The U.S. Supreme Court justices have said that they are willing to reconsider the reproductive protections established nearly five decades ago in Roe v. Wade , setting the stage for an abortion rights battle thats been years in the making.

The justices announced Monday that the court will hear a case concerning a Mississippi ban on abortions beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy, marking the first time the nations highest court has considered an abortion ban since that landmark decision in 1973, which has protected access to the procedure for 48 years.

Former President Donald Trump s impact on the court, now loaded with three of his conservative nominees in lifetime appointments, may soon be felt by the hundreds of thousands of patients who seek abortion care in the United States each year.

Heres what you should know about the case, which is expected to appear before the Supreme Court in the late fall.

It concerns a ban on abortions before a fetus is viable outside the womb

The justices will consider a law enacted in Mississippi in 2018, and blocked from taking effect, that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, making exceptions only for medical emergencies or fetal abnormalities.

The Supreme Court will consider one of three questions posed in the case: Whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional a question that addresses not just Mississippis 15-week limit but also a spate of even more restrictive abortion bans that have sailed through state legislatures in recent years.

Upon its passage, the legislation was quickly challenged by abortion rights advocates arguing that the legislation was in clear violation of protections afforded by Roe v. Wade, which established that lawmakers may not put excessive government restriction on a womans right to choose.

The architects of this legislation, like those of so many others like it, explicitly developed the law as a test for a conservative Supreme Court. It will appear before the justices as Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization a battle between Mississippis state health director and the states sole remaining abortion clinic.