Editor’s Note: The following is a short compendium of observations and hot takes regarding yesterday’s oral arguments in the pivotal Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Upright:

“I think there are a lot of close court watchers who would have said at 9:59 [a.m.] that there’s no chance the court overturns Roe, but would now tell you that’s the likeliest outcome. Justice Kavanaugh is widely seen as the swing vote and everything he said signaled that he thought this is an issue that belongs to the states and that the states can be trusted to deal with the moral complexity and the competing values. Justice Barrett repeatedly pointed out the ways in which adoption undermines a lot of the constitutional arguments for a right to an abortion under the 14th Amendment.” —Notre Dame Law School associate professor Sherif Girgis

“I’ve never seen a more robust, diverse, interesting, on-fire, on-offense pro-life movement. … It was like a homecoming gravitating around hope for actual, concrete change. And I think everybody left there thinking, ‘This is happening.’” —Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser

“Is the unborn child a human being? Yes. Does abortion intentionally kill a human being? Yes. Is it always wrong and should it always be illegal to intentionally kill an innocent and defenseless human being? Yes. The abortion question really is not complicated.” —Matt Walsh

“The best science reveals that human beings come into existence at conception. The best philosophy concludes that all human beings are intrinsically valuable for who they are, and that we have duties to respect and protect the lives of all human beings.” —Ryan T. Anderson

“It’s astonishing that the justices defending the results-based jurisprudence that arrogated to the Court the right to legislate on abortion now say they are highly concerned that the Court might be seen as a political body.” —Rich Lowry

“Norma McCorvey, aka Jane Roe, was abused by her first husband who she married at 16. She developed a severe drug/alcohol problem, became lonely and depressed, and was on her third pregnancy by the age of 21. Lawyers took advantage of her to make abortion legal. Jane Roe never actually had an abortion and she never even attended a single hearing when the case went through the courts. The abortion regime exploited her just as they continue to do to vulnerable women today.” —Greg Price

“I understand we are talking about abortion here. But what is confusing is that … if we were talking about the Second Amendment, I know exactly what we are talking about. If we’re talking about the Fourth Amendment, I know what we’re talking about because it’s written. It is there. What specifically is the right here that we are talking about?” —Justice Clarence Thomas

“The fetus has an interest in having a life.” —Justice Samuel Alito

Lacking Self-Awareness:

“Any failure to fully strike down the Mississippi ban would seriously erode the legitimacy of the Court.” —House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

“It is particularly important to show that what we do in overturning a case is grounded in principle and not social pressure.” —Justice Stephen Breyer

“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts? I don’t see how it is possible.” —Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Vile:

“Virtually every state defines a brain death as death. Yet, the literature is filled with episodes of people who are completely and utterly brain dead responding to stimuli. There’s about 40 percent of dead people who, if you touch their feet, the foot will recoil. There are spontaneous acts by dead brain people. So I don’t think that a response … by a fetus necessarily proves that there’s a sensation of pain or that there’s consciousness.” —Sonia Sotomayor

“I support Roe v. Wade. I think it’s a rational position to take, and I continue to support it.” —Joe Biden

“Mississippi’s ban on abortion, two months before viability, is flatly unconstitutional under decades of precedent. Two generations have now relied on this right and one out of every four women makes a decision to end a pregnancy.” —Center for Reproductive Rights senior director Julie Rikelman

With “Friends” Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

“[Republican] Senator [Susan] Collins supports the right to an abortion and believes that the protections in the Roe and Casey decisions should be passed into law.” —spokeswoman Annie Clark

Dumb and Dumber Awards:

“In fact, 19 percent of the women in Mississippi are uninsured, so they don’t have money to pay for contraceptives.” —Sonia Sotomayor (“They can’t pay for contraceptives, but they can pay for abortions?” —David Harsanyi)

“The Supreme Court handpicked and gerrymandered by theocrats and autocrats is now preparing to dismantle the constitutional right to privacy and strip medical decisions away from women and their families and doctors.” —Congressman Jamie Raskin (“Does…. someone wanna tell him what gerrymander means?” —Cabot Phillips)

WATCH: Pro-abortion activists take abortion pills outside of the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/hcbQOaiRFQ

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 1, 2021