Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 15

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

ture then found that at 5 or 6 weeks’ gestational age an “un-
born human being’s heart begins beating”; at 8 weeks the 
“unborn human being begins to move about in the womb”;
at 9 weeks “all basic physiological functions are present”; at 
10 weeks “vital organs begin to function,” and “[h]air, fin-
gernails, and toenails . . . begin to form”; at 11 weeks “an
unborn human being’s diaphragm is developing,” and he or
she may “move about freely in the womb”; and at 12 weeks 
the “unborn human being” has “taken on ‘the human form’ 
in all relevant respects.”  §2(b)(i) (quoting Gonzales v. Car-
hart, 550 U. S. 124, 160 (2007)).  It found that most abor-
tions after 15 weeks employ “dilation and evacuation proce-
dures  which  involve  the  use  of  surgical  instruments  to
crush and tear the unborn child,” and it concluded that the 
“intentional commitment of such acts for nontherapeutic or 
elective  reasons  is  a  barbaric  practice,  dangerous  for  the
maternal  patient,  and  demeaning  to  the  medical  profes-
sion.”  §2(b)(i)(8).

Respondents  are  an  abortion  clinic,  Jackson  Women’s 
Health Organization, and one of its doctors.  On the day the 
Gestational Age Act was enacted, respondents filed suit in
Federal District Court against various Mississippi officials,
alleging that the Act violated this Court’s precedents estab-
lishing  a  constitutional  right  to  abortion.    The  District 

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North Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam.  See A. Baglini, Charlotte Lozier 
Institute, Gestational Limits on Abortion in the United States Compared
to International Norms 6–7 (2014); M. Lee, Is the United States One of 
Seven Countries That “Allow Elective Abortions After 20 Weeks of Preg-
nancy?” Wash. Post (Oct. 8, 2017), www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-
checker/wp/2017/10/09/is-the-united-states-one-of-seven-countries-that-
allow-elective-abortions-after-20-weeks-of-preganacy  (stating  that  the 
claim made by the Mississippi Legislature and the Charlotte Lozier In-
stitute was “backed by data”).  A more recent compilation from the Cen-
ter for Reproductive Rights indicates that Iceland and Guinea-Bissau are 
now also similarly permissive.  See The World’s Abortion Laws, Center 
for  Reproductive  Rights  (Feb.  23,  2021),  https://reproductiverights.org/ 
maps/worlds-abortion-laws/.