Supreme Court Set to Hear Biggest Challenge to ‘Roe v. Wade’ in Decades

The United States Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Wednesday in the most significant challenge in decades to its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which declared abortion to be protected by the U.S. Constitution.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, brings into question the constitutionality of Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act, which would make abortions performed after 15 weeks of pregnancy unlawful. The Court announced in May it will decide “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional” in the United States.

According to the petition for review filed at the court:

Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act brings into sharp focus the conflict between this Court’s suggestion that states cannot prohibit pre-viability abortions, Roe v. Wade…and the Court’s repeated admonition that states have legitimate interests “from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting the health of the mother and the life of the fetus which may become a child.”

The Court reportedly wrestled with taking on the case since October 2020 and relisted the petition for conference more than 20 times. The justices debated whether there were lesser questions they could have tackled, but they ultimately decided to hear the broadest version of the issue.

As Breitbart News previously reported, lawyers from the Mississippi attorney general’s office said in the introduction to the petition that because of the conflict between this case and Roe v. Wade, “good reasons exist for the court to reevaluate its jurisprudence.”

High profile figures on both sides of the political aisle have been weighing in on the potential ramifications of whatever the Supreme Court ultimately decides. Former Vice President Mike Pence’s office exclusively provided Breitbart News with some excerpts of his planned remarks ahead of his Tuesday morning speech at the National Press Club focused on the fight against abortion. Pence was expected to say in his speech:

The Court’s misguided decision in Roe v. Wade has inflicted a tragedy not only on our nation, but on humanity, that is hard to fathom. Its scale is unprecedented in the history of mankind. In the 48 years since the Court’s ruling, unborn children have been segregated into a caste of Second Class citizens devoid of the most basic human rights. Precious babies have lived outside the protection of our laws, at the mercy of a culture that devalues them, and an abortion industry that profits from their suffering.

Pence was joined at the event by Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, whose organization has spent millions on advertising campaigns educating the public about the stakes of the Mississippi case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The group has spent $10 million total, including a $2.5 million television ad campaign launching on Dec. 1 as oral arguments begin before the Supreme Court, Breitbart News reported.

By 15 weeks, children in the womb have fully formed noses and lips, eyelids and eyebrows; they can suck their thumb, and even feel pain. The U.S. is one of seven nations – including China and North Korea – that allow late-term abortion on demand more than halfway through pregnancy, well after unborn babies feel pain. Americans overwhelmingly reject such extreme policies, yet their elected lawmakers are shackled to Supreme Court precedents that, in effect, allow unlimited abortion up until birth – these are needlessly divisive and decades out of step with medicine and technology.

Planned Parenthood, however, said it is concerned about girls and women “accessing” abortion and worries that overturning Roe v. Wade could lead to more abortion bans across the country. 

“The organization has tied its quest to ensure access to abortion remains unrestricted to the woke “equity” narrative, though studies have confirmed abortion is a “major cause of death” and one “which disproportionately affects a racial minority,” Breitbart News reported. 

Many have speculated that Roe v. Wade has a greater chance of being overturned, given the conservative justice majority on the current Supreme Court. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett have all openly criticized the precedent — Alito before he was nominated, once argued that “the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion.”

The case is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19-1392 in the Supreme Court of the United States.