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| AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin |
The Supreme Court flirted Wednesday with unraveling the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that created a national right to abortion, with the court’s GOP-appointed justices pondering whether states should have freedom to restrict abortions earlier in pregnancy — or to bar the procedure altogether.
Mississippi’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks was the battleground as the high court waded into the most persistent political battle in American life over the last 50 years.
During nearly two hours of oral argument, the court’s conservative-leaning justices showed unanimity in their skepticism of the current “viability” standard — about 24 weeks into pregnancy — for when states can prevent a woman from seeking an abortion altogether.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. seemed to be searching for another standard that would replace viability without overturning the fundamentals of Roe.
“The thing that is at issue before us today is 15 weeks,” he said.
But other GOP appointees mulled scrapping Roe altogether, a decision that could remove the justices from the lightning-rod issue they’ve struggled to handle for half a century. --->READ MORE HERE
Justices in the Supreme Court's six-member conservative majority on Wednesday raised substantial doubts about the jurisprudence behind the 1973 case establishing abortion rights in the United States, Roe v. Wade , during arguments over a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks' gestation.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, combined with arguments on Nov. 1 over a Texas anti-abortion law , represents the most direct challenge in decades to Roe, which made abortion a national right rather than letting states decide the issue. The rulings, which will be issued by June 2022, have the potential to sway politics substantially, with the underlying issue a motivating one at the ballot box for opponents of abortion and supporters of abortion rights.
Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed the abortion restriction into law in March 2018, which effectively banned abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. After the case wound its way up through federal courts, Democratic- and Republican-appointed justices appeared to be divided at the Supreme Court on Wednesday over whether the jurisprudence of abortion rights maintained by 15 previous justices should be unwound.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised concerns about a political "stench" that could arise if the court overturns Roe.
But Mississippi Solicitor General Scott G. Stewart argued in favor of the law, saying its precedents “haunt our country” and “have no home in our history or traditions." Attorney Julie Rikelman, who represents the Mississippi abortion provider who sued, said the state's law would do “profound damage to women’s liberty, equality, and the rule of law.”
Justice Clarence Thomas asked the first question from the bench and pressed Stewart over the difference between a right to abortion and a right to privacy, which was the pivotal ground for the argument in the 1973 Roe case. Thomas also cited the Supreme Court's 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, which upheld the constitutional right to have an abortion that was established in Roe but also upheld some restrictions from an underlying Pennsylvania state law. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories:
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Roe is in play’: As Supreme Court hears landmark case, Congress draws battle lines on abortion
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