Supreme Court hears Mississippi abortion case with major implications for Roe v. Wade

Abortion rights are on the line at the U.S. Supreme Court in historic arguments over the landmark ruling nearly 50 years ago that declared a nationwide right to end a pregnancy.

The justices on Wednesday will weigh whether to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks and overrule the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Mississippi is also asking the court to overrule the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe. In the 1992 Casey ruling, the court said Roe's "central holding" was that viability, at around 24 weeks of a pregnancy, was the earliest point at which states could ban abortion.

The case comes to a court with a 6-3 conservative majority that has been transformed by three appointees of President Donald Trump, who had pledged to appoint justices he said would oppose abortion rights. The court had never agreed to hear a case over an abortion ban so early in pregnancy until all three Trump appointees — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — were on board.

A month ago, the justices also heard arguments over a uniquely designed Texas law that has succeeded in getting around the Roe and Casey decisions and banning abortions in the nation's second-largest state after about six weeks of pregnancy. The dispute over the Texas law revolves around whether the law can be challenged in federal court, rather than the right to an abortion.

Despite its unusually quick consideration of the issue, the court has yet to rule on the Texas law, and the justices have refused to put the law on hold while the matter is under legal review.

The Mississippi case poses questions central to the abortion right. Some of the debate Wednesday is likely to be over whether the court should abandon its long-held rule that states cannot ban abortion before the point of viability.

More than 90 per cent of abortions are performed in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, well before viability, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mississippi argues that viability is an arbitrary standard that doesn't take sufficient account of the state's interest in regulating abortion. It also contends that scientific advances have allowed some babies who were born earlier than 24 weeks to survive, though it does not argue that the line is anywhere near 15 weeks.

Only about 100 patients per year get abortions after 15 weeks at Mississippi's lone abortion clinic, the Jackson Women's Health Organization. The facility does not provide abortions after 16 weeks.

But the clinic argues that the court doesn't normally assess constitutional rights based on how few people are affected, and that the justices shouldn't do so in this case.

Joined by the Biden administration, the clinic also says that since Roe, the Supreme Court has consistently held that the "Constitution guarantees 'the right of the woman to choose to have an abortion before viability."'

Erasing viability as the line between when abortions may and may not be banned would effectively overrule Roe and Casey, even if the justices do not explicitly do that, the clinic says.

Justice Clarence Thomas is the only member of the court who has openly called for Roe and Casey to be overruled.