NBC NEWS: It looks like the Mississippi pro-life law will STAND

NBC News is reporting that after oral arguments today that it appears the Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks will be upheld by the Supreme Court:

NBC NEWS – The Supreme Court appeared prepared Wednesday to uphold a Mississippi law that would ban nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which would represent a dramatic break from 50 years of rulings.

The justices heard 90 minutes of oral arguments in the most direct challenge to Roe v. Wade in nearly three decades over a Mississippi abortion law.

A majority of the court’s conservative justices suggested they were prepared to discard the court’s previous standard that prevented states from banning abortion before the age of fetal viability, which is generally considered to be at about 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

It was unclear after Wednesday’s argument whether the court would take the additional step of explicitly overturning it’s abortion precedents, including Roe v Wade.

At least four of the court’s conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neal Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, suggested they were prepared to overturn Roe on the grounds that it was wrongly decided, despite the public’s decades of reliance on it.

“Can’t a decision be overruled because it was wrong when it was decided?” Alito asked.

Kavanaugh listed several past decisions, on segregation and gay marriage, that resulted from the court overruling longstanding precedents.

Chief Justice John Roberts suggested he would be willing to uphold the Mississippi law without overturning Roe, but it was unclear whether any other members of the court would be with him.

Of course the three liberal justices not happy about what they perceive from the arguments today:

The three more liberal justices warned that the court would appear to be a political body if it tossed out abortion rulings that the country has relied on for decades.

“It is particularly important to show that what we do in overturning a case is grounded in principle and not social pressure,” warned Justice Stephen Breyer.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked, “Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts? I don’t see how its possible.”

And Justice Elena Kagan said the court must not act in a way that would cause people to think it is “a political institution that will go back and forth, depending on what part of the public yells the loudest or changed to the court’s membership.”

Before you get your hopes up, realize that this could go the other way and it wouldn’t be the first time the intent of the justices were misconstrued based on oral arguments.

But that said, it does look positive and I would absolutely love for this court to do away with Roe in this decision. Fingers crossed and prayers sent.


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