Inside the Mississippi abortion clinic that triggered Supreme Court ruling: ‘Everyone who kills babies deserves to die’

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization lost its case against the state, with the justices ruling to overturn ‘Roe vs Wade.’ The center, which has been targeted by pro-life protesters, must now close its doors. But it plans to reopen in New Mexico

Luis Pablo Beauregard
JUN 27, 2022

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization is known in the capital of Mississippi as the Pink House. Its fame reached new heights on Friday after it lost a Supreme Court against the state of Mississippi over its 2018 law that banned nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In a 6-3 ruling, the conservative-led court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in 1973.

The news – while expected – still came as a shock to Diane Derzis, the 68-year-old owner of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, who says she does not intend to give up. “Women have always had abortions. It has been an honor and a privilege to be here,” she said outside the clinic, before revealing that she plans to continue operating at the Pink House for 10 more days and then open a new clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, 1,600 kilometers (373 miles) from Jackson. Derzis, who has been providing reproductive health services to women for 46 years, intends to continue serving Mississippi patients at the new center.

Continued:https://english.elpais.com/usa/2022-06-27/inside-the-mississippi-abortion-clinic-that-triggered-supreme-court-ruling-everyone-who-kills-babies-deserves-to-die.html


USA – Anti-abortion activists are collecting the data they’ll need for prosecutions post-Roe

Body cams and license plates are already being used to track people arriving at abortion clinics.

By Abby Ohlheiser
May 31, 2022

The Supreme Court is shortly expected to issue its decision on a challenge to Roe v. Wade that will—if a leaked draft version of the opinion holds—end federal protection for abortion access across the US. If that happens, it will have far-reaching consequences for millions of people. One of those is that it could significantly increase the risk that anti-abortion activists will use surveillance and data collection to track and identify people seeking abortions, sending authorities information that could lead to criminal proceedings.

Opponents of abortion have been using methods like license plate tracking for decades. In front of many clinics around the US, it remains a daily reality. 

Continued: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/05/31/1052901/anti-abortion-activists-are-collecting-the-data-theyll-need-for-prosecutions-post-roe/


2021 was pivotal year for abortion laws in America

A half century of abortion rights for American women faltered this year.

By Devin Dwyer
28 December 2021

For half a century, American women have had the right to choose to end a pregnancy at any point before a fetus is viable outside the womb. If 2021 saw that freedom start to crumble, 2022 could see it more widely wiped away.

"I think this is the time," said an anti-abortion rights activist from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who declined to share her name this fall while outside the state’s only remaining abortion clinic in Jackson.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/2021-pivotal-year-abortion-laws-america/story?id=81860784


Black activist wards off protesters so women can access Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic

Bracey Harris
Thu, June 10, 2021

JACKSON, Miss. — Asia Brown doesn't expect subtlety from the protesters who congregate outside the Jackson Women's Health Organization, always with the same goal in mind — to stop those heading inside from having abortions.

She watched this year as a woman with a license plate for one of the state's public universities pulled up to the pink-hued facility, the sole abortion clinic in the state.

Continued: https://www.yahoo.com/news/outside-mississippis-only-abortion-clinic-083019166.html


Mississippi’s ‘Pink House’ ground zero in U.S. abortion rights fight

Gabriella Borter, Reuters
May 23, 2021

JACKSON — For eight years, Derenda Hancock has ushered women from their cars to the doors of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, donning a rainbow vest as she shields them from protesters waving religious pamphlets and shouting “turn back!” through bullhorns.

Hancock, a 62-year-old part-time waitress, grew accustomed to repeated attempts by lawmakers and anti-abortion activists to block access to abortions at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization where she leads the clinic’s volunteer escorts.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/crime-pmn/mississippis-pink-house-ground-zero-in-u-s-abortion-rights-fight


USA – The Fight to Protect Abortion Access Amid the Pandemic

The Fight to Protect Abortion Access Amid the Pandemic

Jordan Smith
June 15 2020

It wasn’t much past 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning in late April, and anti-choice protesters outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, were already cantankerous: There were three men with bullhorns, including one on top of a ladder; a 1,200-watt speaker pointing toward the clinic’s front door; and another protester blowing a shofar. “Welcome to the circus,” said Kim Gibson, a clinic escort who works to keep the mayhem away from patients.

Even as the coronavirus pandemic has gripped the nation (new cases are still on the rise in Mississippi), protesters disregarded Jackson’s stay-at-home order and have consistently failed to wear masks or keep appropriate social distance — not only from one another, but also from patients, whose cars they readily approach in an effort to “counsel” them and hand out anti-abortion propaganda.

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2020/06/15/coronavirus-pandemic-abortion-acces


Abortion in the south: The ‘escorts’ who ward off protesters at Mississippi’s lone clinic

Abortion in the south: The 'escorts' who ward off protesters at Mississippi's lone clinic
‘Clinic escorts’ create a buffer between protesters and women arriving at the clinic as its role becomes ever more important

by Khushbu Shah in Jackson, Mississippi
Tue 13 Aug 2019

Kim Gibson wore a pastel rainbow-striped vest with the words “clinic escort” in bold, black letters as she glanced over at the arriving white van. She was irritated by the sudden appearance in Jackson of more Christian anti-abortion protesters in front of Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic.

She watched as the vehicle pulled up, letting out two sisters. They dropped picket signs onto the Jackson sidewalk before their mother drove off to park. When she walked back with her teenage son, Gibson yelled: “Shame what you do to these children. Shame, shame, shame.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/13/mississippi-lone-abortion-clinic


Millions of Women Already Live in a Post-Roe America: A Journey Through the Anti-Abortion South

Millions of Women Already Live in a Post-Roe America: A Journey Through the Anti-Abortion South

Jordan Smith
January 18 2019
Video by Maisie Crow, Lauren Feeney

I met Danielle in the counseling room of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, which sits on a busy corner in the city’s arts district. Its vibrant pink paint job has earned it the name “the Pink House,” and it is the state’s only remaining abortion clinic.

Dressed in gray sweatpants and a T-shirt, Danielle looked pensive as she sat in a narrow room in the back of the building alongside 12 other women there for abortion care. Betty Thompson, a counselor who has worked at the clinic for 24 years, stood before the women, ready to walk them through the necessary paperwork and go over next steps.

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2019/01/18/abortion-roe-v-wade-reproductive-rights/


New York Just Took The First Steps In Ending Abortion Clinic Harassment

New York Just Took The First Steps In Ending Abortion Clinic Harassment
This is a major win for abortion access.

June 20, 2017
Jenavieve Hatch
Associate Women's Editor, HuffPost

QUEENS, N.Y. ― New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a federal lawsuit Tuesday against anti-abortion protestors for the unlawful harassment of patients and their companions outside a New York City abortion clinic.

“The tactics used to harass and menace Choices’ patients, families, volunteers, and staff are not only horrifying ― they’re illegal,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “The law guarantees women the right to control their own bodies and access the reproductive health care they need, without obstruction. We’ll do what it takes to protect those rights for women across New York.”

Continued at source: Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/new-york-just-took-the-first-steps-in-ending-abortion-clinic-harassment_us_594920c5e4b07499199e8e6a