The justices heard from lawyers arguing for and against a 2018 Mississippi law that, with few exceptions, bans abortion after 15 weeks, claiming that a fetus is viable outside the womb at that age. The Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and legal rulings in the decades since, including the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, have said that abortion should be available to the point of viability – established as about 23 weeks.
The court also ruled in Casey that state laws could not present an “undue burden” on a woman’s ability to obtain an abortion.
The Mississippi attorney general did not initially seek to overturn Roe and Casey, but later argued in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that both cases were erroneously decided and should be completely thrown out.
“It is an egregiously wrong decision that has inflicted tremendous damage on our country and will continue to do so and take innumerable human lives unless and until this court overrules it,” said Scott G. Stewart, Mississippi’s solicitor general.
When it accepted the Mississippi case, the Supreme Court did not agree to weigh in on overturning Roe or Casey, but the justices’ leanings were evident during the hearing, and it is possible they would throw out those landmark cases.
Justice Clarence Thomas asked repeatedly for the law’s challengers to point out where the right to an abortion was written in the Constitution, as did Justice Samuel Alito.
“If we were talking about the Second Amendment, I know exactly what we’re talking about, if we’re talking about the Fourth Amendment, I know what we’re talking about, because it’s written, it’s there,” said Justice Thomas. “What specifically is the right here that we’re talking about?” he asked U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar.
She said the right to abortion was embedded in the 14th amendment’s guarantee of the pursuit of liberty.
“If this Court renounces the liberty interest recognized in Roe and reaffirmed in Casey, it would be an unprecedented contraction of individual rights,” and a departure from court doctrine of upholding precedent, known as stare decisis, she said.
Chief Justice John Roberts seemed to be against throwing out either of the landmark abortion cases, but instead wanted to focus on whether the 15 weeks was a reasonable time point. But he seemed to be alone in honing-in on that issue.
“Roberts seem desperate for some limiting principle that isn’t reversing Roe, and none of the other conservative justices are biting,” tweeted Mary Ziegler, a historian who has written about abortion.
But justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh all appeared to be receptive to the idea that the prior precedent set by Roe and Casey could be overturned.
Neil Katyal, the former U.S. acting solicitor general and a Supreme Court lawyer, tweeted during the arguments that he saw “nothing so far sympathetic to the challengers. And a lot that has been very hostile.”
He cautioned that questions during oral arguments “often are just trying to understand a lawyer’s position,” adding, “But the tea leaves here are ominous.”
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, 22 states have laws already on the books that could be used to restrict abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Almost all abortions would be banned in 12 states that have so-called “trigger” laws: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
Seventeen states have abortion restrictions that have been unenforced or blocked by courts that would go back into effect if Roe is nullified. An additional seven states have laws that intend to restrict abortion in the absence of Roe and four states have passed constitutional amendments to specifically not protect the right to abortion.
Guttmacher reports that 15 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws that protect the right to abortion.
Jackson Women’s Health – the state’s sole abortion provider – sued to block the Mississippi law soon after it passed. A federal judge ruled against the state and that decision was upheld by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which also issued a permanent injunction against the law. The Supreme Court in May 2021 agreed to take Mississippi’s appeal.
Earlier in November, the Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases challenging a restrictive Texas law, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson and U.S. v. Texas. The justices seemed receptive to the idea that the law, SB 8, was unconstitutional. But the court did not grant a request by the Biden administration to halt the law while the challenges made their way through the courts.
A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.