JACKSON, March 21 — Mississippi’s Republican governor was due to sign one of America’s strictest abortion bills today banning women from obtaining an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can often occur before a woman even realises she is pregnant.
Dubbed the “heartbeat bill”, this is the second legislative attempt in under a year aimed at restricting abortions in a state with a single abortion clinic.
In a tweet earlier this week, Governor Phil Bryant thanked the state’s legislature for “protecting the unborn” by passing the bill and sending it to him for his signature.
The Mississippi bill joins a wave of similar Republican-backed measures recently introduced in Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.
Conservative Republican proponents say these bills are intended to challenge Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark ruling that women have a constitutional right to an abortion.
US states are jostling for a showdown on abortion rights in 2019, with all eyes on the conservative-dominated Supreme Court.
Just last November, a US federal judge struck down a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, ruling that it “unequivocally” violates women’s constitutional rights.
The new Mississippi bill prohibits the abortion of a foetus with a detectable heartbeat, before the point where a woman may be aware she is pregnant.
It also states that any physician who violates the restriction is subject to losing their license to practice medicine.
The bill makes exceptions for women whose health is at extreme risk. It is a victory for anti-abortion groups, but abortion rights advocates have promised to pursue legal action if Bryant signs the bill.
“The term ‘heartbeat bill’ is a manipulative misnomer,” The Center for Reproductive Rights, a global abortion rights advocacy group, tweeted yesterday. “These bills actually rob women of their choice to have an #abortion before they even know they’re pregnant.”
The group added that it would sue Bryant if he signs the bill into law.
A foetus that is viable outside the womb, usually at 24 weeks, has widely been considered the threshold in the United States to prohibit an abortion.
Last week, a federal judge blocked Kentucky’s fetal heartbeat abortion law. An Iowa judge overturned that state’s heartbeat law in January after declaring it violated the state’s constitution. — Reuters
