A group of almost 900 state legislators from across the country have signed a legal brief asking the Supreme Court to reject Mississippi’s recently-passed ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, NBC News reports.
The progressive advocacy group State Innovation Exchange filed the brief on Monday in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is set to hear opening arguments this fall. In total, 897 lawmakers signed the brief, all but two of whom were Democrats, from every state except Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
According to the brief, the Supreme Court must uphold the precedents that were set by the decisions in the cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
"If the Court fails to uphold the rule of law and precedent, and instead guts or overturns Roe, there will be disastrous consequences for women seeking abortions, as well as for their families. Legislators from states at risk of banning abortion in the absence or gutting of Roe have an interest in protecting Roe so abortion remains legal in their state," the brief reads.
"The justices will be answering one key question in this case: Are pre-viability bans unconstitutional? The answer is yes and decades of precedent have already established that," Jennifer Driver, the group’s senior director of reproductive rights, told NBC. "This brief demonstrates that nearly 1,000 state legislators are fighting back to say this court must maintain 50 years of precedent."
One of the brief’s signatories, Texas Democrat state Rep. Jasmine Crockett, added that "this case should not about whether lawmakers and justices agree with having abortion access. It is about the fact that access to abortion health care a long-settled constitutional protection."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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