JACKSON - The Mississippi House voted Thursday to ban most abortions in the state, with exceptions for pregnancies that endanger a woman's life or those caused by rape or incest.
The bill passed 94-25 and moves to the Senate, where it has the support of a key chairman. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour also has said he'd sign the bill into law.
Reps. Bobby Howell, R-Kilmi-chael, and Mary Ann Stevens, D-West, voted for the bill. Reps. May Whittington, D-Schlater, Willie Perkins Sr., D-Greenwood, and Robert Huddleston, D-Sumner, voted against it.
Lawmakers said Mississippi has a 1940s law similar to what's being proposed now, but it was invalidated by Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing the right to an abortion.
With new justices being appointed to the Supreme Court, officials in some states are seeking to challenge Roe.
"How many millions of souls are crying out that's been killed because of this hideous practice called abortion?" Rep. Eric Robinson, R-Quitman, said during the House debate.
No lawmakers stood to argue in favor of abortion rights, although several said abortions should be allowed if a woman is impregnated against her will.
On Tuesday, the House Public Health Committee passed a version of the bill that would've banned abortion even in cases of rape or incest - a proposal that nearly mirrored a bill passed by South Dakota lawmakers last week. A Missouri lawmaker also is proposing a bill and a constitutional amendment to ban abortions in that state except to save a woman's life.
During an emotional 2½-hour debate in the Mississippi House on Thursday, members voted 62-56 to allow abortions in pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
Rep. Jim Evans, D-Jackson, argued the state shouldn't force a victim of sexual assault to carry through a pregnancy she never wanted. "If you've been raped by a low-life, no good, nasty, good-for-nothing rapist and now you're going to tell a woman she's got to look at it for 19 years or some time and carry it for nine months - what kind of human being would do that?" Evans said.
Rep. Deryk Parker, D-Lucedale, argued that there should be no abortions allowed in cases of rape or incest. "God does not make mistakes," Parker said. "Regardless of how conception takes place, life begins at conception."
The bill says anyone performing an abortion could be punished by a $5,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
Mississippi already has some of the strictest abortion laws in the nation, including parental notification for minors and a mandatory 24-hour waiting period for any woman seeking to end a pregnancy.
Barbour said Wednesday that he likely would sign a bill that would allow abortions only if a pregnant woman's life were in danger, if that's what lawmakers sent him.
"But I would certainly rather it come to my desk with an exception for rape and incest," Barbour said. "I think that's consistent with the opinion of the vast majority of Mississippians and Americans."
Mississippi Senate Public Health Chairman Alan Nunnelee, R-Tupelo, said he'll urge his colleagues to accept the House proposal. Nunnelee said a near-ban on abortion in Mississippi could be used as a test case to challenge Roe v. Wade.
"Maybe we can use this as a case to overturn one of the most horrible Supreme Court decisions since the Dred Scott decision," Nunnelee said.
The court's Dred Scott ruling in 1857 said black people, free or enslaved, could never become U.S. citizens.
Mississippi has one abortion clinic, in Jackson, and its leaders plan to fight if more restrictions are imposed.
Susan Hill is president of the National Women's Health Organization, which runs the Jackson clinic.
Hill said states are playing "political chess games" by proposing new abortion restrictions.
"I think obviously they plan on it being challenged or else it wouldn't become a test case," Hill said. "So, I guess the next move is up to us."
She said the clinic will file a federal lawsuit if the Mississippi bill becomes law.
Terri Herring, president of Pro-Life Mississippi, praised the House for passing the bill but said abortion should be banned in cases of rape or incest.
"We feel very strongly that a child should not be put to death for the crime of his father," Herring said.
- The bill is Senate Bill 2922.
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