If abortions became illegal in 23 states, they calculate, the number of abortions at clinics nationwide would fall by about 14%, or about 120,000, in the following year.Р”Р„bortion-rights activists predict women of color, rural residents, low-income women, and LGBTQ people would be disproportionately affected. Some could face drives of hundreds of miles to reach the nearest clinic others might obtain abortion pills by mail to end a pregnancy on their own.Р”Р„mong the briefs filed with the Supreme Court as it considers a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks is one reflecting input from 154 economists and researchers. The net effect on abortion prevalence is difficult to predict, given that many people in states with bans would persist in seeking to terminate unwanted pregnancies. GOP gubernatorial victories next year could position those states to join others in imposing bans if Roe were nullified.

Those states include Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which now have Democratic governors and Republican-controlled legislatures. 'Many of these states are one election away from a vastly different political landscape when it comes to abortion,' said Jessica Arons, a reproductive rights lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. More complicated would be politically divided states where fights over abortion laws could be ferocious - and likely become a volatile issue in the 2022 elections.

Roe's demise would likely prompt at least 20 Republican-governed states to impose sweeping bans perhaps 15 Democratic-governed states would reaffirm support for abortion access. Fractious state-by-state battles over abortion access will continue. Yet no matter how the current conservative-dominated court handles pending high-profile abortion cases - perhaps weakening Roe, perhaps gutting it completely - there will be no monolithic, nationwide change. Wade - the 1973 Supreme Court ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion - is imperiled as never before.

On both sides of America's abortion debate, activists are convinced that Roe v.

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