CBS News Poll: “The American public is rendering its initial judgment on the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and most disapprove of the ruling, including two-thirds of women who disapprove.”
“By more than a 20-point margin, Americans call it a step backward rather than forward for America. And women, by more than three to one, think the ruling will make women’s lives worse rather than better.”
John Ellis: “The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade creates the opening for Hillary Clinton to get out of stealth mode and start down the path toward declaring her candidacy for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.”
“Say what you will about Hilary Clinton, she is formidable and ‘up to it.’ And whatever else she might be, whatever baggage she carries, she is an enduring champion of women’s rights.”
“What the reversal of Roe v. Wade has put front and center, smack dab in the middle of the town square of American politics, is women’s rights. Justice Alito’s opinion has unleashed the fury of millions of American women, vast numbers of whom see it as judicial activism run amok and a brazen, unilateral attempt to reverse decades of hard-earned progress. That fury has yet to find its focus. Because it needs to, it will. I guarantee you that rallying behind Joe Biden will not be where it makes landfall.”
Also: “There’s a template for Clinton’s return from the wilderness of bitter defeat: the resurrection of Richard Nixon.”
“Google search data shows Americans — particularly those in states most impacted by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade —are scrambling to figure out where they can still get abortions and what the law means for future access,” Axios reports.
“Those most actively searching were in political battlegrounds like Wisconsin, Michigan and New Hampshire — where there are no existing laws that would immediately ban or codify abortion rights, as well red states Missouri, Kentucky and Utah, where a trigger law has banned the procedure.”
“Searches for ‘abortion clinic near me’ over-indexed in the Southeast, where a number of states had trigger laws on the books.”
“A new and rapidly shifting reality took hold across America on Saturday as abortion, a basic legal right for nearly a half century, was outlawed in some states, and the initial bursts of elation and shock from the overturning of Roe v. Wade gave way to action,” the New York Times reports.
“At abortion clinics across the country, providers hastily canceled appointments out of fear of prosecution, and stunned women abruptly made plans to cross state lines into places where abortion was still allowed — traveling from Missouri to Illinois, from Wisconsin to Minnesota.”
Donald Trump “is anxious about what the end of Roe, and the flood of extreme Republican state-level anti-abortion laws it will unleash, will mean for the GOP’s electoral prospects — and for his own,” Rolling Stone reports.
Said one source who spoke to Trump: “He keeps shitting all over his greatest accomplishment. When you speak to him, it’s the response of someone fearing the backlash and fearing the politics of what happens when conservatives actually get what they want.”
The source added: “I do not think he’s enjoying the moment as much as many of his supporters are, to be honest with you.”
“On the heels of their greatest victory, antiabortion activists are eager to capitalize on their momentum by enshrining constitutional abortion bans, pushing Congress to pass a national prohibition, blocking abortion pills, and limiting people’s ability to get abortions across state lines,” the Washington Post reports.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) told a crowd at a rally held alongside former president Donald Trump that the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade was a “victory for white life,” The Guardian reports.
Miller is running for reelection in the state’s newly redrawn 15th Congressional District against Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) with Donald Trump’s endorsement.
“Republicans finally got the Roe v. Wade decision they wanted, and in public, they are delighted,” Politico reports.
“More quietly, however, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republican strategists and party officials, they just didn’t want it to come right now — not during a midterm election campaign in which nearly everything had been going right for the GOP.”
John Ellis: “First: it changes the subject, something the Trump camp has been quite desperate to do since the Committee hearings began.”
“Second, it reminds the Republican Party’s most important constituency — white evangelical Christians — just who made yesterday’s ruling possible. That would be, first and foremost, Donald Trump.”
“Third, it requires all the other GOP candidates for the 2024 presidential nomination to acknowledge (and feign admiration for) Trump’s role in Roe’s reversal. This reinforces the perception that the Republican ‘field’ of candidates is actually two fields: Trump and everybody else.”
“Fourth, and this is always a consideration in Trump world, it enables an aggressive direct mail fund-raising campaign, asking small donors to express their appreciation for Trump’s role in the reversal of Roe by sending money to the coffers of what might be called the Trump Bank for Future Endeavors. Such an appeal will raise a lot of money.”
JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank AG and American Express will pay for employees to travel to another state if needed to obtain a legal abortion, Bloomberg reports.
Stephen Carter: “With Roe v. Wade no longer the law of the land, women seeking abortions will soon start traveling. Could a state punish an employer for covering their costs? The issue is likely to arise: A number of major corporations have come forward with offers to pay the expenses of employees who leave the state to end their pregnancies, and some state legislators are threatening to punish them.”
Ross Douthat: “By any reasonable political science theory, any normal supposition about how power works in our republic, this day should not have come.”
“The pro-life movement has spent half a century trying to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that was presumed to reflect the enlightened consensus of the modern age. It has worked against the public’s status quo bias, which made Roe v. Wade itself popular, even if the country remained conflicted about the underlying issue. Against the near-universal consensus of the media, academic and expert class. Against the desires of politicians who were nominally supportive of its cause, the preferences of substantial portions of American conservatism’s donor class.”
“Across all those years the pro-life cause also swam against the sociological and religious currents of American life, which have favored social liberalism and secularization.”
“I’m not saying it’s changing the political landscape wholesale but we’re going to see a lot of close races in November, and this is going to keep and put Democrats in office in some of those close races. Republicans are going to be on their heels defending this, because they’ve outlawed abortion even in the most extreme cases of rape and incest.”
— John Anzalone, a pollster for President Biden, quoted by the Washington Post.
Mark Halperin: “Given their histories and orientations, there is an irony in the fact that Joe Biden (who was pro-life and now says he is pro-choice) and Donald Trump (who was pro-choice and now says he is pro-life) are truly in their hearts apparently out of step with their respective parties. Trump is attitudinally more pro-choice than Biden is, actually.”
Washington Post: “It’s not clear whether Roe’s demise will give Biden a path to find his voice and re-energize his presidency, or will simply exacerbate the social divisions that have created such obstacles to governing.”
“Some House Republicans who oppose abortion rights are pushing legislation to implement a nationwide abortion ban at 15 weeks, coming just hours after the Supreme Court released its opinion overturning Roe v. Wade,” CNN reports.
“The legislation appears unlikely to advance in the Senate in the near future — due in part to the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Still, the early discussions represent the excitement energizing opponents of abortion rights, eager to capitalize on Friday’s victory.”
“Sen. Susan Collins was blasted Friday for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, as opponents targeted her votes to confirm two justices to the Supreme Court who were in the majority opinion allowing states to ban abortion,” the AP reports.
“Critics of the Maine senator haven’t forgotten the key role she played in confirming Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and she was ripped anew on social media.”
“Some opponents took to name-calling and attacked Collins for being naive or complicit. Others called for her resignation.”
Washington Post: “Trump has largely stayed away from the looming Roe decision in recent weeks, only decrying the leak of a draft opinion in the case from the Supreme Court and avoiding opportunities to talk about it publicly.”
“He has complained privately that the overturning of Roe could hurt Republicans politically in independent and suburban districts, two advisers said, and has told allies they should emphasize that states can set their own laws. Trump has also told some of his advisers he thinks a better position would be to limit but not ban abortion.”
Said one adviser: “He is convinced it won’t help him in the future.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) predicted that people will base where they live on whether abortion is allowed, the Kansas City Star reports.
Said Hawley: “I would predict that the effect is going to be that more and more red states are going to become more red, purple states are going to become red and the blue states are going to get a lot bluer.”
He added: “And I would look for Republicans as a result of this to extend their strength in the Electoral College. And that’s very good news.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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