WASHINGTON, D.C., December 1, 2021 – This morning the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a challenge to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. The case strikes at the heart of a person’s constitutional right to an abortion, with Mississippi asking the Court to overturn the nearly 50 years of precedent establishing this right in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. As has been expected since the Court first agreed to take up the case, the conservative justices expressed an openness to restricting abortion access for individuals even before the point of viability. If the Court does act to overturn or otherwise gut Roe, the Court’s conservatives will be inviting more states to pass increasingly restrictive abortion laws and even end all access to legal abortion within their borders, as Texas has effectively already done with the Court’s consent.
Alliance for Justice President Rakim H.D. Brooks issued the following statement:
“Unfortunately, there were no surprises at the Supreme Court this morning. Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell illegitimately packed the Court with radical conservative justices with demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade, and their biases were on grand display at oral arguments. Their apparent willingness to consider revoking a constitutional right speaks to this Court’s lawlessness and underscores the importance of expanding the Supreme Court. Until the conservative majority’s power is neutralized, nobody’s rights are safe.
“No matter how the Court rules in Dobbs, the fight to improve abortion access in every community will continue unabated. We’ve already seen from the Court’s refusal to act in Texas the toll when people cannot access the abortion care they need and deserve. Abortion is health care; no Supreme Court justice can change that reality.”