Pro-life Americans waited nearly 50 years for June 24, 2022—the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
It all started when the Mississippi legislature passed the Gestational Age Act, limiting abortion after 15 weeks. The law was in line with the majority of the world: 75 percent of countries worldwide limit abortion past 12 weeks gestation.
But that’s not what pro-abortion activists would have you believe. Not long after the law passed, it was labeled as “extreme” and challenged in court. That lawsuit, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and was the case that overturned Roe. Here’s the story behind that case.
Mississippi protects women and children
Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act, passed in 2018, was designed to protect both unborn children and their moms.
At just 15 weeks, babies have a strong heartbeat, can move around the womb, and can likely feel pain. The state undoubtedly has an interest in protecting that nascent life.
Mississippi’s law also recognized that all women need real health care, not unnecessary and life-threatening procedures such as abortion. What is often left unsaid about late-term abortions is that they put women at risk of facing severe complications, trauma, or even death. Mississippi passed its law to protect women’s mental, emotional, and physical health.
Fifty years of scientific advancements
The Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Since then, more than 60 million unborn children have lost their lives to abortion.
The past 50 years have also seen huge advances in prenatal medicine and technology. While viability (the point at which a baby can survive outside the womb) was widely considered to be between 24 and 28 weeks gestation in 1973, it is now considered to be between 21 and 22 weeks gestation.
Ultrasounds have helped reveal developmental characteristics such as fetal heartbeat, movement, and pain perception, characteristics that weren’t widely known back in 1973 when Roe was decided. And that’s why Mississippi passed a law limiting abortions after 15 weeks in gestational age, permitting them only in medical emergencies or for severe fetal abnormality.
It shouldn’t have been too controversial, given that most nations put more limitations on abortion and most Americans support commonsense laws like Mississippi’s.
Yet pro-abortion activists were quick to challenge the law. That challenge reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which had to decide whether to uphold the law—and whether to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
Alliance Defending Freedom’s appellate team worked hand in hand with the Mississippi legal team as they prepared to argue the case in front of the nine Supreme Court justices. And on Dec. 1, 2021, Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart presented oral argument before the Court.
Just over six months later, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision upholding Mississippi’s law and overturning Roe v. Wade. With that ruling, the Court returned lawmaking decisions about abortion to the states.
In Mississippi, the overturning of Roe activated a “trigger law” that protects life even more thoroughly than the Gestational Age Act had. Mississippi now limits abortion to cases of rape, incest, and threats to the mother’s life. Unborn life is protected in all other circumstances.
Every human life is valuable and deserves to be protected. It is now in the hands of each of the 50 states to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
- March 2018: Mississippi passed the Gestational Age Act. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a Mississippi abortion clinic, challenged Mississippi’s law shortly after it was passed.
- June 2020: Mississippi asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that states cannot pass laws like Mississippi’s limiting abortion before the point of viability.
- May 2021: The Supreme Court agreed to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
- December 2021: Oral arguments were heard before the Supreme Court.
- June 2022: The Supreme Court issued a decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
