House committee: Abortion can't be considered on potential ballot initiative
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Feb. 28—JACKSON — The state Legislature may prevent organizers from placing abortion-related policy on a statewide ballot, according to a voter initiative proposal that advanced out of a House committee on Tuesday.
That move comes as lawmakers consider the revival of the state's voter initiative process. The House Constitution Committee voted to advance a measure partially restoring that process, but it contains more restrictions and requirements than the state's old initiative law.
One of those restrictions includes prohibiting voters from seeing any abortion proposals on the ballot.
House Constitution Chairman Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, told reporters that he added that language into the new proposal after House members raised some concerns related to abortion, though he declined to name which House members specifically called for that provision.
"This was just something I brought up in our discussions, and it was kind of a House position," Shanks said.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a person's constitutional right to an abortion, the medical procedure has virtually been outlawed in Mississippi.
The Magnolia State has long been considered a socially conservative state in the Bible belt, but Mississippians' views on abortion might not so clear-cut. The state voted to reject a "Personhood" initiative in 2011 that attempted to define life as beginning at fertilization.
A July 2022 poll commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union also showed a slight majority of Mississippians opposed the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
The House proposal also does not allow citizens to amend the Mississippi Constitution, alter the public retirement system, or force the Legislature to spend money on a particular topic.
To place an issue on the ballot, organizers will be required to collect signatures from at least 12% of the state's electors, which is around 240,000 people, compared to about 107,000 signatures under the previous process that was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2021.
Those 240,000 signatures must be collected equally across the state's congressional districts.
If the full 122-member House approves of the committee's proposal, the measure contains a provision that requires the proposal to be debated in between a group of three senators and three House members later in the session.
If the legislation passes the House, Shanks said he intends to haggle with the Senate later in the legislation session about the signature threshold, but insinuated to the media that an initiative process with more burdens would be better than no initiative process at all.
