State Abortion Rulings Post-Dobbs Begin Defining Scope of Rights

State top courts have begun weighing in on whether their laws provide greater protection for abortion rights than the federal constitution, with mixed results.

A majority of South Carolina’s Supreme Court justices recently held that the state constitution’s guarantee against unreasonable invasions of privacy extends to abortion.

But the Idaho Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion, holding that there’s no fundamental right to abortion in the state constitution.

Various trial judges around the country have blocked anti-abortion laws from taking effect while suits proceed, but South Carolina and Idaho are the first state top courts to decide ...