Overview

Lynn Fitch is the Attorney General of Mississippi; elected in 2019 as the first woman to hold the office. She became a nationally significant figure when she led the defense of Mississippi's Gestational Age Act; a 2018 law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy; before the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. In a dramatic escalation; Fitch's office asked the Supreme Court not merely to uphold the 15-week ban but to overturn Roe v. Wade entirely; a request the Court granted in its June 24; 2022 decision. The 6-3 ruling; authored by Justice Samuel Alito; held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; overturning nearly 50 years of precedent established in Roe v. Wade (1973) and reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). The decision returned abortion regulation entirely to the states; immediately triggering pre-existing "trigger laws" in Mississippi and 12 other states that banned or severely restricted abortion. Fitch framed the decision as "empowering women" by removing abortion as an option; a characterization sharply contested by reproductive rights organizations and medical groups. Within one year of the Dobbs decision; at least 14 states had enacted near-total abortion bans. Emergency room physicians reported cases of women denied care for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies due to legal ambiguity; and the Southern states with the most restrictive bans also had the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation. Mississippi ranks last or near last among U.S. states in maternal health; infant mortality; and access to obstetric care; Mississippi's maternal mortality rate is roughly double the national average.

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Related Investigations (1)

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Sources & Documentation

2 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports