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The U.S. Supreme Court returns Monday for another look at legal challenges to the new Texas abortion law, this time in a public hearing that could reveal larger clues about the future of abortion access nationally. The justices will take up arguments in two lawsuits, one brought by abortion providers and the other by the Department of Justice. Both argue that the law, which bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy and enlists private citizens to enforce it, violates longstanding Supreme Court precedent. (Blackman and Wermund, 11/1)

Monday’s hastily scheduled hearing opens the most dramatic month for reproductive rights at the Supreme Court in three decades. That was when a surprising majority of Republican-nominated justices did the unexpected and affirmed rather than renounced the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Such an outcome this time around — as the court considers the Texas law and, on Dec. 1, a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks, far earlier than current Supreme Court precedent allows — would be a bitter disappointment for antiabortion activists who feel this is their chance. (Barnes, 10/30)

The Supreme Court on Monday takes up two challenges to the nation's most restrictive abortion law: the Texas measure that has all but stopped abortions in the state. The court's decision to consider the issue on an unusually accelerated schedule ramps up the drama over abortion, as the justices prepare to hear an even more consequential case a month from now. On Dec. 1, Mississippi will urge the court to overrule Roe v. Wade and declare that there is no constitutional right to abortion. (Williams, 11/1)

The New York Times will be streaming the oral arguments and providing live coverage of the proceedings when they begin at 10 a.m. Eastern. The first argument, in the abortion providers’ case, is scheduled to last an hour but will most likely go longer. The second argument, in the challenge brought by the Biden administration, will start soon after the first one concludes. It is also scheduled to last an hour. (Liptak and Cameron, 10/31)

Texas’ abortion ban goes back before the Supreme Court on Monday, where both abortion clinics and the Biden administration will argue that the law violates longstanding precedent protecting the right to terminate a pregnancy and threatens to unleash a stream of copycat laws that range far beyond abortion. Though the Court split 5-4 in declining to block the unique ban before it took effect in September, the justices now have before them evidence of the sweeping impact it’s had on the ground. After Monday’s showdown, they may come to a different conclusion. (Gerstein and Ollstein, 10/31)

Exactly two months after the Supreme Court let Texas effectively outlaw most abortions in the state, it will hear a pair of arguments on Monday that could allow it to reverse course. Much of the attention will be on Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. The court’s call for what amounts to a do-over suggests that something is afoot among the justices, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University. “Someone who was not on the fence is probably back on the fence,” she said. (Liptak, 10/31)

The nearly 50 percent drop marks the largest recent downturn in accessibility to the procedure following major state-level policy changes, according to the study from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project. It found that 2,164 abortions were provided in September 2021 compared with 4,313 during that month in the previous year. “The fact that many facilities maintained pre-SB8 staffing levels in the face of reduced patient volume, coupled with the increased availability of financial assistance for abortion care, may have prevented even greater declines,” the study authors wrote. (Goldenstein, 10/29)

Abortion would immediately become illegal in at least 12 states if the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, and more would likely follow suit quickly. States have been preparing contingency plans for a post-Roe landscape while state Republicans ramped up efforts to get the landmark ruling overturned. And the future of Roe is on the court's docket. (Gonzalez, 10/31)