Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Monday signed a bill into law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks, the most restrictive in the U.S.
The law, which is likely to face legal challenges, provides exemptions if a fetus would be unable to survive outside the womb or if a pregnant woman’s life or “major bodily function” is threatened. It does not provide exemptions for rape or incest.
Bryant, a Republican, has said he wants Mississippi to be the “safest place in America for an unborn child.”
Shortly after Bryant signed the ban into law, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of the only abortion clinic in the state, Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The clinic performs abortions up to 16 weeks and had pledged to sue.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is asking the court to block it from going into law, saying it was unconstitutional. It pointed to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that made abortion legal nationwide, to bolster its argument because the law specifies that states are not to ban abortions up to “fetal viability.”
The organization said it was “confident this dangerous bill will be struck down.”
“All women deserve access to safe and legal abortion care, no matter their ZIP code,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the group. “Yet Mississippi politicians have shown once again that they will stop at nothing to deny women this fundamental right, targeting the state’s last remaining clinic in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court and decades of settled precedent.
A Senate bill that would have banned abortion after 20 weeks failed this year. Mississippi was among 17 states that had such bans until the more restrictive law passed Monday.
