Three states have new laws that ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the scientific evidence showing unborn children have the capacity to feel pain at that point, but abortion advocates may not challenge those laws in court.

The pro-life groups bringing the laws have done so not only because they seek to protect women and unborn children from late abortions but because they sense, based on the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the ban on partial-birth abortions, that the legal door can be opened further to move the high court further down the road of offering legal protection for unborn children in a greater way.

Although Justice Anthony Kennedy is not willing to go along with the perceived four-vote minority of justices who appear likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, he did support reversing a 2000 decision that had the high court previously strike down a Nebraska partial-birth abortion ban and the National Right to Life Committee believes he is open to moving further in a pro-life direction that continues to chip away at Roe...