Lawmakers send ‘Life Equality Act’ to Governor’s desk

The ‘Life Equality Act of 2020′ has passed at the capitol. 

Now on the Governor’s desk, HB 1295 would “prohibit abortions from being performed because of race, sex or genetic abnormality except in a medical emergency.” According to the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, the new law would “conform Mississippi’s abortion policies to state and federal civil rights protections.”

“If abortion is about choice, a forced abortion absolutely violates the right to choose,” stated Dr. Jameson Taylor, Vice President for Policy at Mississippi Center for Public Policy. “Women should not be pressured to have an abortion because their child is different: of a different ability, of a different race, of a different sex. Mississippi has an obligation to repudiate and reject its dark past that includes the forced sterilization of African American women.”

Authored by Rep. Carolyn Crawford, the bill originally passed the House before being amended in the Senate, and the House has concurred on their changes. Senator Joey Fillingane supported the bill and explained that it places discrimination protection on unborn children in Mississippi. 

“Roe v. Wade says what it says, so there are certain limits to what we can curtail on the abortion front, but I think we an all agree, certainly in this time of heightened awareness in our society about discrimination, racial and otherwise, that we ought to protect the unborn child inside the womb just like we protect citizens from discrimination based on race, sex or disability. It’s sort of the wokeness in the womb bill this year,” he said.

The bill also authorizes the Attorney General’s office to bring enforcement actions against any physician that chooses to disobey the law to perform such an abortion. 

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