The Supreme Court just agreed to hear an abortion case on a bill unlike many others.
While states regularly enact restrictions on abortion such as 20-week bans and requirements that minors obtain parental consent to have an abortion, the courts haven’t allowed a ban before 20 weeks. Courts frequently strike down heartbeat bills that ban abortion at about six weeks gestation. However, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health is about a 15-week abortion ban proposed in Mississippi that a federal court previously struck down.
The case could overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to place further limits on abortion. Hopefully, the court does the right thing and allows Mississippi to make the 15-week restriction on abortion. While the pro-choice side argues that ending the life of an unborn human that’s been developing for 15 weeks or more is somehow healthcare, it ends a complex and developing human life.
This is a developing human being who has his or her own unique DNA and one who most likely developed a detectable heartbeat at six weeks of development. At eight weeks, the unborn human’s lungs develop, and two weeks later, the brain and other vital organs are beginning to function, as the Virginia Department of Public Health notes. Even at 12 weeks, which is still in the first trimester, the unborn human can swallow. At 16 weeks, the unborn human is usually about 4 1/2 inches long and has its own movements inside of the womb (limbs and eyes), according to the Mayo Clinic.
Although this is a developing human being and the public generally opposes second-trimester abortions, the pro-choice side doesn’t care. Abortion proponents see abortion as healthcare and vigorously oppose the Supreme Court allowing any restrictions on abortion.
The Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts tweeted on Monday morning about the upcoming Supreme Court hearing, “Let’s be explicit: anti-abortion extremists made it clear that this was the goal all along. It’s why they couldn’t wait to rush Amy Coney Barrett onto the Supreme Court before the November election. Keep your hands off of our health care.”
That’s the same Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts that supported the passage of the ROE Act in Massachusetts. In addition to eliminating parental consent for minors older than 15 years old and legalizing abortion after 24 weeks in cases of a fatal fetal anomaly, it allows doctors to deny healthcare to certain people: babies born alive as a result of an attempted abortion.
The act repealed a section of Massachusetts law that stated: “If an abortion is performed pursuant to section twelve M, the physician performing the abortion shall take all reasonable steps, both during and subsequent to the abortion, in keeping with good medical practice, consistent with the procedure being used, to preserve the life and health of the aborted child. Such steps shall include the presence of life-supporting equipment, as defined by the department of public health, in the room where the abortion is to be performed.”
So, no, these people don’t care about healthcare. If they did, the argument would be for health exemptions to abortion laws. However, well over 90% of abortions are elective. Those aren’t about healthcare; they’re about ending human lives.
The good news: A Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority agreeing to hear the Mississippi case is promising for the pro-life movement.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
