Judge dismisses lawsuit over old abortion rights ruling in Mississippi

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday that challenged a potential conflict between a 2022 state law that bans most abortions and a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling that said abortion is guaranteed in the Mississippi Constitution because of the right of privacy.

Hinds County Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin wrote that the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists lacks legal standing for the lawsuit it filed against the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure in November 2022.

The association did not show that the licensing board has threatened disciplinary action against any of the roughly 35 association members for refusing to refer patients for abortion services elsewhere, Martin wrote. She also wrote that the association's “allegation of speculative harm is unfit for review."

“Mississippi law grants the Board the power to suspend, revoke, or restrict the license of any physician who performs or aids certain abortions,” Martin wrote. “But the Board has no express authority to discipline a physician who declines to provide abortion services on conscience grounds.”

Aaron Rice, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said he will try to revive the case.

“We will appeal the ruling and look forward to presenting this important constitutional question to the Mississippi Supreme Court," Rice said Wednesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court used a Mississippi case in June 2022 to overturn abortion rights nationwide. The only abortion clinic in Mississippi closed soon after the ruling, when a new state law took effect that allows abortions only to save the pregnant woman's life or in cases of rape that are reported to law enforcement.

Members of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists sued the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure months later, seeking to overturn the 1998 ruling from the state's high court.

Leaders of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which provides certification to doctors in the field, have said in the past that they do not expect doctors to violate their moral beliefs. But the anti-abortion doctors in this case say those assurances haven’t been firm enough.

The office of Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued the case that the U.S. Supreme Court used to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Fitch, a Republican, later wrote that after Roe was reversed, the 1998 Mississippi Supreme Court decision was no longer valid because it had relied on Roe.