Move over, SCOTUS. State supreme courts are increasingly taking center stage in the fight for abortion rights and access.

In the span of two weeks, state supreme courts in Nebraska, Iowa, and Utah all weighed in on abortion bans in their state. The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld its state’s 12-week ban. The Iowa Supreme Court allowed the state’s six-week ban to take hold. And on Thursday, the Utah Supreme Court bucked the trend and ruled to keep in place an injunction blocking a 2020 law that bans all abortions in the state except in three narrow circumstances. Thursday’s ruling means abortion remains legal in Utah up to 18 weeks while the lawsuit challenging the 2020 ban continues in the lower courts.

These rulings will collectively shift an already-fluid abortion access map. As Garnet Henderson reported for Rewire News Group, access in the Midwest was already precarious. The Nebraska and Iowa rulings will only make that worse. By contrast, the Utah Supreme Court decision to keep that ban blocked offers a temporary reprieve from reduction of access for the Rocky Mountain West.

But the rulings do more than strain the contours of the abortion........

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