Supreme Court Sets Date for Case that Could End Roe v. Wade
CV NEWS FEED // The U.S. Supreme Court has set the date of December 1 to begin hearing arguments in a case that directly challenges the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states.
The case, called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, will decide the validity of a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of gestation. In December, attorneys will begin presenting arguments against a lower court ruling which stopped the Mississippi pro-life law from being enforced.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Mississippi, it will effectively be ruling that Roe v. Wade’s contention that abortion is a constitutional right is void, freeing up state lawmakers to outlaw abortions throughout the U.S.
As CatholicVote has reported, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch flatly called on the Supreme Court to repeal Roe v. Wade in an amicus brief attached to the case in July:
The case initially raised the question of whether Mississippi could enact a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of gestation. The wider implications of that question, however, quickly led commentators on both sides of the abortion battle to speculate about a possible showdown over Supreme Court precedents affirming the legality of abortion.
With the publication of the Mississippi legal brief this week it became clear that the case directly implicates Roe v. Wade … and Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, a 1992 ruling that added more legal heft to the so-called constitutional “right” to abortion.
CatholicVote also filed an amicus brief in connection with the case in July.
“Although Roe makes powerful points about ‘social policy and considerations of fairness,’ its ‘decision is an act of will, not legal judgment,’” the brief stated in its conclusion. “The right [to abortion] it announces has no basis in the Constitution or this Court’s precedents.”
To read more about the case and about CatholicVote’s legal brief in support of Mississippi, readers can click here.
