Judge holds hearing on challenge of Mississippi abortion law

JACKSON, Miss. — A choose held a listening to Tuesday however did not say how she would resolve a lawsuit filed by Mississippi’s solely abortion clinic, which is making an attempt to stay open by blocking a regulation that may ban most abortions within the state.

The regulation — which state lawmakers handed earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned the 1973 ruling that allowed abortions nationwide — is ready to take impact Thursday.

The Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group sought a short lived restraining order that may enable it to stay open, not less than whereas the lawsuit stays in court docket.

The intently watched lawsuit is a part of a flurry of exercise that has occurred nationwide for the reason that Supreme Court docket dominated. Conservative states have moved to halt or restrict abortions whereas others have sought to make sure abortion rights, all as some ladies attempt to receive the medical process towards the altering authorized panorama.

In the meantime a Florida choose on Tuesday quickly blocked a brand new 15-week abortion ban days after it took impact within the state, an anticipated transfer following an oral ruling final week wherein he stated the regulation violated the state structure.

In Mississippi, if Chancery Decide Debbra Okay. Halford grants the clinic’s request to dam the brand new state regulation from taking impact, the choice might be shortly appealed to the state Supreme Court docket. Halford presided at a listening to with out issuing a call or saying when she would rule.

The brand new Mississippi regulation says abortion might be authorized provided that the pregnant girl’s life is at risk or if a being pregnant is attributable to a rape reported to regulation enforcement. It doesn’t have an exception for pregnancies attributable to incest.

Mississippi was one among a number of states with a “set off” regulation contingent on the Supreme Court docket overturning Roe v. Wade. The regulation was handed in 2007 and has by no means been challenged in court docket.

The clinic’s lawsuit cites a 1998 Mississippi Supreme Court docket ruling that stated the state structure invokes a proper to privateness that “contains an implied proper to decide on whether or not or to not have an abortion.” That state determination was rooted in U.S. Supreme Court docket selections in 1973 and 1992 that established or protected abortion rights however have been overturned on June 24.

In arguments filed Sunday, the state lawyer common’s workplace stated the Mississippi Structure doesn’t acknowledge a proper to abortion and the state has an extended historical past of limiting the process.

“Textual content, historical past, and precedent all present that the Mississippi Structure doesn’t shield a proper to abortion and that the legal guidelines listed below are legitimate,” the lawyer common’s workplace wrote.

The lawsuit was filed three days after the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade in a case that originated in Mississippi.

The clinic has continued to see sufferers, however proprietor Diane Derzis stated it is going to shut if the near-ban on abortions takes impact.