A U.S. federal judge has struck down a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, ruling that it “unequivocally” violates women’s constitutional rights.
The law, considered one of the most restrictive in the country, was passed in March. It had already been put on hold by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves after the state’s lone abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, immediately sued.
Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, states may not ban abortions before a fetus is viable, and the medical consensus is that viability typically begins between 23 and 24 weeks, Reeves wrote on Nov. 20. Several states have 20-week abortion bans in place.
Mississippi lawmakers had argued that because the law made exceptions in the case of a medical emergency or severe fatal abnormality, it didn’t place an “undue burden” on a woman choosing whether or not to get an abortion.
Political
The judge claimed that Mississippi elected officials had passed the statute they knew was unconstitutional.“The real reason we are here is simple. The state chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional to endorse a decadeslong campaign, fueled by national interest groups, to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Reeves wrote, referring to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case.
“This court follows the commands of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the United States Constitution, rather than the disingenuous calculations of the Mississippi Legislature,” he added. The U.S. Constitution doesn’t mention abortion.
In another part of his ruling, the judge claimed that the state Legislature’s “professed interest in ‘women’s health’ is pure gaslighting,” telling them they should focus on “our alarming infant and maternal mortality rate.”
Governor
Gov. Phil Bryant hasn’t commented on the ruling but said in March after signing the ban, “I am committed to making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child.”“I am confused about where the outrage is at—about 20 million African-American children that have been aborted,” Bryant said. “No one wants to say anything about that. No one wants to talk about that.”