WASHINGTON - When the Supreme Court hands down its ruling next year in Mississippi's blockbuster challenge to Roe v. Wade the bulk of the decision will be focused on interpreting what the Constitution says - or doesn't say - about abortion.
But lurking just below the surface of that already fraught debate are questions about other rights experts say could be implicated if the high court overturns its landmark Roe decision, including access to contraception and the legality of same-sex marriage.
That's because the legal principles that the Supreme Court said in 1973 are the basis for the constitutional right to abortion are the same ones it relied on to recognize other rights not explicitly noted in the Constitution but understood by many to be between the lines.
Roe v. Wade: Supreme Court signals support for Mississippi 15-week abortion ban
Impact: Supreme Court's decision in abortion case will affect dozens of states
"There are huge stakes on the question of the right to abortion but that's only part of it," said David Gans with the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center. "There's a giant question about does the 14th Amendment protect basic, fundamental rights even though they're not explicitly laid out in the Bill of Rights or in another part of the Constitution."
A majority of the justices signaled during nearly two hours of argument this week that they are prepared to shift the way the court has viewed abortion for more than a generation, potentially not only upholding Mississippi's ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy but perhaps overturning the Roe v. Wade decision itself.
Mississippi says the high court could overturn Roe without relitigating other rights.
"These are cases that draw clear rules: You can't ban contraception, you can't ban intimate romantic relationships between consenting adults," Scott Stewart, Mississippi's solicitor general, told the court about the potential fallout of abandoning Roe. "None of them involve the purposeful termination of a human life."
But that isn't universally accepted, even on the right. Texas Right to Life encouraged the court this year to reconsider same-sex marriage when it looks at abortion. The group's brief targeted two watershed Supreme Court decisions, among others, the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage nationally and the 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas that invalidated state prohibitions on sodomy.
"This is not to say that the court should announce the overruling of Lawrence and Obergefell if it decides to overrule Roe," the group argued. "But neither should the court hesitate to write an opinion that leaves those decisions hanging by a thread."
The Constitution doesn't explicitly guarantee a right to abortion, but a 7-2 majority in Roe held that the 14th Amendment's protection of "liberty" includes the right to terminate a pregnancy. Several of the justices in that case drew on another landmark opinion decided eight years earlier that legalized contraception for married couples.
In Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court invalidated a law that forbid contraception, finding the Bill of Rights created "zones of privacy" for married couples.
The potential for a legal fight over contraception in a post-Roe world may be particularly high, experts say. That's because contraception was at the heart of the 2014 Hobby Lobby case in which the court ruled companies with religious objections cannot be forced to offer insurance for certain birth control methods they equate with abortion.
But access to contraception isn't the only right not specifically included in the text of the Constitution that could be in play. The court in 2015 cited Griswold, Lawrence and other cases and found the 14th Amendment requires states to license same-sex marriages.
During the court's occasionally heated arguments this week, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked about the fate of those decisions if Roe is overturned. A lot of accepted constitutional rights, she noted, are not written into the nation's founding document.
Would those rights also be in jeopardy in some future case, she asked.
"We have recognized that sense of privacy in people's choices about whether to use contraception or not. We've recognized it in their right to choose who they're going to marry," said Sotomayor, who was nominated to the court by President Barack Obama in 2009. "I fear none of those things are written in the Constitution."
Stewart said those decisions were different in part because they set clear boundaries - a state can't ban contraception for adults or can't prohibit same-sex marriages - and that those rules have proven workable. And marriage broadly - if not same-sex marriage specifically - is deeply rooted in the nation's tradition and history, he said.
Abortion, Stewart told the justices, has by contrast vexed courts for decades.
"He was drawing the substantive distinction that the right to abortion is qualitatively different from these other rights," said O. Carter Snead, law professor at the University of Notre Dame.
That's because abortion, Snead and anti-abortion advocates say, involves ending a life. That assertion, however, immediately runs into another vexing question.
"The issue of when life begins has been hotly debated by philosophers since the beginning of time," Sotomayor noted.
But Snead said the idea that Roe's potential demise would lead to other rights being overturned is more of "a rhetorical strategy than a doctrinal analysis." That's partly because, he said, states would have to pass a law to ban contraception or same-sex marriage - likely a tall order politically even in many of the nation's reddest states.
"I am not aware of any such efforts currently," he said, "and am quite skeptical that there are plans to pursue such state action in the future."
Stewart and Sotomayor debated that very question during arguments.
"Do you think that no state is going to think otherwise, that no people in the population aren't going to challenge those cases in court?" Sotomayor asked.
"Your honor," Stewart responded, "we'll always have a diversity of views."
