One state is putting teeth into its pledge to care for its most vulnerable citizens. The state is Mississippi, which recently filed its opening brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case over a law that protects women and unborn children.
The Gestational Age Act protects the health of pregnant mothers, the dignity of unborn children, and the integrity of the medical profession by limiting abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, permitting them only in medical emergencies or for severe fetal abnormality. It’s a law consistent with former Gov. Phil Bryant’s stated goal to make Mississippi “the safest place in America for an unborn child."
This is an especially critical goal considering the U.S. as a whole is not a welcoming country for the unborn. In fact, we are an extreme outlier in abortion law and policy: The U.S. is one of only four nations in the world that permits abortion on demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy. This puts us in the company of China and North Korea. European countries like France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Norway, and Switzerland already outlaw abortion on demand after 14 weeks.
Mississippi chose to follow the path of protecting life after 15 weeks, a decision that is consistent with more than 90% of other countries. And the truth is that Mississippi’s commonsense law is also supported by the majority of Americans.
Why? Because women and children deserve the best health care — and abortion on demand, especially in the second and third trimesters, is certainly not that.
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Mississippi’s law advances women’s physical and emotional health and well-being. It ensures women are not put at greater risk of death, illness, or psychological trauma, which can result from later-term abortions. In abortions performed after 15 weeks, women face a higher risk of needing a hysterectomy, other reparative surgery, or a blood transfusion. Furthermore, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, the risk of a mother dying from an abortion rises exponentially (by more than 2,200%) between the eighth and 18th week of her pregnancy.
Mississippi’s law also protects children. By 15 weeks, a baby has a heartbeat, can move and kick, can sense movement outside the mother’s womb, has eyes and eyelids that are beginning to open, and can hiccup. Allowing dismemberment abortions — the most common method of abortion at or after 15 weeks—that can cause substantial pain to an unborn child is barbaric.
Furthermore, this law respects the integrity of the medical profession by ensuring doctors can uphold their oath to protect life, not destroy it.
Mississippi and other states should be free to pass commonsense laws through their democratically elected representatives without interference from the courts. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prohibits states from regulating abortion; in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has already repeatedly held that states are free to regulate abortion to protect unborn children, maternal health, and the dignity of the medical profession. That is exactly what Mississippi did here. Indeed, the state has become a standard-bearer for protecting life in the United States.
Other states should follow Mississippi’s lead in advancing policy that both protects vulnerable women and children and is in line with the will of the people. We at Alliance Defending Freedom are ready to support any states who courageously act in the best interest of their citizens by limiting abortion and protecting vulnerable and innocent life.
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