Mississippi ‘Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion’ (HB 519)

HB 519 would prohibit a person from purposely performing or attempting to perform  a “dismemberment abortion” unless it is necessary to prevent serious health risk to the pregnant patient.

Any person who violates this provision would be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of up to $10,000.00 and/or imprisonment up to two years. A person who violates this provision may also face civil action and injunctive relief.

The bill defines “dismemberment abortion” as the purpose of causing the death of an ‘unborn child,’ purposely to dismember a living ‘unborn child’ and extract him or her one piece at a time from the uterus through use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush, and/or grasp a portion of the ‘unborn child’s’ body to cut or rip it off.

This law targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an abortion using suction aspiration can be performed up to 14 weeks’ gestation, but after 14 weeks the D and E procedure must be used to perform an abortion. As such, dilation and evacuation bans, depending upon their language, may ban all surgical abortion past 14 weeks’ gestation. (Source.)

Related Legislation

This law is based on model legislation designed by the National Right to Life Committee.

STATUS

Signed into law by Gov. Bryant. Goes into effect July 1, 2016.

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People

Organizations

• National Right to Life Committee — Drafted Model Law