In Dobbs, the Court concluded that the Constitution doesn't speak on whether abortion should or shouldn't be legal, and that therefore the question should be returned "to the people and their elected representatives." But if we look at national surveys, it appears that the people sharply support abortion rights in the first three months of pregnancy (60%-29% according to one recent poll) and oppose "midterm abortions" (by 56%-30%) as well as "late-term abortions" (67%-19%). That suggests a result quite different from Roe (which basically drew the line at six months) and even Casey (which drew the line at viability, likely around five to five-and-half months). Yet it also suggests a result vastly different from total prohibition on abortion (even with exceptions for the life of the mother and possibly health of the mother, rape, incest, and the like), which are being implemented in some states and likely to be implemented in some more.
One explanation for this, of course, is interstate variation in public attitudes (see, e.g., this post by Louis Jacobson [Sabato's Crystal Ball]). But in some of states, part of it may be the difference between the views of "the people" and "their elected representatives."
Such differences are familiar, and need not be malign:
