MS Gov: Our Teen pregnancy rate is high because of statutory rape

A bill that passed the Mississippi House on Wednesday is aimed at possibly identifying and prosecuting those who impregnate underage girls.

House Bill 151 says physicians or midwives would be required to collect umbilical cord blood when a baby is born in Mississippi to a mother who’s younger than 16 if she doesn’t reveal the father’s name.

DNA tests would be done on the blood as a way to try to identify the father and allow prosecutors to pursue statutory rape charges if there’s a large age gap between the mother and the father, said House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, R-Braxton.

Results of the cord blood test would be checked against a database of convicted criminals’ DNA to try to find any possible match, Gipson said during debate.

However, he said in an interview later that there’s nothing in the bill to compel any man or boy to submit a DNA test to try to prove paternity. That means that even if cord blood is collected, there’s no guarantee of finding the father.

Mississippi has long had one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the country, and Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has been saying for months that he believes part of the problem is adult men impregnating girls who, under the law, are not old enough to consent to sex.

While I agree statutory rapes may indeed be part of the problem, I think a much BIGGER problem is the severe lack of access to reproductive health services and the continued focus on abstinence only sex-ed.

Of course instead of addressing those, our governor is hell bent on shutting down the only abortion clinic we have left. Yeah Phil, that’s REALLY going to drive that pregnancy rate down.