“The risk to the mother is the prime driver in this bill,”said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, a Republican, reported The Associated Press. “I think the Supreme Court has recognized that the states have an interest in protecting human life.”
Mississippi already outlaws most abortions after 20 weeks gestation.
Abortion proponents allege that putting a cut-off on abortion is unconstitutional. “You can’t restrict access pre-viability,” the state director for Planned Parenthood Advocates Southeast Felicia Brown-Williams said. “I think that’s part of the plan, to get as much anti-abortion legislation headed up through the court system, hoping by the time it gets there, there’s another anti-choice justice.”
The measure will head to the full House for debate. No state currently bans abortion before 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The U.S. Senate failed to pass legislation Monday evening that would prevent doctors from performing abortions on women who are 20 weeks pregnant or more. Fifty-one lawmakers voted for the measure and 46 voted against it, but the bill failed to pass the Senate requirement of 60 votes necessary for a debate on the bill.
President Donald Trump also expressed his disappointment that the bill did not pass. “It is disappointing that despite support from a bipartisan majority of U.S. Senators, this bill was blocked from further consideration,” the president said in a statement. “I urge the Senate to reconsider its decision and pass legislation that will celebrate, cherish, and protect life.”
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