With Roe v. Wade overturned, abortion rights advocates are already bringing the next legal battle to the states as many of them move to ban abortion access.
Driving the news: Lawsuits challenging "trigger" laws aimed at making nearly all abortions illegal in Utah and Louisiana were quickly filed — and their bans were temporarily blocked by courts.
- Abortion providers have also sued Mississippi, Texas and Idaho to stop their laws from taking effect.
- Nine states have made most abortions illegal following the Supreme Court's Roe decision on Friday.
Where it stands: Without Roe's federal protections, abortion rights advocates cannot use the case as a precedent to challenge state bans. Now, they have to take other things into consideration, including:...
- Whether specific state constitutions protect abortion access — which is a strategy that is being used by the plaintiffs in the Utah and Louisiana cases, who argue that the "trigger" laws violate these states' constitutions.
- Whether there is some sort of state court precedent that protects the right to an abortion.
- In states like New Mexico, Kansas, Montana, Alaska, Florida and Minnesota, the right to an abortion is protected by a state Supreme Court precedent, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
- In Michigan, there is an ongoing legal battle in which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is asking the state's Supreme Court to set a precedent saying that abortion rights are protected under the state's Constitution.
- In Mississippi, plaintiffs are arguing that a 1998 state Supreme Court decision protects abortion rights in the state.