JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi’s highest court has ruled that a fetus is a “person” worthy of some legal protections under state law.
In a ruling that one of the court’s justices criticized as an attack on abortion rights, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Aug. 21 that a Bolivar County, Miss., woman had the right to pursue a wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of her unborn child. The fetus was 19 weeks old at the time the woman miscarried.
The 6–2 ruling means that, under Mississippi’s wrongful-death statutes, fetuses can be included under the definition of “person.”
Tracy Tucker sued a car-repossession company, a credit union and a Cleveland, Miss., doctor and hospital after suffering a miscarriage in 1997.
Tucker alleged that emotional distress brought about by the repossession of her automobile and misdiagnosis by medical professionals led to the miscarriage. The ruling allows her to proceed with her lawsuit.
Under Mississippi law, women already had the right to sue for the wrongful death of babies born prematurely or late-term fetuses that otherwise would have been expected to live had they been born.
However, the new ruling expands that right to mothers with unborn children that have not reached the so-called stage of “viability,” or ability to live outside the womb.
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