What The Media Ignores About The Abortion Law At Center Of Major Supreme Court Case, According To Mississippi Gov

National media coverage of the Mississippi abortion law at the center of a major Supreme Court Case has failed to note that the law would leave the state more pro-choice than nearly any developed country, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The most underreported aspect of this story is where abortion laws in America are relative to where abortion laws in other parts of the world are,” Reeves told DCNF.

The Mississippi law, which was blocked by a federal court in May, bans most abortions at 15 weeks, at which point babies are capable of feeling pain. The Supreme Court will determine whether to strike down the law in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

“There are 42 countries in Europe that allow elective abortions,” Reeves explained. “39 of these countries … will still have more strict limits on abortions than the state of Mississippi” if its 15-week ban is upheld by the Supreme Court, according to Reeves.

The Dobbs case is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the precedent which blocks states from banning abortion in the first six months of pregnancy.

If the court upholds Mississippi’s law and overturns Roe, a case decided in 1973, states like New York can continue to allow legal, elective abortions through the late stages of pregnancy, while states with more pro-life voters will be allowed once again to limit abortion in the first and second trimesters.

“The far left wants all of us to believe that a majority of Americans are for abortions. That’s just not true,” Reeves told DCNF. “Only 18% of democrats believe that abortion should be legal in the third trimester … In that same [Gallup] poll, only 41 percent of all Americans believe in abortion being legal after first trimester.”

Based on those numbers, Reeves argued, approximately two-thirds of Americans would support Mississippi’s law, which does not ban abortions until three weeks into the second trimester of pregnancy.

Reeves was open to further restrictions on abortion in Mississippi if Roe is overturned, though he said those changes would depend on the latitude granted to states in the Dobbs decision.

The Court is expected to hear oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Wednesday morning.