More on the Aftermath of the Supreme Court's Recent Abortion Decision, Gonzales v. Carhart

Judy Peres of the Chicago Tribune writes, in States see new fights on abortion:

Buoyed by last week's victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, abortion opponents in various states are dusting off old laws and drafting new ones to curb access to the nation's most controversial medical procedure.

In the past week, North Dakota's legislature passed a law that would ban virtually all abortions, the Missouri House voted to tighten regulation of abortion clinics and two federal appeals courts were asked to lift injunctions blocking enforcement of state abortion bans.

At the same time, state and federal abortion-rights advocates are stepping up their efforts as well and announced plans to seek laws guaranteeing women the right to terminate a pregnancy.

Given the Court's reasoning in upholding the federal ban, and Justice Kennedy's disturbing rhetoric, we can expect to see a lot more than laws addressing the intact D&E procedure. (I assume that is what Peres means by "the nation's most controversial medical procedure," although who knows, given how the bans' proponents have stubbornly refused to use medical terminology in legislation or in public debates about the bans).  The article describes some of the measures states are likely to pursue in the aftermath of Gonzales v. Carhart. 

Based on what has already been introduced in state legislatures in recent years, we may well see: more intrusive information requirements, including that women be shown an ultrasound of the fetus or be required to hear the heartbeat, or that women be given scientifically unproven or disproven information such as that abortion causes breast cancer or that the fetus can feel pain; longer waiting periods; bans on other types of abortion procedures; and abortion restrictions of all kinds that lack health exceptions.

For more on why the decision invites these measures, see these posts analyzing the opinion:

• Gonzales v. Carhart: Implications for Legislative Intrusion into Medical Decisionmaking
• Gonzales v. Carhart: The Status of the Right to Abortion
• Gonzales v. Carhart: An Alarming Nod to "Woman-Protective" Anti-Choice Advocates