Press releases

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today joined Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), along with Reps. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), Michael Guest (R-Miss.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and more than 200 other lawmakers in filing an amicus brief supporting the State of Mississippi in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, which considers the question of whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health represents the most significant challenge to Roe v. Wade and the viability standard in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in a generation. 

“I’m proud to support this amicus brief, and I stand with Mississippi’s noble effort to defend life in the womb,” said Kennedy.

“Mississippi is at the forefront of the fight for life, and I am glad to lead the charge in Congress on behalf of the unborn. For too long, the precedents of Roe and Casey have prevented states from taking meaningful steps to protect life in the womb. My colleagues and I are urging the Supreme Court to correct these decades of injustice,” said Wicker.

“In taking up Mississippi’s pro-life law, the Supreme Court has a chance to reconsider the current misguided abortion jurisprudence. As a Senator, as a woman, and as a mother, I think this case offers us a chance to overturn Roe and return the abortion issue to the political process and away from activist judges. I am thankful so many of my colleagues are standing with Mississippi and against unlimited abortion on demand in this case,” said Hyde-Smith. 

In the amicus brief, the lawmakers ask that “the Court uphold Mississippi’s law as effectuating important state interests, or, alternatively, return this case to the lower courts for consideration on a full evidentiary record, recognizing that certain precedents [Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey] may be reconsidered and, where necessary, be wholly or partially overruled.”

The State of Mississippi in 2018 enacted the Gestational Age Act, a state law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation, except in cases of medical emergency. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an abortion clinic in Jackson, Miss., sued on the grounds that the law violates the viability standard established by Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The Fifth Circuit Court affirmed the district court’s decision on these grounds.

The State of Mississippi filed its case with the Supreme Court on July 22, 2021.

Text of the amicus brief is available here.