TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – An influential conservative activist is warning abortion opponents against so-called “heartbeat bills.”

10 states have passed bills banning abortion after a heartbeat is detected. Several of those bills have already been struck down by federal courts, and Terre Haute attorney Jim Bopp says there’s no plausible way they could ever be upheld.

The bills directly conflict with Roe v. Wade, and Bopp argues a frontal challenge to Roe would all but force the Court to uphold it. He says opponents should instead follow Indiana’s lead and regulate abortion in other ways, with measures such as a ban on pulling apart the fetus piece by piece, or requirements for disposing of fetal remains.

Indiana’s versions of those laws have also been blocked in federal court, but are still on appeal. Bopp argues those laws are defensible under Roe, while giving the Supreme Court an opening to revisit Roe when it’s ready.

 

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