Why the Supreme Court may look to China as it reconsiders Roe v. Wade

WASHINGTON – A heated debate over how foreign countries regulate abortion is playing into a challenge to Roe v. Wade – even though the Supreme Court’s conservative justices have often looked askance at taking cues from overseas. 

Anti-abortion advocates and groups that support abortion rights have filed dueling briefs claiming to be on the side of international norms in Mississippi’s blockbuster challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to end a pregnancy. 

A majority of the court signaled during arguments last week that it may uphold the Mississippi law, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That's about nine weeks earlier than viability – the point when a fetus can survive outside the womb – that the court set in Roe v. Wade as the cutoff for obtaining an abortion.

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