SUPREME COURT TO HEAR MISSISSIPPI’S ABORTION BAN CASE IN DECEMBER

The Supreme Court announced Monday it will hear arguments Dec. 1 on a Mississippi abortion restriction that poses a direct challenge to the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.

Oral arguments will take place just a few months after the court’s recent move to allow Texas’s six-week abortion ban to take effect, a ruling that left abortion opponents hopeful about their prospects in the upcoming dispute over Mississippi’s 15-week ban.

The court agreed in May to take up the dispute, but anticipation over the case’s timeline has grown exponentially after the court’s Texas ruling signaled a likelihood that the justices could more formally curtail abortion rights when they decide the Mississippi case, with a decision expected by late June.

Challengers to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban say that it should be invalidated under Roe v. Wade, which recognized a constitutional right to abortion before a fetus is viable, typically around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The challengers, a coalition of abortion providers and advocates, won in the lower courts. In 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled Mississippi’s restriction unconstitutional, prompting the state to appeal to the Supreme Court.