--- title: The Supreme Court Should Not Favor an Abortion 'Compromise' description: Alexis McGill Johnson of Planned Parenthood and Anthony D. Romero of the ACU write that abortion opponents are making a states' rights argument that could have far-reaching effects if the Supreme Court accepts it. canonical: https://time.com/6129401/abortion-compromise-supreme-court-mississippi/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-12-16T21:21:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:45.648Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Serious Threat of a 'Mississippi Compromise' on Abortion og:description: "There is simply no way to pull one thread without risk of unraveling the entire tapestry." og:url: https://time.com/6129401/abortion-compromise-supreme-court-mississippi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c39ebd6aae8f5f6/698a20ce86f68ed6596f0b8f/Mississippi-Compromise.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Supreme Court Hears Mississippi Abortion Case og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Serious Threat of a 'Mississippi Compromise' on Abortion twitter:description: "There is simply no way to pull one thread without risk of unraveling the entire tapestry." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c39ebd6aae8f5f6/698a20ce86f68ed6596f0b8f/Mississippi-Compromise.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A 'Mississippi Compromise' on Abortion Would Threaten All Our Freedoms > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=c76c2675-0d89-4596-94f0-f24b93cfc732&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: True Stories, Hard Choices: Part 1 [Watch (HLS stream): True Stories, Hard Choices: Part 1](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fF6xepgj.m3u8) (12:23)  _Published 2016-09-28. Filmmaker Dawn Porter looks at the racial politics of abortion in America today._ by [Alexis McGill Johnson](https://time.com/author/alexis-mcgill-johnson/) and [Anthony D. Romero](https://time.com/author/anthony-d-romero/) Dec 16, 2021 9:21 PM UTC  Activists with The Center for Popular Democracy Action hold photos of U.S. Supreme Court justices as they block an intersection during a demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on December 01, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, a case about a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. With the addition of conservative justices to the court by former President Donald Trump, experts believe this could be the most important abortion case in decades and could undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade. Activists with The Center for Popular Democracy Action hold photos of U.S. Supreme Court justices as they block an intersection during a demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on December 01, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, a case about a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. With the addition of conservative justices to the court by former President Donald Trump, experts believe this could be the most important abortion case in decades and could undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images—2021 Getty Images by [Alexis McGill Johnson](https://time.com/author/alexis-mcgill-johnson/) and [Anthony D. Romero](https://time.com/author/anthony-d-romero/) Dec 16, 2021 9:21 PM UTC The last 100-plus days of [a ban on most abortions after six weeks in Texas](https://time.com/6093905/texas-abortion-ban-abortion-rights/) have made painfully clear the future anti-abortion extremists want, not just in Texas, but across the country. And now a majority of Supreme Court Justices, [having failed to put an end to Texas’s ban](https://time.com/6121289/supreme-court-lets-texas-abortion-law-stand/), seem poised to [let Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban stand](https://time.com/6124416/supreme-court-abortion-oral-arguments-mississippi/) or perhaps even to reverse Roe v. Wade completely. We are headed toward a world in which our zip codes will determine our freedom, [our right to control our bodies](https://time.com/6074553/abortion-supreme-court-limbo/) and our ability to make decisions about our future. That’s why the line of reasoning we heard from the Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart –– and the line of questioning from Justice Brett Kavanaugh — during oral arguments in [_Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health_ ](https://time.com/6048930/supreme-court-mississippi-abortion-roe-v-wade/)was so alarming. Abortion opponents are explicitly making a states’ rights argument against the right to access abortion, telling the Court that it is a “compromise” to overrule nearly 50 years of enshrined law, and to leave decisions about our rights up to the states. This is a new bargain for our bodies: the Mississippi Compromise. Why does this feel so familiar? Because we’ve been here before. When given the opportunity, states have often played with definitions of humanity for political expediency, to bolster their power, or to confer an advantage on a specific group. Historically, they call these power grabs “compromises” — but every time, they’ve been at the expense of freedom. [As Justice Sonia Sotomayor made clear](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-463%5F3ebh.pdf), the Texas law “echoes the philosophy of John C. Calhoun, a virulent defender of the slaveholding South who insisted that States had the right to ‘veto’ or ‘nullif\[y\]’ any federal law with which they disagreed.” **_Read More:_**[_Inside Mississippi’s Last Abortion Clinic—and the Biggest Fight for Abortion Rights in a Generation_](https://time.com/6116072/mississippi-abortion-supreme-court-jackson-womens-health/) So-called “compromises” about abortion are being made at the same time that Texas and other state lawmakers have implemented some of the most egregious [voting restrictions](https://time.com/6083223/texas-democrats-washington-voting-rights/) and civil rights violations. They’re systematically stripping people — particularly women, Black, Latino and Indigenous communities, people with low incomes, and the LGBTQ+ community — of their freedoms. For more than two-thirds of American history, this country has failed to confer full rights on women and people of color. If the Supreme Court empowers states