• The Supreme Court is going to consider the Mississippi law in the near future. 
• The outcome could jeopardize Roe v. Wade, and abortions nationwide. 

Since Roe v. Wade ruled that women have a constitutional right to abortions, abortions have been accessible up to the point of “fetal viability,” which comes around 22-24 weeks into a pregnancy. However, in the past few years several states have passed laws limiting abortion rights, contra Roe’s ruling. Two of these states are Mississippi and Texas. Mississippi’s 2018 law bans abortions beyond 15 weeks. Texas’ 2021 law, known as the “Heartbeat Act,” bans abortions from around 6 weeks, before the misleadingly termed “fetal heartbeat” can be detected. This is often before a woman knows she is pregnant.

Laws limiting abortions before the third trimester contest Roe and its later amendments, so the constitutionality of those laws is subject to challenge -- both Texas’ and Mississippi’s laws will be considered by the Supreme Court in the near future. In the absence of Supreme Court decisions, though, these laws will have significant effects on the people of Texas and Mississippi. Most obviously, they restrict the access of women to safe, legal, in-state abortions, forcing them to either carry unwanted pregnancies to term and beyond, or travel out of state (in Texas, this involves traveling an estimated 250 miles on average).

Where these two options are unavailable, as is often the case with abortion restricting laws, many will be forced to seek illegal, unsafe abortions instead. These women are most likely to be poorer, with fewer resources and fewer options, which has led many to question not just the constitutionality but the fairness of such pro-life laws. Mississippi’s law never went into effect, as it was blocked by a federal legal challenge immediately after being passed in 2018, but if it became effective it would have similar consequences. 

Texas’ “Heartbeat Act” does not just affect women seeking abortions, though; it entitles any private citizen to sue any person they believe to be or have been involved in the now-illegal termination of a pregnancy. Doctors, friends, and family members can all now face a minimum of $10,000 in statutory damages. In incentivizing private action, and by forbidding government officials to impose the ban, the act is hard to challenge, as no single entity is responsible for enforcement. The most concerning problem created by these laws, though, is that they jeopardize the Roe v. Wade ruling itself.

‍Mississippi, in its referral of its case to the Supreme Court, has requested for the court to consider overturning Roe and all subsequent pro-life rulings. If the court approved this request, Roe would no longer stand, and abortion would become a state issue. This would lead to women across the country facing similar restrictions to those in Texas. Since the passing of Justice Ginsburg, conservative Supreme Court judges outnumber liberal 6-3, which makes such an overturning likely. ‍

Similarities 

• Both laws have restrictions on the type of abortions that can be performed, and who can carry them out. 
• Both laws also justify their decisions based on perception of when fetal life begins. 

An initial similarity between the two laws is that they both enforce a partial-birth abortion ban.  What this means is that the fetus is intact in the mother’s body and then is removed entirely from the body. The fetus is also removed intact. They also both require the abortion to be done by a licensed physician as stated in their TRAP laws(Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers). They also both are setting a limit on the weeks in which the fetus can be aborted. They justify their decisions through the discussion of how the fetus is truly alive now. In Texas, they believe that the heartbeat is when life begins while in Mississippi they believe that the first 15-20 weeks is when crucial physiological changes have occurred in the body of the fetus.‍

The laws in both Mississippi and Texas are a result of continuous years of pushing through the boundaries of the Roe v. Wade ruling. Through many decades the conservative state legislature has attempted to push through the boundaries of Roe v. Wade. However, the supreme court has always struck down these types of laws that try to increase regulations of abortion providers and shorten the timeframe for abortions.

Differences 

• The Texas ban starts considerably earlier than the Mississippi ban. 
• The Texas law is enforced by civilians, and the Mississippi ban is enforced by state officials.
• The Mississippi ban has exceptions where an abortion after 15 weeks is legal, while Texas allows no exceptions. 

In Texas, their law states that abortion is banned when cardiac activity can be sensed in the embryo. This is because at this moment there would be no heart. Instead. one would sense the electrical signals of the child. In Texas, people are empowered to take legal action in civil court against people who perform abortions or aide them. The state does not enforce the law, making it difficult to challenge the law in court.

This effectively means that the vast majority of abortions have been banned in Texas. On the other hand, the law in Mississippi is enforced by the state rather than the citizens. There is a government entity responsible for the enforcement of the law. 

The Mississippi abortion law also states that most abortions are illegal after 15 weeks. The law states “The law bans abortions if ‘the probable gestational age of the unborn human’ is determined to be more than 15 weeks, with narrow exceptions for medical emergencies or “a severe fetal abnormality.” This is because the state claims that the fetus has most likely had many physiological changes so aborting the child would be dangerous for the mother.

   Outcomes

• State legislatures would regain control over abortion laws, individual states could protect the right to a safe abortion. 
• Emphasizing the 4th amendment and the right to privacy could prevent Roe being overturned. 

Given the litigation and unpredictability surrounding a women’s right to an abortion, codifying the accessibility and right to an abortion has newfound importance. Should Roe v. Wade be overturned, power would return to the legislature to determine abortion restrictions. Should Roe v. Wade be overturned, 21 states which have already implemented trigger bans, Pre-Roe unenforced bans, and 6-week bans which would be solidified into law. Federal and state legislation will become necessary to protect access to abortion. 

‍The Women’s Health Protection Act, which passed the House on September 24th, protects both the abortion provider and a person’s right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. The act defends health care providers which perform abortions from TRAP laws and ensures equal access to abortions regardless of socio-economic status. The Women’s Health Protection Act also solidifies and strengthens provisions solidified in Roe v. Wade into federal law, removing dependency on Supreme Court decisions on both the Mississippi and Texas cases for protection from an unfavorable decision.