Mississippi Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Roe v. Wade

Lawyers for the state of Mississippi on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, calling it a harmful decision that has damaged the Court and the Constitution.

The state filed the brief in advance of a major abortion case the justices will hear later this year. Mississippi is defending a ban on abortions after 15 weeks against a legal challenge from its sole abortion clinic. The state mounted a frontal assault on the Court’s abortion precedents in Thursday’s filing, arguing they have no basis in the Constitution and bind the justices to a perennial conflict.

"Abortion jurisprudence has placed this Court at the center of a controversy that it can never resolve," the state’s brief reads. "And Roe and [Planned Parenthood v.] Casey have produced a jurisprudence that is at war with the demand that this Court act based on neutral principles."

The move raises the stakes of the Mississippi case, which already had the makings of a landmark dispute. Pro-choice forces denounced the state’s brief and said it was a component of an extreme and well-planned strategy crafted by red states and their pro-life allies.