The U.S. Supreme Court. (Courthouse News photo/Jack Rodgers)
WASHINGTON (CN) The Supreme Court took up a case Monday that will determine the constitutionality of Mississippi’s extreme ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy when fetus viability outside the womb is medically impossible.
Likely to go up for arguments in the fall, the case could allow the staunchly conservative court now to dramatically alter nearly 50 years of abortion rights jurisprudence.
The court first announced a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion with the case
Roe v. Wade in 1973, but it implemented what’s known as a “viability analysis” in the 1992 case
Supreme Court to hear case that could test abortion limits established by Roe v. Wade
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider a major rollback of abortion rights, saying it will decide whether states can ban abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb.
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Posted: May 17, 2021 12:16 PM ET | Last Updated: May 17
The Supreme Court is seen in Washington in a 2020 file photo. The Supreme Court last heard a major abortion case in June of that year, three months before the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg led to the court further tilting to the right. (J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press)
May 17, 2021
SOURCE: REUTERS- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider gutting the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, taking up Mississippi’s bid to revive a Republican-backed state law that bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
By hearing the case in their next term, which starts in October and ends in June 2022, the justices will look at whether to overturn a central part of the landmark ruling, a longstanding goal of religious conservatives.
The ruling, expected next year, could allow states to ban the procedure before the fetus is viable outside the womb, upending decades of legal precedent.