What next?

“Abortion rights will likely be back on the Supreme Court’s docket soon,” said Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in FiveThirtyEight.com. This week’s ruling will likely shift the debate “away from requirements placed on clinics,” but there are numerous other laws that “could turn into the next big front in the abortion wars.” They include bans on abortions after a certain stage of pregnancy, on removing the fetus in pieces, or on abortions sought “solely for specific reasons,” such as genetic abnormalities. The ruling has given incensed social conservatives “a potent rallying cry to turn out the vote for Trump,” said Alice Miranda Ollstein and Meridith McGraw in Politico.com. But there’s also a different possibility: that the string of court defeats on gay rights, abortion, and immigration will demoralize those who held their noses and voted for Trump because of “his promises on judges.” And the ruling won’t “energize just conservatives.” Progressives say that by showing “just how precarious abortion rights” are under Trump, the ruling will fire up their base as well.