The Mississippi attorney general\u2019s office is expected to file briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to outline the state\u2019s arguments in a case that could upend nearly 50 years of court rulings on abortion rights nationwide.<\/b>
\nJACKSON, Miss. (AP) \u2014 The U.S. Supreme Court should overturn its landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide and should let states decide whether to regulate abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb, the office of Mississippi\u2019s Republican attorney general argued in papers filed with the high court on Thursday. \u201cUnder the Constitution, may a State prohibit elective abortions before viability? Yes. Why? Because nothing in constitutional text, structure, history, or tradition supports a right to abortion,\u201d Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and four of her attorneys wrote in the brief. The arguments are a direct challenge to the central finding of the court\u2019s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and its 1992 decision in a Pennsylvania abortion case. Both rulings said states may not put an \u201cundue burden\u201d on abortion before viability. The Mississippi attorneys argue that the rulings are \u201cegregiously wrong.\u201d The Mississippi case is the first big abortion-rights test in a Supreme Court reshaped with three conservative justices nominated by former President Donald Trump. A 6-3 conservative majority, with the three Trump nominees, said in May that the court would consider arguments over a Mississippi law that would ban abortion at 15 weeks. Justices are likely to hear the case this fall and could rule on it in the spring. Abortion rights supporters have said that if justices uphold the Mississippi law, that could clear the way for states to enact more restrictions on the procedure, including bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks. \u201cRestrictions on abortion care disproportionately harm people who already face significant barriers to accessing health care \u2014 particularly Black, Indigenous, and people of color and people having difficulty making ends meet,\u201d the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is defending Mississippi\u2019s only abortion clinic in its challenge of the 15-week ban, said in a statement Thursday. \u201cIf Roe falls, states hostile to abortion rights could move to ban abortion entirely, and the impact will fall hardest on the same people,\u201d the center said. Republican lawmakers in several states have been pushing laws designed to challenge Roe v. Wade. A federal district judge on Tuesday blocked an Arkansas law that would ban most abortions, ruling that the law is \u201ccategorically unconstitutional\u201d because it would ban the procedure before the fetus is considered viable. The Mississippi 15-week law was enacted in 2018, but was blocked after a federal court challenge. The state\u2019s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization, remains open and offers abortions up to 16 weeks of pregnancy. Clinic director Shannon Brewer has said about 10% of its abortions there are done after the 15th week. More than 90% of abortions in the U.S. take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Mississippi clinic has presented evidence that viability is impossible at 15 weeks, and an appeals court said that the state \u201cconceded that it had identified no medical evidence that a fetus would be viable at 15 weeks.\u201d Viability occurs roughly at 24 weeks, the point at which babies are more likely to survive. Mississippi argues that viability is an arbitrary standard that doesn\u2019t take sufficient account of the state\u2019s interest in regulating abortion. The Mississippi law would allow exceptions to the 15-week ban in cases of medical emergency or severe fetal abnormality. Doctors found in violation of the ban would face mandatory suspension or revocation of their medical license. \u201cThat law rationally furthers valid interests in protecting unborn life, women\u2019s health, and the medical profession\u2019s integrity. It is therefore constitutional,\u201d the Mississippi attorney general\u2019s office wrote in its Thursday filing. The attorney who will make Mississippi\u2019s oral arguments before the Supreme Court is the state solicitor general, Scott G. Stewart, a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas. Also in the filing Thursday, the Mississippi attorneys wrote that if the Supreme Court does not overturn the standard that abortion restrictions should face heightened-scrutiny, the court \u201cshould at minimum hold that there is no pre-viability barrier to state prohibitions on abortion and uphold Mississippi\u2019s law.\u201d The Mississippi attorneys wrote that circumstances for women have changed since the 1973 and 1992 Supreme Court rulings. \u201cToday, adoption is accessible and on a wide scale women attain both professional success and a rich family life, contraceptives are more available and effective, and scientific advances show that an unborn child has taken on the human form and features months before viability,\u201d the Mississippi attorneys wrote. \u201cStates should be able to act on those developments.\u201d ___ Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter at http:\/\/twitter.com\/EWagsterPettus. Copyright \u00a9 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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