Similar state abortion challenges meet different outcomes

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The top courts in two conservative states ruled the same day on similar challenges to abortion bans — and went in opposite directions.

The 3-2 decisions Thursday in Idaho, which keeps a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, and South Carolina, which blocks enforcement of a ban after cardiac activity can be detected, are the latest examples of the patchwork of policies imposed since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed the right to abortion nationwide for nearly five decades.

The conclusions from the state justices rest on differences in state constitutions, said Robert F. Williams, director of the Center for State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University-Camden.

“There are also differences in the judges,” Williams said. “Everybody knows by now that judges don't just call balls and strikes.”

In both cases, abortion rights advocates argued that the states protect privacy, and therefore abortion.

The majority opinion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling was also rooted in the idea of a right to privacy. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the idea last year in Dobbs v. Jackson, ruling instead that the legality of abortion should be decided by the states.

The landscape then shifted quickly. Several states had so-called trigger bans ready to enforce in case Roe was overturned, and two more adopted new bans after the ruling.

Bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with various exceptions, are now considered to be in effect in 13 states. Several of those bans, plus others that are less restrictive, are being challenged in court. At least seven other bans are not being enforced because of injunctions imposed amid legal challenges.

Now, instead of arguing that the U.S. Constitution protects abortion access,...