According to Governing Magazine, more than a dozen states considered total or partial bans on abortion this year, furthering protections for preborn children. All in all, 2021 saw states enact more than 80 restrictions on abortion, the most in any year since Roe v. Wade forced the country to tolerate abortion on a nationwide scale.

With the U.S. Supreme Court set to consider a Mississippi case that could challenge the 1973 ruling, it seems there is hope that the prevalence of abortion in this country will continue to decrease.

On May 17, the Court agreed to hear the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which is centered around a Mississippi law that sought to ban abortions after 15 weeks. In 2018 and 2020, two lower courts blocked the law, saying that it conflicted with Roe’s fetal viability standard.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, however, asked the Supreme Court to hear the case last June, arguing that Roe’s viability standard does not adequately protect women and children. The Court will hear oral arguments about the case this fall, with a ruling expected next summer. At the center of the case is whether states have the right to enact pre-viability abortion bans.

Depending on how the Court decides, the outcome could either redefine or completely undermine Roe, a ruling that has led to the deaths of more than 60 million preborn children.

“When the Supreme Court has made really controversial decisions, or decisions seen as controversial at the time, over the decades the country accommodates itself to the new reality,” said Gary Bauer, president of American Values, a conservative advocacy group. “That has not happened with abortion.”

For Bauer and many in the pro-life movement, the ideal outcome would be for the Court to overturn Roe and declare that preborn children have constitutional rights. While he acknowledged that the Court might not take that step, there is hope that it will declare Roe wrongly decided and return the question of abortion to the states.

“If that happens, it would be a gigantic step forward in restoring the sanctity of life in this country,” Bauer said.

Already, numerous states have taken steps to accommodate such a decision by enacting “trigger bans,” laws that would abolish abortion as soon as the Court allows it. In addition, a recent Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans favor abortion restrictions that Roe does not permit.

While the pro-life movement will continue protecting women and preborn children no matter what, it is time for lawmakers to recognize that the country cannot continue tolerating legal abortion.

As Students for Life of America has previously reported, Roe merely masked the problems it was supposed to solve.

Since abortion was legalized, unintended pregnancies have increased substantially, and single motherhood rates have risen, as well as child abuse and divorce rates.

Instead of protecting women, Roe also enabled abortionists like Kermit Gosnell, Milan Vuitch, Jesse Ketchum, and other dangerous figures to perform legal abortions with the ethics of the back alley procedures abortion proponents claim to be protecting women from.

It is time to stop ignoring how abortion has harmed our society and introduce laws that seek to eradicate the damage it has wrought.