Mississippi’s governor has signed the nation’s tightest abortion restrictions into law. Governor Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed House Bill 1510 on Monday afternoon. It becomes law immediately and bans most abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation. Bryant has frequently said he wants Mississippi to be the “safest place in America for an unborn child."
Children unlucky enough to be born in Mississippi, however, are in pretty grave danger and the fetus-huggers in the GOP couldn't care less:
Infant mortality, or the death of a baby before his or her 1st birthday, has declined in recent years across the nation and around the world. Yet disparities persist across states, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics on Thursday. The new report showed that, from 2013 through 2015, the infant mortality rate in the US ranged from 9.08 deaths per 1,000 infants born alive in Mississippi—which had the highest rate—to 4.28 deaths per 1,000 live births in Massachusetts, which had the lowest.
Mississippi is also first in preterm babies and first in low birth weight—two problems that contribute to infant mortality and two problems that could be addressed with a little public spending on healthcare for expectant mothers. But Mississippi would rather spend money on lawsuits that, at least until the Rs steal another SCOTUS seat or two, they're destined to lose.
And if you manage to survive your first year of life in Mississippi, well, you're not out of the woods yet. Mississippi is first in hearth disease, stroke, diabetes, and the Mississippi's gun violence death rate is nearly twice the national average.
Back to The Guardian:
The law’s only exceptions are if a fetus has health problems making it “incompatible with life” outside the womb at full term, or if a pregnant woman’s life or a “major bodily function” is threatened by pregnancy. Pregnancies resulting from rape and incest are not exempted.
Mississippi has only one abortion clinic. The owner intends to sue.
