Update 5/3/22: Last night, Politico reported on a leaked draft of the majority opinion revealing that the Supreme Court has voted to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the leaked document that "Roe was terribly wrong from the start."

If the leaked draft is adopted, it would result in a ruling in favor of Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. The court's decision will not be final until the decision is released, which will probably be this summer.

Original post 5/17/21: On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to review a major Mississippi abortion case. In essence, Mississippi seeks to ban abortion for 15 weeks, a direct challenge to a woman's constitutionally protected right to choose thanks to Roe v. Wade.

Here is the history: In 1973, the Supreme Court decided the landmark case Roe v. Wade, which was reaffirmed in 1982. The Roe v. Wade decision means a ruling that states cannot prohibit abortion before the fetus becomes viable outside the womb. Doctors generally view this indicator as around 23 or 24 weeks. In other words, under Roe v. Wade, a state cannot ban abortions before 23 or 24 weeks.

In 2018, then-Republican Governor Phil Bryant signed a 15-week ban into law. The ban only had exceptions for medical emergencies and cases of "severe fetal anomalies" and did not apply to cases of rape or incest. The law was a conscious and direct challenge to Roe v. Wade (as are many restrictive state abortion laws).

After the law was enacted in 2018, Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, sued to block it. A federal judge in Jackson, Mississippi, then blocked the law, saying that the state had chosen to pass an unconstitutional one. The Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the judge's decision, and the state appealed to the Supreme Court (to this day).

The news means that the Supreme Court will now consider whether to agree with the lower courts, i.e., that the 15-week ban is unconstitutional, or to agree with the states and allow them to enforce their abortion bans after 15 weeks. Broadly speaking, the Supreme Court will decide whether all state laws banning abortion before viability are unconstitutional.

Recall: the Supreme Court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority. They recently ruled to reinstate the mailing of abortion pills during a pandemic. The outcome of this case has the power to significantly restrict a woman's right to an abortion.

It will be some time before we know what the court will decide. The court is expected to begin hearing arguments during its next term in October, and a decision is not expected until the summer of 2022. Until then, people across the country will have to wait to hear whether they still have a (constitutionally protected) right to choose.