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Trump court takes on abortion case

Religious conservatives are about to have their day in court, the day they have been waiting for since the U.S. Supreme Court wrote the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing women’s right to have an abortion up until the final trimester of pregnancy.

Since 1973 they have rallied, voted for anti-abortion candidates, and pushed for stricter abortion laws that inevitably ran up against the legal precedent of the Roe decision.

To abortion opponents, it was clear that the only way to reverse the Roe decision would be through another Supreme Court decision, and that would require a much more conservative court than we have had in the last 48 years.

And so they threw their support behind Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, based on his promise to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe v. Wade. In four years, Trump appointed three conservative justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, giving the court a 6-3 conservative lineup.

The court heard arguments Wednesday on whether to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks, with a few exceptions. If the court decides in favor of the law, the Roe v. Wade standard will be overturned, and states will begin crafting laws limiting abortion.

It’s possible that a majority of justices will be reluctant to overturn the legal precedent that has existed these past 48 years, but this is the best chance in all that time for abortion foes to reclaim the legal right to protect life in its unborn form. And for that, they can thank Donald Trump.

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