JACKSON, Mississippi, March 6, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Mississippi Senate voted 35 to 14 today to ban abortions on babies older than 15 weeks.
The bill passed the Mississippi House 79-31 last month. The bill will go back to the House for concurrence because senators removed a portion of the bill making it a felony for doctors to abort babies older than 15 weeks. However, it still retains strong protections that hold rogue doctors accountable for irresponsibly risking women’s health.
If Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signs the bill into law, Mississippi will become the state with the most protective pro-life laws in the country. The bill does not contain exceptions for babies conceived in rape or incest.
“Abortion policy in the United States is based on outdated science that the rest of the world rejects,” Dr. Jameson Taylor, acting President of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, told LifeSiteNews. “Health care professionals around the world recognize that late-term abortions, those performed after the first trimester, are harmful for women and also violate the integrity of the medical profession itself.”
“Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and the Mississippi Senate deserve our support and prayers for making Mississippi a leading voice in protecting basic human rights and women’s health,” he said.
Reeves publicly supports the bill.
The operator of Mississippi’s last abortion facility has said she’ll sue if the pro-life bill becomes law.