Since Mississippi abortion law took effect, only two exceptions for rape have been allowed

Three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Mississippi Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch certified a restrictive ban on abortion in the state.

As in many abortion-restrictive states, the law in Mississippi has narrow exceptions in cases of rape and to save the life of the pregnant person. But since the law took effect in July 2022, only two people in the state have been provided with abortion care in accordance with the exceptions, according to reporting by the New York Times.

Greta Kemp Martin is a disability rights lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general in Mississippi. She tells the American Independent Foundation that she’s running against Fitch in large part because of the incumbent’s fierce anti-abortion stance.

After the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe, Fitch, who had argued the case for the state of Mississippi, said in a statement: “Today marks a new era in American history — and a great day for the American people. Roe v Wade is now behind us, consigned to the list of infamous cases that collapsed under the weight of their errors.”

Martin says that even when a person is aware that an exception exists in the state’s abortion law, “There’s no clarification as to how it’s applied. Does someone have to file a police report? Does an agency need an indictment? Does there need to be someone charged with the crime for it to actually be considered rape? Are they going by the legal definition of rape? There’s just no clarity around how this exception can be applied.”

Martin says the exception in cases in which the life of the pregnant person is in danger is equally vague:

We see physicians scared to even utilize that exception when it’s needed because they do not want to be criminalized or punished or have their license revoked. … There’s just no clear guidelines on how these exceptions can be applied. And that is directly in contradiction with what Lynn Fitch said Dobbs would bring. She touted that Dobbs would bring clarity to the issue of abortion, and all it has done is given more questions than answers.

Martin says she is deeply concerned about Fitch’s desire to allow law enforcement to access the health records of Mississippians who travel out of state for abortion care.

Fitch was one of 19 state attorneys general who opposed the April 17, 2023, proposal by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “limiting uses and disclosures” of protected health care information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the law that protects the privacy of a patient’s health care information.

In a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on June 16, 2023, the attorneys general demanded that the Biden administration withdraw the proposed rule to expand HIPAA’s reach.

“My opponent wants to track those medical records across state lines to find out whether someone is going out of state to get this abortion care and who’s giving it to them,” Martin says.

Martin says she believes that if Fitch is reelected to another term in the general election on Nov. 7 of this year, she and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves will create the policies needed to allow them to track patients across state lines.

“I’m not here to change anybody’s mind about abortion. You believe what you want to believe,” Martin says. “But at the end of the day, one thing that we can all agree on is that we do not want Lynn Fitch or the government in our doctors’ offices, in our bedrooms, or in our medical records.”

8-30-23: This article has been updated to correct the reference to Martin’s law practice.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.