Jackson clinic files lawsuit to block Mississippi trigger law banning abortion

JACKSON, Miss. (WLOX) - A Jackson healthcare provider has filed a lawsuit to block Mississippi’s trigger law that would ban abortion statewide.

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the last abortion clinic in the state, filed a lawsuit Monday in Hinds County Chancery Court to prevent the state from enforcing it’s trigger ban, which would prohibit nearly all abortions in Mississippi.

The trigger ban is set to take effect in 10 days following a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The lawsuit also asks that Mississippi’s six-week ban is not enforced.

Plaintiffs argue that Mississippians have a separate right to abortion under the Mississippi Constitution confirmed by a 1998 decision of the Mississippi Supreme Court known as Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Fordice. In that case, the Mississippi Supreme Court held that “(n)o right is held more sacred . . . than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person,” “no aspect of life is more personal and private than those have to do with one’s own reproductive system,” and “the state constitutional right to privacy includes an implied right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.” 

Plaintiffs argue that because 1998 decision remains good law, it requires the state to refrain from enforcing the trigger bans and closing the abortion clinic.

“The Mississippi Supreme Court’s 1998 decision interpreting the Mississippi Constitution exists completely independent of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions about the federal constitution. It is binding precedent.” said Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice, one of the clinic’s long-time lawyers.  “As confirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court in that case, the decision about whether and when to have children belongs to individuals and families, not to the state’s politicians.”

McDuff and the Center for Reproductive Rights brought the Pro-Choice Mississippi case that secured the right to abortion under the Mississippi Constitution. Together, they have also represented Jackson Women’s Health Organization since it opened in 1996.

“Across the country, we are already seeing the devastating harm and utter chaos the U.S. Supreme Court has caused people seeking abortion care, providers, and practical support organizations. As of Friday, clinics across the region were forced to turn away patients—some who had driven hours and hundreds of miles from home,” said Hillary Schneller, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights.  “Abortion remains legal in Mississippi. We will continue to work to ensure that every Mississippian can make their own decisions about their body, their lives, their relationships and their families.”

Mississippi’s trigger ban is set to take effect in 10 days after state Attorney General Lyn Fitch certified the law on June 27.

“Mississippi’s Constitution and its Supreme Court have long found an independent right to privacy, separate and apart from the U.S. Constitution that encompasses and protects the right to bodily autonomy, including the decision whether and when to bear children. As we have for the past decade, we are committed to vigorously advocating for the clinic, which has the duty to offer the best medical care to its patients, who would be denied critically important healthcare under the state bans,” said Alexia Korberg, co-counsel to the clinic in the litigation.

“The government should not be deciding matters of childbirth for the women and families of Mississippi,” said Vangela M. Wade, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice. “Mississippi lawmakers have proven the health and well-being of its poor women and families is not a priority. They refuse to expand postpartum maternal care, increase the minimum wage, or expand Medicaid to provide health care for our working poor. The hypocrisy would be comical if it wasn’t so devastatingly harmful.”

Twelve other states have similar trigger laws, but some others are being challenged as well. A Louisiana judge has blocked the enforcement of a statewide abortion ban after a petition was filed requesting a temporary restraining order of the enforcement of the law so clinics can resume providing abortions and patients can access the procedure.

The six-week ban is currently blocked by an injunction in federal court.

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