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1. In 1965 SCOTUS held that the right of marital privacy was violated by states banning birth control. Eight years later the court ruled 7-2 in Roe v Wade that the privacy right encompassed abortion and the court used history and common law to fashion the three trimester rule.
2. Simply, in the first trimester the court held that the state interest in the fetus was low and should give way to the woman's privacy. Second trimester added a higher state interest and by the third trimester the state could ban it.
3. If the Court says that a state legislature has the right to ban abortions it follows that a state legislature has the power to legalize it. That is how it was before Roe. But if the state can legalize it, the Congress can too. We are giving way to much weight to the Court
4. on this issue. I don't know of any Constitutional scholar who would argue that Congress could not pass a law making abortion legal in all 50 states consistent with Roe trimester rule or otherwise. If a state can legalize or ban, the Supremacy Clause means Congress can too.
5. So if you want to make abortion rare and safe like @BarackObama was doing, work to take control of the @WhiteHouse and both houses of Congress. Then pass a Federal law legalizing it nationally and add laws criminalizing attacks on the exercise of the right. @maddow @Lawrence
