The Supreme Court of the United States will consider a restriction of the right to abortion

The Supreme Court of the United States has announced this Monday that it will examine a controversial Mississippi law that prohibits abortion after the fifteenth week of gestation, in what may be the final assault against the termination of pregnancy due to the majority conservative composition of the High Cut. The case on such a polarized issue may end almost 50 years of abortion rights in the United States since the Supreme Court ruled in favor in 1973 with the sentence known as Roe v. Wade. The decision of the highest judicial instance in the country will probably come next year, when the nation holds its midterm legislative elections, which will make the issue a topic of contention in the campaign.

The law admitted to study by the Supreme Court dates from 2018, when then-Republican Governor Phil Bryant restricted that right by establishing a maximum of 15 weeks of gestation. This norm was in conflict with the constitutional right guaranteed by the 1973 law to be able to interrupt the pregnancy until the moment in which there is viability for the fetus. However, in November 2018 a federal judge repealed the law and later another court ruled in favor of maintaining the repeal.

Last year, when the Supreme Court was preparing to close its legal course, it ruled on a restrictive Louisiana law by ensuring that it violated the right of women to interrupt pregnancy.

It was the first time that the High Court ruled on this thorny issue since the entry into the Court of the two conservative judges appointed by Donald Trump.

The case was resolved five to four, as the president of the judicial body, John Roberts, considered a conservative, tipped the balance towards the more progressive bloc to the surprise of many.

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At that time, progressive Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was still a member of the Supreme Court, but after her death in September 2020 and, eight days before the presidential elections, Trump managed to confirm for the High Court the conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic and Orthodox interpreter of the Constitution. The most conservative interpreted Barrett's entry into the Supreme Court as a historic victory, since the judge is against abortion, although in her confirmation before the Senate she did not clarify whether she would vote to undermine that constitutional right. During the Trump Administration, several states waged a crusade to reduce women's options in terminating their pregnancies, and more than a dozen conservative states passed or discussed laws limiting access to abortion.

South Carolina, Oklahoma and Idaho have all passed bans this year limiting abortion until the time the fetal heartbeat is heard, which usually happens between weeks six and eight of gestation. Arkansas and Oklahoma have also promulgated this 2021 almost the total prohibition of the right enshrined in the 14th amendment of the Constitution, and Montana prohibits that intervention as of week 20. None of these laws are in force due to appeals before the courts.

If states can prohibit the voluntary interruption of abortion after the 15th week, as required by Mississippi law, pregnant women will have a much shorter period of time to legally abort compared to what Roe v. Wade establishes: that abortion must be allowed to the woman, "for whatever reason, until the moment the fetus becomes viable, that is, it is potentially capable of living outside the womb, without artificial help."