A federal judge blocked the Mississippi six-week abortion ban that was set to go into effect in July.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, an Obama appointee, issued the injunction Friday, writing that the law “prevents a woman’s free choice, which is central to personal dignity and autonomy.”
Reeves previously blocked a law in Mississippi that would have banned abortion past 15 weeks into a pregnancy. While hearing the oral arguments Tuesday, he said the law “smacks of defiance to this court.”
“This Court previously found the 15-week ban to be an unconstitutional violation of substantive due process because the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that women have the right to choose an abortion prior to viability, and a fetus is not viable at 15 weeks,” Reeves wrote in Friday’s order. “If a fetus is not viable at 15 weeks it is not viable at 6 weeks.”
Judges default to the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in such cases. It legalized abortion across the U.S. until fetal viability, which is generally understood to be roughly 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
A handful of red states have passed similar six-week bans in the hopes that the Supreme Court would overturn the ruling now that it tilts more conservative with the additions of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch. Supporters call such bans “heartbeat bills” because they make abortion illegal from the time a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat.
