Mississippi to take abortion case to Supreme Court

Mississippi’s outgoing governor vowed Saturday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the state’s ban on abortion at 15 weeks.

“We will sustain our efforts to fight for America’s unborn children,” Republican Phil Bryant wrote on Twitter. “Mississippi will continue this mission to the United States Supreme Court.”

The call came a day after a federal appeals court ruled the ban was unconstitutional. But supporters of the Mississippi ban, and those like it passed in other states, have been aiming for the Supreme Court all along. They hope that new conservative justices will spur the high court to take up abortion challenges and overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion rights nationwide.

Mississippi’s ban has never taken effect. It was blocked by U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves in 2018 — a move the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled was correct.

The only abortion clinic in Mississippi sued the state after Bryant signed the law. The clinic said it provides abortions until 16 weeks.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented the abortion clinic in its appeal, said that the state is wasting money trying to defend abortion bans.

“The Fifth Circuit recognized today what is obvious: Mississippi’s abortion ban defies decades of Supreme Court precedent,” Hillary Schneller, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “With this ruling, Mississippi — and other states trying to put abortion out of reach — should finally get the message.”

Almost all Republican lawmakers and some Democrats in Mississippi have opposed abortion.

Phil Bryant