Port: A national abortion ban isn’t any more constitutional than Roe v. Wade was
MINOT, N.D. — For decades after a previous iteration of the U.S. Supreme Court, with the Roe v. Wade decision, struck down state-level abortion bans, conservatives have argued that the ruling was unconstitutional.
We were right, as the current iteration of the court recognized in the Dobbs decision. Not one clause, section, or article was written into the U.S. Constitution with the intent to create a right to an abortion. The courts operate outside of their constitutional mandate when they manufacture new rights with judicial fiat.
With its original Roe decision, the Supreme Court stepped on state sovereignty. Whatever your position on abortion, overturning Roe was a victory for American federalism.
But now some Republicans are abandoning the federalist argument on abortion to pursue a federal-level abortion ban.
I’m talking about Sen. Lindsey Graham’s proposed 15-week abortion ban . His policy would let more severe restrictions on abortion, such as North Dakota’s near-total ban, stand as law, but it wouldn’t allow any state to permit abortions after 15 weeks.
