(JustPatriots.com)- Mississippi is hoping the Supreme Court will side with them in overturning the decades-old Roe v. Wade landmark decision.
On Thursday, the state filed a brief with the high court that defended its own local ban on any abortion that takes place after 15 weeks of the start of a pregnancy. In the fall, the court will hear arguments for the case, and Mississippi officials are asking the court to fully overturn the decision.
In the brief, Lynn Fitch, the state’s attorney general, argued that the U.S. has changed substantially since the landmark decision, making it essential that the high court re-examine the case for modern standards. Fitch wrote:
“The national fever on abortion can break only when this Court returns abortion policy to the states. In 1973, there was little support for women who wanted a full family life and a successful career. Maternity leave was rare. Paternity leave was unheard of.
“The gold standard for professional success was a 9-to-5 with a corner office. The flexibility of the gig economy was a fairy tale.”
This stance Mississippi is taking is much different than the one it took when it filed a petition about abortion in June 2020. Then, the state said it wasn’t necessary to overturn Roe v. Wade, or a 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that refined the original decision.
When Mississippi filed its case last year, the Supreme Court was a more even split of 5 conservatives to 4 liberals. Now, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg after the latter passed away, the conservative majority is now 6-3.
This is giving conservative states and conservative thinkers much more hope that the case could actually be modified, if not overturned altogether.
In May, the Supreme Court said they’d take up Mississippi’s case, with the majority of the justices saying they wanted to revisit the framework of the original Roe decision.
Specifically, the high court signaled it was interested in hearing arguments about whether states should have the power to ban any abortion that takes place before roughly 24 weeks of pregnancy, which is known as the point of fetal viability.
That being said, experts who cover the Supreme Court doubt the justices will completely overturn the Roe decision, even though there’s such a huge conservative majority.
The overall consensus is the Supreme Court may allow states to enact more restrictions on abortion, but not completely overturn the 50-plus-year Roe v. Wade landmark decision.
Mississippi passed its current abortion law back in 2018, when conservative states across the country were making a major push to seek more restrictions on abortion. Some states passed laws that banned any abortion after as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
Those laws have thus far been blocked in lower courts. At the same time, it did allow for appeals to be filed all the way up to the Supreme Court, which will have the final say in the matter.
