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Law Prohibiting Late-Term Abortions Overturned by Mississippi Judge

JACKSON, June 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Mississippi state judge has thrown out a law that banned late, second-term abortions by abortuaries.

U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee – misinterpreting the constitution in typical judicial fashion – ruled the law barring women from procuring second-term abortions from private abortion clinics unconstitutional. The law created in 2004, set to come into effect July 1, 2005, required all second-term abortions – those performed after 13 weeks – be performed at hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers.

The ruling allows the single operating abortuary in the state – the misnamed Women’s Health Organization in Jackson – to continue committing the second term abortions – those committed up to and including 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Lee argued that prohibiting the sole abortuary from committing the abortions would have meant there would be no late-term abortion facilities anywhere in the state, because no hospitals or clinics other than the WHO performs abortions, a situation Lee claimed was “unconstitutional as a matter of law,” according to a sunherald.com report.

Pro-Life Mississippi President Terri Herring said, “If we're going to claim to have safe, legal abortion, the least we can do is make it safe. Unless these clinics stop at first trimester, they're not safe. And they're never safe for unborn children.”

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