Reeves praises SCOTUS decision to hear Mississippi abortion ban case

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Gov. Tate Reeves praises the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to take up a case involving the constitutionality of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, saying the decision to review federal abortion law is “long past due.”

“The sanctity of life. The future of our children. Mississippi is at the forefront of protecting both. And that is what is at stake in the case we have been praying the U.S. Supreme Court would decide to hear,” he said on social media.

The high court decided to take up the case months after Attorney General Lynn Fitch appealed a lower court’s decision to strike down legislation that would ban abortions in Mississippi after 15 weeks.

Fitch brief asks for clarification, saying that lower courts had used different legal standards to evaluate its abortion ban than those implemented in other states.

Reeves said the court has a chance to review abortion laws that have not changed in decades.

The court’s last ruled on an abortion matter in 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the fundamental right to an abortion, according to NBC News.

“We know so much more about the development of unborn children today than 1993 - much less 1972,” Reeves said, referring to Roe v. Wade. “Honestly, the abortion debate has divided our country for over 50 years and many of us believe the decision to review is long past due.”