• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Pro-life demonstrators argue with supporters of legal abortion outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington March 4, 2020. (CNS photo/Tom Brenner, Reuters)

USCCB, Catholic groups, politicians back Mississippi in court abortion case

August 3, 2021
By Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn
A general view of the Supreme Court of Mississippi in Jackson is seen May 21, 2021. (CNS photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholic leaders, pro-life organizations, Republican members of Congress and several governors are among those on a long list of supporters backing Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and urging the court to reexamine its previous abortion rulings when it takes up this case in the fall.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in its friend-of-the-court brief filed July 27, stressed that abortion is not a right created by the Constitution and called it “inherently different from other types of personal decisions to which this court has accorded constitutional protection.”

Referring to the court’s major abortion decisions, the brief warned that if the Supreme Court “continues to treat abortion as a constitutional issue,” it will face more questions in the future about “what sorts of abortion regulations are permissible.”

The court’s two big decisions on abortion were Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court case which legalized abortion, and 1992’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which affirmed Roe and also stressed that a state regulation on abortion could not impose an “undue burden” on a woman “seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.”

Other Catholic groups echoed the USCCB, which was joined in its brief by other religious groups and the two dioceses of Mississippi, in their support of the state’s abortion ban after 15 weeks.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, came before the court last year but the justices only agreed in late May to take it up in the next term.

The case focuses on an appeal from Mississippi to keep its ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which was struck down by a federal District Court in Mississippi in 2018 and upheld a year later by the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Derenda Hancock takes a break outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization clinic in Jackson, Miss., May 20, 2021. Hancock leads the Pink House Defenders, a group of volunteer escorts at the abortion clinic. (CNS photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

A brief filed by O. Carter Snead, law professor at the University of Notre Dame and director of the university’s Center for Ethics and Culture, and Mary Ann Glendon, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, said the Mississippi case “offers the cleanest opportunity since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 for the court to revisit its deeply flawed and harmful jurisprudence,” or theory of law, on abortion decisions.

They also said the court’s abortion rulings have been “completely untethered from the Constitution’s text, history and tradition” and have imposed “an extreme, incoherent, unworkable and antidemocratic legal regime for abortion on the nation for several decades.”

Similarly, a brief filed by the National Association of Catholic Nurses and the Catholic Medical Association urged the court to take itself out of the “arbitrary line-drawing that Roe and Casey engaged in while attempting to settle the abortion controversy.”

“There is no nonarbitrary line during pregnancy that the court can draw,” the groups added, emphasizing that “the lives of unborn children are on a continuum toward adulthood from conception forward.”

The brief also said that “any arbitrary line that the court might seek to replace the viability cut-off with would simply amount to yet another act of judicial legislating,” which is why, they argued, the issue should be returned to elected representatives.

Other Catholic or pro-life groups that filed briefs supporting Mississippi in this case included the Thomas More Society, the National Catholic Bioethics Center, the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, which joined other religious and civil groups, the National Right to Life Committee, Americans United for Life and the March for Life Education and Defense Fund.

Other groups submitting friend-of-the-court briefs included 228 Republican members of Congress — 184 House members and 44 senators — a separate filing by three Republican senators and a brief from 12 Republican governors. The governors specifically urged the court to return the authority to regulate abortion to the state level.

A pro-life demonstrator holds up a mock human fetus next to a demonstrator supporting keeping abortion legal as two groups chant over one another outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington March 4, 2020. (CNS photo/Tom Brenner, Reuters)

The case, which is already getting a lot of attention, will be the court’s first look at the right to an abortion since Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the court last year.

The Mississippi law is being challenged by the state’s only abortion facility, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

In announcing they would take up this case, the justices said they would only review one of the three questions presented to them: “Whether all previability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.”

In other words, they are focusing on the viability, or when a fetus is said to be able to survive on its own. The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that states cannot restrict abortion before the 24-week mark. The ban on abortions after 15 weeks is more restrictive than current law.

If the court sides with Mississippi, it would be the first time it would allow an abortion ban before the point of viability and could lay the groundwork for other abortion restrictions, which other states could follow.

Kat Talalas, assistant director for pro-life communications for the USCCB, said when the court accepted this case that it was the biggest abortion case to come before the court in almost 30 years.

She said the justices could establish criteria other than viability, such as fetal pain, to restrict abortions or they could “overturn Roe and Casey completely.”

See Also

House Republicans advance bill to repeal FACE Act

In move called a ‘dark day’ for residents, N.Y. Senate passes assisted suicide law

Asking for human life and dignity protections in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’

Trump administration revokes Biden-era abortion directive for emergency rooms

Dolan: N.Y. lawmakers ‘may conclude that some lives aren’t worth living’

Panelists: Transhumanism is not just latest tech advance but seeks to one day replace humans

Copyright © 2021 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Carol Zimmermann

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pope Leo to return to practice of ‘imposing’ pallium on new archbishops

  • Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including pastor and associate pastor assignments

  • Pope’s brother says even as a baby, future pontiff had a spiritual ‘air’ about him

  • Hundreds gather at Rebuilt Conference 2025 to ‘imagine what’s possible’ in parish ministry

  • Diversity is cause for strength, not division, pope tells Rome clergy

| Latest Local News |

Sister Joan Minella, former principal and pastoral life director, dies

Archbishop Lori offers encouragement to charitable agencies affected by federal cuts

Incoming superior general of Oblate Sisters of Providence outlines priorities

Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including pastor and associate pastor assignments

Oblate Sister Trinita Baeza, teacher and pastoral associate in Baltimore, dies at 98

| Latest World News |

Pope urges peace, warns against escalation in Middle East conflict

Minnesota lawmaker who once taught Catholic Sunday school shot and killed in apparent ‘politically motivated assassination’

In video for Chicago’s celebration, Pope Leo urges youth to recognize the ways God is reaching out to them

Pope: Sport reveals beauty of God, teaches teamwork, humility and hope

A pending element of tackling the abuse crisis: transparency

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pope urges peace, warns against escalation in Middle East conflict
  • Minnesota lawmaker who once taught Catholic Sunday school shot and killed in apparent ‘politically motivated assassination’
  • In video for Chicago’s celebration, Pope Leo urges youth to recognize the ways God is reaching out to them
  • Pope: Sport reveals beauty of God, teaches teamwork, humility and hope
  • A pending element of tackling the abuse crisis: transparency
  • Vatican can take 3 key steps to bring Ukrainian kids back from Russia, says child advocate
  • Practice the ‘BeDADitudes’
  • Delaware garden of plenty provides food to needy, thanks to Vincentians, parishes
  • Pope sets Sept. 7 for joint canonization of Blesseds Acutis and Frassati

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en