On Monday, the US Supreme Court agreed to consider a major rollback of abortion rights. The court says it will decide whether states can ban abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb. Point to be noted that the court’s order sets up a showdown over abortion with a more conservative court seemingly ready to dramatically alter nearly 50 years of rulings on abortion rights. The court first announced a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and reaffirmed it 19 years later. The case involves a Mississippi law that would prohibit abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. The lower courts blocked the state’s ban as inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent that protects a woman’s right to obtain an abortion before the fetus can survive outside her womb.
It is noteworthy that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an abortion-rights proponent. She died in September 2020, just before the court’s new term started in October. So, Justice Amy Coney Barrett appointed on the empty seat. She is the most open opponent of abortion rights to join the court in decades. Moreover, Barrett is one of 3 appointees of former President Donald Trump on the Supreme Court. Last year, the other two, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh voted in dissent to allow Louisiana to enforce restrictions on doctors that could have closed two of the state’s three abortion clinics. Chief Justice John Roberts joined by Ginsburg and the other 3 liberal justices, said the restrictions were virtually identical to a Texas law the court struck down in 2016.
The Mississippi law was enacted in 2018, but was blocked after a federal court challenge. The state’s only abortion clinic remains open and the owner said the clinic does abortions up to 16 weeks. This case is separate from a fight over laws enacted by Mississippi and other states that would ban most abortions as early as 6-weeks when a fetal heartbeat may be detected. The clinic presented evidence that viability is impossible at 15 weeks. But, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said, “The state conceded that it had identified no medical evidence that a fetus would be viable at 15 weeks”. It is important that the Mississippi law would allow exceptions to the 15-week ban in cases of medical emergency or severe fetal abnormality.