{"id":246127,"date":"2021-05-29T09:08:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T14:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=246127"},"modified":"2021-05-31T17:36:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T22:36:23","slug":"allowing-mississippi-abortion-ban-save-women-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/allowing-mississippi-abortion-ban-save-women-babies\/","title":{"rendered":"If SCOTUS upholds Mississippi’s abortion ban, women and babies’ lives will be saved"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed<\/a> to take up the case of the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban HB 1510<\/a>, known as the “Gestational Age Act.” The case considers at what point during pregnancy states are allowed to restrict abortion. While the text<\/a> of the bill clearly says that the authors chose 15 weeks because of the brutality of D&E abortions \u2014\u00a0the most common type of abortion procedure used on preborn children this age \u2014\u00a0it also states that it aims to protect women from the complications of abortion, which increase as the gestational age of the preborn child increases.<\/p>\n

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization<\/em><\/a> will give SCOTUS the opportunity to reconsider Roe v. Wade<\/em>, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the United States, as well as Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/em>, the 1992 case that\u00a0affirmed\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>\u00a0and set viability as the standard for when abortion can and cannot be restricted.<\/p>\n

In Planned Parenthood v. Casey<\/em>, SCOTUS determined that states have “legitimate interests from the outset of pregnancy in protecting the health of women.” In addition, the 1981 Supreme Court case H.L v. Matheson<\/em> stated that the “medical, emotional, and psychological consequences of abortion are serious and can be lasting.”<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Abortionists agree: D&E abortions are \u2018destructive and violent\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Taking these rulings into consideration, the Mississippi 15-week ban states, “Abortion carries significant physical and psychological risks to the maternal patient, and these physical and psychological risks increase with gestational age. Specifically, in abortions performed after eight (8) weeks’ gestation, the relative physical and psychological risks escalate exponentially as gestational age increases. […]\u00a0Importantly, as the second trimester progresses<\/em>, in the vast majority of uncomplicated pregnancies, the maternal health risks of undergoing an abortion are greater than the risks of carrying a pregnancy to term<\/em>.” (emphasis added)<\/p>\n

The bill lists some of these complications, which include infection, incomplete abortion, blood clots, hemorrhage, and perforation of the cervix, uterus, bowel, or bladder. After 15 weeks, states the bill, “there is a higher risk of requiring a hysterectomy, other reparative surgery, or blood transfusion.”\u00a0These statements are supported by research.<\/p>\n

Research\u00a0published<\/a> by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, found, “The younger the gestational age, the lower the risk of complications” from abortion. It also noted that the “risk of septic (life-threatening blood infection) abortions is markedly increased with advanced gestational age.”<\/p>\n

Additional research published in Obstetrics and Gynecology revealed that\u00a0\u201clate-term abortions carry a\u00a091 times greater risk of death<\/a>\u00a0than first trimester abortions.\u201d And research published by BMC Women’s Health<\/a> found that “[g]estational age and the method of surgical abortion have been reported to be the most significant and interrelated factors that cumulatively affect abortion-related morbidity” and that the risks of complications “increase exponentially with increasing gestational age.”<\/p>\n

However, the dangers of even legal first trimester chemical and surgical abortions should not be understated, as women have died from both<\/a>, and ambulances<\/a> are summoned<\/a> on a frequent basis to abortion facilities across the country for women experiencing complications after first trimester abortions. And yet, even with these risks, several<\/a> states have passed<\/a> laws to allow<\/a> non-physicians<\/em> to commit these procedures.<\/p>\n