By Emma Kidger
In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled an American’s right to having an abortion in the Roe V. Wade case. However, since then, many conservative states have pushed cases and laws to limit abortion clinics and rights. From Mississippi to Texas, states have enforced laws which ban an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This year these laws will be taken to the supreme court which could potentially overturn Roe V. Wade.
Previously when ruling the abortion case in Texas, Justice Sonia Sotomayor explained how the “court allows the State yet again to extend the deprivation of the federal constitutional rights of its citizens.” The court conintues to allow Texas’ new abortion restirctions, letting down pro-choice Americans who continue to attempt to prove the law unconstitutional. After Missisipi followed the same ruling as Texas, the only abortion clinic in the state, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, opposed the legistaltion and won in the U.S. district court. After the state appealed, the Supreme Court accepted the case and agreed to rule on a new decision for state and federal laws on abortion.
While there is a current majority of “conservative” justices on the Supreme Court, many pro-choice Americans fear the outcome which would minimize the right to an abortion. There is no federal law which guarantees the right to an abortion making the only thing keeping abortion legal or not is the various proceedings of Roe V. Wade. The more the court allows for states to keep their restrictions on abortions, the more opportunities for the justices to completely overturn the original Roe V. Wade ruling.