Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves expressed hope Sunday that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade, pointing out that there is “no fundamental right to abortion” in the Constitution.
In an interview with Meet the Press, Reeves defended a 2018 Mississippi pro-life law that the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider Wednesday. Like many Americans, Reeves said he hopes the high court will use the case to overturn Roe and restore protections to unborn babies, according to the Washington Times.
“I believe, in a simple reading of the United States Constitution, that when Roe was decided in 1973, there is no fundamental right in our United States Constitution to an abortion,” the Republican governor said. “And so I think Roe was wrongly decided.”
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, involves a state law that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It centers around the question of “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortion are unconstitutional.” Currently, under Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, states are prohibited from protecting unborn babies from abortion before viability, about 22 weeks of pregnancy.
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Reeves told Meet the Press: “The far-left loves to scream ‘my body, my choice,’ and … they absolutely ignore the fact that in getting an abortion, there is an actual killing of an innocent, unborn child that is in that womb.
“Here’s what we know about babies that are 15 weeks. We know that they have a heartbeat. We know that those babies at 15 weeks actually can open and close their hands. We know that they have developing lungs, and we know that those babies at 15 weeks can feel pain,” the governor said.
Reeves said Roe made American abortion law extreme compared to the rest of the world.
“If Roe is overturned and this 15-week ban in Mississippi is allowed to go into effect, Mississippi will still have a law on the books in which 39 countries — 39 out of 42 in Europe — have more restrictive abortion laws than what I believe to be one of the most conservative states in the United States,” he said.
The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortion on demand after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Most countries have laws that protect unborn babies from abortion after the first trimester, if not sooner.
Y’all Politics reports Reeves mourned the devastation that Roe has wreaked on America during prayer rally Sunday hosted by the Family Research Council.
He described the legalized killing of unborn babies in abortions as the “greatest evil of our day,” according to the report.
“We know that tonight Mississippi is the epicenter of the pro-life movement,” the governor said. “There are just not really enough words how historic this case is, not only for Mississippi, but for our nation and for the 62 million babies who’ve been aborted since Roe v. Wade was wrongfully enacted.”
Pro-life advocates and abortion activists both anticipate that the conservative-majority Supreme Court may weaken Roe v. Wade or overturn it altogether through the Mississippi case. If the court does, hundreds of thousands of babies could be spared from violent abortion deaths every year across America.
Polls consistently show that a strong majority of Americans oppose abortions in the second and third trimesters and many support heartbeat laws that protect unborn babies at their earliest stage of life.
