Judge denies attempt to block Mississippi's anti-abortion trigger law from going into effect

The law that will ban nearly all abortions in Mississippi goes into effect this Thursday, despite a final attempt to block it in the Hinds County Chancery Court. The request for injunctive relief was denied by Judge Debra Halford, Special Chancellor over the case between the Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the State of Mississippi. Rob McDuff is an Attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice.

“Mississippi’s Supreme Court has made it clear that it interprets its constitution independent of what the U.S. Supreme Court does,” says McDuff. “And the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court and Dobbs overrule 50 years of precedent and took away a right that had been acknowledged, doesn’t mean the Mississippi Supreme Court has to do the same thing under the Mississippi Constitution.”

McDuff argues that the 1998 Pro-Life v Fordice case stands on it’s own, independent of rulings by the United States Supreme Court. But representation for the state disagrees. Solicitor General Scott Stewart with the Attorney General’s Office says that the state-level decision was made under the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, and was negated by the high court’s recent decision.

Steward says “In the past two weeks, the state of the law has changed dramatically and the court needs to decide this motion based on the law as it now stands. If this suit were filed a month ago, things would be very different. Plaintiffs would have a much different claim. And that’s because two weeks ago, there was a Roe v Wade, and there was a Planned Parenthood vs Casey, and there was a Pro-Choice Mississippi v Fordice. That’s no longer true.”

In a statement following the Judge’s ruling, McDuff says they are reviewing the decision and are considering their options.