US SC urged to overrule Roe v. Wade abortion decision

Washington, July 23 The Attorney General of Mississippi has urged the US Supreme Court to overrule the landmark Roe v. Wade decision when reviewing the state's ban on virtually all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The 1973 Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court in which it ruled that the Constitution of the US protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

In her 60-page brief on Thursday, Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, explicitly set the dispute over Mississippi's state law on a collision course with the 1973 decision in Roe that first articulated the constitutional right to abortion, calling the highest court's precedent on abortion "egregiously wrong".

"This Court should overrule Roe and Casey," Fitch wrote, referring also to the court's 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

"Roe and Casey are egregiously wrong. They have proven hopelessly unworkable ... And nothing but a full break from those cases can stem the harms they have caused," she argued.

The Mississippi law, passed in 2018 and to be reviewed during the Supreme Court's upcoming term beginning in October, creates only narrow exceptions from its 15-week ban.

The Supreme Court precedent tracing back to Roe prohibits states from banning abortion before foetal viability, which occurs around 24 weeks, according to a report by The Hill.

There are hundreds of abortion measure state legislatures passed in recent years, many with the explicit goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, said the report.