The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion, allowing a Mississippi law passed that bans abortions after 15 weeks to take effect.
The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization means each state will now be able to determine its own regulations on abortion, including whether and when to prohibit abortion.
The decision overturns both Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 case which created the "undue burden" standard — the modern test for abortion restrictions that says the court will invalidate state laws that had "the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus."
Dobbs asked whether all pre-viability restrictions on abortion are unconstitutional. Existing precedent prevented states from banning abortions before fetal viability, which is typically around 22 weeks or later.
Jackson Women's Health Organization, the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, sued the state to stop the 15-week ban from taking effect.
Mississippi asked the justices to review the viability standard, arguing that the rule prevents states from defending maternal health and its interest in protecting life.
The Mississippi law, which was passed in 2018, was blocked by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
"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," a panel of judges on the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in December 2019.
"States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not ban abortions," the court wrote, arguing that "the law at issue is a ban."
Both blue and red states had been preparing for the potential that the Court could overturn Roe. Twenty-three states have passed laws to restrict abortion access, including Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Wyoming, according to NC Policy Watch.
Meanwhile, 16 states have laws that aim to preserve access to abortion, including Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.
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