By William Perkins
Editor
Facing closure in just days under a Mississippi law banning abortions, the state’s sole abortion clinic in Jackson has filed a lawsuit in Hinds County Chancery Court arguing the right to abortion is found in the state’s Constitution under a 1998 Mississippi Supreme Court decision.
Jackson Women’s Health Organization is seeking a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief based on Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Fordice, the high court ruling in 1998 that found abortions are a right under the state constitution.
“Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationoverruled that court’s decision in Roe v. Wade — taking away federal constitutional protection for abortion — rights under the Mississippi Constitution are independent of those under the U.S. Constitution.
“The decision in Pro-Choice Mississippi… is binding precedent that prevents the state of Mississippi from outlawing abortion regardless of the current status of federal law,” wrote attorneys for the clinic.
One of the the authors of the trigger law, State Senator Joey Fillingane of Sumrall, told WLBT-TV in Jackson that he feels confident the law will be upheld.
“They have waited to the very last minute, even after the decision was handed down in a last ditch attempt, which is pathetic in nature to try and stop unborn children from being saved in our state, and we’re not going to sit idly by and let that happen. I know our Attorney General will defend this law and to the last degree and will be successful ultimately,” Fillingane told the television station.
Judge Debbra K. Halford of the Fourth Chancery District in Liberty has been appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court to hear the clinic’s lawsuit, after all four Hinds County chancery judges recused themselves. No date has yet been set for that hearing.
The overturning of Roe by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, which returned the abortion issue to individual states to decide, led to the activation of a “trigger law” in Mississippi designed to forbid abortion if and when Roe was overturned.
The Mississippi case that overturned Roe is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Thomas Dobbs is the now-retired State Health Officer for the Mississippi Department of Health.
