Mississippi State House easily passes abortion ban after 15 weeks
A bill banning abortion on babies more than 15 weeks old passed the Mississippi state House Friday. This bill, if enacted into law, would make Mississippi the state with the most pro-life laws in America.
Authored by Rep. Becky Currie, District 81, the bill, called the Gestational Age Act, HR 1510, does not allow babies conceived in rape or incest to be aborted after 15 weeks, and easily passed the state vote 79-31.
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“The majority of abortion procedures performed after fifteen (15) weeks’ gestation are dilation and evacuation procedures which involve the use of surgical instruments to crush and tear the unborn child apart before removing the pieces of the dead child from the womb,” the Act explains. “The Legislature finds that the intentional commitment of such acts for nontherapeutic or elective reasons is a barbaric practice, dangerous for the maternal patient, and demeaning to the medical profession.”
“The rest of the civilized world understands the severe health risks entailed by late-term abortions that occur after the first trimester,” Dr. Jameson Taylor, acting president of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, told Life Site News. “This is a commonsense approach to protecting maternal health and protecting the life of the unborn.”
“HB 1510 is supported by faith-based and pro-life organizations across the state,” said Taylor.
“Recent polling (January 2018) indicates the vast majority (76%) of voters support commonsense laws regarding abortion, with a limit after the first trimester being one of the preferred options.”
The bill notes that the hearts of pre-born babies can be measured around six or seven weeks.
“An unborn human being begins to move about in the womb at approximately eight (8) weeks’ gestation,” the bill says. “At nine (9) weeks’ gestation, all basic physiological functions are present. Teeth and eyes are present, as well as external genitalia.”
“An unborn human being’s vital organs begin to function at ten (10) weeks’ gestation,” it continues. “Hair, fingernails, and toenails also begin to form. At eleven (11) weeks’ gestation, an unborn human being’s diaphragm is developing, and he or she may even hiccup. He or she is beginning to move about freely in the womb.”
“At twelve (12) weeks’ gestation, an unborn human being can open and close his or her fingers, starts to make sucking motions, and senses stimulation from the world outside the womb,” the Gestational Age Act says. “Importantly, he or she has taken on ‘the human form in all relevant aspects,’” referencing the Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Carhart, which banned partial-birth abortion because it is too close to infanticide.
At 15 weeks, a pre-born baby is the size of a navel orange.
House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, a Braxton Republican, said Mississippi wants to prevent women from being adversely affected by abortion.
“Women deserve real health care, not some fake health care that involves the destruction of human life and a woman’s health,” said Gipson, a lawyer and Baptist minister.
Felicia Brown-Williams, state director for Planned Parenthood Advocates Southeast, has called the proposal unconstitutional, saying the U.S. Supreme Court won’t allow bans before a fetus can live outside the womb.
“You can’t restrict access pre-viability,” Brown-Williams said.
“This is just another fancy way of telling a woman what to do with her body and when to do it,” said Rep. Sonya Williams-Barnes, a Gulfport Democrat.
Mississippi already bans most abortions after 20 weeks after a woman’s last menstrual period, which is tied with North Carolina for the nation’s earliest ban according to the New York based Guttmacher Institute, a group which opposes abortion restrictions.
