On Monday March 19, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed House Bill 1510, which eliminates the possibility of an abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It is known as the Gestational Age Act.

This new limit is coupled with the fact that the state of Mississippi only has one clinic that performs abortions, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Prior to this new bill, the cutoff time for most abortions at the clinic was 16 weeks. This one-week change is likely politically motivated to appease conservative southern men because it sure as hell wasn’t created to benefit women.

In addition to the extreme restrictions placed on women’s access to abortions, they also are required to attend in-person counseling and wait 24 hours before they can undergo the procedure (as if this waiting period will cause a change of heart). The fact that women in Mississippi have to first travel to Jackson regardless of the city they live in, and then still have to wait another 24-hours is unacceptable and a ploy to make it more difficult and stressful for women to control their own bodies.

On Tuesday March 20, just one day after this bill was signed into law, District Judge Carlton Reeves temporarily blocked it for ten days in order for the court to look into further action.

“The law threatens immediate, irreparable harm to Mississippians’ abilities to control their ‘destiny and…body,’” Reeves wrote, according to CNN.com. “A brief delay in enforcing a law of dubious constitutionality does not outweigh that harm, and in fact serves the public’s interest in preserving the freedom guaranteed by the United States Constitution.”

Hopefully, the Mississippi government realizes the right thing to do with this sort of issue and retracts this bill.