WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court could alter abortion laws nationally when it hears a challenge to Mississippi’s law to restrict access after 15 weeks of pregnancy on Dec. 1.
If the court sides with Mississippi to gut abortion protections set forth by its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, states could ban the procedure to end pregnancy. Mississippi’s 2018 law was blocked by a judge before it could go into effect.
Roe v. Wade and the 1992-case Planned Parenthood v. Casey affirmed that states could regulate, but not bar, abortions before fetal viability. Viability is when a fetus could likely survive outside of the womb, usually around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
