In response to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban found “unequivocally” unconstitutional in federal court, Joshua Tom, legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi, had the following statement:

“The Mississippi legislature knew when it passed this law, Governor Phil Bryant knew when he signed it, and Judge Reeves knew when he found it unconstitutional that banning abortions after 15 weeks was in clear violation of decades-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Mississippi passed a law that it knew was clearly unconstitutional, and asked Judge Reeves to disregard binding Supreme Court precedent, in its ongoing effort to overturn Roe v. Wade and ban abortions in Mississippi. These “disingenuous calculations,” as Judge Reeves called them in his November 20 Order, cost Mississippians a tremendous amount of their scarce taxpayer dollars.

“Mississippians should tell their elected officials to stop passing unconstitutional laws and wasting our tax dollars defending them in court.”