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Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn says abortion should be illegal even for a 12-year-old rape victim carrying her father or uncle’s child.
A near-total ban on abortion will become law in Mississippi in 10 days after Attorney General Lynn Fitch published a bulletin with the Mississippi Secretary of State this morning certifying that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade this morning, paving the way for states like Mississippi to restrict abortion access to a greater extent than any time in the last half century. The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization immediately allows Mississippi’s ban on nearly all abortions after 15 weeks to go into effect.
Hundreds of young Mississippians and Alabamans knelt in a dark room, their foreheads to the floor and tears streaming down their faces as each mouthed inaudible prayers, a foreboding melody drowning out their voices. On the stage in front of them, violet lights illuminated the hair of musicians and ministers on the stage, save for a balding man with a thick mustache who squeezed his eyes and rocked back-and-forth as he spoke.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves confirmed this weekend that his state will swiftly move to enact a trigger law banning nearly all abortions starting from the moment of conception if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade.
The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear Mississippi’s challenge to Roe v. Wade for more than a month, but leading abortion-rights organizers say they are not holding out hope for a favorable ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Instead, they are preparing for a post-Roe Mississippi.Â
Abortion-rights activists are alarmed after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a Texas law that bans almost all abortions to go into effect today, but caution that it does not necessarily foreshadow how the court will decide an upcoming Mississippi case that could determine the fate of Roe v. Wade.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that upheld a woman’s right to an abortion before fetal viability. The brief is part of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case the nation’s high court is set to hear in the fall over Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves erroneously claimed during a weekend interview that 15-week-old fetuses can survive outside the womb. That is at least seven weeks earlier than the point at which fetal viability becomes even marginally possible, scientific studies show.
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