Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves refused to rule out his state banning certain kinds of contraception on CNN’s State of the Union broadcast on Sunday.
Mississippi is one of several states with abortion “trigger laws” designed to outlaw abortion the moment Roe v Wade is struck down by the Supreme Court, a decision that appears imminent after a leaked draft suggested that the court will rule that way this summer.
Reeves has previously said he believes life begins at conception. When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if that means at the moment of fertilization or implantation, Reeves ducked the question, saying instead that the pro-life movement’s “next phase” is to worry about helping mothers with unwanted and unexpected pregnancies and then helping those babies “have a productive life.”
When pressed, Reeves said that was a debate they can have once the court actually makes its ruling.
If a law defines the moment of implantation as when life begins and ending that life is considered a homicide, then potentially thousands of women who use intrauterine devices (IUD) or Plan B would be at risk of being charged with murder.
When asked directly about those types of contraception, Reeves continued to evade the question. “That is not what we are focused on at this time. We are focused on what the court allows for,” Reeves said, referring to the leaked decision draft. “We believe overturning Roe is the correct decision by the court. In Mississippi, we don’t have laws on the book that would lead to arresting individuals or anything along those lines.”
Neighboring Louisiana just advanced a bill that would give constitutional rights to a person at the moment of conception and make abortion a criminal homicide. Abortion rights lawyers have said the proposed law would put women at risk of prosecution for murder, even for using contraception that is effective after implantation.
When asked by Tapper if the law would arrest doctors performing abortions, Reeves again avoided the question, stating simply that he does not believe doctors will perform abortions in his state, outside of the exceptions the state’s trigger law would allow.
Mississippi’s trigger law allows for abortions in cases of rape or when the life of the mother is threatened but does not give an exception in cases of incest.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, said she was offended by Reeves’ comments.
“If America’s people — America’s women and men who love them — do not fight right now, we will lose the basic right to make decisions, to have bodily autonomy, and to decide what our futures look like.”
Roe v Wade is expected to be overturned by the Supreme Court in June. Mississippi’s trigger law would go into effect ten days after the state attorney general confirms that it has been overturned.