The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) has asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to overturn its 1998 decision which states that abortion is a right in the Mississippi constitution.
Key Takeaways:
- In 1998, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in Pro Choice Mississippi v. Fordice that there is a right to abortion in the state constitution.
- That ruling was based in part on the U.S. Supreme Court decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, both of which were overturned in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
- AAPLOG filed a lawsuit in 2022 seeking to have the Mississippi Supreme Court decision overturned, but it was dismissed in 2024 by a Hinds County judge for lack of standing.
- Under a new legal team, AAPLOG is appealing that ruling and asking the state Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue.
The Details:
American Dream Legal, a new non-profit, public interest law firm, is representing AAPLOG in the new case, with the firm noting that there is a legal contradiction in place in Mississippi. In the Fordice decision, the court determined that there was an “implicit” but not “explicit” constitutional right to abortion in Mississippi — even though there are currently laws in place protecting preborn children from abortion in the state, and abortion was also illegal in Mississippi at the time the state’s constitution was drafted.
The firm wrote:
[W]hether elective abortions are “lawful” in Mississippi depends on whether the Mississippi Supreme Court’s opinion in Fordice is still valid.
This uncertainty keeps pro-life physicians in Mississippi in a state of constant legal peril. For that reason, American Dream Legal is representing the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) in a case before the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Through its lawsuit, AAPLOG hopes to obtain a ruling that overturns Fordice and finally puts an end to court-imposed, elective abortion policy in the state that took down Roe.
And while the 2024 ruling claimed that AAPLOG did not have standing, the new appellate brief filed for the Mississippi Supreme Court argues otherwise:
AAPLOG is an organization of obstetrician-gynecologists and other physicians who oppose elective abortion, including members in Mississippi, and so the interests it seeks are germane to the organization’s purpose.
AAPLOG physicians would have standing to sue in their own right on two separate grounds, either of which is independently sufficient to confer standing.
First, they are adversely affected by the elective abortion ban’s irreconcilable conflict with the Fordice opinion. Second, they are private citizens raising a constitutional conflict that is otherwise likely to escape judicial review.
Aaron Rice, CEO of American Dream Legal and counsel for AAPLOG, said these pro-life physicians are now “caught between conflicting legal duties: refer patients and risk prosecution under state law — or refuse to refer and risk professional ruin.”
The Backstory:
With the Dobbs decision, both Roe and Doe were overturned. This, then, allowed a trigger law in Mississippi to take effect. Passed in 2007, it was certified by Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch just days after Dobbs, and protected virtually all preborn children from abortion, with the only exceptions being cases where the mother’s life is in danger, or when a woman has been raped, and the crime was reported to law enforcement.
“Mississippi’s laws to promote life are solid and thanks to the Court’s clear and strong opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, they can now go into effect,” Fitch said at the time. “As we have said throughout this case, Roe v. Wade presented a false choice between a woman’s future and her child’s life. As we proceed in this post-Roe world, the people of Mississippi and of all the states will be able to fully engage in the work of both empowering women and promoting life. I am grateful that the Court has given us this opportunity.”
THE BOTTOM LINE:
With a constitutional right to abortion in place, the state’s trigger law has the potential to be overturned, making this effort from AAPLOG necessary.
