Abortion ruling means more and riskier births in Mississippi

Oct. 24, 2022
By MICHAEL GOLDBERG, The Associated Press

GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — In Mississippi, where health officials expect 5,000 more births each year as a result of the Supreme Court ruling upending abortion rights, children are more likely to die before their first birthday than in any other state.

Mississippi has the nation’s highest fetal mortality rate, highest infant mortality rate, highest pre-term birth rate and is among the worst states for maternal mortality. Black women are nearly three times more likely to die due to childbirth than white women in Mississippi.

Continued: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/abortion-ruling-means-more-and-riskier-births-in-mississippi/

Mississippi’s last abortion clinic shuts down. The owner promises to continue working

July 7, 2022
JACLYN DIAZ

Mississippi's last abortion clinic — and the one at the center of the Supreme Court case used to overturn Roe v. Wade — shut its doors for the last time.

Earlier this week, the Jackson Women's Health Organization lost their bid to temporarily block the state's trigger law that bans most abortions from going into effect. Now, they are packing up and moving out, Diane Derzis who owned the clinic said.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/07/1110289142/mississippi-abortion-clinic-shuts-down

07.07.2022

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

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traveling for abortion

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

The state fighting to dismantle abortion rights has a long history of permissive abortion laws

by Isabelle Taft
June 8, 2022

When Mississippi asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, it argued that a long tradition of state restrictions on abortion in the U.S. “defeats any claim of a deeply rooted right” to an abortion.

Yet for all but 21 of its 156 years as a state prior to Roe, Mississippi law technically permitted abortion for any reason until about 16 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://mississippitoday.org/2022/06/08/mississippi-abortion-history/

The last abortion clinic in Mississippi only employs out-of-state doctors. Two are from Massachusetts.

By Hanna Krueger Globe Staff
Updated May 21, 2022

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, known colloquially as the Pink House for its flamingo-colored stucco exterior, is the only abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi.

It will almost certainly be the last.

Continued: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/05/21/nation/last-abortion-clinic-mississippi-only-employs-out-of-state-doctors-two-are-massachusetts/

The Potential End of Roe Won’t Stop This Abortion Provider-in-Training

A recent medical school graduate reflects on the intersection of race and reproductive rights

By Christina Sturdivant Sani
May 11, 2022

Sherry Reddix is a 2022 graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine and a future abortion provider. She will be starting a residency in family medicine in California. This interview has been edited and condensed.

I’m from Mississippi, and my whole family is in the field of medicine. My aunt, uncle and father are all physicians, and my mom is a nurse. My uncle was actually nominated to the State Board of Health in Mississippi in 2012. Then his nomination was blocked because he served as the emergency on-call physician for the abortion clinic in Jackson, the clinic at the center of the current Supreme Court case. It was my senior year of high school, and my phone was blowing up with calls and texts. My grandma was like ‘Uncle Carl is on Rachel Maddow!’

Continued https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/05/11/abortion-provider-in-training/

11.05.2022

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States Aren’t Waiting for the Supreme Court to Tighten Abortion Laws

In anticipation of the court’s decision, a frenzy of legislative activity to shut down access to abortion forms a picture of a post-Roe America.

By Kate Zernike
March 7, 2022

Both sides of the abortion debate anticipate that come July, the Supreme Court will have overturned Roe v. Wade and with it the constitutional right to abortion, handing anti-abortion activists a victory they have sought for five decades. But from Florida to Idaho, Republican-led state legislatures are not waiting: They are operating as if Roe has already been struck down, advancing new restrictions that aim to make abortion illegal in as many circumstances as possible.

Under Roe, states cannot prohibit abortion before a fetus is viable outside the womb — around 23 weeks into pregnancy. But bills moving through legislatures are outlawing abortion entirely, or at six, 12 or 15 weeks of gestation. On Thursday, Florida passed a 15-week ban even as opponents warned it was unconstitutional so long as Roe stands. In Oklahoma, a Senate committee approved a bill that would prohibit abortion starting 30 days after the “probable” start of a woman’s last monthly period.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/us/abortion-supreme-court-roe-v-wade.html

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

What comes next after the Supreme Court’s signal on abortion rights

By Tierney Sneed
Sun December 5, 2021

(CNN)At stake in the Mississippi abortion case heard by the Supreme Court December 1 is access to the procedure for millions of people across the country.

As Justice Brett Kavanaugh made clear at Wednesday's hearing, the justices are not considering whether to outlaw abortion nationwide. But a decision that overturns current Supreme Court precedent on abortion rights -- and one that specifically reverses the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion -- could lead to bans on abortions being implemented in several states across the country.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/05/politics/abortion-supreme-court-what-comes-next/index.html

‘It’s earth-shattering’: Democrats and allies vow midterm fight over abortion

Pro-choice groups and lawmakers will focus voters’ attention on the threat to reproductive rights after Mississippi case

Lauren Gambino in Washington
Fri 3 Dec 2021

With the US supreme court seemingly poised to exploit its conservative supermajority to undermine or overturn the landmark Roe v Wade decision, Democrats are vowing to make abortion a defining issue of next year’s midterm elections, embracing what they view as a political silver lining in an otherwise nightmare scenario.

As the justices weigh whether to uphold a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks, far earlier than Roe allows, and a request by the state that they explicitly overturn the historic 1973 ruling, Democrats and their allies have promised a fight.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/dec/03/abortion-rights-driving-force-2022-elections-experts-predict