An effort to ban most abortions from 15 weeks into pregnancy will head to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Mississippi governor has said after a federal appeals court upheld a ruling that blocked the law. “We will sustain our efforts to fight for America’s unborn children,” Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said on Twitter Dec. 13. “Mississippi will continue this mission to the United States Supreme Court.”
Due to changes in the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court, both foes and supporters of legal abortion anticipate any decision on abortion could overturn or significantly modify existing precedent that, with few restrictions, mandates legal abortion across the U.S.
In a decision published Friday, however, Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with foes of the Mississippi law in citing existing precedent dating to 1973. “In an unbroken line dating to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s abortion cases have established (and affirmed, and re-affirmed) a woman’s right to choose an abortion before viability,” he said in the ruling. “States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman’s right but they may not ban abortions.” CNA
