Supreme Court to rule on pivotal abortion cases two years after overturning Roe v. Wade

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is set to rule this month on two major abortion cases with significant nationwide implications as the justices revisit the issue for the first time since overturning Roe v. Wade.

The 2022 decision to end the right to obtain an abortion sent shockwaves across the country, leading to a new wave of state abortion restrictions and emboldening anti-abortion activists to seek other ways to restrict the practice.

In the most closely watched case, the court is weighing whether to impose new restrictions on the commonly used abortion pill mifepristone, including putting new curbs on access by mail.

In the other case, which has received less attention but could have far-reaching implications of its own, the justices are considering whether a near-total abortion ban in Idaho conflicts with a federal law requiring emergency medical care for patients, including pregnant women.

Rabia Muqaddam, a lawyer at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which backs abortion rights, said the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “set off a chain reaction that we are seeing in all sorts of ways,” including the two cases now before the court.

Theories that were previously considered “the fringe of the fringe” are now “sufficiently mainstream to make it to the Supreme Court,” she added.

The new cases show that the court’s stated aim of getting out of the business of deciding what conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh called “difficult moral and policy questions” was easier said than done. As such, the upcoming rulings will provide further evidence of how far the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is willing to go in curbing abortion access.

In the mifepristone case, the court is weighing