Close to five decades after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling enshrined a woman’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, the unity of the antiabortion movement is cracking.For years, those opposed to abortion have largely hewed to a legal strategy to pass laws adding incremental limitations to the historic 1973 ruling.
Now, an ascendant, activist wing is pressing for legislation that doesn’t just limit the procedure, but outlaws it. Emboldened by President Trump’s Supreme Court picks, the activists have grown impatient with what they see as small developments, and instead are actively seeking a legal fight with the goal of overturning Roe.
This year, seven states—Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana and Ohio—have made head-on challenges to Roe by passing laws that move the cutoff point for a legal abortion deep into the first trimester, some making no ...