What Actually Happens If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned?

Of all the forms of inflation Americans have suffered through in recent months, perhaps the worst kind has been threat inflation — the endless stream of doomsday prophecies and apocalyptic warnings that a coalition of theocrats, rubes, and “white supremacists” are secretly turning America into a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale. This was always off-base in a nation where children may be indoctrinated in Critical Race Theory and attend “drag queen story hour” in the same day. But nothing has thrown more fuel on this overheated rhetoric than the possibility that the Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade. Extreme claims of an impending theocracy ignore what would actually happen if the justices decide to revisit this overreaching judicial diktat and allow the American people to have a greater voice in abortion policy for the first time since 1973.

The pitched rhetoric began even before the Supreme Court agreed to hear cases involving two state laws that offer robust protections for the unborn: a Mississippi law limiting abortion to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy and a Texas law prohibiting abortions on children who have a detectable fetal heartbeat, which occurs around six weeks. MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross said the High Court was seeking to transform the United States into “Gilead 2.0,” and some analysts, including former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, erroneously claimed that “Roe was just overturned” following the adoption of the Texas Heartbeat Law. The hysteria reached a fever pitch during oral arguments for the Mississippi case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which suggested a majority of justices seem open to overturning Roe.