{"id":191443,"date":"2018-11-21T15:35:55","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T21:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=191443"},"modified":"2018-11-26T11:13:29","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T17:13:29","slug":"federal-judge-mississippi-ban-abortions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/federal-judge-mississippi-ban-abortions\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge strikes down Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UPDATE, 11\/26\/18<\/strong><\/span>: According to the Daily Journal<\/a>, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, says he plans to appeal the U.S. District Court judge’s ruling because “other federal circuits have reviewed laws banning abortion at 15 to 20 weeks, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has not yet reviewed such a case,” wrote the Journal.\u00a0\u201cBecause there is no controlling decision from our Fifth Circuit, it is our duty to appeal this ruling,\u201d the Journal quotes Hood as saying.<\/p>\n

11\/21\/18<\/strong>: In March 2018, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed a 15-week abortion ban into law. The ban, called the “Gestational Age Act,” would have stopped abortion in the state after 15 weeks, with exceptions<\/a> for a medical emergency — including a woman’s life or a threat to one of her major bodily functions — or a severe fetal abnormality. Currently, Mississippi has a single abortion facility<\/a>, and that facility took the state to court, challenging the abortion ban.<\/p>\n

Today, U.S. District Court Judge\u00a0Carlton W. Reeves put a permanent injunction on the law, calling it “a ban” and “not a regulation.” Mississippi has not hidden its desire to make abortion<\/a> illegal and unthinkable in the state. Gov. Bryant told local news<\/a>: “I hope at some point, Mississippi is free of abortion completely. And I hope it is before I leave office.”<\/p>\n

READ: Why we must stop the dismemberment of living children<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Judge Reeves, the 15-week ban is unconstitutional, and not in line with U.S. Supreme Court precedent. But current precedent of\u00a0Roe v.\u00a0<\/em>Wade\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/em> is out of step with modern civil rights and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Mississippi will now have a chance to appeal to a federal circuit court and continue to make the case that U.S. abortion law is barbaric, inhumane, and a violation of basic human dignity.<\/p>\n

Mississippi’s law is not the first of its kind to be heard by federal judges, as a number of similar laws are making the rounds in court. A Kentucky ban on D&E abortions (which would include the majority of abortions committed between 13 and 24 weeks of pregnancy) is at trial<\/a>. A Texas ban on D&E abortions is awaiting oral arguments<\/a> in the 5th Circuit, after a Texas federal judge ruled against the law.<\/p>\n