A Tragic Conflict of Competing Goods

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Conversations of Note

Abortion has been discussed intensely this past week due to oral arguments in a Supreme Court case that could significantly alter the constitutional right to the procedure in the United States. At issue is a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, contra current precedent. If upheld, the law will likely inspire new abortion restrictions in many red states.

The Legal Fight

We begin with the law’s sponsor, Becky Currie, a Mississippi state legislator and registered nurse. “I pray my bill will save millions of babies,” she wrote in Newsweek, where she explained that she’s helped to deliver many, including a 14-week-old born too early to survive. “I stayed with the mother and baby, watching his heart continue to beat in his tiny chest for about 20 minutes,” she recounted. “Preborn babies can feel pain by 15 weeks,” she argued, noting that many countries protect them at 12 weeks. She wants SCOTUS to take what she characterizes as “a monumental step to limit abortions and protect preborn life by restoring the constitutional protections that long existed in our nation until the disastrous decision in Roe v. Wade.”