In a segment on the rise of efforts to restrict abortions in numerous states, NBC Nightly News on April 11 interviewed Professor David S. Cohen, an expert on the Constitution and gender and the law.  

Reporter Hallie Jackson interviewed Cohen, after reporting that Ohio Gov. Michael Dewine’s signature on a law that bars abortions as early as five or six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy—a moment when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which often occurs before a mother realizes that she is pregnant.  

The Ohio law is among abortion restriction laws introduced in 14 states this year, Jackson reported, adding that Texas lawmakers have introduced a bill that would punish women who undergo abortions with the death penalty and North Dakota moved to block doctors from using surgical equipment during second-trimester abortions.   

“The anti-abortion movement is looking at this newly conservative Supreme Court and hoping that Trump's new Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch will vote to overturn a precedent that's almost 50 years old,” Cohen said.  

The co-author of “Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism,” Cohen is currently working on “Obstacle Course: The Struggle to Get an Abortion in the United States” with Professor Carole Joffe of the University of California-San Francisco, which is expected to be published in 2020.