Sotomayor shot back: "That's the point."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion fallout: Could same-sex marriage, contraception be next?
cialis support 365
(2021-12-04 23:52:02Z)buy cialis usa https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis alternative
REPLYcialis generic
(2021-12-04 23:57:58Z)cialis tadalafil & dapoxetine https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis pills
REPLYcialis coupon
(2021-12-05 00:31:50Z)cialis price https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis 20mg
REPLYcialis alternative
(2021-12-05 00:54:41Z)cialis without a doctor prescription https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis price
REPLYcialis dosage
(2021-12-05 03:13:05Z)buy cialis online https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis coupon
REPLYcialis price
(2021-12-05 03:51:12Z)cialis alternative https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis tablets
REPLYcialis generic
(2021-12-05 04:19:24Z)cialis tadalafil & dapoxetine https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis pills
REPLYcialis generic
(2021-12-05 04:41:18Z)cialis 20mg https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis generic
REPLYfastest delivery of cialis
(2021-12-05 06:42:51Z)buy cialis online https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# generic cialis
REPLYcan ubuy cialis on streets
(2021-12-05 07:15:12Z)cheap cialis https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# buy cialis usa
REPLYcialis black is it safe
(2021-12-05 07:15:22Z)can ubuy cialis on streets https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis pills
REPLYcialis with dapoxetine overnight to
(2021-12-05 08:04:44Z)cialis dosage https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis 20 mg
REPLYcialis support 365
(2021-12-05 08:29:43Z)can i take cialis with daxpoteine https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis coupon
REPLYcialis generic
(2021-12-05 08:41:36Z)cialis generic https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis alternative
REPLYcan i take cialis with daxpoteine
(2021-12-05 09:57:12Z)can i take cialis with daxpoteine https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis without a doctor prescription
REPLYcialis 20mg
(2021-12-05 10:22:58Z)cialis dosage https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis price
REPLYcialis support 365
(2021-12-05 10:42:56Z)cialis alternative https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis dosage
REPLYbuy cialis usa
(2021-12-05 10:45:46Z)cialis 20 mg https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# buy cialis online
REPLYcialis 20mg
(2021-12-05 11:27:46Z)fastest delivery of cialis https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cheap cialis
REPLYcan i take cialis with daxpoteine
(2021-12-05 11:34:57Z)cialis dosage https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis pills
REPLYcialis 20 mg
(2021-12-06 16:15:52Z)buy cialis online https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis tablets
REPLYcan i take cialis with daxpoteine
(2021-12-06 17:05:47Z)buy cialis online https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cheap cialis
REPLYbuy cialis online
(2021-12-06 17:19:14Z)cialis generic https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cheap cialis
REPLYcialis without a doctor prescription
(2021-12-06 17:36:14Z)cialis dosage https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cheap cialis
REPLYcialis tadalafil & dapoxetine
(2021-12-06 18:33:30Z)can ubuy cialis on streets https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis pills
REPLYbest prices for cialis 20mg
(2021-12-06 18:37:40Z)cialis 20 mg https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# generic cialis
REPLYgeneric cialis
(2021-12-06 19:49:18Z)can ubuy cialis on streets https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis alternative
REPLYcialis tablets
(2021-12-06 20:54:06Z)cialis generic https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cheap cialis
REPLYcialis pills
(2021-12-06 22:40:32Z)generic cialis https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis online
REPLYcheap cialis
(2021-12-06 23:05:51Z)best prices for cialis 20mg https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis dosage
REPLYbest prices for cialis 20mg
(2021-12-06 23:28:43Z)cialis without a doctor prescription https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis dosage
REPLYcheap cialis
(2021-12-07 00:21:32Z)cialis 20 mg https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis dosage
REPLYcialis dosage
(2021-12-07 01:43:08Z)cialis alternative https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis dosage
REPLYcialis generic
(2021-12-07 02:03:43Z)cialis 20mg https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis without a doctor prescription
REPLYcheap cialis
(2021-12-07 02:16:40Z)cialis online https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis online
REPLYcialis black is it safe
