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Understanding Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization
In 2018, Mississippi enacted a law called Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act which limits abortions after 15 weeks gestational age except in medical emergencies or for severe fetal abnormality. .An abortion clinic in Mississippi successfully challenged this law in Dobbs* v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Mississippi petitioned the Supreme Court, and it agreed to review this ruling.1
The specific question the Court will answer is whether a state may enact limits on abortion before viability, i.e. when the baby is capable of living outside her or his mother’s womb.2
Today, the United States is one of four countries, including China and North Korea, that allows the abortion of a child any time during a woman’s pregnancy.3 In contrast, 47 out of 50 European countries either do not allow elective abortion or limit elective abortion to 15 weeks or earlier.4
15-week ultrasound when Roe was decided in 1973 15-week ultrasound TODAY
By 15 weeks, a baby has a heartbeat, can move and kick, can sense movement outside the mother’s womb, has eyes and eyelids that are beginning to open, can hiccup, and can hear her or his mother’s heartbeat.5The State of Mississippi explains in its brief that neither the right to an abortion nor a viability line have any basis in constitutional text or history and that medical research into fetal development over the last half century supports that states have a compelling interest in protecting unborn life at 15 weeks.6The Supreme Court will consider the correctness of its previous rulings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which severely limit the ability of states to protect their interests in unborn life and maternal health.7 If Roe is overturned, policy decisions about abortion will be made by the citizens of each state rather than by courts. 8As Catholics we uphold the dignity of life from conception
to natural death. We invite you to pray one Hail Mary as a family at
dinner for a just ruling in the Dobbs case and for those impacted by it.
For further information, see https://marchforlife.org/dobbs/
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Explainer Video on Abortion and the Supreme Court
Here's a short explainer video on "The Supreme Court and Abortion” by O. Carter Snead, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame and Director, de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, November 30, 2021.
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Read more information from the USCCB on Roe v. Wade
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1 Pray for Dobbs Informational Flyer based on Amici Curiae Brief for the American College of Pediatricians and the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, https://www.prayfordobbs.com/_files/ugd/20d9f7_00c38e8b015c48d092a81b098823aa4f.pdf.2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Nguyen, J.D., Angelina B., “Mississippi’s 15-Week Gestational Limit on Abortion is Mainstream Compared to European Laws,” July 27. 2021, https://lozierinstitute.org/comparing-mississippi-limit-with-european-laws/.
5 Pray for Dobbs Informational Flyer based on Amici Curiae Brief for the American College of Pediatricians and the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, https://www.prayfordobbs.com/_files/ugd/20d9f7_00c38e8b015c48d092a81b098823aa4f.pdf.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Fact Sheet: Do You Know Roe?” July, 18, 2018, https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/do-you-know-roe.
* Dobbs is the state health officer of the Mississippi State Department of Health.