Abortion is illegal in Mississippi, but 8 related bills have been filed in MS House. See why

While Mississippi has banned abortion since the Dobbs decision in the summer of 2022, legislators in the state's House of Representatives have filed eight bills this year to either tighten abortion laws or repeal abortion restrictions outright.

Several lawmakers who spoke to the Clarion Ledger said those bills aren’t likely to make it past committees, but if they do and are passed, they could limit the spread of information and advertising about abortion services outside the state, restrict the movement of minors to obtain abortions in legal states and prohibit early term abortion medications from entering Mississippi.

Republican House members Dan Eubanks and William Arnold, who represent Alcorn and DeSoto counties, respectively, both wrote bills prohibiting the mailing in or procurement of early term abortion pills such as Mifepristone, which was approved by the Federal Drug Administration, as well as other drugs or herbal medicines that could terminate a pregnancy.

Those bills, if passed, would also establish fines and jail time for anyone caught distributing, carrying, buying or providing information on how and to obtain those drugs.

“If you're not growing something that's illegal to grow, you haven't committed a crime,” Eubanks said. “If you sell it to the general public, and they possess the knowledge of what the different herbs are without any assistance from you, you've not committed a crime. But if I put a pamphlet together that says my shop says here’s the ingredients list and how you cook it up so that you can have an abortion from the products that I sell, then it's becomes intentional.”

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Other bills that would restrict advertising

Another bill written by Rankin County Republican Rep. Gene Newman restricts the advertisement and spreading of information on any “illegal abortion” within or outside of the state and would also establish fines and possibly some jail time for violators.

Eubanks said his bills also establish similar restrictions. For example, if a newspaper published a page about how and when to have an abortion in a legal state, that would then violate state law under these bills.

Eubanks added that his bill focusing on the transportation of minors across state lines to receive legal abortion in other states does not extend to the parents of a minor, only those who might or might not receive parental consent to take their child to receive an abortion outside of Mississippi.

Rep. Fred Shanks, R, who represents Rankin County, told the Clarion Ledger he is a pro-life lawmaker and has voted accordingly, but laws dictating what Mississippi residents can do in other states may be a bridge too far.

“That’s a little big brothering,” Shanks said.

Bills that would eliminate abortion restrictions

On the other side of the isle, Rep. Earle Banks, D, has filed three bills, which would eliminate key restrictions to abortion rights in Mississippi.

Banks said he doesn’t believe his bills will even be introduced by committee chairs, but he submitted them on the principle that abortion is a women’s health issue, and the government should not have a say in whether abortions are legal or not.

“I'm not a woman, of course, and even though I would hope any woman in my family would decide to keep the (baby), I think it's a woman's right right to choose,” Banks said.

Banks also submitted a bill that calls for the legislature to put abortion laws on a ballot initiative come Nov. 5, where the state’s voters would decide whether to keep abortion laws as they are or repeal all restrictions.

That bills was filed just one week before Rep. Price Wallace, R, filed a bill to bring back the ballot initiative process in the state, which includes a provision that prohibits abortions from being on any ballot initiative.

That bill passed the House vote on Jan. 25 and is waiting to be taken up in committee in the Senate.

Shanks and Banks both said those bills had nothing to do with each other, and that abortion restriction had been on the ballot initiative bill in prior legislative sessions.

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The overturning of Roe v. Wade

In 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had federally protected women’s rights to abortions.

The state of Mississippi had also passed a trigger law in 2007, which when taken effect, banned abortion except for pregnancies except for those caused by rape, or those that pose a threat to the mother’s life. The rape exception requires a victim to have reported the crime to the police.

In 2018, the state also passed a Gestation Age Act, which prohibited abortions after a term reached 15 weeks. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization then filed a complaint against the state in the United States District Court for Mississippi’s Southern District.

That case eventually became the focus of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision, dubbed the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision.

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Is restricting advertisements on abortion constitutional?

Newman’s bill to outlaw advertisements and spread of information on abortion services could possibly violate the constitution if it were to extend to legal abortion services in the state, former Mississippi Press Association Attorney Leonard Van Slyke told the Clarion Ledger.

“Commercial speech is not fully protected under the first amendment like other kinds of speech, but I think it would be unconstitutional to the extent that the advertisement would be for legally obtained services,” he said.

Van Slyke added that aside from prohibiting advertisements for illegal services within the state, whether that would fly across state lines is in a legally gray area.

Eubanks, whose bills include similar language, said he doesn’t believe his or Newman’s bills fall into unconstitutionality because the laws focus on information that “intends” to violate state laws under the proposed bills.

“Because the intentionality of that is to direct people to get an abortion,” Eubanks said. "In our state, it's illegal to sell heroin, and if I went and placed an ad in the paper and said you can go to this place at this time and buy your heroin, how do you think that would be received by the state?”

Will these bills even make it out of committee?

The abortion bills filed into the House were sent to two committees, the Judiciary B Committee, and the public Health and Human Services.

Rep. Kevin Horan, R, who chairs the Judiciary B committee, declined to comment on the bills individually or whether he would bring them into committee, but he did say the state's current abortion laws are already iron clad.

“The law is pretty solid on this,” Horan said. “The bar has been set.”

Rep. Sam Creekmore, R, who chairs Public Health and Human Services, said he would need to see those bills specifically before commenting, but that he is pro-life. He added there is only a 50% chance he would bring those bills before his committee.

Public Health and Human Services Committee Member Rep. Tamarra Butler-Washington, D, serving Hinds County, told the Clarion Ledger she would support any bill progressing abortion rights in the state, though, she doubts they will come to the floor for a final vote.

“I believe that women as a woman, I should have a choice about my own body, and what I want to do with my body,” Washington said.

What do legislative leaders think?

Both House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s Deputy Chief of Staff Leah Smith said he and Hosemann both support a pro-life agenda.

“I think my voting records speaks for itself,” White said.

“Lt. Gov. Hosemann is pro-life and considers protecting the unborn to be a tenet of his faith,” Smith said.

Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi state Legislature abortion bills proposed in 2024 session