The Senate passed a bill late Tuesday that would prohibit a specific type of abortion lawmakers called “dismemberment abortions” in Mississippi.
The debate on the Senate floor was at times gruesome, mirroring the language of the bill itself.
The abortion method, medically termed “dilation and evacuation,” tears the fetus from limb to limb before removing it from the uterus.
Proponents of the bill, sponsored by the Mississippi Right to Life organization, refer to the process as “dismemberment abortions.”
“If there’s one (dismemberment abortion) performed, then we ought to move forward with this legislation, especially if other types of abortion are available,” said Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall.
Forty senators, both Democrat and Republican, voted to pass the bill, with just six opposed. Because the Senate amended the original House bill, it goes back to the House for consideration and a possible House/Senate conference committee.
Several senators questioned the constitutionality of the bill, including Sen. Willie Simmons, D-Cleveland, and Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory. Fillingane said three other states – Kansas, Oklahoma and West Virginia – have passed similar legislation, and none of those states have gone to federal court over the laws.
The Senate skipped nine bills on the calendar Tuesday around 6 p.m. to open debate on the abortion bill, surprising even Senate staffers who expected to finish around 5 p.m.
The Senate passed 17 bills Tuesday, all of which were general bills from the House of Representatives.
Most notably, the Senate passed a bill that would allow guns in church and give legal protection to church members with guns.
Other notable bills that were passed in the Senate:
• A bill that would establish a policy to oversee administration of certain failing schools with an “F” rating for two consecutive years. (House Bill 989)
• A bill that would extend the state’s current sex-related/abstinence education and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Task Force for four more years.
• A bill that would create Act to Restore Hope, Opportunity and Prosperity for Everyone (HOPE), which would create a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit within the Attorney General’s office. (House Bill 1116)
• A bill that prohibits people from harvesting oysters in public waters at night. (House Bill 815)
• A bill that requires municipal clerks to be appointed instead of being elected. (House Bill 130)
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.