The Supreme Court on Monday accepted a Mississippi challenge to the abortion precedent set by Roe v. Wade.
In an unsigned order, the court said that it would hear the case but limited its scope to the first question presented in the petition, which is whether “all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortion are unconstitutional.” The court will not consider the other two questions, which related to scrutiny of abortion restrictions.
SUPREME COURT SITS ON POTENTIALLY BLOCKBUSTER ABORTION CASE
The court’s acceptance of the case electrified the anti-abortion movement, with many leaders hoping that it would signal the end of a decades-long battle to send the abortion question back to individual states.
“States should be allowed to craft laws that are in line with both public opinion on this issue as well as basic human compassion, instead of the extreme policy that Roe imposed,” said March for Life President Jeanne Mancini, pointing to statistics that most people support some abortion restrictions.
In the petition, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch asked the court to consider if the state’s 2018 law banning abortions before 15 weeks is constitutional. Fitch wrote that the court must resolve contradictions in its decisions over when viability begins.
The case represents the latest challenge to the abortion precedent set by Roe and reaffirmed in 1992 by the decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Last summer, the court weighed in on a major abortion case in Louisiana, where Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberal wing to deal a blow to anti-abortion activists.
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The addition of Amy Coney Barrett to the court gave the anti-abortion movement hope that cases such as the one in Mississippi might prove winnable. Both sides of the abortion debate, after Barrett’s confirmation, ramped up their preparations for the possibility of a post-Roe future.
The court wrestled behind the scenes for nearly a year before agreeing to hear arguments in the case.
