The US Supreme Court will review a law that restricts abortion in the state of Mississippi

The Supreme Court of the United States announced Monday that it will examine a law that restricts abortion in the state of Mississippi, in a decision that many see as an open path to undermine this right, given the overwhelming majority of conservative justices in this court.

The case is about a law passed by the Mississippi Congress, a Republican majority, that prohibits abortion after the fifteenth week of pregnancy.

This state norm has been blocked in lower instance courts that consider that they go against the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case “Roe v. Wade,” which legalized abortion in the country in 1973.

Mississippi already prohibits this procedure after 20 weeks of gestation and has passed other laws that would virtually ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, that is, after the sixth week.

The Mississippi case will mark the first time that the Supreme Court will have to rule – probably next fall – on a state law that restricts abortion, since it strengthened its conservative majority last November.

Abortion became a central issue in the US presidential election campaign in November, following the death of progressive Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The vacancy left by her death in September allowed then-President Donald Trump to nominate to replace her a conservative, anti-abortion justice, Amy Coney Barrett, whose confirmation just days before the election further expanded the right-wing majority on the court (6- 3).

Conservatives saw Barrett's confirmation as a “historic victory” for those who oppose abortion, because the judge is against that right guaranteed in the US since 1973, although she did not want to clarify if she would vote to undermine it.