Because Mississippi doesn’t have enough poor, unwanted babies, and because they feel being first in teen pregnancy is something to be proud of, my home state is almost certain to pass the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country. In fact, it’s not a pro-life bill. It’s an amendment to the state Constitution that defines personhood as beginning at conception, and welcomes all that follows from that. No exceptions are to be made for rape or incest, for example. More troubling, the boosters are welcoming the fact that many broadly accepted means of birth control work by first attempting to prevent fertilization, but then also prevent implantation: those methods would likely become illegal under the law, to say nothing of emergency contraception, some IUDs, many procedures associated with IVF, and presumably medically necessary abortions (e.g., as with ectopic pregnancies).

Oh, Mississippi. How am I supposed to convince people out in the world you’re not an insane bunch of right-wingers when, honestly, enough of you are that this will probably pass? This is being driven by the raving nutbird looney right, of course, but they find Mississippi pretty welcoming. Lest you forget, the American Family Association is based over there, presumably because Nevada got first choice.

There’s just so much defending you can do in the face of things like this. It’s like Mississippi is DETERMINED to stay ignorant, poor, and dead last in any category that matters. I commend folks who stay there and try to make it better; they’re doing God’s work, and I say that not just because they’re my brother. But I read stories like this, or pay attention to the ongoing fiascos of criminal justice in Mississippi that Radley Balko covers, and it just kills me. It makes me angry, sure, but ultimately it just makes me sad.