What’s still alive in the Mississippi legislature?

We want to update you on legislation pending in the Mississippi legislature as we enter the third month of the 2024 session. Fortunately, there are a number of bills up for consideration that will protect parents, women, children, election integrity, and more.

But all bills must pass out of the chamber they originated in by Thursday.

Here’s what we’re following:

PROTECTING WOMEN’S SAFE SPACES

SB 2753, Sponsored by Sens. Josh Harkins and Jeremy England, the SAFER Act:

– Protects the safety and privacy of Mississippi’s girls and women in historically same-sex spaces,

– Defines a woman and man from birth, and

– Provides a cause of action for any violation of the Act.

This bill is up for a vote in the Mississippi Senate.

HB 585, Sponsored by Rep. Gene Newman, Dignity and Safety of Incarcerated Women Act: Protects women’s privacy in prison by ensuring that biological men are not permitted to enter women’s safe spaces. This bill passed the House and has been transferred to the Mississippi Senate.

PROTECTING PARENTAL RIGHTS

HB 1100, Sponsored by Rep. Lee Yancey: Protecting Parental Access to Children’s Medical Records and Consent for Healthcare: Mississippi Hospitals are blocking parents from accessing their kids’ medical records. The Biden Administration is also setting up Obamacare in public schools – and pushing parents out. Rep. Lee Yancey is standing up for parental rights. Yancey’s bill (HB 1100) would protect the basic right for parents to direct their children’s healthcare, including making sure they have access to their children’s medical records. Without this legislation, parents in Mississippi will be left unprotected. The bill is up for a vote in the Mississippi House.

HB 900, The Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act, Sponsored by Rep. Randy Rushing: This bill also ensures a parent’s rights to their child’s medical records.

SB 2873, Sponsored by Senator David Parker: An amendment to this bill would also make sure parents can access their children’s medical records. The bill is up for a vote in the Mississippi Senate.

HEALTH CARE

SB 2858, Sponsored by Senator Josh Harkins, Enabling Mississippi Patients to Access Lifesaving Care: Bureaucracy and red tape are annoying, but when bureaucracy prevents American patients from getting access to lifesaving treatments readily available in other countries, it becomes downright deadly. FDA clinical trials that take decades and cost millions are not suited to new medical technologies that are customizing treatments for individual patients with rare diseases.

Sen. Harkins’ bill creates a pathway for patients in Mississippi to work with their doctor to try innovative, potentially life-saving treatments, when no other option is available. (This bill is near and dear to my heart after my hard-fought battle with cancer last year!) SB 2858 is up for a vote in the Mississippi Senate.

ELECTION INTEGRITY

SB 2367, Sponsored by Senator Jeremy England, Stopping Radical Progressive Voting Schemes: The Republican National Committee and Donald Trump oppose Rank Choice Voting; Rep. “AOC,” Senator Bernie Sanders, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, not to mention Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, support it. It is already being used in other states to block Republicans from getting elected. Mississippi needs to follow other states, like Tennessee and Florida, and prohibit Ranked-Choice Voting before it’s too late. This has passed the Senate and is up for consideration in the Mississippi House.

PROTECT AGAINST CHILD PORN

HB 1363, Sponsored by Rep. Price Wallace Preventing Child Pornographers from Repeatedly Victimizing Children: Child pornographers are using children’s images to make obscene content on the internet. Even after sex offenders go to jail, websites are still profiting from the use of children’s images. Fortunately, Sen. Joey Fillingane and Rep. Price Wallace have a solution. These bills allow parents to sue websites that post child pornography, forcing them to remove this filth and other forms of illegal obscenity. This bill is up for a vote in the Mississippi House.

We’ll keep you posted!

– Lesley