Skip to content
Center for Reproductive Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • The Center’s Impact
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Annual Reports
    • Corporate Engagement
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • Cases Archive
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Global Advocacy
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Stories
    • Events
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Press Releases
    • Statements
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • U.S. Abortion Rights: Resources
    • Maps
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
    • Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Make a Donor Advised Fund Gift
    • Leave a Legacy Gift
    • Donate Gifts of Stock
    • Give a Gift in Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Employee Matching Gifts
    • Mail a Check
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
Donate
icon-hamburger icon-magnifying-glass Donate
icon-magnifying-glass-teal

Roe at Risk: U.S. Supreme Court to Review Mississippi’s Abortion Ban, a Direct Challenge to Roe v. Wade

Center for Reproductive Rights - Center for Reproductive Rights - search logo
search Close Close icon
Center for Reproductive Rights -
Menu Close Menu Close icon
Donate

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • The Center’s Impact
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Annual Reports
    • Corporate Engagement
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • Cases Archive
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Global Advocacy
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Stories
    • Events
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Press Releases
    • Statements
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • U.S. Abortion Rights: Resources
    • Maps
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
    • Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Make a Donor Advised Fund Gift
    • Leave a Legacy Gift
    • Donate Gifts of Stock
    • Give a Gift in Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Employee Matching Gifts
    • Mail a Check
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Related Content

Issues:

Abortion

Regions:

United States

Work:

In the Courts

Type:

News, Story

Case Archive

For updates on Center cases, explore our case archive here.

Follow the Center

Donate Now

Join Now

05.17.2021

In the Courts Abortion United States Story

Roe at Risk: U.S. Supreme Court to Review Mississippi’s Abortion Ban, a Direct Challenge to Roe v. Wade

Stephanie Harmon
Center for Reproductive Rights to defend right to abortion as recognized in Roe.

Share

  • facebook
  • Twitter
  • linkedin
  • Email id

The Center for Reproductive Rights will return to the United States Supreme Court next term to defend the right to abortion, a right recognized in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision.

On May 17, the Court announced it will hear Mississippi’s appeal of an appellate court decision that threw out Mississippi’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

This is the first time the Court will rule on the constitutionality of a pre-viability abortion ban since Roe. The Court’s ruling in Roe recognized that the decision whether to continue a pregnancy or have an abortion, which impacts a person’s body, health, family and future, belongs to the individual, not the government.

Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement: “Alarm bells are ringing loudly about the threat to reproductive rights. The Supreme Court just agreed to review an abortion ban that unquestionably violates nearly 50 years of Supreme Court precedent and is a test case to overturn Roe v. Wade.” Northup added, “The consequences of a Roe reversal would be devastating. Over 20 states would prohibit abortion outright. Eleven states—including Mississippi—currently have trigger bans on the books which would instantaneously ban abortion if Roe is overturned.”

Abortion remains legal in Mississippi and the ban remains blocked while the case proceeds.

Wave of Unconstitutional Abortion Bans

Thirteen other states have passed unconstitutional abortion bans since 2019: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

Every ban on abortion at varying points in pregnancy that has been challenged has been struck down. These bans defy nearly 50 years of Supreme Court precedent recognizing that the Constitution guarantees each person the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy. States passed these bans as a part of a deliberate, coordinated effort to provoke the Supreme Court to overturn Roe, and give states—rather than individuals—the power to make fundamental decisions about people’s bodies, health, and lives.

Generations have shaped their lives around the Constitution’s protection for their right to make fundamental decisions about their lives, including the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy. Yet, even as Roe stands, states have found ways to push abortion out of reach.

Restrictions on abortion care disproportionately harm people who already face significant barriers to accessing health care—particularly Black, Indigenous, and people of color and people with low-incomes. If Roe falls, states hostile to abortion rights will move to ban abortion entirely, and the impact will fall hardest on the same people.

Mississippi’s Abortion Ban in the Courts

“As the only abortion clinic left in Mississippi, we see patients who have spent weeks saving up the money to travel here and pay for childcare, for a place to stay, and everything else involved. If this ban were to take effect, we would be forced to turn many of those patients away, and they would lose their right to abortion in this state.”

Diane Derzis

Owner

Jackson Women’s Health Organization

Mississippi’s 15-week ban was signed into law in March 2018 and went into effect immediately. The ban threatens abortion providers with severe penalties for providing abortion care after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Hours after the ban passed, the Center for Reproductive Rights and its partners filed a lawsuit to block it on behalf of Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi. The district court granted the Center’s request for an immediate temporary restraining order, blocking the law hours after it took effect, and in November 2018, the district court issued a permanent injunction against it. In December 2019, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction, ruling the law unconstitutional.

