Keith Ellison, attorney general of Minnesota, has signed on to yet another brief challenging a state abortion law.
Ellison and 23 other attorneys general throughout the United States have signed an amicus brief begging the Supreme Court to uphold their precedent on the unconstitutionality of “pre-viability” abortion bans and strike down Mississippi’s abortion law.
This comes after news that on Dec. 1 the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the Mississippi law, which bans abortion after 15 weeks but does make exceptions for “medical emergencies” or “severe fetal abnormality.”
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, serves as a challenge to Roe v. Wade and later Supreme Court decisions upholding its abortion precedent. Leftists like Ellison worry that SCOTUS, with its three Trump-appointed justices, will uphold Mississippi’s law and essentially nullify the precedent set by Roe v. Wade.
“A woman’s right to make choices about her reproductive healthcare is a fundamental human right,” Ellison declared in a Monday news release. “It’s essential to living with dignity and respect.”
The Minnesota attorney general also vowed to “continue to use the power of [his] office to push back any unconstitutional laws … that rob women of living with dignity and respect.”
Ellison signed an amicus brief just last week that calls on the Supreme Court to approve the Justice Department’s motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction of the Texas abortion law, which bans abortion after six weeks.
Mississippi and Texas are hardly the only states to pass laws banning “pre-viability” abortions. According to the attorney general’s news release, 10 states have enacted pre-viability bans in 2021 alone, bringing the total number of states who have done so to 16.
The recent amicus brief signed by Ellison argues that Mississippi’s law, like all other similar laws, are “unconstitutional and should remain unconstitutional.”
“Mississippi’s ban is unconstitutional under settled law, and … the Court should continue to uphold this well-established precedent,” reads the news release.
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
