Pro-Life Law Blocked by Judge Defended as ‘Common Sense’

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves granted a temporary restraining order on March 20 less than 24 hours after Gov. Phil Bryant signed HB 1510, which bans abortions after 15 weeks.

The legal request came from the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic, which claims a woman who is more than 15 week’s pregnant was scheduled for an abortion.

Reeves, an Obama appointee, said in his ruling that the restraining order would be in effect for 10 days and asked the legal parties for “expedited briefings” over whether she should issue a preliminary injunction, The Clarion-Ledger newspaper reported.

“This is a very disappointing ruling by Judge Reeves,” says Jameson Taylor of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, which helped lawmakers write House Bill 1510.

“It shows that there is going to be a tendency to side with the radical abortion ideology, as opposed to protecting women’s health,” he continues. “And this is going to put women’s health at continued risk here in Mississippi by not allowing this common sense law to remain enforce.”

In a conference call with Reeves, the new law was defended by Paul Barnes, representing Mississippi’s attorney general. He told the judge that the state’s interest is in protecting “unborn life” and also protecting a woman’s health as the pregnancy advances and abortion becomes more risky.

Taylor tells OneNewsNow that research shows the later an abortion occurs, the more dangerous it is for the mother.

Mississippi state Rep. Andy Gipson (R) and state Sen. Angela Hill (R), who both support the new law, have made similar remarks on American Family Radio programs in recent days.

“This law will allow women to get an abortion during the entire first trimester,” says Taylor, “which is the standard that the rest of the world uses except like radical countries like China, North Korea when it comes to abortion policy in the United States.”

Chambers

Since a lawsuit was expected from the abortion clinic, Rob Chambers of AFA Action tells OneNewsNow the state did its “due diligence” by studying the adverse effects of abortion after 15 weeks.

Reeves responded to Barnes by suggesting a 15-week-old fetus is not viable outside the womb and therefore the state “has no real interest in telling a woman what to do with her body,” the newspaper reported.

Reeves is also known for blocking Mississippi’s religious freedom law in 2016 after claiming in his opinion that it failed to respect the “equal dignity” of all Mississippi citizens. His order was overturned by a federal appeals court that found the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to bring the complaint.