Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said his state will protect unborn babies from the moment of conception, not just after 15 weeks of pregnancy, if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
On Sunday, Reeves, a pro-life Republican, spoke with CNN host Jake Tapper about the abortion case that the Supreme Court heard last week, according to Just the News.
In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the justices are considering whether to uphold a Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Lawyers for the state asked the high court to, at the very least, uphold the 15-week ban, but they also urged the court to overturn Roe altogether and allow states to protect unborn babies from the moment of conception.
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“If that happens, would you start enforcing that in your state— the almost complete ban, regardless of how many weeks of the pregnancy?” Tapper asked, referring to a Mississippi trigger law that will prohibit all abortions when Roe is overturned. It allows exceptions only for rape or risks to the mother’s life.
Reeves said he would enforce that law, telling Tapper: “If you believe as I believe very strongly that that innocent, unborn child in the mother’s womb is, in fact, a child, the most important word when we talk about unborn children is not unborn, but it’s children. I will do everything I can to protect the lives of those children.”
He said overturning Roe would not mean that abortions will be illegal again all across the U.S., though he would be happy if that happened. Instead, the power to protect unborn babies or keep abortions legal would return to the states.
The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to an abortion, Reeves continued, WLBT reports.
“It should be left to the states and the state legislatures and the democratic process,” he said.
Reeves said the Mississippi case could be a “watershed moment” in U.S. history, and he expressed hope that the court will side in favor of unborn babies.
“Clearly, they could recognize, even under the existing standard, that 15 weeks is not at all radical,” Reeves said, according to WAPT News 16.
After the interview, Reeves wrote on Twitter that he will do everything in his power to protect children.
“When you understand that abortion takes an innocent life, the right thing is obvious,” the governor said. “We must do everything in our power to protect those who cannot protect themselves. That means answering tough questions, and working to get more Americans to understand the stakes.”
For decades, under Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, states have been prohibited from banning abortions before viability. As a result, about 63 million unborn babies and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of mothers have died in supposedly “safe,” legal abortions. Now the Supreme Court has agreed to re-consider this precedent and decide “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortion are unconstitutional.”
If Roe gets modified or overturned, states may be allowed to protect unborn babies from abortion again, possibly from the moment of conception or at least after the first trimester, and groups estimate anywhere from a dozen to two dozen states would do so. As a result, hundreds of thousands of babies could be spared from violent abortion deaths every year across America.
The court is expected to publish its ruling on the Mississippi case sometime next year, potentially June 2022.
