Mississippi governor draws lines on individual choice

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Sunday that while he encourages people to get vaccinated, he’s also against larger vaccine mandates, noting that he believes “in individual liberties and freedoms and people can make decisions on what's best for them.”

Reeves told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that while he believes in the right to control one’s body, other factors have to be taken into account when it comes to women and abortion: “What I would submit to you, Chuck, is they absolutely ignore the fact that in getting an abortion is an actual killing of an innocent unborn child that is in that womb.”

This week, the Supreme Court is set to hear a case from Mississippi, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, regarding a law from 2018 that would make most abortions after 15 weeks illegal. The case is being widely watched given that some see it as a possible forum for the nation’s top court to overturn or limit the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Some of the recent rhetoric over vaccination mandates has echoed that of the nation’s long-running debate on the legality of abortion.

In an effort to explain the difference between rejecting vaccine mandates and being anti-abortion, Reeves added that “the difference between vaccine mandates and abortions is vaccines allow you to protect yourself. Abortions actually go in and kill other American babies.”

Todd countered that vaccines were “about protecting a larger community,” not merely protecting one’s self. “You could certainly argue that, Chuck,” Reeves said, while noting the limits of vaccinations.

Reeves noted that his “heart aches” for all deaths from coronavirus and through abortions, which is “why I think it's very important that people like myself stand up for those unborn children because they don't have the ability to stand up for themselves.”