Supreme Court Justices To Take Up Abortion Case Next Term

Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to take up a key abortion case next term. The case is in regard to a controversial Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks. In 2018, former Governor of Mississippi Phil Bryant signed that law into effect. The law makes exceptions only for medical emergencies or cases in which there is a ‘severe fetal abnormality’ but it excludes instances of rape or incest. A federal judge in the state struck down the law in November of 2018 and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in December of 2019.

The justices will be revisiting the issue that still divides the country even 50 years after the landmark Roe v Wade decision and the ruling will potentially come in the middle of the 2022 midterm elections. This year, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Idaho have arranged bans on abortion at the onset of a fetal heartbeat and Arkansas and Oklahoma have enacted near-total abortion bans. Montana has also banned the procedure at 20 weeks though none of those bills have gone into effect yet.