It’s a critical week for abortion rights in the United States. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could roll back the protections of Roe v. Wade. But the arguments to gut Roe are coming from the surprising lens of women’s empowerment.

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Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization goes before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The caseputs Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortions to the test, and it could be the case that defines abortion rights for generations. 

When The Lily reporter Caroline Kitchener first read a brief in Dobbs written by the attorney general of Mississippi, Lynn Fitch, she found an argument against abortion that she hadn’t heard before. Fitch was urging the court to use the Dobbs case to gut Roe v. Wade because restricting abortion access, Fitch said, empowers women. 

Kitchener reports on the landmark case before the court, and examines the pitch advocates like Fitch are making with their antiabortion arguments — and why some people aren’t buying it.

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