BREAKING: Supreme Court to Review Abortion Rights Once Again

Riiver Nihil

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would be taking another hard look at reducing abortion rights, probably somewhere in the fall. The focus of the matter is whether or not states can restrict abortions before a fetus can survive outside of the womb.

Abortion has been a hot topic for decades, as Roe v. Wade set a precedent for a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in 1973 and was reaffirmed in 1992.

Will the Supreme Court once again uphold Roe v. Wade? Or will they set a new precedent on the way Americans handle abortions?

Because the Supreme Court is no longer liberally weighted, the decision made in this case could be history-altering.

Just last year, five of the justices shot down a similar Louisiana law that would have placed restrictions on doctors and could have closed two of the three abortion clinics in the state. The Court stated that the Louisiana law almost identically resembled a Texas law they previously rejected in 2016.

Why is the Supreme Court reviewing this issue again?

It seems that Mississippi is attempting to enact a law that restricts abortion to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. They already passed the law in 2018, but it was blocked after a federal court challenge. Mississippi’s lower courts have rejected the law as it violates the Supreme Court precedent. Mississippi only has one clinic that performs abortions for up to 16 weeks. It remains open.

At the center of the issue is whether or not a fetus can survive outside of the womb at 15 weeks, and Mississippi’s only abortion clinic argues that a fetus cannot survive at this point in its development. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed when it said that the state “conceded that it had identified no medical evidence that a fetus would be viable at 15 weeks.”

Mississippi law would allow exceptions only in the case of a medical emergency or severe fetal abnormality, though what constitutes a medical emergency was not detailed. Doctors who violate this law would either lose their medical license or face mandatory suspension.

The case was put on the back burner for months, as former Supreme Court Justice and pro-abortionist Ruth Bader Ginsberg passed away last October. Her Trump-appointed replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, personally feels much differently on the subject, as she is the most open opponent of abortion rights the Court has seen in decades.

 

Join The Discussion

Related Posts
Total
12
Share