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Will SCOTUS Uphold Compulsory Pelvic Exams Of Interstate Travelers?*
Antiabortionists have worked tirelessly, and unscrupulously, since 1973 to reverse Roe. They aren’t finished with Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which vacated Roe and eliminated 49 years of constitutionally protected bodily, reproductive, and healthcare autonomy. Their goal is a nationwide unconditional ban on abortion through one of three means:
· a congressional ban signed into law by a GOP president after a Republican senate majority leader suspends the filibuster for that specific purpose
· a Supreme Court declaration that embryonic cells are constitutionally protected from the moment of conception
· if neither of these work, a constitutional amendment
Their work has only begun.
The only potential silver lining from the supermajority’s regression in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization for ten-year-old rape victims and others in need of abortions was from Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence, in which no other justice joined. Given Kavanaugh’s track record, however, what he says — even under oath — gives us small comfort.
Assuming his view holds, Kavanaugh made two points in concurrence that militate against a Supreme Court declaration that embryonic or fetal cells are…