Abortion

Mississippi Heartbeat Ban Doomed Again this Year, By Its Own Sponsor

Much as we predicted, the Mississippi ban on abortions after an embryonic heart tone can be discerned will never make it to a full vote.

Committee Chairman Andy Gipson (R-Braxton). (Daily News)

Good news comes out of Mississippi, where this year’s ban on abortions after a heartbeat can be detected is already doomed.

But in a strange twist, it’s the sponsor himself who is killing the bill.

Via the Associated Press:

At least two bills affecting reproductive health will die in the Mississippi House because a chairman says he won’t bring them up for debate before a Tuesday deadline.

House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, opposes abortion. But he told The Associated Press on Monday that he won’t seek a vote on his own bill that would ban the procedure once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant had pledged to sign the measure, House Bill 6, if it hit his desk.

A similar heartbeat bill died in a Senate committee last year and Gipson said he anticipated that would happen again.

Gipson has also announced he will not bring up a bill that would give fertilized eggs legal rights, saying that “I don’t intend on bringing any personhood legislation up that doesn’t involve a vote of the people of Mississippi,” according to the article.