The Supreme Court agrees to analyze a case on abortion that will allow it to review the legalization of this right of women

By Pete Williams - NBC News

The Supreme Court said Monday that it will take Mississippi's appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down the ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The announcement is a boost to abortion opponents, who hoped that a conservative-majority court, especially after the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, would be more receptive to abortion restrictions.

The Mississippi was the first to come to court after a wave of state laws aimed at challenging the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, in which the Supreme Court decriminalized induced abortion in that country.

[Religious lead a march in the Dominican Republic against the decriminalization of abortion]

Mississippi passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in 2018

, allowing it after 15 weeks only for medical emergencies or serious fetal abnormalities.

Supporters said it intended to regulate "inhumane procedures" and argued that a fetus was capable of detecting and responding to pain in that gestational state.

The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that states cannot restrict abortion before fetal viability [the ability of a newborn to survive outside the womb], but Mississippi argued that it should be free to consider advances in the medical knowledge that would change the point of viability earlier in pregnancy.

Mexico City authorizes abortion up to five months of pregnancy

May 1, 202100: 19

Federal District Court Judge Carlton Reeves struck down the rule, saying the state "chose to pass a law that it knew was unconstitutional to enforce a decades-long campaign, driven by interest groups, to petition the Supreme Court. to overturn the Roe v. Wade case. "

The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling, prompting the state's appeal to the Supreme Court.

[The governor of Oklahoma signs three laws that seek to restrict abortion with penalties for doctors who perform it]

Judge Patrick Higginbotham told the appeals panel that states "may regulate abortion procedures before fetal viability as long as they do not place an undue burden on women's rights, but they cannot prohibit abortions."

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the only abortion clinic in the state, noted that the Supreme Court has consistently held that "

prior to fetal viability, it is up to the pregnant person, and not the state, to make the final decision to continue with pregnancy "

.

Fetal viability has remained the same since 1992 and is determined between 23 and 24 weeks, according to the organization.

The Supreme Court will hear the case in the fall.