Mississippi governor calls Supreme Court oral arguments on state’s restrictive abortion law ‘a watershed moment in American history’

By Devan Cole, CNN

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves called recent Supreme Court oral arguments on a restrictive abortion law in his state “a watershed moment in American history,” saying he’s cautiously optimistic the court will overturn two seminal decisions that secured abortion rights for women nationwide.

“This has been a watershed moment in American history over the last week as this case that many of us in the pro-life movement have hoped would come before the court for many years, and we actually had oral arguments on Wednesday,” Reeves, a Republican, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday.

The justices “could consider potentially overturning Casey, which was the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case dating back to 1992, or they could overturn Roe v. Wade in 1973, and the commentary around the oral arguments on Wednesday certainly give people like me, who hope that they do both of those things, some reason for optimism,” the governor said.

“But again, I’ve watched enough court cases to know that just because a particular judge or a particular justice is asking certain questions doesn’t mean that’s necessarily how they’re going to rule,” the governor added later, referring to the majority-conservative court.”

During oral arguments last week in the case concerning the Mississippi law, which bans abortion 15 weeks into a pregnancy, the justices appeared poised to uphold the law, which had been blocked by two federal courts that held it was contrary to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide prior to viability.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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