Junior justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested that a woman’s right to choose is not necessary because there’s the option of giving up the child for adoption.
Barrett made the comment on Wednesday when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a case that explicitly asks the justices to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Both Roe and Casey emphasize the burdens of parenting,” Barrett said. “And insofar as you and many of your amici focus on the ways in which forced parenting, forced motherhood would hinder women’s access to the workplace, and to equal opportunities, it’s also focused on the consequences of parenting and the obligations of motherhood that flow from pregnancy—why don’t the safe haven laws take care of that problem?”
Safe haven laws allow the parent, or an agent of the parent, to remain anonymous and to be protected from criminal liability and prosecution for child endangerment, abandonment, or neglect in exchange for surrendering the baby to a safe haven, like a hospital, police station, or fire station.
The Mississippi law would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a statute that violates the 1973 Roe decision which allow states to regulate but not ban abortion up until the point of fetal viability, at roughly 24 weeks, according to the Associated Press.
All six conservative justice signal they would rule to undermine Roe thereby giving red states the green light to ban abortions entirely.
