Could President Trump’s State of the Union speech be an opportunity to seize the issue of late term abortion? Certainly the Democrats have set up quite a moment. First Governor Cuomo’s party faithful cheered the passage of a bill making it easier to get late term abortions in the Empire State. Then in Virginia, Governor Ralph Northam horrified even some Democrats by seeming to support infanticide.

This strikes us as a winning issue for the President. He ran as a pro-life candidate, and it’s hard not to conclude that the issue helped him confound the pollsters and gain the presidency in 2016. There have to be millions in our country who are shaking their heads in wonder at the latest developments. And are eager for a national figure to confront this rush to codify a right to late term abortions.

No doubt this rush is precipitated in part by the expansion of the conservative majority on the Supreme Court. And by the possibility that another opening could occur before the President’s first term is up. The developments in Virginia and New York remind that, in Roe v. Wade, the Nine shrank from establishing late term abortion as a right beyond the ability of the states to regulate. Nor did the Nine prohibit it.

Hence the horror at Mr. Northam’s remarks. “There may be a fetus that’s not viable,” he said, “So in this particular example, if a mother’s in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired.”

“And then,” he added, “a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” Virginia failed to enact its late term abortion bill. New York, though, did go there. And horrified the nation in its own way, as legislators broke into an ovation at the vote. To celebrate, Governor Cuomo had New York landmarks lit up at night in the color pink.

Is this what the Supreme Court intended when, nearly half a century ago, it handed down its decision in respect of Roe? Did it expect this mile would be taken from the inches it gave? Is this what the Founders meant when they framed the 3rd, 14th, and 9th Amendments, all of which have been cited, by one court or another, in the campaign for abortion rights?

It may be that Mr. Trump will decide to reserve his State of the Union for other issues. Maybe he’ll confront the late term abortion question for a rally in Virginia, say, or even his home town of New York. We’ve been suggesting for years that someone take this issue to a major rally in the New York, where the abortion rate in some parts of the minority community has been running as high as 60%. The moment has rarely been so ripe.