WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to a showdown over abortion in a case that could dramatically alter nearly 50 years of rulings on abortion rights.
With three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump part of a 6-3 conservative majority, the court is taking on a case about whether states can ban abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb.
The dispute is not a direct challenge to a woman's constitutional right to an abortion that the court first announced in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and reaffirmed 19 years later.
But in considering weakening protections for women who seek pre-viability abortions, the justices could remove some of the underpinnings of a woman's right to choose and lay the groundwork for even more restrictions on abortion, including state bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks.
The case, from Mississippi, probably will be argued in the fall, with a decision likely in the spring of 2022 during the campaign for congressional midterm elections.
It involves a state law that would prohibit abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. The state's ban had been blocked by lower courts as inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent that protects a woman's right to obtain an abortion before the fetus can survive outside her womb.
"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," Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in affirming a lower-court ruling that invalidated the law.
The Supreme Court had previously turned down state appeals over pre-viability abortion bans.
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