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The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday in the most significant abortion case it has considered since it established the constitutional right to the procedure in the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade.
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, centers on a Mississippi law that bans nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy—a direct challenge to the central holding of Roe v. Wade. The outcome of the case could redefine the right to abortion in the United States and have profound implications not just for reproductive rights, but for nearly every sector of American society, from health care and criminal justice to workforce participation and the economy.
The stakes are especially high because the Supreme Court has grown more conservative in recent years. When Mississippi officials asked the high court to take the case in 2020, conservative justices outnumbered liberals 5-4. But after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and Trump-nominee Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed, the Court lurched further right. It now has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Starting last year, the justices spent months deliberating over whether to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. When they announced in May that they would consider it, reproductive rights groups expressed shock. The decision to consider the case at all signaled that the majority was willing to revisit the fundamental premise of Roe v. Wade, which asserts that states cannot restrict abortion before fetal viability, typically around 24 weeks into pregnancy.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will consider the question of whether all bans on abortion before viability are unconstitutional. Mississippi has also asked the Court directly to overturn Roe, as well as Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 decision that reaffirmed abortion…
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Source : time
