Big Question For 2015: Will The Supreme Court Rule On Abortion?, by Jennifer Luden, NPR

http://tinyurl.com/ktmqead

The new year is expected to bring yet another round of state laws to restrict abortion — and 2015 could also be the year a challenge to at least one of these laws could reach the Supreme Court.

The ongoing spike in abortion laws started after 2010, when Republicans won big in the midterms. Since then, state lawmakers have passed more than 200 abortion regulations — more than in the entire decade before. And with more statehouse gains in the fall elections, abortion opponents expect another good year.

The Two-Way

Supreme Court Blocks Abortion Rules That Closed Most Texas Clinics

‘The two states that stand out is where we are now able to stop bad legislation from happening,’ says Mary Spaulding Balch, state legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee. ‘It looks like we have a pro-life majority in the Senate in the state of New York, which could prevent a bill that Gov. Cuomo was pushing that would have expanded abortion in New York, if you can imagine.’

The same political calculus goes for Washington state, Balch says.

Then there’s Tennessee, where a new constitutional amendment denies any right to abortion. That’s expected to clear the way for a string of regulations courts previously had struck down. . . .