Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet joined 46 of their Senate Democratic colleagues and 188 House Democrats in filing a bicameral amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The lawmakers urged the Supreme Court to uphold nearly 50 years of precedent for reproductive rights set by Roe v. Wade.
After the Court refused to block the dangerous, cruel abortion ban in Texas from going into effect, Dobbs represents yet another case that could undermine nearly 50 years of precedent and potentially overturn Roe. Dobbs is a challenge from Mississippi’s sole remaining abortion provider against H.B. 1510, the state’s extreme law banning all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape and incest, and only narrow, inadequate exceptions for a medical emergency or in cases of a severe fetal abnormality. The Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on December 1st.
“This Court has made clear that abortion bans like H.B. 1510 are unconstitutional because they violate the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy before viability; the decision below should be affirmed on that basis alone,” wrote Hickenlooper, Bennet, and the lawmakers. “But as a matter of public policy, it is also important to recognize that laws like H.B. 1510 do not merely encroach on individual liberty and autonomy; they also do so in a way that disproportionately imperils the health and economic security of vulnerable populations.”
The Supreme Court has upheld the Constitutional right to an abortion as recently as 2016, in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, and again just last year in June Medical Services LLC v. Russo.
Full text of the amicus brief is available HERE.
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