Mississippi bans abortion based on race, sex, genetic issues

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press
Updated 8:26 pm CDT, Wednesday, July 1, 2020

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a law Wednesday that bans abortion based on the race, sex or genetic anomalies of a fetus, adding new limits in a state that already has some of the strictest abortion laws in the U.S.

Supporters say the new law would prevent abortion for Down syndrome or other conditions.

“Women should not be pressured to have an abortion because their child is different: of a different ability, of a different race, of a different sex,” Jameson Taylor, vice president for policy with the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, said in a statement Wednesday.

Opponents said it would unconstitutionally interfere with private medical decisions in a state with one abortion clinic.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Mississippi-bans-abortion-based-on-race-sex-15381112.php

[Warpy]

1. Who do these men think they are?

Gods?

Uh, no, they don't get to decide to force a woman through pregnancy and childbirth to produce a child whose time can be measured in hours or days and/or who will eat up all the family's resources with the kind of care a severely damaged child will require. Taking all that on has to be a choice and the one person who has no voice in it is some idiot politician with a religious bug up his ass.

I hope this one will be struck down in record time. I hope Taylor's career goes with it.

[Miguelito Loveless]

16. Well, all the pictures they see of "God" is

of an old white man, so I'll go with, "Yes".

[Nevilledog]

25. My response to Reeves & Taylor

[PTWB]

2. Who are these women that are proclaiming they're going to abort...

Because their baby is the “wrong” race or sex?

[not_the_one]

3. I bet the fundigelical women would be lining up for abortions

if they could actually locate that damned GAY gene.

[Jedi Guy]

12. I wondered about that too.

Also, how do they plan to determine and enforce this law? All a hypothetical woman seeking an abortion has to do is assert that she doesn't wish to have a child. Do they plan to make her pinky promise that she's not getting an abortion for the "wrong" reason(s)?

[CTyankee]

18. And if the clinic does know, it doesn't have to list her reason.

[Jedi Guy]

20. Yep. This is undoubtedly one of those laws that they enacted knowing it'd be stuck down.

The intent is to nibble around the edges, working towards the core. As someone else on the thread said, "If you don't like abortions, don't get one." I'll add, "And mind your own business." Alas, live-and-let-live seems to have gone out of fashion.

[yaesu]

4. redneck religious talk for ban abortion at any cost. nt

[Faux pas]

5. Kickin' with disgust!

And

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. As I like to say, if you don't believe in abortion, then don't have one.

[usajumpedtheshark]

7. Maybe a new Mississippi motto?

"We care about you until you are born and after that we couldn't give a damn"

[Dem2theMax]

8. That's not just for Mississippi.

That's the Republican motto.

[Major Nikon]

15. Not even then

Fun fact: Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate in the nation. How many of them give a shit about funding pre-natal care in areas with high infant mortality rates?

They are forced birthers who want to impose their idea of morality on others.

[madeup64]

9. The worst part is they think they are doing a good thing

Now a women who learns her child has severe birth defects is forced to give birth to the child and wait for it to die? Or worse watch it die?

I just find it hard to believe that if God exists he would want this to happen. I think he would prefer legislation that created free prenatal care facilities for women instead.

No one is pressuring women to get abortions! So disgusting. Acting like medical care providers are out soliciting abortions.

[demigoddess]

22. I have a child with severe birth defects. Several times during the years

I would be accosted on the street about how I 'made' it happen. Even my husbands family. Also one school, they put butcher paper over the windows so normal kids in the school did not have to see the retarded kids. Parents were treated like trash. That was pro-life!

[louzke9]

10. This will be challenged...

in court and the law will be struck down. Secondly, abortion is legal, how can they prove anything? Mississippi has NO LEGAL RIGHT/access to medical information. By federal law, medical records ARE PRIVATE. Is Mississippi going to post police at every abortion clinic, doctors' office or hospital? If a woman wants an abortion, how does Mississippi prove that decision is based on race and/or the other reasons? Abortion is legal, NO MATTER the reason.

[eggplant]

17. It's not intended to stop women.

It's meant to threaten doctors who perform abortions, and thus close down the one remaining clinic.

[RussBLib]

13. Back to being Mississippi

You just knew the flag thing wasn't a real trend

[LiberalFighter]

14. Last I knew women were not being pressured to have an abortion.

But they are pressured to not have one.

[mwooldri]

19. Somewhat mixed thoughts here.

In some cultures there is pressure to abort based on the fact that a foetus isn't male. The idea that a pregnant woman wants to terminate a pregnancy simply because the foetus is female is something I have trouble wrapping my head around.

I don't know why anyone would seek an abortion based on the race of the foetus. That seems nonsensical to me. A loving biracial couple who wanted a child together wouldn't care on "race". Other pregnancies would generally be terminated on more fundamental grounds; race wouldn't be part of the equation.

For genetic abnormalities - that seems way too broad. Some genetic abnormalities are so horrendous that the foetus will not be viable as a child. Others can be treated and/or lived with.

Ultimately the abortion decision is between patient and doctor. In any case I can see this new law being struck down in... 3... 2... 1... because it's badly written and there are better ways to make abortion rare

[NNadir]

21. When was my wife was pregnant with my oldest son, we got back a test...

...that indicated he had a better than 25% chance of having a syndrome, Edward's syndrome, trisomy 18, which is nearly always fatal within the first five years of life, and often results in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) before the fetus comes to term.

Fortunately the genetic test came back negative and normal. As it was, he was born with a worrying birth defect, but one quite manageable. He's 25 and he's a great joy to me.

The time waiting for that test was traumatic. I'd be damned if I would be willing to let some dumb shit Republican redneck bastard to be a participant in the decisions that needed to be made at that time.

[demigoddess]

23. amen.

[Ilsa]

26. Exactly. And if they can tell you the circumstances

Under which you cannot abort, then they can force an abortion on you when it is clear a child will eventually become dependent on the state.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

24. Free, on demand, without apology. Nothing less.