Supreme Court’s Abortion Cases Could Threaten Birth Control, Too : Shots

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s first opportunity to weigh in on abortion and contraception could come as early as this week, as the high court decides whether to take up a Mississippi case.

Demetrius Freeman/Bloomberg/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Demetrius Freeman/Bloomberg/Getty Images

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s first opportunity to weigh in on abortion and contraception could come as early as this week, as the high court decides whether to take up a Mississippi case.

Demetrius Freeman/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Abortion opponents were among those most excited by the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in October. And they had good reason to be.

As a law professor and circuit court judge, Barrett made it clear she is no fan of abortion rights. She is considered likely to vote not only to uphold restrictions on the procedure, but also, possibly, even to overturn the existing national right to abortion under the Supreme Court’s landmark rulings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey.

Her first opportunity to weigh in could come soon. A Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy — a ban that’s impermissible under existing court precedents — is awaiting review by the justices, who could decide as early as this week to take up the case.

That’s the headline. But many people overlook other things that could flow from new U.S. jurisprudence on abortion — such as erasing the right to birth control that the court recognized in a 1965 case, Griswold v. Connecticut. During her confirmation hearings, Barrett specifically refused to say whether she felt Griswold was correctly decided.

That was a flashing red warning light for Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy group that argues cases on abortion and contraception. Roe, Northup says, is part of a century of jurisprudence based on the idea that the U.S. Constitution protects the liberty of individuals.

“It began with cases about how one educates one’s children,” Northup says, and includes same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion. You can’t just take Roe out and not unravel the whole fabric.”

Yet from what Barrett has said and written about the Constitution, Northup says, “it’s clear she doesn’t believe it protects the right to personal liberty.”

Abortion rights advocates worry that the court could go beyond overturning Roe and Casey. If those precedents are overturned, abortion decisions would return to the states. But the court could go a step further and recognize “fetal personhood” —…