Biden meets with governors to plan abortion rights fight
(NewsNation) — It’s been a week since the Supreme Court’s historic decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and today President Joe Biden plans to meet with governors from across the country to plan state-level fights for abortion rights.
Thursday, Biden pushed to have the filibuster rule suspended in the Senate so a Roe v. Wade-type law could be made into law. That failed, and now the president is pulling out all the stops in an effort to maintain abortion rights in as many states as possible.
The issue is a muddy one, with different states taking different approaches to either restrict or maintain a woman’s right to an abortion. Florida and Kentucky provide excellent examples of how convoluted the issue can be, and how far from settled it actually is.
In Florida, a judge ruled that the state’s law prohibiting abortion once the pregnancy has passed 15 weeks violates the state’s constitution. The ruling will set off a legal battle, with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis likely leading the charge to appeal. DeSantis is rumored to have aspirations for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, so winning this appeal would be a feather in his cap.
In Kentucky, a judge put the states “trigger law,” which essentially enacted an all-out ban on abortion, on hold while pro-choice advocates file legal challenges. It’s fairly standard procedure to see a judge put a law on hold while legal challenges to it are worked out.
In the meantime, pro-life groups are upset that the laws are being placed on hold, and abortion providers are unsure if they can still provide services or if they’re breaking the law.
It’s not at all clear how long the challenges to the Florida and Kentucky laws will take, and there will doubtless be more challenges to trigger laws in other states while these play out.