Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has signed a bill banning abortions at 20 weeks or more gestation, without exception for rape or incest, according to the Associated Press.
The bill would allow exemptions in cases where the mother's life is in danger or where it is determined the fetus has problems and no chance of survival, the AP reported.
Planned Parenthood leaders called the measure "an extreme agenda," and said the way the measure counts 20 weeks, from a woman's last menstrual period, really is an 18-week ban and uses a "political rather than medical standard," according to the AP.
"Women who make the deeply personal and often complex decision to end a pregnancy after 18 weeks should do so in consultation with their physician, not politicians," said Felicia Brown-Williams, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood Southeast, the AP reported.
Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, criticized the bill, according to the AP.
"With the women and families of their state facing extreme poverty, unacceptable rates of maternal mortality, and skyrocketing teen pregnancy, Mississippi's elected officials have more than enough real work to do to bolster women's well-being in their state," Northup said in a news release Wednesday, the AP reported. "It's time for these politicians to stop passing laws that attack constitutionally protected women's health care and finally focus on policies that would support the health, lives and rights of Mississippi women and families."
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The most recent Health Department statistics show 2,176 abortions were done in Mississippi in 2012 with only two listed at 21 weeks or later, and 382 were of unknown gestational age, according to the AP. Supporters of the bill said they were troubled by the number of unknowns.
