Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, just days before the Supreme Court is to hear oral arguments on his state's law banning all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, said Sunday he believes the Roe v. Wade case was "wrongly decided" and that there is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits individual states from limiting access to abortions.
"I think this law can be enacted within a changing confinement of Roe V. Wade, but I also believe Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided," Reeves, a Republican, said on NBC News's "Meet the Press," adding that in a similar reading of the Constitution when Roe was decided in 1973, there was "no fundamental right" there to an abortion.
Reeves further said he believes the 1992 case of Casey v. Planned Parenthood, where the Supreme Court affirmed the Roe decision that states are prohibited from banning most abortions, was "wrongly decided."
"If you look at the Casey ruling, what you find in my opinion is a ruling that was not based upon fundamentals of the Constitution, but a ruling that was determined based upon what the perceived political perception was at that time," said Reeves. "I don't think the judicial branch of government should ever allow politics to play into their decision-making, and I think they did in Casey."
Abortion laws around the country are not uniform, and in some more liberal states are "much more similar to the abortion laws in China and North Korea than they are to Europe or many other countries around the world," Reeves added.
The governor also rejected a question from show anchor Chuck Todd as to whether his statements against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which he opposes because Mississippi believes in "freedom and individual liberty, conflict with his stance on abortion.
"The far left loves to scream my body, my choice," he said. "What I would submit to you, choice, is they absolutely ignore the fact that in getting an abortion there is an actual killing of an innocent unborn child that is in that womb … the difference between vaccine mandates and abortions is vaccines allow you to protect yourself. Abortions go in and kill other American babies."
Meanwhile, Reeves let Mississippi's state of emergency concerning the pandemic expire last Saturday, and he told Todd the state's average infections are down "90% from where we were in mid to late summer."
Further, the state's vaccination numbers are continuing to rise, but still, not enough people have gotten their shots and mandates are not the answer, said Reeves.
"The president's decision to try to mandate vaccines, is a decision, by the way, that flies in the face of what he said throughout the campaign," said Reeves. "That's one of the reasons his poll numbers are so low. He ran for office saying one thing and he's decided to govern in a different way. Those mandates are hardening those individuals not interested in getting vaccinated."
Reeves, though, insisted he believes in the vaccines.
"I took my shots on Facebook Live," he said. "I don't like shots very much. That was my way in which to tell the people of Mississippi I think this is the best way for you to protect yourselves. I also believe in individual liberties and freedoms and people can make decisions on what's best for them after they talk to their physicians."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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