scotus-takes-up-abortion-case-to-decide-fate-of-roe-v.-wade

SCOTUS takes up abortion case to decide fate of Roe v. Wade

Politics
7 min ago

Anti-abortion and pro-abortion supporters reflect on the impact of the SCOTUS decision

From CNN’s Christina Carrega

As oral arguments about Mississippi’s abortion law wrapped up, outside the Supreme Court anti-abortion and pro-abortion supporters agreed that no matter what decision is made, communities of color will be affected.

Mavourene Robinson, who stood outside the court with dozens of other anti-abortion supporters, says that the idea that having abortions will reduce poverty across the country is not accurate.

“What we have lost in this argument is that disproportionately, Black and brown babies are aborted, and we think abortion will end poverty but if you look at the data what has happened over the centuries or decades, it hasn’t ended poverty, it actually has made our communities less powerful than they would be had they had those babies,” Robinson said.

The Mississippi law that the justices heard today doesn’t allow women to have abortions after 15 weeks. 

Mary Beth Style, who is a pregnancy counselor and anti-abortion, says women really don’t want to have abortions, they “feel that they have not choice” and are “pushed against the wall to do that.”

“We need to have services for women,” Style said.

Trish Gallagher said that the decision that the justices will have to make will not be an easy one, but regardless, women will continue to get pregnant, and abortions will happen anyway like they use to 50 years ago — by going to other countries or risking their life with a hanger. 

“I’m on the pro-choice side because it’s my body, my choice,” Gallagher said. “Timing is key when you have a baby,” and if a woman isn’t ready to have one she shouldn’t be forced to have one, “it’s her body.”

Latice Hicks, who is anti-abortion from Kansas City, Missouri, says that being in Washington, DC, for the oral arguments was more important to her as a Black woman.

“Abortion has been targeted against the African American race as we all know there are Planned Parenthoods in the Black community which is to stop and stump the growth of the Black community,” Hicks said.

29 min ago

Biden reaffirms support for Roe v. Wade as fate of landmark decision rests in Supreme Court 

From CNN’s DJ Judd

(Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
(Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

President Biden declined to say if he was concerned the Supreme Court would roll back abortion rights after oral arguments Wednesday indicated the court was likely to uphold a Mississippi law that bars abortion after 15 weeks.

“First of all, I haven’t — I didn’t see any of the debate today, the presentation today,” Biden told reporters at the White House.

“And I support Roe v. Wade, I think it’s a rational position to take, and I continue to support it,” he said.

More on the Roe V. Wade decision: The 1973 ruling guaranteed a woman’s right to obtain an abortion nationwide, using a trimester approach.

For the first trimester of pregnancy, the court said the abortion decision should be left to the woman and her physician; for the second trimester, a state could regulate the abortion procedure in ways reasonably related to the woman’s health; for the final trimester, after fetal viability, the state could promote its “important and legitimate interest in potential life” and ban abortion except when necessary for the woman’s life or health.

CNN’s Dan Berman and Ariane de Vogue contributed reporting to this post. 

2 hr 49 min ago

“This is the long game exemplified,” says Dana Bash on the conservative legal strategy on abortion ban cases

From CNN’s Dana Bash / Written by CNN’s Maureen Chowdhury

The arguments presented by the Mississippi solicitor general and the questioning by the recently appointed conservative Supreme Court justices are an example of a “very strategic legal strategy and political strategy that has been in the work for decades,” said CNN’s Dana Bash.

“This is the long game exemplified. Because conservatives have been pushing, pushing, pushing to pack the courts on the lower levels and, of course, ultimately the Supreme Court,” Bash said.

She added that many conservatives continue to support former President Donald Trump because of his appointments to the Supreme Court.

“If you want to know politically why so many conservatives to this day stick by Donald Trump, it’s because of what we heard in the court today, the questioning by his three nominees were exactly what they were going for. We don’t know how they’re going to decide. But certainly they left some very big bread crumbs as to where they’re headed,” Bash explained.

2 hr 45 min ago

The oral arguments have ended. Here’s what happens next.

From CNN’s Dan Berman

(Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)
(Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP/Getty Images)

The oral arguments have concluded, and the Supreme Court will now take the case under consideration.

This week, the nine will sit alone in a conference room and go over the case.

They’ll go in order, with Chief Justice John Roberts explaining his vote and reasoning, then following by seniority: Clarence Thomas (conservative), Stephen Breyer (the senior liberal), Samuel Alito (conservative), Sonia Sotomayor (liberal), Elena Kagan (liberal), Neil Gorsuch (conservative), Brett Kavanaugh (conservative) and Amy Coney Barrett (conservative).

All justices have publicly described this process as orderly and collegial.

Remember, their views are often known going in and what’s going to matter is the language in the final opinion. The senior justice in the majority and minority will get to choose who writes the opinion, a process that will take months, with plenty of drafts going back and forth between chambers, and rarely, a vote change.

Most famously, Roberts changed his vote to uphold Obamacare in 2012, after initially deciding to kill it.

