The justices have spoken. Now, it is the politicians’ turn. In the coming weeks and months, the legal and cultural contours of an America where there is no constitutionally guaranteed right to an abortion will be brought into focus. 

Before the ink dried on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, battlelines were already being drawn. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez grabbed a megaphone outside the court and chanted that the court was “illegitimate.” She has said that as a result of the decision “people will die.” 

The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, ripped into what she called a “Trumpian Supreme Court” and accused “radical Republicans” of “charging ahead with their crusade to criminalize health freedom.” 

More measured was Senator Manchin, who said that he was “alarmed” and “deeply disappointed” by the outcome. The West Virginia lawmaker lamented “I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent.” Mr. Manchin has expressed support for legislation that would codify Roe on a national scale. 

Mr. Manchin’s fellow moderate, Senator Collins, described the decision as an “ill-considered action.” She also reflected that “this decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me.” Both of those justices voted to overturn Roe. 

President Biden, speaking from the White House, linked the decision in Dobbs to the legacy of his predecessor, castigating “three justices named by one president, Donald Trump, who are the core of today’s decision to upend the scales of justice and eliminate a fundamental right for women in this country.” 

The president’s chief law enforcement official, Attorney General Garland, indicated that the Department of Justice “strongly disagrees” with Dobbs. General Garland committed his department to “work tirelessly to protect and advance reproductive freedom.” 

President Trump, reached for comment by Fox News, said this “will work out for everybody.” In assessing who deserves credit for the outcome, Mr. Trump noted “God made the decision.” He later claimed that Dobbs and other decisions “were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised.” 

Reporting by Maggie Haberman of the New York Times disclosed that Mr. Trump has sung a different tune in private, opining that overruling Roe would be “bad for Republicans,” because it would alienate suburban women.

President Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, displayed no ambivalence, lauding “this second chance for life” and calling for a nationwide ban on abortion.  

Talk of abortion will soon reverberate through the halls of Congress, as the Democratic led Senate Judiciary Committee has announced hearings to adumbrate the “grim reality of a post-Roe America.”