Mississippi Fights Order Blocking Six-Week Abortion Restriction
A federal court should have considered Mississippi’s licit interests in protecting unborn life and women’s health before blocking the state from enforcing a law restricting abortions after about six weeks’ gestation, the state told the Fifth Circuit.
Mississippi wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn a lower court order prohibiting it from enforcing S.B. 2116. The law prohibits any person from knowingly performing an abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected using standard medical means, except when necessary to prevent a woman’s death or serious injury.
The legislation, also known as a “heartbeat bill,” prohibits abortions after an ultrasound can detect electric activity from what will become a fetus’ heart, a progress that could come just six weeks into a pregnancy.
