Sept. 20, 2021
Carson
City, NV
– Today, Attorney General Aaron D. Ford joined a coalition of 24 state
attorneys general in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold
its precedents protecting a woman’s right to decide before viability
whether to carry a pregnancy to term. In an amicus brief filed with the Court,
the coalition argues that Mississippi’s pre-viability abortion ban is
unconstitutional and should remain
unconstitutional. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe
v. Wade that the Constitution does not permit states to prohibit
a woman from deciding before viability whether to carry her pregnancy
to term. That ruling was affirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in
1992 and reaffirmed in the following decades. In today’s brief, the coalition
argues that Mississippi’s ban is unconstitutional under settled law, and that
the Court should continue to uphold this well-established precedent.
“I
am committed to defending the constitutional reproductive rights of our
citizens against these ongoing attacks on healthcare,” said AG Ford. “There
is a coordinated effort in recent years to overturn legal precedent that has
stood since 1973, and we must hold firm in our commitment to protect the
Constitution and the rights and bodily autonomy of our citizens. Let me be
clear, any revocation of Roe v. Wade will not stop abortions, it will
only stop safe abortions.”
In
March 2018, the governor of Mississippi signed into law what was then the
strictest abortion ban in the nation. The law prohibits abortion at 15 weeks,
with few exceptions, even in cases of rape or incest. A federal district court
judge struck down the law stating that Mississippi “chose to pass a
law it knew was unconstitutional ... to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe
v. Wade." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the
district court’s ruling.
Mississippi’s
attempt to undo decades of Supreme Court precedent comes amidst years of
attempts by other states to strip Americans of their right
to decide what is best for their bodies and futures. This year alone,
10 states have enacted bans on pre-viability abortions. In total,
16 states have now enacted pre-viability abortion bans.
In
filing the brief, AG Ford joins the attorneys general of California, Colorado,
Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the
District of Columbia.
The
amicus brief is attached.
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