One of the things that I dearly hope is that if Obama wins handily and we have a large enough Senate majority, that consideration will be given to passing a federal law codifying Roe v. Wade, including a broad preemption clause to prohibit state laws that interfere with abortion rights. In one stroke, such a law would blow away the claims that Roe represents an illegitimate attack on the democratic process, stop the state by state chipping away of abortion rights, and make the prospect of a Supreme Court reversal of Roe more remote and far less damaging.

There’s a longstanding legislative initiative along these lines called the Freedom of Choice Act that Barack Obama has committed to supporting. My sense is that Democratic pickups will likely make it possible to pass such a bill in some form, though there may be filibuster problems. One issue, though, is what form that would take. The current version of the legislation, as I understand it, includes provisions related to Medicaid financing of abortion services that have a lot less congressional support than would a more limited guarantee. What happens will probably be a function of how willing choice advocates are to compromise in order to get some kind of legislative backstop for the main holding of Roe.