Coalition of 18 states petition US Supreme Court to uphold Mississippi 15-week abortion law

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Referencing “advances in science” and “brutal” abortion methods, a group of 18 states is petitioning the US Supreme Court to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation, Christian Headlines reported Tuesday.

The 2018 Mississippi law prohibits abortion after 15 weeks except in medical emergencies and in cases of severe fetal abnormality. The law was struck down by the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but now the coalition of states is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate it. The petitioning states are Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

In a legal brief submitted this month, the states argue that most abortions carried out after 15 weeks involve dilation and evacuation procedures using instruments that “crush and tear the unborn child apart before removing the pieces of the dead child from the womb.”

Importantly, the brief explains, medical advancements mean fetal viability is now 21 weeks’ gestation, much earlier than the 28 weeks it was when Roe v Wade was decided in 1973. “Scientific evidence … undermines the factual assumptions the Court relied on in Roe and Casey,” the brief says.

“In the 47 years since Roe, innumerable advances in science and medicine inform our understanding of fetal development and the capacity to experience pain,” the states argue. “Yet the district court declared all scientific developments irrelevant and the viability line absolute.  Not only is that wrong under this Court’s precedents, but it would strip state legislatures of the ability to legislate effectively in light of evolving knowledge.”

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