In his State of the State Address in 2014, Gov. Phil Bryant announced a goal: "to end abortion in Mississippi." Bryant has now signed a law that makes his state the most difficult state in the country to get an abortion. It is called the Gestational Age Act, and it bans abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, except in the case of a medical emergency or a severe fetal abnormality. The law does not make exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The Mississippi House passed the measure on March 8, and Bryant signed it into law on Monday.The Associated Press reports that Mississippi's only clinic that does abortions has sued the state in response to the legislation. In 2012, that same clinic, The Jackson Women's Health Organization, filed a lawsuit challenging a different bill Bryant signed into law. That bill enacted stricter requirements for abortion facilities, including a requirement that all physicians associated with an abortion facility have the right to admit patients to a local hospital. It was eventually blocked by a federal district court in 2013. After signing this latest bill, Bryant wrote on Twitter, "I am committed to making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child, and this bill will help us achieve that goal." "We are saving more of the unborn than any state in America, and what better thing we could do," Bryant said as he signed the bill. "We'll probably be sued here in about a half hour, and that'll be fine with me. It is worth fighting over." On the national level, some recent attempts to restrict abortion have failed, as Julie Rovner reported for NPR and Kaiser Health News:
Mississippi Governor Signs Nation's Toughest Abortion Ban Into Law
