When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court’s conservative majority argued it was simply handing the question of abortion to the states and their voters to decide for themselves.

But in reality, the court was ensuring that many states, from Arizona to Ohio, would immediately ban the procedure without much debate, because their legislatures are now dominated by hard-line Republicans. Today, we tell the story of how those Republican legislators achieved that dominance.

Guest: Kate Zernike, a political reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• How the beginning of the end of Roe v. Wade arrived on election night in November 2010.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.