More moves to outlaw abortion in US Deep South

IF A NEW Mississippi law survives a court challenge, it will be nearly impossible for most pregnant women to get an abortion there.

Or, potentially, in neighbouring Louisiana. Or Alabama. Or Georgia.

The Louisiana legislature is halfway towards passing a law – like those enacted in state governments – on a course to virtually eliminate abortion access in large chunks of the Deep South and Midwest. Ohio and Kentucky have also passed heartbeat laws; Missouri’s Republican-controlled legislature is considering one.

Their hope is that a more conservative US Supreme Court will approve, spelling the end of the constitutional right to abortion.

“For pro-life folks, these are huge victories,” said Sue Liebel, state director for the Susan B Anthony List, an anti-abortion advocacy group.

“And I think they’re indicative of the momentum and excitement and the hope that’s happening with changes in the Supreme Court and having such a pro-life president.”

Already, Mississippi mandates a 24-hour wait between an in-person consultation. That means women must make at least two trips to the clinic, often travelling long distances.

Other states have passed similar, incremental laws restricting abortion in recent years, and aside from Mississippi, five states have just one clinic — Kentucky, Missouri, North and South Dakota and West Virginia.

But the latest efforts to bar the procedure represent the largest assault on abortion rights in decades.

Lawmakers sponsoring the bans have made it clear their goal is to spark court challenges in hopes of ultimately overturning the 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalising abortion.

Those challenges have begun. Abortion clinic owner Diane Derzis’ attorneys are scheduled to go before a judge on May 21, seeking to prevent Mississippi’s heartbeat law from taking effect on July 1.

A judge in Kentucky blocked enforcement of that state’s heartbeat ban after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit on behalf of the clinic in Louisville.

Similar legal action is expected before bans can take effect in Ohio and Georgia, where Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed the latest heartbeat bill into law last Tuesday.

Kemp said he welcomed the fight, vowing: “We will not back down.”

Georgia’s ban doesn’t take effect until January 1. But the impact was immediate. An abortion clinic operated by The Women’s Centers in Atlanta began receiving anxious calls from patients soon after Kemp signed the law. Many callers had plans to travel from outside the state for abortions.

Georgia’s heartbeat ban would have a wider impact because the state has 17 abortion clinics – more than the combined total in the other four Southern states that have passed or are considering bans.

Dr Ernest Marshall, co-founder of Kentucky’s last remaining abortion clinic in Louisville, said banning abortions before most women know they’re pregnant would “have a disproportionate impact on poor women and communities of colour people throughout the South”.

Advocates for abortion rights expect judges to halt enforcement of any new bans while lawsuits work their way through the courts. That could take years.