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Supreme Court Makes Massive Announcement About Roe v. Wade

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for Dec. 1 regarding a Mississippi case that seeks to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the country.

“The Supreme Court on Monday set Dec. 1 arguments on Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy — a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade,” Politico reported.

“Mississippi’s ban has been blocked by lower courts because it directly violates Roe’s protections for pre-viability abortions. The hearing would come after justices this month allowed Texas to move forward with a near-total abortion ban,” Politico added.

“In taking the Mississippi case, the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority clearly signaled its openness to revisit and potentially overturning the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, with a ruling expected next year. Justices said they want to hear arguments on whether all bans on abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb are unconstitutional. Earlier this summer, Mississippi petitioned the court to overturn Roe, contradicting the state’s previous argument that it could uphold the 15-week ban without touching the nearly 50-year-old precedent,” the report added.

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Last month, the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal late to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions.

In a 5-4 vote, the Court refused to step in to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

The measure is arguably one of the most pro-life laws in the country.

Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito voted in the majority to uphold the Texas abortion ban.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a supposed Republican, joined the court’s three liberal members in dissent.

The Supreme Court majority cited “complex and novel” procedural questions for its decision, emphasizing that it was not ruling on the constitutionality of the Texas law.

Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 8 back in May, which prohibits abortions following the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

The measure also allows members of the public to file a lawsuit against doctors they claim violated the law, The Hill reported.

Nearly two dozen abortion providers were looking to block the law from going into effect.

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The providers filed an emergency motion asking the appeals court to issue a temporary stay or send the matter back to a lower court.

The 5th Circuit Court, which is arguably one of the most conservative in the country, denied the request.

“Our creator endowed us with the right to life and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion,” Abbott said when he signed Senate Bill 8 into law.

The law was done in a clever way, where no government official was charged with enforcing the law, but providing private citizens the right to sue abortion providers who perform abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

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Because of that, there is no one for abortion rights activists to sue as they normally would.

“It’s a very unique law and it’s a very clever law,” Josh Blackman, a South Texas College of Law Houston professor, said. “Planned Parenthood can’t go to court and sue Attorney General [Ken] Paxton like they usually would because he has no role in enforcing the statute. They have to basically sit and wait to be sued.”

“Every citizen is now a private attorney general,” he said. “You can have random people who are against abortion start suing tomorrow.”

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