Mississippi is known for having some of the strongest laws in the nation regulating abortions. But this year, the state House of Representatives passed a bill to repeal one of the most important of those laws - the law that requires a twenty-four hour waiting period and requires abortion clinics to provide information to women about the procedure itself, the stage of development of their unborn child, and other important information.
Now, you probably heard about the bill to repeal this law, but you heard of it as the bill to ban abortions in Mississippi. The fact that the current law would be repealed was not known until after the House passed the bill, so you can't really blame the members of the House for voting that way. They were told by Representative Steve Holland, who wrote the bill, that they were simply voting to ban abortion.
Senator Alan Nunnelee, of Tupelo, was not only correct in encouraging the Senate not to approve the House bill, but he was absolutely right to reject the last minute proposal made by House negotiators that appeared to be good, but in truth would have been harmful. We should thank Senator Nunnelee for his courageous stand.