The Supreme Court of the United States agreed on Monday to hear a legal challenge to Mississippi’s abortion law—setting the stage for a major showdown on abortion rights later this year.
Oral arguments are scheduled for the fall.
The case involves a Mississippi law that would outlaw abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.
Abortion supporters believe the case is a threat to abortion rights in America.
“The court cannot uphold this law without overturning the principal protections of Roe v. Wade,” said Nancy Northrup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, during a media call, as the Associated Press reported.
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The [Mississippi] ban “had been blocked by lower courts as inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent that protects a woman’s right to obtain an abortion before the fetus can survive outside her womb,” as Fox News reported.
The high court had previously postponed action on the case.
Now, Amy Coney Barrett is on the court—she was the third justice appointed by President Donald J. Trump, along with Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh—and the court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
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The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion—and the high court reaffirmed that highly controversial decision 19 years later.
The new case “is a landmark opportunity for the Supreme Court to recognize the right of states to protect unborn children from the horrors of painful late-term abortions,” Susan B. Anthony List’s Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of one of the nation’s most influential pro-life advocacy groups, said in a statement, The Daily Caller reported.
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—By CNJ Staff