Supreme Court heard arguments on a hearing about the Mississippi law that is a though a challenge to Roe v. Wade. This new abortion law could set the stage for the most substantial abortion rights decision in decades.
The addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the court in 2020 has fortified the law court’s conformist majority and strengthened the anti-abortion movement, which is desired to overturn Roe. Roe is a decision taken in 1973 that recognized a legitimate right to abortion and banned all states from prohibiting abortion before fetal viability.
According to the Mississippi abortion law (that will be reviewed by the court), most abortions will be illegal in case of 15 weeks of pregnancy, which is nearly 2 months before Roe and other later laws. Many medical experts consider fetal viability to be near 24 weeks.
Mississippi Abortion Law Challenging Roe V. Wade
The regulation was legislated in 2018 by the Mississippi Legislature (Republican-dominated) but it wasn’t implemented due to a direct legal encounter that directed to a federal appellate court stalling its implementation.
The ruling prohibits abortions if the gestational age of the fetal is considered to be more than 15 weeks, with few exceptions like medical emergencies or severe fetal abnormalities.
The state makes the case that at this stage of pregnancy (by 15 weeks) the fetus has made important physiological developments and abortions could be life-threatening to the mother.
The Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the only abortion clinic in Mississippi that provided evidence to a federal appeals court that there is no evidence for fetal viability at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
And as per the federal appeals court, the state has not provided any strong medical evidence to back the new abortion law yet, avowing a lower-court decision delaying the rule and fundamentally saying that abortion is a right unless the fetus has reached a viability age.
According to a most recent report’s findings provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2018, over 93 % of abortions in Mississippi were done before 14 weeks of pregnancy, and around 75 % were performed before 10 weeks.
Mississippi State’s first female attorney general Lynn Fitch, who is also the first Republican who hold office since Reconstruction, said that she is trying to reverse Supreme Court precedent. Ms. Fitch maintains that while the righteousness allowed state administration to defend females’ health and guard lives, they remain to prevent them from legislating rules on abortion.
She further added that during the last 50 years, women have strived to attain a better balance in their professional and personal lives to live a successful life. And by returning the issue of abortion policy to state administrations, we permit a diminutive argument on how we help women to grow.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, (which represents the Jackson clinic) makes the case that a reverse of Roe would let the South and Midwest’s big regions without a right to lawful abortions.
The center maintains that pregnant females who cannot meet ends to cross state lines to have a legal abortion would consequently endeavor to finish their pregnancies themselves — resulting in putting themselves and others who help them subject to prosecution.
For many, the obstacles will be way too extraordinary, and they will be required to bear the considerable dangers of continued pregnancy and childbearing.
If the court of law reverses Roe, various Republican-controlled states (already have trigger laws) would immediately make abortion illegal—resulting in other states following quickly.
For instance, Gov. Greg Abbott, in Texas has signed a law that states almost all abortions would become unlawful in Texas if Roe is ever reversed. And life in prison sentence could be the punishment for doctors who performed an abortion.
