Mississippi’s 15-Week Abortion Law Ruled Unconstitutional by Federal Judge

On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked Mississippi’s abortion law—one of the most restrictive in the country. Judge Carlton Reeves decided that the law, which bans abortions after merely 15 weeks, “unequivocally” infringes on women’s constitutional rights and that its “professed interest in ‘women’s health’ is pure gaslighting.”

The Mississippi law and the responding lawsuit set up a confrontation sought by abortion opponents, who are hoping federal courts will ultimately prohibit abortions before a fetus is viable outside the womb, the dividing line that the U.S. Supreme Court set in it’s 1973 ruling saying that women have the right to terminate pregnancies. An Iowa law, also challenged in court, bans most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Abortion opponents in the state have for years tried to ban abortions before a fetus becomes visible outside the womb, a restriction that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision back in 1973. Governor Phil Bryan claimed repeatedly that he intended to make Mississippi the “safest place in America for an unborn child.”

Early in March, Mississippi set an extremely strict limit on abortion, prohibiting all abortions with the rare exceptions of either medical emergencies or serious fetal abnormalities. A 15-week ban meant that restrictions began before viability. Under the law, doctors who performed abortions outside the time limit would be suspended, their license revoked. A woman had no legal right to terminate her pregnancy even if it was a result of rape or incest.

Despite wide controversy, supporters of the law believed the ban had women’s interests in heart. “When did looking out for the life, health and overall well-being of a child or its mother start getting labeled as extreme in this country?” Asked State Rep. Dan Eubanks (R) back in March.

“Beyond the obvious debate of trying to save the lives of innocent babies, there is the often less discussed issues that relate to the health of the mother who receives an abortion,” he said.

Those in favor of a woman’s rights over her own body, however, were unsatisfied with Eubanks’ argument and acted against the restrictive legislation. The only abortion clinic in Mississippi, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, took the lead and sued the state immediately after the law came into effect.

In his ruling, Judge Reeves sharply criticized the intention behind passing the bill and outright rejected its legitimacy. According to him, the ban was a calculated move on behalf of the Mississippi state government to push for a complete overturn of Roe v. Wade in the now conservative Supreme Court.

“The State chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional to endorse a decades-long campaign, fueled by national interest groups, to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Reeves wrote. “With the recent changes in the membership of the Supreme Court, it may be that the State believes divine providence covered the Capitol when it passed this legislation. Time will tell.”

Highlighting Mississippi’s high infant mortality rate and the government’s failure to expand Medicaid, Reeves argued that the abortion law symbolized the “old Mississippi” that sought to put down women and minorities.

He also emphasized how problematic it was that men like him, instead of women, were in the position to determine what could happen to a woman’s body.

“As a man, who cannot get pregnant or seek an abortion, I can only imagine the anxiety and turmoil a woman might experience when she decides whether to terminate her pregnancy through an abortion,” read his ruling. “Respecting her autonomy demands that this statute be enjoined.”

Featured image via Rogelio V. Solis/AP