Writing for the Fifth Circuit’s three-judge panel, Judge Patrick Higginbotham said: “In an unbroken line dating to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s abortion cases have established (and affirmed, and reaffirmed) a woman’s right to choose an abortion prior to viability. States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman’s right, but they may not ban abortion.”

Mississippi appealed that decision to the Supreme Court in June 2020.

The year after it passed the 15-week ban, Mississippi passed an even more restrictive ban, which prohibits abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy. That law remains blocked and is not part of the challenge before the Supreme Court.

What if Roe Fell?

link

What would happen if the Supreme Court were to weaken or overturn Roe v. Wade? Explore the Center’s “What if Roe Fell?” interactive map of U.S. state abortion laws to find out.

Mississippi Already Hostile to Abortion Care

Mississippi has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.  People seeking abortion care must make two in-person visits to the clinic, delay their abortion by at least 24 hours after the first visit, and endure state-mandated biased counseling. The state also singles out abortion providers with onerous laws designed to shut down abortion clinics, restrict the provision of abortion to physicians only, and ban the use telemedicine for abortion care. For over a decade, Jackson Women’s Health Organization has been the only licensed abortion clinic in the state.

This step-by-step legislative strategy to push abortion out of reach disproportionately harms people who already face significant barriers to accessing health care. Additionally, while enacting numerous abortion restrictions, the state has done little to support people who bear and raise children. Mississippi is ranked last in the United States for the health of women and children, and the state has striking racial disparities in its infant and maternal mortality rates.  

Read more:

  • Case background: Jackson Women’s Health Organization v Dobbs
  • Press release: Supreme Court to Hear Abortion Ban Case Challenging Roe v. Wade, 05.17.21
  • Appeals Court Strikes Down Mississippi 15-Week Abortion Ban, 12.14.19
  • Mississippi’s abortion laws 
  • “What if Roe fell? U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to review Mississippi abortion ban is seen as a test case to overturn Roe v. Wade,” 05.20.21

Tags: U.S. Supreme Court, Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Dobbs, Mississippi, 15-week ban, roe v. wade, mississippi abortion ban, abortion in mississippi, mississippi abortion case, Scotus Mississippi abortion case, Scotus abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health

Related Posts

U.S. Supreme Court Opinion: June Medical Services v. Russo

Read the Supreme Court's 2020 opinion in the June Medical Services v. Russo case.

Abortion,United States,In the Courts

Medical Groups, Legal Experts, People Who Had Abortions, and Advocates Join Fight Against Louisiana’s Anti-Abortion Law

ABA, AMA and other diverse supporters unite to urge U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Louisiana law designed to shut down...

Abortion, Legal Restrictions,United States,In the Courts

The Undue Burden Standard after June Medical Services v. Russo

This report by the Center for Reproductive Rights analyzes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June Medical Services v. Russo, a...

Abortion, Definitions, Legal Protections, Legal Restrictions,United States,In the Courts

Sign up for email updates.

The most up-to-date news on reproductive rights, delivered straight to you.

Footer Menu

  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Gift Acceptance Policy
  • Contact Us

Center for Reproductive Rights
© (1992-2024)

Use of this site signifies agreement with our disclaimer and privacy policy.

Better Business Bureau Charity Watch Top Rated Center for Reproductive Rights
This site uses necessary, analytics and social media cookies to improve your experience and deliver targeted advertising. Click "Options" or click here to learn more and customize your cookie settings, otherwise please click "Accept" to proceed.
OPTIONSACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_UA-6619340-11 minuteNo description
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
_parsely_session30 minutesThis cookie is used to track the behavior of a user within the current session.
HotJar: _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjFirstSeen30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjid1 yearThis cookie is set by Hotjar. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
HotJar: _hjIncludedInPageviewSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjIncludedInSessionSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjTLDTestsessionNo description
SSCVER1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for online advertising by creating user profile based on their preferences.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr3 monthsThe cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
IMRID1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for storing the start and end of the user session for nielsen statistics. It helps in consumer profiling for online advertising.
personalization_id2 yearsThis cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for tracking and targeting.
TDID1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising.
test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
adEdition1 dayNo description
akaas_MSNBC10 daysNo description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others1 yearNo description
geoEdition1 dayNo description
next-i18next1 yearNo description
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo
Scroll Up