With Kennedy’s retirement, Texas abortion opponents see ‘opportunity’ in 2019
Justice
"Kennedy was our bar," said
Kennedy, who occupied the court's center for three decades, cast a decisive vote in the 1992 ruling of
Kennedy's absence -- and his replacement, who's likely to be more conservative -- gives abortion opponents fresh motivation to push new abortion restrictions and maybe even pull back rights the court has previously defined. Texas Right to Life is already gearing up for the 2019 legislative session with more aggressive anti-abortion legislation, Seago said.
"I feel much better today than I did on Tuesday, no question about that," said
Kennedy's retirement means "a paradigm shift," said state Rep.
"There is an opportunity now, an opening to see those stronger pro-life policies withstand judicial scrutiny," Krause said -- especially if President
It's not yet obvious where, exactly, that opportunity will take
In
"I do think there are quite a few in the Legislature who would like to end the practice altogether, and I've always been one of those," Krause said.
That coalition is likely to win support from
Still, reversing Roe and outlawing abortion entirely is a lofty goal, one that feels ambitious even for staunch advocates like Pojman. Even if Kennedy's replacement hews to the
"The court is going to have many opportunities to make rulings on abortion," Hagstrom-Miller said. "They'll chip away at Roe such that it won't be meaningful anymore."
For
There are already a handful of
In November, for example, a federal judge in
And just this month, a group of abortion rights groups filed a sweeping federal lawsuit against the state, aiming to roll back decades' worth of abortion restrictions that advocacy groups call overly burdensome. Their case leans heavily on the 2016
Stil, those lawsuits could backfire on abortion rights groups if they reach a
Outside state lines, there are a host of other lawsuits whose impacts would be likely to make their way back to
Should those laws be upheld by a new slate of
While it's not year clear exactly how anti-abortion efforts will fare in the coming months, Kennedy's retirement has re-energized the anti-abortion movement, advocates said.
"It's a breath of fresh air for the movement," Seago said. "It is something that signifies that progress is possible."
This article originally appeared in
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