What the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling means on a state level

Yahoo Finance legal reporter Alexis Keenan assesses which states are implementing abortion trigger laws following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, and looks at Justice Clarence Thomas' writing on the ruling.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Well, President Biden lamenting the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe versus Wade, calling it a sad day for the court and our country. I want to now bring in Alexis Keenan and Alexandra Canal, who are going to be covering the story from all angles. So let's start by having Alexis weighing in with the facts.

ALEXIS KEENAN: OK, a big one, this landmark decision. Another landmark decision, essentially, with the Supreme Court overturning both Roe v. Wade and its subsequent case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Those two cases together, those are what guaranteed women's right to an abortion in the United States. And what this case did is it challenged a Mississippi law that said women could not have an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That's different from the federal protections that allowed women to have an abortion all the way up to viability. That's approximately 24 to 27 weeks, give or take.

So now, women stripped of that right. It goes back to the states. That's what the Supreme Court is saying, is that it's the states' rights to decide what women can and can't do with their bodies in terms of elective abortion. Right now, there are 26 states in the United States that are predicted as likely or certain to further restrict abortion for women. So we're looking out for that. Some of those laws could go into effect as soon as today.

DAVE BRIGGS: So you look at that map, which tells the story, because you've got an entire region that could be without abortion rights, which really has implications for this country. Let's talk about the trigger laws in the 13 states that might move immediately. Who has moved already?

ALEXIS KEENAN: All right, so I can't say that I have a list of the states that have moved already. We might have a full screen for you. I'm not sure. But there are 13--

DAVE BRIGGS: I know Missouri was right out of the gate within an hour.

ALEXIS KEENAN: OK, Missouri, there you go. Some other Southern states also have trigger laws in effect. But I wanted to actually point out a big concern that's coming out of this opinion. And this is 200 and some odd pages of opinion. And one of them is a concurring opinion that was filed by Justice Thomas. And what he is saying is that he was concluding that abortion is not a form of liberty, as the majority is also saying, protected by the 14th Amendment due process cause-- clause, rather.

And he's saying that, really, the court should go back and reconsider other protections that have been given to Americans by this same style of reasoning. That's contraception, same sex marriage, same sex intimacy. He wants to call into question and revisit those things. He's explicitly saying that in his concurring opinion here. So that is causing a lot of concern.

DAVE BRIGGS: A lot, and this midterms ahead, Alexis, is going to be heated, to say the least. Thanks so much for that analysis there.