Federal court strikes down Mississippi’s controversial ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion law that would ban terminations past six weeks
- A panel of judges temporarily blocked the ban, which was passed in 2019
- The law would have been one of the most restrictive in the United States, banning most terminations once a fetal heartbeat could be detected
- ‘Patients would lose their right to have an abortion before they even know they’re pregnant’, the director of the state’s only abortion clinic said
- Mississippi was one of seven states to pass abortion bans in 2019
A federal appeals court has struck down the controversial Mississippi abortion law that would have effectively banned terminations past six weeks – when women may not even realize they are pregnant.
The law has been temporarily blocked after judges of the Fifth District found it unconstitutional because it would ban abortion before the point when a fetus could survive outside of the womb.
The ban, passed by the state in 2019, has been criticized by campaigners for women’s rights.
Judges of the Fifth District found the law – which would have been one of the strictest in the U.S. – unconstitutional because it would ban abortion before a fetus could survive outside of the womb
The only abortion clinic in Mississippi, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, sued the state after Phil Bryant, the former Republican governor, signed the bill into law.
The abortion law would have been one of the most restrictive in the U.S., banning most terminations once fetal cardiac activity can be detected – which can be at around six weeks.
‘A ban at six weeks of pregnancy means many of our patients would lose their right to have an abortion before they even know they’re pregnant,’ Shannon Brewer, director of the abortion provider, told CBS.
‘Most of our patients are past that point. Some have spent weeks saving money for the procedure and have driven hundreds of miles to reach us.’
The director of the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, said women would lose their right to a termination before they even knew they were pregnant
The clinic said that it provides abortions up to 16 weeks.
Mississippi is one of seven states that passed an abortion ban in 2019 – but all have been blocked by courts.
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio and Kentucky and Missouri all put forward their own bills.
In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey signed the strictest bill – a near-total ban on the procedure with no exceptions for rape or incest.
The states have been enacting laws aimed at spurring court challenges that could eventually seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, the court’s landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.