A coalition of 24 state attorneys general filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to revisit and overturn the landmark cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which legalized and upheld access to abortion across the United States.
The brief, spearheaded by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, was developed to back Mississippi’s proposed 15-week abortion ban that will appear before the Supreme Court in the coming months in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This push from the attorneys general comes after Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed her own brief last month ahead of Dobbs urging the Court to overturn Roe and Casey. The attorneys general brief questions the constitutionality of abortion and requests the Court to return the question of abortion to the states.
“Abortion is a ‘right’ in search of a constitutional home. It is found nowhere in the text of the Constitution, and the majority in Roe did not claim otherwise. Instead, the Roe Court determined that abortion fell within the right to privacy, which it admitted was not ‘explicitly mention[ed]’ in the Constitution,” the brief states. “This challenge to Mississippi’s 15-week law presents the Court with an opportunity to remedy those problems by reconsidering and overruling their source — Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Unlawful from the day each was decided,” the brief states.
As recently as August 2, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined the other state attorneys general in the brief. Other attorneys general who’ve joined the brief are Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, and Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who also joined the brief, issued a statement highlighting the fact that the Court has overturned previous cases before and that Roe should follow suit.
“The Framers of the Constitution did not in their wildest dreams imagine a constitutional right to abortion, which was illegal everywhere when the Constitution was written,” Wilson said in the statement. “There are rulings the Supreme Court made that were overturned decades later because of new information or the realization that the previous rulings were wrong. We think that’s what should happen with Roe v. Wade. There’s nothing in the Constitution that justifies abortions and, in fact, we believe abortion violates the constitutional rights to life and equal protection.”
The Supreme Court agreed in May to hear Dobbs, which is expected to occur this fall. With the most conservative Court we’ve seen in decades, perhaps we could expect a pro-life ruling which could affect abortion laws across the country as a result.
“Time has not lessened the belief that unborn life deserves protection,” the brief states. “The time has come to return the question of abortion to where it belongs—with the States.”