What to listen for as Supreme Court discusses abortion law

The Supreme Court will take up discussion on a Texas law that effectively prohibits abortions after 15 weeks. Here are things to listen for as the argument begins.

December 1, 2021 - 9:53 AM

The Roberts Court, April 23, 2021: seated from left, Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor; standing, Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. Photo by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s new conservative majority today will weigh the fate of a famous liberal precedent: the Roe vs. Wade decision and the right of pregnant women to choose abortion.

Lawyers for Mississippi will defend a law that bans abortions after 15 weeks, and they will urge the court to go further and overrule the right to abortion set in 1973.

The nine justices and the attorneys will gather in a nearly empty courtroom, but the audio will be livestreamed on the court’s website beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern.

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