Governor Tate Reeves (R-MS) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that if the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, his state would enact an even stricter abortion ban than the 15 weeks one the court is currently considering.
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “The state of Mississippi also has a law on the books that would ban all abortions with exceptions only for rape and the life of the mother, that would snap into effect days after Roe is overturned. If Roe is overturned if that happens, would you start enforcing that in your state? The almost complete ban regardless of how many weeks of the pregnancy.”
Reeves said, “Well, Jake, clearly it is dependent upon how the court rules and exactly what those opinions allow us to do. If, in fact, Roe is overturned — by the way, I believe very strongly, as do many Americans, that the justices on the Supreme Court today could look at the Roe v. Wade case and come to the conclusion that the court just simply got it wrong in 1973. If you read the Constitution, in my opinion, there is no guaranteed right to an abortion in our U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, not only is there not a guaranteed right, there’s nothing in the Constitution that prohibits individual states from enacting their own laws. After all, that’s really what the Founding Fathers intended for any issue that is not explicit in the Constitution. It should be left to the states and the state legislatures, and democratic process. I just want to make sure everyone is clear that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, that doesn’t mean that no one in America is going to have access. Although, that might make people like me happy. But what it does mean is that all 50 states, the laboratories of democracy, are going to have the ability to enact their own laws with respect to abortion. I think that’s the way it should be in America.”
Tapper said, “Is that a yes, that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, you will enforce the almost total abortion ban in Mississippi that exists in the inevitability or situation where Roe v. Wade is overturned? Yes?”
Reeves said, “Yeah, Jake, that is a yes because if you believe, as I believe, very strongly that that innocent, unborn child in the mother’s womb is, in fact, a child, the most important word when we talk about unborn children is not unborn, but it’s children. Yes, I will do everything I can to protect the lives of those children.”
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