The Supreme Court on Monday is taking 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.

The cases Monday involve two challenges to the structure of the Texas law, which bans abortion after doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat, about six weeks into a pregnancy. The law, known as S.B. 8, was designed to make it hard to challenge in court. The proceedings began at 10 a.m. ET.

“SB8 is an abortion prohibition, but the issues before this court are far more sweeping to allow Texas’ scheme to stand would provide a roadmap for other states to abrogate any decision of this court with which they disagree," Marc Hearron of the Center for Reproductive Rights, representing Texas abortion clinics, argued Monday.

Because the Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot ban abortion before the age of fetal viability, around 24 weeks, Texas officials could not enforce the ban themselves. So the law delegates enforcement, allowing any private individual to sue anyone who carries out or aids in an abortion.