Act IV, Scene i

PROSPERO, FERDINAND, MIRANDA; A MASK EXHIBITING, IRIS, CERES, JUNO, NYMPHS; CALIBAN, TRINCULO, AND STEPHANO, AT A DISTANCE.

Prospero. You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort
As if you were dismay'd: be cheerful, sir:
Our revels now are ended: these our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind: We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

[...]

Shakespeare, Tempest

how do you see the politics of legislation/regulations that would, without an explicit ban, in practice drastically limit access to abortions nationally, to make the country as a whole like South Dakota or Mississippi? Taking that approach seems to me to be subtler, more diffuse, and harder to oppose; do you think that would be enough to give it a fair chance of success in Congress?

One hates to admit to copping-out, but the short answer is that there are a lot of such policies, and the exact politics of each is too complicated for me to predict, especially since the Supreme Court's conflicts, interstate commerce, and other doctrines come into the mix too. [I'm currently reading David Currie's Constitution in Congress Volume IV (more on which later) discussing the endless Congressional bickering about various particulars relating to fugitive slaves, admission of slave territories, and so on.]

I don't know exactly how these compromises would be smoothed out in a post-Roe world, but the point is that I think it would be very chaotic and very complicated for a long time. For better or worse.

Anyway, I've prattled on enough for opening night. I'll wait for a lot blogospheric reactions before going on.