U.S. Supreme Court schedules Dec. 1 oral arguments in major abortion case

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Dec. 1 in a case that threatens to overturn decades of abortion protections established under the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.

The upcoming case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, stems from a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. It has been blocked by a lower federal court.

The nation’s top court announced in May that it would take up the Mississippi case. Since that announcement, the justices also voted in a 5-4 decision against preventing a more-strict Texas law from taking effect.

That Texas law bans abortions once cardiac activity can be detected — typically around six weeks of pregnancy, and early enough that many women still do not know they are pregnant. It also allows private citizens to file lawsuits against abortion providers and anyone who aids an abortion.

Also on Monday, a coalition of attorneys general from 23 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to deny Mississippi’s request that it declare broadly that there is no constitutionally protected right to an abortion.

They argue in the brief that the Roe v. Wade decision takes into consideration state interests, while also protecting the ability of individuals to “make one of the most consequential, intimate and properly private decisions” they will ever confront.

Georgia’s restrictive abortion statute passed in 2019 is scheduled to be back in court on Friday, with the state appealing a judge’s ruling last year to block the law from taking effect.

The Georgia attorney general’s office appealed last summer’s ruling that stopped the law from taking effect that would have banned most abortions once a doctor could detect fetal cardiac activity.

Supporters of Georgia’s law have said that it has the best chance of reversing Roe v. Wade because of its provision that grants human rights to fetuses, making abortion the equivalent of murder.

Congressional Democrats are taking up legislation as soon as this week to enshrine the legal protections from the Roe ruling in federal law. But even if that bill passes the U.S. House, where Democrats hold a slim majority, it’s unlikely to pass in the evenly divided U.S. Senate.