Mississippi’s governor has signed a law banning most abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation, the tightest restrictions in the US.
Phil Bryant has frequently said he wants Mississippi to be the “safest place in America for an unborn child”.
House Bill 1510’s only exceptions are if a foetus has health problems making it “incompatible with life” outside the womb at full term, or if a pregnant woman’s life or a “major bodily function” is threatened by pregnancy.
Pregnancies resulting from rape and incest are not exempted.
The state’s only abortion clinic and one of the physicians who practises there filed a federal lawsuit in Jackson, an hour after it was signed into law.
In a suit handled by the Centre of Reproductive Rights, the Jackson Women’s Health Organisation said the measure is unconstitutional and should immediately be struck down.
The suit says the clinic performed 78 abortions in 2017 when the foetus was identified as being 15 weeks or older. That is out of about 2,500 performed statewide, mostly at the clinic.
The lawsuit says federal courts have ruled women have the right to an abortion before a foetus can live on its own outside the womb.
The Mississippi measure is specifically designed to challenge those rulings, trying to get courts to rule states can restrict abortion before viability.
Mississippi previously tied with North Carolina for the nation’s strictest abortion limits at 20 weeks.
Both states count pregnancy as beginning on the first day of a woman’s previous menstrual period. That means the restrictions kick in about two weeks before those of states whose 20-week bans begin at conception.
“We certainly think this bill is unconstitutional,” said Katherine Klein, equality advocacy co-ordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi.
“The 15-week marker has no bearing in science. It’s just completely unfounded and a court has never upheld anything under the 20-week viability marker.”
The bill was drafted with the assistance of conservative groups including the Mississippi Centre for Public Policy and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
“We’re thrilled that Mississippi lawmakers are taking a step to protect the basic right to life, as well as protecting maternal health,” said Jameson Taylor, acting president of the Mississippi Centre for Public Policy.
Both Republican-controlled chambers passed the bill overwhelmingly in early March, by a vote of 35-14 in the Senate and 76-34 in the House.
The US Senate failed to pass a 20-week abortion ban bill in January. With 60 Yes votes required to advance, the bill failed on a 51-46 vote.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here