2 hr 43 min ago

Barrett asks about availability of adoption as arguments come to a close

From CNN’s Tierney Sneed

(Sarah Silbiger/Pool/Getty Images)
(Sarah Silbiger/Pool/Getty Images)

Justice Amy Coney Barrett returned to a theme she has asked repeatedly about during today’s hearing, asking how the growing availability of adoption — via so-called “safe haven” laws — changes the reliance interest.

US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said that there is “nothing new.” Her question wraps up Prelogar’s argument period and Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, when stepped up for a brief rebuttal, seized on Barrett’s question.

He said the rise of “safe haven” laws relieve a “huge burden.”

Stewart finished his rebuttal without any additional questions from the court.

The hearing ended after the rebuttal, having lasted just under two hours.

3 hr 24 min ago

US solicitor general urges justices to uphold precedent

From CNN’s Dan Berman

US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top lawyer before the Supreme Court, is arguing against the court disrupting Roe v. Wade, saying people have relied on the right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.

“Nearly half of the states already have or are expected to enact bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, many without exceptions for rape or incest. Women who are unable to travel hundreds of miles to gain access to legal abortion will be required to continue with their pregnancies and give birth with profound effects on their bodies, their health, and the course of their lives,” Prelogar said.

“If this court renounces the liberty interest recognized in Roe and reaffirmed in Casey, it would be an unprecedented contraction of individual rights and a stark departure from principles of stare decisis,” she continued.

“The court has never revoked a right that is so fundamental to so many Americans and so central to their ability to participate fully and equally in society,” Prelogar told the justices.

3 hr 27 min ago

The future of Roe v. Wade will be defined by Roberts and Kavanaugh

Analysis from CNN’s Dan Berman

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett have asked relative softballs of Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart and been tough on Julie Rikelman, a lawyer representing Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Barrett asked about “safe haven laws,” and women’s ability to give up children for adoption.

Thomas, who has lobbied to overturn Roe v. Wade for years, has been direct in asking if there’s a constitutional basis for allowing abortion.

The court’s three liberals are expected to absolutely vote to uphold Roe.

But Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh may be searching for a middle ground.

Roberts suggested the court could look at Mississippi’s 15-week law as a new viability standard, rather than Roe and Casey, which is over 20 weeks. And Kavanaugh, meanwhile, has asked to confirm that Mississippi isn’t asking the court to outright prohibit abortion, a way to say it’s not overturning Roe while limiting access.

Kavanaugh asked another set of questions suggesting he is inclined to rule with Mississippi and even go as far as reverse Roe.

In broad strokes, he sums up Mississippi’s argument asking the court to interpret the Constitution as neutral on abortion, and to return the issue to state or Congress. He asked Rikelman to respond.

Then he asked a question about stare decisis, ticking off several “consequential” decisions — including on school segregation, voting rights, and business regulations — where the court overturned precedent.

If the court had listened to the arguments that it should adhere to precedent in those cases, “the country would be a much different place,” Kavanaugh said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor shot back at Kavanaugh’s question that cited several court decisions that overturned precedent. Most of those cases, Sotomayor said, were “us recognizing and overturning state control over issues that we said belong to individuals.”

Breyer also took issue with the list of cases Kavanaugh cited.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed reporting to this post.

3 hr 39 min ago

Justice Alito draws a line on viability of fetus

From CNN’s Tierney Sneed

Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Justice Samuel Alito dug in on whether viability is an appropriate line for the court to have drawn.

“The fetus has an interest in having a life,” Alito said, and that doesn’t change between before and after viability.

“What is the secular philosophical argument for saying this is the appropriate line?” Alito asked.

Julie Rikelman, a lawyer representing Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only licensed abortion clinic in the state, said that the line is “objectively verifiable” and doesn’t require the court to resolve the philosophical questions.

3 hr 50 min ago

Chief Justice John Roberts suggests a 15-week limit could be OK with SCOTUS

From CNN’s Tierney Sneed

(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Chief Justice John Roberts, a key swing vote, had questions specifically about Mississippi’s ban, asking Julie Rikelman, a lawyer representing Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only licensed abortion clinic in the state, why 15 weeks is not enough time for a woman to obtain abortion. 

Rikelman said that a “reasonable possibility standard” would be “unworkable” for the courts and that without the viability line, states will push that point earlier and earlier in the pregnancy. 

She also pushed back on a claim by Roberts that United States stands out internationally for how late into the pregnancy it allows abortion. She said that many countries – including Canada and several countries in Europe – permit abortion up until viability. She also noted that other countries have fewer regulatory barriers to the procedure.

So, if the court moved the line substantially backwards, it may need to reconsider the rules around regulation, she said.

Justice Neil Gorsuch asked Rikelman about an alternative that Mississippi put forward if the court did not reverse Roe v. Wade.

The state argued that they could also apply an undue burden standard on bans on abortion before viability. That is the standard that applies to abortion regulations that make the procedure harder to the access. Rikelman said that idea would not be “workable.”