abortion head to the Supreme Court. We're switching gears
now with roe v wade on the line as the
court takes up the Mississippi abortion rights case, justices
will hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson women's health
stemming from a state law that bans abortion after 15
weeks. So joining us now is Jimmy Hoover,
Supreme Court editor at large at law 360 to discuss
and jimmy break down for us just how significant this
case is to abortion rights across the US. Sure
, I mean, this is the biggest abortion case
at the Supreme Court in 30 years. It is
a as you mentioned, a direct challenge to the
Roe versus wade in the planned parenthood versus Casey precedent
, which obviously recognizes a woman's constitutional right to obtain
an abortion. Mississippi is appealing a ruling from the
fifth circuit that essentially struck down a ban on abortions
after 15 weeks of gestation, a period that is
before a fetus is viable. So that is called
the viability line under Roe, which protects a woman's
right to obtain an abortion before a fetus is viable
. And they say that this rule, Mississippi does
has no place in the text history or President of
the of the constitution and therefore should be done away
with. Now, obviously, an abortion clinic,
actually, the lone abortion clinic in the state of
Mississippi Jackson women's health is defending the lower court's ruling
that effectively struck this down as an unconstitutional violation of
roe versus wade. So the stakes of this,
you're right are absolutely enormous the biggest in three decades
and could have massive implications for abortion rights around the
country. Now, this will be the Supreme Court's
first test on abortion access since gaining the conservative majority
. So what does that signal about the possible income
here? The outcome here rather Sure, I mean
, it's a completely different court than the one that
decided planned parenthood versus Casey. This was the ruling
in 1992 that essentially upheld roe versus wade. You
had Justice Kennedy and Justice Souter and Justice O'Connor in
the majority or in the plurality, I should say
in that case, this is a completely different court
, but as you say, a supermajority, if
you will, of six Republican appointees who hold what
are largely considered to be much more conservative views on
the issue of abortion. Now, I should say
that this is not necessarily a done deal. Even
though the makeup of the court has changed, this
will likely come down to a few key votes.
Who are they? Well, one is Justice Brett
Kavanaugh, obviously, the issue of abortion was a
central concern during his confirmation hearings in 2018. Uh
Senator Susan Collins, who is a moderate Republican.
Senator from Maine basically told the press that just then
, Judge Kavanaugh, while he was a nominee,
assured her that he considered roe versus wade to be
settled law, that was when he was a nominee
. Now he is a Supreme Court. Justice who
essentially has the authority to overrule the settled precedents of
the Supreme Court. So will he do that in
this case when the court comes to wrangle with the
issue of roe versus wade to tomorrow's hearing, we're
obviously going to be glued to our seats to figure
out where he's coming from and what kind of questions
he's asking. Another one is Chief Justice john roberts
. Now, chief justice roberts has shown some sympathy
towards um striking down abortion regulations in recent cases.
Um one recently involving a Louisiana law requiring abortion providers
to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. So
he's pretty much safely considered to be in the camp
of upholding roe versus wade. So it will largely
come down to justice Brett Kavanaugh and probably also Justice
Amy coney Barrett, whose own record on in abortion
cases is shockingly thin. And so there's really not
much more than speculation to go on. So that's
why people are so eagerly anticipating Orel arguments tomorrow to
see a little bit how the justice that are coming
at this case. Now, Mississippi has asked the
court directly to overturn roe v wade as well as
planned parenthood v Casey, which further reaffirmed abortion rights
. So what are possible outcomes here and what would
happen if either were overturned? I think if roe
versus wade is overturned, You'll see immediately overnight,
a situation like we have in texas where effectively there
is a current ban on abortion after six weeks,
That's an earlier period of gestation. Um but the
legal issues in that case are slightly different and that's
why that law hasn't been struck down as of yet
. However, it is a what some might call
a cautionary tale in that most legal abortions as of
today are now illegal in that state. And so
what you've seen is um women seeking to obtain abortions
after six weeks of pregnancy have been advised to leave
the state to obtain such a procedure, and they've
been essentially advised by their medical practitioners as to how
to get access to a jurisdiction where they where they
are able to perform such abortions. So you can
imagine that in the nearby jurisdictions where those abortions are
legal, they are seeing a backlog of cases and
in fact, the abortion provider in this case,
in the Mississippi case is reporting such an influx of
cases from women from texas coming into their clinic seeking
an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which is
delaying women who are able to have the procedures.
So just imagine that, but across the entire country
, wherever there is a state legislature that feels compelled
to ban abortions at earlier stages of gestation which which
we already know will happen just based on um the
recent behavior of those states. Now, there is
obviously other alternatives here. Um the Supreme Court could
uphold roe v wade in its entirety and affirm the
invalidation of this Mississippi law as an unconstitutional violation of
roe versus wade. Um Some people don't, I
think that that's necessarily the likeliest of outcomes in the
case. Another outcome is that the Supreme Court upholds
roe versus wade in name but effectively gets rid of
this line that says that all bans on abortion before
a fetus is viable are unconstitutional. So that would
essentially move the line earlier to conception for when states
could be able to enact these bands. And so
in any of these scenarios, what you can count
on is that there will be incredible amounts of litigation
. There will be incredible amounts of legislative maneuvers and
states that are opposed to abortion and so on.
So this definitely is one to look out for,
because it could open up an absolute pandora's box here
, Wow, Jimmy Hoover, Supreme Court editor at
large, at law 3 60. Jimmy, thank
you so much for breaking that down.