On December 1, the Supreme Court Justices heard the oral argument for the highly-debated abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. 

The core of the case is Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act which bans abortions following 15 weeks of gestation. “It strips a right that has been constitutionally guaranteed to women or assigned females at birth in the US, federally, for 50 years,” freshman Vihaan Rathi said.

Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an abortion facility, questioned the constitutionality of the Mississippi law and the case landed in the hands of the Supreme Court. 

Ruling in favor of Dobbs would require overturning the precedent of Roe v. Wade (1973), a very prominent and controversial case. The Court’s decision in Roe was affirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).In the oral argument, Mississippi’s representative, Solicitor General Scott Stewart, stressed that the decisions in Roe and Casey wrongly interpreted the U.S. Constitution and should therefore not be followed as a precedent in this case. 

On the contrary, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer actively defended the rulings of Roe and Casey. One of Justice Sotomayor’s main points when interrogating Stewart was how ruling in favor of Dobbs would overlook one of the Supreme Court’s most common principles, stare decisis, in which past cases are used as a precedent. 

According to Yahoo News, only 24% of Americans want Roe v. Wade overturned. Despite this, many worry that the Court will decide to overturn the landmark case since the Justices currently stand at a 6:3 conservative majority. 

“Most of these justices are against abortion which means they are against Roe v. Wade, so I think their ultimate goal would be to get rid of it,” freshman Jessica Wang said. 

On the other hand, some think the Court will take a different route. “I don’t think they’d overturn Roe, but rather take it as an ability to chip away at abortion rights without actively getting rid of precedent because getting rid of precedent creates a sort of an illegitimate look to the court,” Rathi said. 

The decision of the controversial case can be released anytime after January of 2022, however, it is expected to be announced in May. Until then, women across the country will anticipate what the future of reproductive rights will look like.