Reeves is pro-choice when it comes to vaccines, but not abortion. What he said on NBC show.
Gov. Tate Reeves said Sunday that he’s pro-choice when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations but not on the topic of abortion, a viewpoint that has long circulated in anti-mandate circles in vaccine hesitant South Mississippi.
The Republican made the distinction between bodily freedom when it comes to a woman’s right to choose and vaccination mandates while discussing the two hot-button issues of abortion and coronavirus on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“The difference between vaccine mandates and abortions is vaccines allow you to protect yourself. Abortions actually go in and kill other American babies,” Reeves said.
The national television show’s host, Chuck Todd, pushed back on Reeves’ stance.
“Why should the state of Mississippi tell a woman what they should do with their body? Why shouldn’t they have that individual freedom on their body, particularly in the first 20 weeks?” asked Todd, who also noted that vaccines are “about protecting a larger community,” not just protecting one’s self.
“The fact is that during this very horrible and challenging time since I was sworn into office in January of 2020, Chuck, we’ve had 800,000 American lives lost because of COVID. And my heart aches for every single one of those individuals that have died because of COVID,” Reeves responded.
Mississippi has the highest death count per capita from COVID in the nation.
The state’s health department is reporting a total of 10,264 deaths from the virus as of Monday.
“But since Roe was enacted, 62 million American babies have been aborted, and therefore have been killed. And that’s why I think it’s very important that people like myself and others across this country stand up for those unborn children, because they don’t have the ability to stand up for themselves.”
Reeves was brought on Meet the Press to discuss the Mississippi case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which the U.S. Supreme Court is on Wednesday set to hear.
The case, regarding a law from 2018 that would make most abortions after 15 weeks illegal, is making national headlines as some believe it could set a precedent that might overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case which guarantees a woman’s right to abortion.
Todd also touched on Mississippi’s notable COVID response during the governor’s TV appearance, mentioning the state’s state of emergency had recently expired.
Reeves said he wouldn’t reinstate the emergency order because the state’s COVID hospitalizations, deaths and positive case counts have recently decreased.
Anti-vaccine advocates: ‘My body, my choice’
Across the Mississippi Gulf Coast, anti-vaccine mandate advocates have before used rhetoric often equated with proponents of abortion legality.
Jesse Harriel, a John C. Stennis Space Center employee, commented on the common use of the phrase in anti-vaccine circles at a recent rally against vaccine mandates.
“For most of my life, and I’m 38 years old, you’ve always heard, “My body, my choice,” on both ends of the spectrum but now it comes down to it, and does that really apply?” he said.
The youth pastor at Crane Creek Baptist Church in the Perkinston community doesn’t think that phrase applies to abortion.
“You really gotta be careful when you say that. Because I’m totally against abortions. I believe in life, and I believe in God choosing your life. But I believe in this situation, with a lot of people using that concept, you really see that this is against everything. There’s no right nor left on this.”
At another rally against vaccine mandates, former Ingalls employee and Perkinston resident Thomas Porter, 62, also said the vaccine was his choice for his own body, but does not support abortion.
“If they want to have an abortion, I shouldn’t have to pay for it. Just like everyone who is getting these shots. I’m paying for it. My tax money is paying for these shots.”
The COVID vaccine and abortion also intersects for some Coast residents because of widely circulated rumors that aborted fetal cells are in the shots or tested with them.
The vaccines do not contain any aborted fetal cells, infectious disease expert and practicing Catholic Dr. James Lawler wrote in a Nebraska Medicine article published in August.
In the research of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines and the production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, fetal cell lines, or lab-grown cells based on aborted fetal cells harvested during the 1970s, were used, he said. The current fetal cell lines are “thousands of generations removed” from the original tissue.
This article and live event is supported by the Journalism and Public Information Fund, a fund of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 1:59 PM.
