A judge in Mississippi has rejected a request from the state’s only abortion clinic to ban nearly all abortions temporarily.
That means that – provided no further legal developments – the ban will take effect on Thursday, and the clinic will be closed the day before. The ban may come into force as the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade ruling last month.
The 1973 ruling guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion.
The decision to reverse it was met with protests and scenes of joy across the country, as both pro-and anti-abortion supporters reacted to a development that would transform abortion rights in America for years to come.
Millions of women will lose access to abortion as conservative states like Mississippi seek to pass laws banning the procedure.
The Mississippi “trigger law” was passed in 2007 and was contingent on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. Some 13 states had laws of this kind in place and have already severely curtailed or blocked abortion access in recent weeks.
Lawyers for the Jackson Women’s Health Organization Mississippi Clinic argued that the right to privacy under the state constitution includes the right to abortion.
But during the hearing on Tuesday, Judge Debra Halford rejected this argument. “Abortion in plain text is not mentioned in the Mississippi Constitution,” she wrote in her ruling.
Rob Macduff, an attorney for the clinic, told the Associated Press they were considering whether to appeal.
The lawsuit in the southern state was part of an escalation in activity in courts nationwide following the Supreme Court’s decision. States seek to pass their abortion laws, but several of these have been tied up in legal challenges.
In Florida, a ban on abortions past 15 weeks came into effect on Tuesday after a court order blocking its enforcement was put on hold.
And in Louisiana, the state’s attorney general asked the state’s top court to allow a ban on almost all abortions to be enforced after it was held up in the lower courts.