Pence's Advocacy Group Joins GOP Governors, Lawmakers Urging Supreme Court to Overturn Roe

Former Vice President Mike Pence's advocacy group has joined 12 Republican governors urging the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision when the high court hears a high-profile abortion case later this year. 

USA Today reports Pence's group known as Advancing American Freedom is one of the dozens of pro-life organizations to file friend-of-the-court briefs in recent days supporting Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. 

Axios reports governors from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas joined South Carolina in signing a brief late last week asking the high court to overturn Roe v. Wade.  

In addition, 228 GOP lawmakers also filed a brief, calling on the court to release Roe's "vise grip on abortion politics."

As CBN News reported in May, the Supreme Court said it will determine whether states can restrict abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The decision to review the law stems from a ruling in Mississippi from 2018 when then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed the nation's toughest restriction on abortion. 

The legislation was designed to protect unborn children and the health of pregnant mothers. But U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves stopped the law from taking effect. Reeves ruled that Mississippi's 15-week ban was unconstitutional because it would prohibit access to abortion before the unborn baby could survive outside the pregnant woman's body. 

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With more conservative justices now on the Supreme Court, pro-life advocates are hopeful that our nation will get a step closer to overturning Roe v. Wade as well as the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that affirmed the constitutional right to abortion but allowed states to ban abortions earlier in pregnancy, according to USA Today. 

The Mississippi case does not directly challenge the legal right to an abortion, but it could lay the groundwork for more restrictions. And if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned, abortion would then become a state issue. 

"Societal developments since Roe and Casey were decided indicate that this court's disregard for the value of human life, and its minimization of society's fundamental interest in protecting unborn children, have substantially harmed people's 'views of themselves and their places in society,'" Pence's group said in its filing.

In defending Roe, abortion rights groups point to the high court's decisions upholding the constitutional right to abortion over the last five decades. 

"In an unbroken line of decisions over the last fifty years, this court has held that the Constitution guarantees each person the right to decide whether to continue a pre-viability pregnancy," Mississippi's sole remaining abortion clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization, told the court last year. 

Pence's Advancing American Freedom brief is the first major policy action the group has taken since the former vice president launched the group in April.

As CBN News has reported, Pence, 62, has kept busy since leaving office. In February, he joined The Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow.  The former vice president has also teamed up with Young America's Foundation, serving as the organization's first Ronald Reagan Presidential Scholar.