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News This Week: 1/16 - 1/22

Tomorrow is the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and it could be its last.

• As the Center’s president Nancy Northup notes, “Texas provides a startling preview of the chaos and panic that will happen across large swaths of the nation if we lose the protections of Roe. Half of the states are likely to move to ban abortion. People would need to drive as far as 1,000 miles round-trip to find abortion services.”
• Ebony points out this week that the loss of Roe would be felt most severely by Black and brown communities.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court again refused to intervene in the Center’s challenge to Texas’ abortion ban (S.B. 8), leaving Texans with no end in sight to this law.

• In the Thursday ruling, SCOTUS denied plaintiffs’ request to allow the case to proceed in federal district court, where they stood a chance of blocking some government officials from enforcing the ban.
• In a blistering dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas, who have a right to control their own bodies. I will not stand by silently as a State continues to nullify this constitutional guarantee.”

States have just begun their 2022 legislative sessions, and already seven states have introduced Texas S.B. 8 copy-cat bills.

• This week, Arizona and Oklahoma lawmakers became the latest to do so. The proposed bills ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and encourage private citizens to sue anyone providing abortion services or assisting someone who receives abortion care in violation of the ban.
• Other states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, and Ohio.

States are also introducing bans on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, in the hopes that SCOTUS will uphold Mississippi’s 15-week ban later this year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

• This week, lawmakers in West Virginia introduced a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a proposal almost identical to Mississippi’s abortion ban currently under review at the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Florida has also introduced a 15-week ban on abortion this year. 15 weeks is two months before viability, the standard established by Roe v. Wade.
• This week, Mississippi lawmakers went as far as to introduce a total ban on abortion.

Coming Up

Appeals Court to hear South Carolina abortion ban case (Jan. 27)

• The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hold oral arguments in the Center’s case challenging South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban.
• A district court blocked the ban from taking effect last year, and the state has appealed that ruling to the Fourth Circuit.

Did You Know?

A massive group of A-list celebrities including Mark Ruffalo, Cyndi Lauper, Jane Fonda, Mac Demarco, and more came together this week to support the Abortion Within Reach campaign, which aims to protect access to abortion.