(2021-12-07 02:30:25Z)generic cialis https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis dosage
REPLYcialis support 365
(2021-12-07 02:49:04Z)cialis black is it safe https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis 20mg
REPLYcialis support 365
(2021-12-07 03:22:51Z)cialis online https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis dosage
REPLYcialis black is it safe
(2021-12-07 03:36:00Z)cialis online https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis online
REPLYcialis black is it safe
(2021-12-07 03:42:10Z)cialis alternative https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# cialis dosage
REPLYcialis dosage
(2021-12-07 03:54:35Z)cialis pills https://cialiswithdapoxetine.com/# buy cialis online
REPLYfmcljlzm
(2022-06-13 12:02:35Z)http://hydroxychloroquinex.com/ hydroxychloroquine for sale mexico shipping
REPLYhdehltwc
(2022-06-13 12:09:53Z)buy hydroxychloroquine 200 mg hydroxychloroquine tablets buy hydroxychloroquine mexico pharmacy
REPLYdtjptcuy
(2022-06-13 12:26:54Z)buy plaquenil 200mg http://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/
REPLYlzbsaflq
(2022-06-13 12:42:02Z)plaquenil tablets buy plaquenil 200mg buy plaquenil pills
REPLYqnnnqhtl
(2022-06-13 12:54:12Z)https://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/ hydroxychloroquine tadalafil
REPLYevgctjll
(2022-06-13 13:12:02Z)http://hydroxychloroquinex.com/ how to get hydroxychloroquine prescription
REPLYpqzlvfqy
(2022-06-13 13:23:34Z)where can i buy plaquenil https://hydroxychloroquinex.com/
REPLYngzmkfgy
(2022-06-13 13:39:56Z)https://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/ buy generic plaquenil online
REPLYpktwfgdt
(2022-06-13 13:46:55Z)plaquenil pills http://hydroxychloroquinex.com/
REPLYrtsouarl
(2022-06-13 14:12:32Z)generic plaquenil 200 mg hydroxychloroquine for sale from canada
REPLYwdnxnjxo
(2022-06-13 14:16:14Z)can hydroxychloroquine be purchased over the counter generic hydroxychloroquine
REPLYqpxlvajv
(2022-06-13 14:21:35Z)hydroxychloroquine purchase online http://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/
REPLYkjdojeou
(2022-06-13 14:32:30Z)hydroxychloroquine canada online do you need a prescription for hydroxychloroquine
REPLYwkrvrjva
(2022-06-13 15:07:03Z)http://hydroxychloroquinex.com/ plaquenil generic name
REPLYpkshxikt
(2022-06-13 15:47:16Z)generic name for plaquenil
REPLYpphbznaa
(2022-06-13 15:54:35Z)hydroxychloroquine without a doctor prescription hydroxychloroquine tablets
REPLYhuuxibyv
(2022-06-13 16:10:24Z)can you get hydroxychloroquine otc hydroxychloroquine pills
REPLYksmzyhjt
(2022-06-13 16:40:42Z)buy plaquenil online cheap alberta hydroxychloroquine 200mg for sale buy hydroxychloroquine over the counter
REPLYzrurbfee
(2022-06-13 16:53:16Z)order plaquenil pills order hydroxychloroquine online buy hydroxychloroquine online cheap dr collins
REPLYhuyxaspy
(2022-06-13 17:02:04Z)https://hydroxychloroquinex.com/ plaquenil cheap
REPLYiufcuoln
(2022-06-13 17:06:31Z)where to get plaquenil buy 200 mg plaquenil
REPLYglciwjcb
(2022-06-13 17:26:13Z)buy 200mg hydroxychloroquine hydroxychloroquine generic names
REPLYsdrhtekj
(2022-06-13 17:27:49Z)http://hydroxychloroquinex.com/ buy 200mg hydroxychloroquine
REPLYnajquzma
(2022-06-13 17:50:46Z)buy hydroxychloroquine pills http://hydroxychloroquinex.com/
REPLYpnauhkir
(2022-06-13 17:56:58Z)hydroxychloroquine sulfate 200 mg http://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/
REPLYccrixsqh
(2022-06-13 18:18:54Z)what is hydroxychloroquine where can i buy plaquenil buy generic hydroxychloroquine
REPLYildfjssz
(2022-06-13 18:56:48Z)hydroxychloroquine pharmacy hydroxychloroquine where to buy online
REPLYxyqkwfym
(2022-06-13 18:58:31Z)http://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/ buy plaquenil for sale kiteboarding
REPLYunmybthm
(2022-06-13 19:19:51Z)hydroxychloroquine tablets buy online buy hydroxychloroquine online buy plaquenil pill kiteboarding
REPLYhicpytqc
(2022-06-13 19:37:31Z)buy hydroxychloroquine usa hydroxychloroquine mexico pharmacy
REPLYeknqahyj
(2022-06-13 20:21:39Z)buy hydroxychloroquine over the counter hydroxychloroquine without a doctor prescription
REPLYxoewlryw
(2022-06-13 21:02:21Z)https://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/ order hydroxychloroquine online cheap alberta
REPLYartutgzg
(2022-06-13 21:04:38Z)https://hydroxychloroquinex.com/ hydroxychloroquine otc
REPLYfznopico
(2022-06-13 22:38:39Z)http://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/ hydroxychloroquine online sale
REPLYrxbauzrz
(2022-06-13 23:13:08Z)buy plaquenil canada buy hydroxychloroquine 200mg
REPLYjautxpth
(2022-06-13 23:55:44Z)hydroxychloroquine tablets hydroxychloroquine sulfate
REPLYyfpjahtq
(2022-06-13 23:58:07Z)where can one get hydroxychloroquine hydroxychloroquine sulfate over the counter
REPLYnluoehhs
(2022-06-14 01:52:48Z)hydroxychloroquine hcq over the counter
REPLYgagrzyfz
(2022-06-14 01:57:13Z)https://www.hydroxychloroquinex.com/ plaquenil
REPLYfwxroesx
(2022-06-14 02:04:43Z)hydroxychloroquine canada plaquenil stock price
REPLY