Mississippi has become the most difficult state in America to get an abortion after Governor Phil Bryant signed a law on Monday banning abortions after 15 weeks of gestation.
The state now holds the country’s earliest abortion ban, which does not make exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
The law, known as the Gestational Age Act, does make exceptions for medical cases or emergencies when there is a “severe fetal abnormality”, CNN reports. Doctors who perform an abortion after 15 weeks and violate the law could have their medical liscenes suspended.
“I am committed to making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child, and this bill will help us achieve that goal,” Governor Bryant wrote on Twitter after signing the bill.
During the signing, the governor said: “We are saving more of the unborn than any state in America, and what better thing we could do.
“We’ll probably be sued here in about a half hour, and that’ll be fine with me. It is worth fighting over.”
The only thing the governor was right on was the level of opposition the law would face. As The New York Times reports, Jackson Women’s Health Organization lodged a complaint in the United States District Court less than 30 minutes after it was signed. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the only abortion clinic in the state.
You can find out more about Australian abortion law and practice here.
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