The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, upending decades of legal precedent in the United States and allowing states to enact full abortion bans. But in Mississippi, some abortions will remain legal until a 2007 trigger law goes into effect, likely in early July.
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.
Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn said on May 9, 2022, that “the Mississippi House of Representatives would not move legislation banning contraceptives forward,” describing concerns over the possibility in the event of the overturn of Roe v. Wade as left-wing “scaremongering.” But in 2011, Gunn endorsed the Personhood Amendment, a ballot initiative 58% of voters rejected that would have banned all abortions in addition to endangering several forms of contraception, such as IUDs and Plan B.
Bridget Bartlett writes that the possible overturning of Roe. v. Wade highlights a grave problem in the Magnolia State: a severe shortage of reproductive-health physicians.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves left viewers unclear on his views about banning contraception during interviews on two national TV shows Sunday morning.
Pink House Defender Derenda Hancock felt numb as she stood outside the entrance to the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, waving her arms to beckon abortion patients to ignore the anti-abortion protesters accosting their cars and pull on into the parking lot. The night before, on Monday, May 2, a draft of the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization had leaked, indicating the U.S. Supreme Court’s intentions to overturn Roe v. Wade.
A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the precedent that has underpinned abortion rights in the United States for 49 years, according to a leaked draft of a ruling Politico reported this evening.
Mississippi is no longer the sole state without an equal-pay law on the books after Gov. Tate Reeves signed the Mississippi Equal Pay for Equal Work Act into law Thursday with state Attorney General Lynn Fitch at his side.
On Thursday, the Mississippi Legislature sent the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk, potentially paving the way for the Magnolia State to end its distinction as the only state without such a law. But the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, a leading group that has lobbied for legislation guaranteeing equal pay for women for years, was not celebrating.
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