On Tuesday, a Mississippi judge rejected a request from the state’s last standing abortion clinic to temporarily block a state law that will ban most abortions. The clinic will close its doors Wednesday as a result.
On Tuesday, Townhall covered how a judge held a hearing to consider the challenge brought forth by Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the abortion clinic at the center of the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade late last month. The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, surrounded a 15-week abortion ban in the state. With Roe overturned, states will make their own laws around abortion.
The Hill reported Tuesday evening that Jackson Women’s Health will close at the end of business Wednesday as a new “trigger” law in Mississippi takes effect on Thursday. One of the clinic’s attorneys, Hillary Schneller, from the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that the judge should have blocked the law from taking effect.
“People in Mississippi who need abortions right now are in a state of panic, trying to get into the clinic before it’s too late,” Schneller said. “No one should be forced to live in fear like that.”
As Townhall reported, Jackson Women’s Health filed a lawsuit to block the trigger law shortly after Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced it was impending. The clinic had 10 days from Fitch's announcement before it took effect.
In a statement, GOP Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said “this law has the potential to save the lives of thousands of unborn Mississippi children. It is a great victory for life. I also believe it is critical that we showcase to every mother and child that they are loved and that their communities will support them. We have much more work to do. Every life has inherent dignity and Mississippi will continue to do everything it can to advance the fight for life.”
“The trigger law will go into effect on July 7th, as planned,” he added.
Last summer, Fitch filed an amicus brief in the Dobbs case asking the justices to overturn Roe and Casey. In her brief, Fitch outlined how the United States Constitution does not protect the right to abortion.
“Roe and Casey are egregiously wrong. The conclusion that abortion is a constitutional right has no basis in text, structure, history, or tradition,” Fitch said in the brief. “So the question becomes whether this Court should overrule those decisions. It should.”
“The Constitution does not protect a right to abortion. The Constitution’s text says nothing about abortion. Nothing in the Constitution’s structure implies a right to abortion or prohibits States from restricting it,” Fitch continued in the brief. “Casey repeats Roe’s flaws by failing to tie a right to abortion to anything in the Constitution. And abortion is fundamentally different from any right this Court has ever endorsed. No other right involves, as abortion does, ‘the purposeful termination of a potential life.’”
In the majority opinion for Dobbs, the justices echoed Fitch’s arguments.
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” the opinion stated.
“Like the infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe was also egregiously wrong and on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided. Casey perpetuated its errors, calling both sides of the national controversy to resolve their debate, but in doing so, Casey necessarily declared a winning side. Those on the losing side—those who sought to advance the State’s interest in fetal life—could no longer seek to persuade their elected representatives to adopt policies consistent with their views. The Court short-circuited the democratic process by closing it to the large number of Americans who disagreed with Roe.”