this is the united states supreme court. the reason states are not allowed to ban abortion right now and the federal government is not allowed to ban abortion right now is because of a 1973 supreme court ruling called roe versus wade. right now the ideological balance of the court is such that if an outright challenge to roe versus wade were heard in this court, the vote, we think, would likely be a 5-4 decision to keep roe versus wade, to protect a woman's right to have an abortion. if the makeup of the court changes by one justice, though, it would be about five seconds before conservatives got a case challenging roe into the court, once they were sure that the ruling would be 4-5 instead of 5-4. with four supreme court justices over the age of 70, whoever becomes president is likely to be able to appoint at least one new supreme court justice. and if it is a republican president, he will appoint nominees who will definitely vote to overturn roe versus wade. and abortion will then, immediately become a criminal act at the state level and every state that's willing to do that.