With 86 vacant federal district court seats, President-elect Donald Trump has an opportunity to rock the judiciary to the right, an eventuality abortion-rights activists are dreading and bracing for, the Washington Examiner reports.
And combined with the gift former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave to the Republicans, the "Nuclear Option," all that's needed is a simple majority to confirm those 86 Trump judgeships, likely quashing any hope abortion rights activists had of overturning more than 300 regulations states have imposed since 2010, the Examiner reported.
According to the Examiner, pro-abortion types were eyeballing four regulations they hoped they could get overturned:
- Four states banned an abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation.
- Fifteen states have bans on abortion past 20 weeks.
- Seven states have bans on sex-selective abortions.
- Eight states limit fetal tissue donations.
Trump and his appointments will likely grease the skids to not only retain those regulations and others on challenge, but also get passed other regulations that have been passed but were blocked by lower courts, the Examiner reported.
Trump has promised to appoint pro-life judges and anti-abortion groups are eager for the president-elect to make an impact as soon as he takes office Jan. 20.
Further, Trump has Antonin Scalia's seat to fill on the Supreme Court, though that will be a wash as far as the high court is concerned; Scalia was a hard conservative jurist.
"We take with deadly seriousness the promise of President-elect Trump to reshape the Supreme Court to overturn key protections for women, like Roe v. Wade," Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, told the Examiner.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.