The case was initiated by a 2018 Mississippi law banning abortions after 15
weeks gestation. That law has been blocked by the courts, but it is being used
to challenge the Supreme Court's abortion precedent.
“The Supreme Court oral arguments today were very encouraging. It is
apparent from the questions that a majority of the Court is seriously
considering at least rejecting the viability line that currently prohibits
prohibitions on abortion prior to viability,”
said James Bopp, Jr., National Right to Life Committee’s (NRLC) General Counsel, and author of
NRLC’s amicus brief in the case.
“But the key question seems to be how far the Court is willing to go, either
a decision that just rejects the viability line, permitting states to argue
that prohibitions on abortion prior to viability are justified by
sufficiently compelling state interests or if they will issue a broader
decision which explicitly either totally or partially overrules Roe and/or
Casey. There appears to be several Justices whose questions seemed to favor
one path or the other, who would constitute a majority,” said Bopp.
“It is important to remember that either ruling would be a tremendous
victory for the pro-life movement, vastly expanding our ability to protect
innocent unborn life,” Bopp concluded.
Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer suggested that the current standard, viability, has served as a workable and fair standard for when states can begin to limit abortions. The other justices expressed that this standard does not make sense. Even Chief Justice Roberts, according to New York Times writer Adam Liptak, “repeatedly questioned whether the viability line was crucial, saying that Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the author of the majority opinion in Roe, had called the line arbitrary in his private papers.”
National Right to Life President Carol Tobias spoke at a press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court, saying , “Viability is an ever-changing standard and, therefore, unworkable as the timeline or framework for abortion. For many years, babies were thought to be viable at 28 weeks. Now, babies are generally considered to be viable at 24 weeks, but babies have survived at 21 weeks! Viability is not a characteristic of the baby but of how advanced our technology has become.”
Tobias continued, “Mississippi seeks to protect from abortion unborn babies after 15 weeks. By that age, preborn children are fully formed. They have heartbeats, fingers and toes, and functioning organs. By eight weeks gestation, brain waves can be recorded. Life has surely begun, and the state has the right, indeed—the duty—to protect it.”
National Right to Life's Dave Andrusko wrote about five major takeaways from Wednesday's oral arguments. Click here to read those.
