Abortion Rights Group Sues Mississippi Over Abortion Laws

By Avery Anapol, The Hill

09 April 18

n abortion rights group is suing the state of Mississippi over its abortion laws.

The Center for Reproductive Rights alleges in a 59-page lawsuit that the state has been conducting a “25-year legislative campaign to eliminate women’s constitutional right to access abortion.”

The group filed the suit following a new state law banning abortions after 15 weeks, the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, which the group argues is “unconstitutional.”

“Mississippi has attempted to circumvent the Supreme Court’s rulings by passing a series of targeted laws and regulations designed to choke off access to abortion in the state, primarily by decreasing the number of providers of abortion care, while at the same time delaying and misinforming women who manage to reach these providers,” the lawsuit reads.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) signed the 15-week ban bill into law last month, prompting the state’s only abortion clinic to immediately sue, claiming the measure is unconstitutional.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the law until April 13. The law bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, down from a 20-week restriction the state already has in place.

The lawsuit filed Monday is also on behalf of the clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It challenges several of the state’s abortion laws, including the new 15-week ban, the mandatory 24-hour waiting period between a consultation and procedure and a requirement that only physicians can perform abortions.