A dozen GOP governors urge Supreme Court to let states regulate abortion

A dozen Republican governors on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to eliminate federal protections for abortion and instead allow states to regulate the procedure.

Led by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, the group argued in a legal filing that the court’s landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which established the constitutional right to abortion, and subsequent rulings unlawfully encroach on states’ rights.

“The judicial constitutionalization of abortion represents an unwarranted intrusion into the sovereign sphere of the States,” they wrote. “Returning to the States the plenary authority to regulate abortion without federal interference would restore the proper (i.e., constitutional) relationship between the States and the Federal Government.”

Which governors: The amicus brief endorsed Mississippi’s effort to have Roe v. Wade overruled next term, and was signed by the Republican governors of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.

Abortion rights advocates: Abortion rights advocates warn that abortion access would be sharply curtailed across the country if the Supreme Court uses next term’s Mississippi case to overturn Roe v. Wade, particularly in the American South and Midwest.

Follows: The Thursday filing by GOP governors follows a legal brief from Mississippi’s attorney general last week that explicitly urged the justices to overrule Roe next term when the Supreme Court reviews Mississippi’s ban on virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.