to decide who is free and who is not, then once again, people’s bodies will count toward representation and political power, but their voices — which are calling for freedom, full citizenship, the ballot and bodily autonomy — will be silenced through [gerrymandered legislative maps](https://time.com/6109213/texas-redistricting-lawsuit-history/) and [attacks on voting rights](https://time.com/5954792/voting-rights-moral-issue/). This has never been about the will of the people. It’s about who controls the levers of power. And it’s no coincidence that the [architects](https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2021/10/01/this-group-helped-dream-up-texas-vigilante-abortion-ban/) of the most egregious abortion bans are also behind attacks on same-sex marriage, bills that target trans youth, and challenges to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. They’ve set fires everywhere to keep us preoccupied as they systematically dismantle our institutions. In the last decade, we’ve witnessed the [decimation of the Voting Rights Act](https://time.com/6077449/supreme-court-voting-rights/), the rise of disinformation, and an [onslaught](https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/07/state-policy-trends-midyear-2021-already-worst-legislative-year-ever-us-abortion) of abortion restrictions. **_Read More:_**[_What We Fear in the Wake of the Texas Abortion Law_](https://time.com/6101739/abortion-access-alabama/) Anti-abortion policies force people to continue their pregnancy, while the same politicians simultaneously shred the social safety net. Taken together, these attacks will send more people into the trap of debt and [poverty](https://www.ansirh.org/research/ongoing/turnaway-study), while limiting women’s ability to direct their own lives. At the same time, they’re forcing disenfranchisement, gerrymandering us out of meaningful representation and instituting undemocratic voting restrictions. They intend to strip us of our rights, as part of a broader agenda designed to consolidate power. Because let’s be clear: we can’t vote our way out of this if we can’t vote. We can’t make our voices heard if we can’t [freely assemble and protest](https://www.npr.org/2021/04/19/988791175/florida-adopts-nations-toughest-restrictions-on-protests). We can’t teach our children how we got here if schools are banned from [honestly discussing history.](https://time.com/6075193/critical-race-theory-debate/) There’s much more at stake than just our right to abortion –– every liberty interest under the Fourteenth Amendment is on the line. If the states can decide if you can have an abortion, it would open the door for states to decide whom you can marry –– or whether contraception is available to you, and what kind. If _Roe_ can be overruled, why not _Griswold_ or [_Obergefell_](https://time.com/5324824/supreme-court-anthony-kennedy-obergefell/)? There is simply no way to pull one thread without risk of unraveling the entire tapestry. **Read More:** [_Inside The Small Group of Doctors Who Risked Everything to Provide Abortions in Texas_](https://time.com/6106537/texas-doctors-performing-abortions-ban-halted/) Take nothing for granted: because in a world where politics trump precedent, there are no safe states. That rage you feel? That’s your power. Use it. The courts may not save us. But our freedom and dignity are not up for debate. There is no compromising on basic human rights. We will not go back. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] My mother grew up in New York City, in Harlem in the 1950's. Her father was a physician and a surgeon at Harlem Hospital. I only knew a little bit about this part of my mother's life, so I asked her to tell me more about it. [ MUSIC ] Well as you know my family was the first family to move into our building. [ MUSIC ] I was I think about two years, [ UNKNOWN ] And that was my world. [ MUSIC ] My grandfather had a cousin who was a doctor living in North Carolina. Cousin Albert had more work than he could handle and he asked my grandfather comes South to help out. So my grandfather moved his family to Sleepy Wadesboro, North Carolina. Where he worked as local country doctor. My time in Wadesboro was very different than my time in New York. Most of his clients were very poor. People paid him in corn. And put your hugs and so we have lots of food. My bedroom faced over a highway up on a hill and one night all of the sudden I see like The on highway, all these cars like a row, and there is a trail of white sheets. I didn't know what the Coolock clan was, but i knew that everybody in the house was afraid. And one night The sheriff came, Albert poured drinks, they sat around chatting for a while and then they took him away. He was arrested. He was arrested because a white woman reported that he had performed an abortion for her. I never knew about this part of my family history. I knew that the issue of abortion in America has always been racially charged, but until I started making Trapped, my feature documentary about abortion, I never really considered how the experience of having an abortion might be different for black women. My friends it is a baby. It is a child. According to the Center for Disease Control, black women have abortions at five times the rate of white women. Certainly the reasons are complicated. But experts point to barriers like a lack of access to education, reproductive health care, and income disparity. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You pretend to be a When are you going to come back to Christ? Dr. Parker, much like my grandfather did, travels across the south providing women access to medical care, including abortion. He's become a well- known advocate for access to abortion care. If you're trying to wipe out the black race. Since you noticed, they're trained to wipe them out. I was prepared for protesters, but it was still shocking to hear the protesters call Dr. Parker a filthy negro abortionist. They were even disgusted with me, for my position, while making this film. Are you pro- choice? I am pro- choice, yes. It's easy to be pro- choice because you're not the one being killed. That's all I have to say. That's right, amen, yeah, what do you got to say about that? That's all I have to say. Hey, were you pro- choice about slavery, too? Cuz that was a privacy issue back in the 1800s. Were you pro- choice about that? You think slavery and abortion [ INAUDIBLE ] Pro choice about slavery, Dred Scott all that. i don; t understand your point. Good job. Is it pro choice about slavery? [ LAUGH ] I don't know why you keep bringing race into the conversation. You know because we like black babies, black babies matter to us but apparently not to you. And you don't care one bit because you're pro choice. You stand beside those Folks, good job! Good job! You're a disgrace to your race! It was absolutely surreal to hear older white men lecture me about the impact of abortion on the lives of black women. Meanwhile I was interviewing real women inside the clinics hearing their painful stories and how hard their choices were. It made me realize just how infrequently black women's stories are really ever told. