Overnight, a Texas law went into effect protecting babies from abortion once they have a detectable heartbeat. Abortion activists had filed lawsuits to throw out the law, but for various (and largely procedural) reasons, they failed at the federal appeals court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take action on it before the law went into effect.

The legal procedural matters have caused all sorts of confusion, but that’s all of secondary import behind the substance of the case: Is the act of stopping a baby’s beating heart protected by the Constitution? Or do states have a place protecting that baby?