Abortion is still legal in Mississippi only under extremely limited circumstances. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned *Roe v. Wade* in June 2022, Mississippi’s “trigger law” went into effect. That law bans nearly all abortions in the state. Under the trigger ban, an abortion may be performed **only when a pregnancy endangers the pregnant person’s life** or **when the pregnancy results from a reported rape**. There is no exception for incest unless it is also reported rape. The law applies to both medication abortion and surgical abortion.

Because of that ban, **no full-service  is abortion legal in mississippi    abortion clinics currently operating in Mississippi.** The now-closed Jackson clinic, which once provided abortions, stopped offering the service after the trigger ban. Patients who seek abortion care generally travel out of state to places like Illinois, North Carolina, Florida (until recently), New Mexico, or telehealth providers that Legally serve Mississippians only if the pills are mailed from jurisdictions where prescribing is legal. Mississippi law makes it a felony for providers to perform an illegal abortion inside the state, but does **not** criminalize pregnant patients for obtaining or attempting abortions.

The ban also affects **timing and access to pregnancy-related medical care.** The law’s medical exception is written narrowly, so physicians must assess whether pregnancy poses a physical threat to life before intervening. Critics argue this causes dangerous delays in cases like premature rupture of membranes, severe preeclampsia, or fetal anomalies incompatible with life. Supporters of the ban argue it protects fetal life and is consistent with the state’s interest in restricting abortion after *Roe* was reversed.

Mississippi separately prohibits abortion after detection of fetal cardiac activity (around six weeks), but in practice that “heartbeat” ban is overshadowed because the trigger ban is broader and governs. Mississippi also restricts the mailing and dispensing of abortion pills within state lines, although enforcement focus is mainly on providers rather than recipients.