HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH)– Connecticut Attorney General William Tong joined a coalition of 24 state attorneys general, urging the Supreme Court to protect women’s rights Tuesday morning.
According to court documents, the coalition argues that Mississippi’s pre-viability abortion ban is unconstitutional and should remain unconstitutional. The coalition believes that the court should continue to uphold the precedent of past cases.
In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the Constitution doesn’t permit states to prohibit a woman from deciding whether or not she should carry out her pregnancy full term. The ruling was affirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992 and reaffirmed in the following decades.
“We are witnessing an attack on the reproductive freedom of women, people, and patients across the United States. Abortion is health care and there is no room for politics when it comes to the right to access safe reproductive health care. Mississippi’s abortion ban is unconstitutional, and it must be struck down,” said Attorney General Tong. “I stand ready to do whatever I can to protect a person’s right to choose no matter where they live or who they are.”
In March 2018, the governor of Mississippi signed into law what was then the strictest abortion ban in the Nation. This law prohibits abortion at 15 weeks with few expectations, even in cases of rape or incest. A federal district court judge was in opposition of the law, saying that Mississippi “chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional…to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Mississippi’s decision to overturn decades of Supreme Court precedent comes in the middle of years of attempts by other states to dictate American’s decisions on what is best for their bodies and futures. In this year alone, 10 states have enacted bans on abortion, making a total of 16 states.
Attorney General Tong says he is committed to defending reproductive rights for people across America, including the decision to terminate a pregnancy.
According to reports, over the last 10 years, states have passed more than 500 laws restricting abortion access. In his statement, Attorney General Tong says that these laws have made negative impacts on access to health care and disproportionately affect people of color, immigrant women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Since taking office, Attorney General Tong has joined multistate coalitions defending access to safe reproductive healthcare in states such as Alabama, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.