BREAKING: Supreme Court to Hear Direct Challenge to Roe v. Wade

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Steve Jacobs

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U.S. SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR MISSISSIPPI’S CHALLENGE TO ROE V. WADE

MAY 17, 2021 — (CHICAGO)

Illinois Right to Life applauds the United States Supreme Court on its decision to grant Mississippi’s petition for a writ of certiorari and agreeing to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

In July of last year, with the help of Thomas Olp, Joan Mannix, and Tom Brejcha of the Thomas More Society national public interest law firm, Illinois Right to Life filed an amicus brief that encouraged the Court to hear Mississippi’s challenge to a lower court’s rejection of the state’s law (H.B. 1510) that restricts abortion access at the 15-week mark of pregnancy. Since the hearing in which the Court granted the petition had been rescheduled numerous times since late 2020, which is practically unprecedented, many legal analysts believe that the Supreme Court may use this case to finally overturn Roe v. Wade.

As Illinois Right to Life argued in its brief, “H.B. 1510 should be sustained as a reasonable protection of a preborn person under the Fourteenth Amendment”. Citing the central holding of Roe v. Wade, which created a right to abort a pregnancy before it reaches the 24th week, the appellate court ruled that H.B. 1510 is unconstitutional on the grounds that it restricts legal access to abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. However, the brief argues that “Mississippi is entitled to pass legislation that protects prenatal humans from abortion” because recent developments have rendered Roe v. Wade obsolete and unconstitutional.

Since 1973, states have been unable to legally protect preborn humans from abortion before the 24th week of pregnancy because the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, could not find a consensus on when life begins. Today, there are hundreds of biological, medical, and legal sources that affirm that a human’s life begins at fertilization, and many prominent supporters of abortion have conceded this point. These sources can be found at WhenDoesLifeBegin.org. Coupled with the recent international study that found 96% of 5,577 biologists affirm the fertilization view on when life begins, the Court can take notice of this incontrovertible scientific fact. The Court can then undo its outdated “viability standard” and permit states to protect Americans throughout their lives.

The pro-life movement has waited 47 years for the Supreme Court to undo its unconstitutional restriction of states’ right to protect human lives from the very moment they begin. Now that the Court has agreed to hear this case, which is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the pro-life movement and the Court have that opportunity. In the coming weeks, Illinois Right to Life will submit a second amicus brief that encourages the Court to uphold Mississippi’s law and to recognize that states have a constitutional right and duty to protect humans from the very beginning of their lives, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees equal protection to all humans, born and unborn.

For more information, you can read the full amicus brief here

Illinois Right to Life Team