe.
