U.S. Supreme Court agrees to take up Mississippi abortion ban case

A Mississippi law prohibits most pregnant women from having an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The U.S. Federal Supreme Court agreed Monday (May 17) to take up the controversy sparked by the law.

Outsiders believe that the current conservative majority on the Supreme Court could dramatically change nearly 50 years of Supreme Court rulings on abortion rights. Specifically, it could pose a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.

“Roe v. Wade was a major U.S. Supreme Court case in 1973 regarding a woman’s right to abortion and her right to privacy. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized a woman’s right to abortion in the context of abortion.

Mississippi’s Republican then-Governor Phil Bryant signed an abortion ban into law in 2018. The law prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with the only exceptions being when the mother suffers an emergency, such as a life-threatening situation, or when the fetus is judged to be severely malformed.

A federal judge in Mississippi blocked the law in November 2018, arguing that it was inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent that gives women the right to abort a fetus before it can survive outside the womb.

A central issue in the case at hand is the survival of the fetus, that is, whether the fetus can survive outside the mother’s body at 15 weeks. A Mississippi abortion clinic presented evidence that survival at 15 weeks was not possible.

For months, the justices delayed action on the case. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who supported abortion rights, died last October. Her successor, Amy Coney Barrett, was the most vocal opponent of abortion rights in decades.