The primary issue before the U.S. Supreme Court December 1 was abortion, but a swirl of other critical questions drew the justices' attention.
Among those questions was how the court's decision on abortion might affect its previous pro-LGBTQ decisions and the perception that the nation's highest court is increasingly seen as being motivated by politics.
Such prominent LGBTQ decisions as Lawrence v. Texas (which struck down bans on consensual sex between same-sex partners) and Obergefell v.
Hodges (which struck down bans on marriage between same-sex partners) were part of the mix in the two-hour argument over a new Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.