ABORTION

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for the legal fight. They are looking for a case that could make its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to either reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a nationwide right to abortion, or uphold specific state laws that would undermine Roe.

When U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves blocked Mississippi’s 15-week ban in November, he wrote: “The record is clear: States may not ban abortions prior to viability.”

Reeves wrote that viability must be determined by trained medical professionals, and the “established medical consensus” is that viability typically begins at 23 to 24 weeks after the pregnant woman’s last menstrual period. A full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks.

The Mississippi House and Senate passed separate heartbeat bills last week, House Bill 723 and Senate Bill 2116

. They must agree on a single bill to send Bryant, who is term-limited and cannot seek re-election this year.

The two candidates who have raised the most money in the governor’s race, Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, both say they oppose abortion.

“A beating heart means life has begun and should be protected,” Reeves said in a statement after the Senate voted Wednesday. “This bill is another step in our work to make Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child.”

The attorney general’s office is defending Mississippi’s 15week abortion ban, and Hood says it would also defend the “heartbeat” bill if it becomes law.

“I’ve defended every bill that the Legislature has passed on abortion. That’s my duty as attorney general. I don’t personally believe that abortion is right,” Hood said at a public

affairs forum Feb. 11. He said, however, that some politicians try to “dupe” people into thinking the state can enact abortion restrictions unchecked.

“It’s awful to try to mislead good, churchgoing people who vote on one issue, to mislead them and tell them, ‘I’m going to stop it,’” Hood said.

He said the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether abortion laws passed by Mississippi and other states are constitutional.

Heartbeat bills have been filed in previous years but have died in committees in the Mississippi Legislature. Republican state Rep. Robert Foster of Hernando, who is now running for governor, filed one in 2018.

“It shouldn’t have taken an election year to get this desperate piece of legislation out,” Foster wrote Wednesday on Twitter. “Imagine the head start we could have had if they would have let this bill out of committee in years past.”