President Trump has, in our view, adopted a wise strategy in respect of abortion. By acceding to the Supreme Court’s decision to return the matter to the people and the states he has chosen to put his faith in the American federalist system and the democratic debates that have begun and will continue for years to come. These are early days yet in the Dobbs era. Mr. Trump’s position, though, in our view, embraces the logic of the Founders. 

The thing to remember here is that Dobbs was not decided in a day. It was the result of an intense national debate stretching over 50 years. It put paid to a decision that, in Roe, had failed to settle the abortion question on a national level. Justice Samuel Alito’s formulation that the “authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives” is a remit of popular sovereignty against a backdrop of failed judicial imperiousness.