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] All right, put today's date in this blank. You're gonna sign and date here. Nobody's forcing you to have this done. You do have 48 hours to change your mind. We did an ultrasound to find out how far along you are. You are less than 19 weeks pregnant. Do you know what your blood type is? No. Okay. Questions? No. All right, is there a reason why you didn't give me an emergency contact? Really don't have family here. Okay. Anybody? Friend? Church member? Boyfriend? Nobody Okay! On the other procedure, you gotta have to give me someone and it doesn't have to be someone in this vicinity. But if something happens to you here in the clinic, I need to be able to notify someone, okay? So whether it be your mom and she lives in another state, that's fine. But I still need an emergency contact okay? Now what are you going to do as far as the drive on the day of the procedure? A cab maybe. Okay. You're gonna have to have someone with you I can't put you in a cab sedated with someone you don't know and I don't know. What we can do is talk to the volunteers maybe. Sometimes they will Assist if you don't have a driver, because I'm not comfortable sending you with someone I don't know. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I am 20. What do you do? As a far as work? Yeah. I'm a cashier at Walmart. I make $ 9 in hour. Being a single parent is not easy. I'm starting to become a paramedic. I just feel like with another child then what I'm trying to do right now. I don't feel like I can do it. So I'm just trying to pursue my dreams so I can just had better for my son. How old is your kid? My son is 19 months. he's a great kid and I just want to take care of him. I don't really think I can do a second child, not by myself. How do you feel about your decision? Like a bad person. Say more about that. Why do you feel bad? Are you a religious person? I try to be. What does your religious understanding say to you about abortion? I know that God don't want this for me, but I did pray on it. I just want him to understand it. I feel like I should go through with it. Mm- hm. I just want him to understand. I don't want him to be upset with me, because if I do it, [ SOUND ] Continuous in that what I would want for you is that you'd be able say, you know what that was a jacked up situation, but if I had to do it all over again, I'd make the same decision because I made the best decision I could make. And that way you don't have to second guess yourself and nobody who's walking in your shoes can question you because they're not in your shoes. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I'm not a good person at all. I just feel like a bad person, a bad female. Okay, the only rule I'm gonna give you is you may not say I'm not a good person any more, cuz that is not the case. An unintended pregnancy is an unintended An unintended pregnancy is an unintended pregnancy. That's all it is. That's all it is. So, no more. Okay. Okay? I'm not kidding. As crazy as it sounds I said I would rather an abortion than to give the baby up to a family I don't know. Because if I wanna hold it in, that's love. And I don't wanna, [ SOUND ]. Sorry. [ SOUND ] And I can give that love away. [ SOUND ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] Deciding to have an abortion is never easy, but in many places it's also incredibly logistically difficult. Especially for black women. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] In June of 2016 the United States Supreme Court determined that so- called Trap Laws, which have resulted in the closure of so many abortion clinics are illegal, but there is still only one abortion clinic in the entire state of Mississippi. Luckily there's also one woman there who always listens. [ MUSIC ]. I live in Jackson Mississippi and I work at Jackson Women's Health, the abortion clinic. Getting ready to walk through those doors is the hardest part. And she's probably torn so many different directions. By the time she gets to me, she's barely sure of what she needs to do for herself. A lot of the private counseling that I do I hear interesting stories and most of them is about being torn one way or another. My name is Betty. Everyone around here calls me Ms. Betty, and what I do is I am available to you to talk to you about whatever's going on with you. What we usually do is do a group counseling where I tell you what to expect on surgery day. For me, being a mother is everything. Not only am I a mother to my two boys, I am a mother to the rest of the women in this clinic. [ MUSIC ] I think the protesters think that these women just get up in the morning and decide to go have an abortion. When they have put their heart and souls into their decisions and have to walk through that gauntlet out there to even come in and discuss with us the process. [ MUSIC ] I hate to think about what would happen to the women of Mississippi if this clinic closes. [ MUSIC ] It's tough for women right now. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ]. Ms. Betty is like a mother to her patients. But over and over in the three years of making the film trapped, I heard so many women tell me about their shame In how they felt they were letting their own family down, particularly their mothers. And even though I was making a documentary about abortion and interviewing so many women. I'd realized I've never asked my own mother if abortion had impacted her life. 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