Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Supreme Court To Hear Mississippi Abortion Case That Challenges Roe V. Wade
NPR: In Challenge To Roe, Supreme Court To Review Mississippi Abortion Law
With Roe v. Wade hanging by a thread, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider a major rollback of abortion rights. ... The court said Monday it would review next term whether all state laws that ban pre-viability abortions are unconstitutional. The court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade declared that a woman has a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy in the first six months of her pregnancy when the fetus is incapable of surviving outside the womb. (Totenberg, 5/17)
CNBC: Supreme Court To Hear Mississippi Abortion Case Challenging Roe V. Wade
The case will be the first major abortion dispute to test all three of former President Donald Trump’s appointees to the top court, including its newest member, Justice Amy Coney Barrett. The top court announced in an order that it will hear the dispute, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 19-1392. The court will hear the case in its term beginning in October and a decision is likely to come by June 2022. (Higgins, 5/17)
AP: Supreme Court Throws Abortion Fight Into Center Of Midterms
In agreeing to hear a potentially groundbreaking abortion case, the Supreme Court has energized activists on both sides of the long-running debate who are now girding to make abortion access a major issue in next year’s midterm elections. For many evangelicals, the case could serve as a validation of more than four decades of persistent work and a sometimes awkward relationship with former President Donald Trump, whose three Supreme Court appointments sealed a 6-3 conservative majority. If those justices unite to uphold a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, it would mark a first step toward the possible demise of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established a nationwide right to abortion at any point before a fetus can survive outside the womb, roughly 24 weeks. (Crary and Colvin, 5/18)
The New York Times: Supreme Court To Hear Abortion Case Challenging Roe V. Wade
The justices will hear the case in their next term, starting in October, and are likely to deliver a decision in the spring or early summer next year, as the 2022 midterm elections are gearing up. The stakes of the case ensure that the abortion debate will remain a political flash point, rallying conservative and liberals alike. Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down a restrictive Louisiana abortion law by a 5-to-4 margin, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. providing the decisive vote. His concurring opinion, which expressed respect for precedent but proposed a relatively relaxed standard for evaluating restrictions, signaled an incremental approach to cutting back on abortion rights. (Liptak, 5/17)
AP: EXPLAINER: The Supreme Court Takes A Major Abortion Case
The case is an appeal from Mississippi in which the state is asking to be allowed to ban most abortions at the 15th week of pregnancy. The state is not asking the court to overrule Roe v. Wade, or later cases that reaffirmed it. But many supporters of abortion rights are alarmed and many opponents of abortion are elated that the justices could undermine their earlier abortion rulings. If the court upholds Mississippi’s law, it would be its first ratification of an abortion ban before the point of viability, when a fetus can survive outside the womb. Such a ruling could lay the groundwork for allowing even more restrictions on abortion. That includes state bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks. (Gresko and Sherman, 5/18)
Also —
Politico: Supreme Court Pulls Biden Into An Abortion Fight He Didn't Want
The Supreme Court’s Monday decision to reconsider the right to an abortion drags President Joe Biden into an incendiary political fight that will loom large heading into the mid-term election. As a presidential candidate, Biden largely stayed quiet on the issue while Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and other Democratic contenders took the lead in putting forward sweeping abortion rights policy platforms. He conceded when pressed, however, that the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide should be written into federal law and the longtime ban on federal funding for abortion should be abolished. (Ollstein, 5/17)
CNN: Most Americans Want To See The Supreme Court Uphold Roe V. Wade, Polling Shows
Most of the public wants to see the Roe v. Wade decision remain in place, polling on the issue finds, as the partisan divide on the issue of legalized abortion has widened in the past decade and a half. The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would take up a case that revolves around a Mississippi abortion law and that could potentially serve as a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide prior to viability, which can occur at around 24 weeks. (Edwards-Levy, 5/17)
