The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared poised to roll back abortion rights in the US by upholding a law in the southern state of Mississippi that would ban the procedure after 15 weeks.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the imposing court in Washington as the nine justices heard two hours of arguments in the most pivotal abortion case to reach the nation’s highest court in 50 years.
Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart urged the court to uphold the state’s 15-week ban and strike down the landmark cases that enshrined a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.
While acknowledging abortion is a “hard issue,” Stewart argued before the court that individual states should be allowed to set their own rules.
“When an issue affects everyone and when the constitution does not take sides on it, it belongs to the people,” Stewart said. “This court should overrule Roe and Casey, and uphold the state’s law.”
In a 1973 ruling, Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court, by a 7-2 vote, held that access to abortion is a constitutional right until the fetus is viable outside the womb, typically 22 to 24 weeks.
In a 1992 ruling, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court upheld Roe and said states cannot impose an “undue burden” on a woman’s ability to get an abortion.
The law passed in Mississippi by the Republican-led legislature would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The law makes no exception for rape or incest.
Should the Mississippi law be upheld, more than two dozen other US states are expected to seek to restrict abortion.
The court is expected to render its decision in June.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in