Sunday, January 19, 2020

Federal Court Refuses To Rehear Mississippi's Abortion Case.

According to an Associated Press report in the New Orleans Advocate of 1/18/20 a federal appeals court ruled it would not reconsider its ruling that Mississippi's law banning most abortions after 15 weeks is unconstitutional.  Mississippi will likely ask the U.S Supreme Court to step in and hear the case.  The ruling means Louisiana's similar law on abortion is now on hold since it depended on the outcome of the Mississippi case.

And once again, Mississippi and Louisiana are playing politics with the abortion issue.  Both states governors and state legislatures do not have the will, the character or the courage to fight for a constitutional amendment on abortion which is the best legal way and approach on the issue.  They would rather grandstand on the issue, playing politics looking for votes and try to look and sound tough.

At the heart of the Mississippi legislation is the viability of whether a fetus can survive outside the woman at 15 weeks.  The court said the Clinic provided evidence that viability is impossible at 15 weeks and that the state of Mississippi conceded that it had identified no medical evidence that a fetus could be viable at 15 weeks.  In other words, Mississippi and Louisiana's case is based on political motivation and not abortion facts.

The governors, states and legislatures who support the politicalizing of abortion and who have abandoned the right way of supporting a constitutional amendment have failed at leadership and failed their oath of office.  Louisiana's officials became ditto heads for Mississippi and had little confidence in their own bill when they tied it to Mississippi's bill.  It will be interesting to see if Louisiana's officials talk about the courts decision and if they urge Mississippi to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.


This commentary written by Joe Lorio

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