Washington (CNN) More than 200 members of Congress are urging the Supreme Court to reconsider — if not overrule — the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide.
Thirty-nine Republican senators and 168 members of the House of Representatives, almost all of them Republicans, signed a so-called “friend of the court” brief filed on Thursday by the national anti-abortion group Americans United for Life in connection with a challenge to a Louisiana abortion access law due to be heard in March.
The signers include Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Lee and Mitt Romney of Utah, and Tim Scott of South Carolina as well as Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Steve Chabot of Ohio.
At least two Democrats — Reps. Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Dan Lipinski of Illinois — are among the lawmakers who signed.
The brief argues that “Roe’s jurisprudence has been haphazard from the beginning.”
The decision “remains a radically unsettled precedent” that “has been substantially undermined by subsequent authority,” the group continues, adding that court rulings since Roe “clearly did not settle the abortion issue.” The group urges the justices to “reconsider those precedents.”
The Louisiana case before the court does not directly target Roe. The law at issue requires a doctor to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility where the abortion is performed, which critics say is not medically justified.
The Republican brief comes on the heels of nearly 200 congressional Democrats filing a brief last month defending Roe and Louisiana abortion providers.
The Louisiana challenge is the first abortion-related case that will be heard since Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch took the bench … Read more.
