The Supreme Court on Monday set a date to hear arguments in a major abortion rights case — Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — which directly challenges Roe v. Wade.

What You Need To Know

  • The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear arguments in a case regarding a Mississippi abortion law, a major challenge to the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade 

  • Mississippi is asking the high court to uphold its ban on most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, asking the court to overturn Roe v. Wade, which guarantees a woman's right to an abortion, and the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that prevent states from banning abortion before viability

  • The court recently allowed a Texas law to take effect that bans abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, around 6 weeks of pregnancy, before some women even know they are pregnant; the court did not rule on the constitutionality of the law, but declined to block its enforcement while a challenge to the law plays out in the courts

  • The Mississippi law was enacted in 2018, but was blocked after a federal court challenge

The nation's highest court will hear arguments Dec. 1 in Mississippi’s bid to have the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion overturned.

Mississippi is asking the high court to uphold its ban on most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. The state has told the court it should overrule Roe and the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that prevent states from banning abortion before viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The court recently allowed a Texas law to take effect that bans abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, around 6 weeks of pregnancy, before some women even know they are pregnant. The law is unusual in that it allows private citizens to sue people who may have facilitated a prohibited abortion. The court, split 5-4, did not rule on the constitutionality of the law, but rather declined to block enforcement while a challenge to the law plays out in the courts.

Still, abortion providers took the vote as an ominous sign about where the court, its conservative majority fortified with three appointees of former President Donald Trump, might be heading on abortion.

The providers have said Mississippi wants the court to “scuttle a half-century of precedent and invite states to ban abortion entirely.”

The Mississippi law was enacted in 2018, but was blocked after a federal court challenge.

"In an unbroken line dating to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's abortion cases have established (and affirmed and re-affirmed) a woman's right to choose an abortion before viability," judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrote in their Dec. 2019 decision. "States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability  so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman’s right, but they may not ban abortions."

"The law at issue is a ban," they continued. "Thus, we affirm the district court’s invalidation of the law, as well as its discovery rulings and its award of permanent injunctive relief."

The state’s only abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, remains open and offers abortions up to 16 weeks of pregnancy. About 100 abortions a year are done after the 15th week, the providers said.

More than 90% of abortions in the U.S. take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.