Mississippi Could Become The First No-Abortion State
If a 2012 law is found to be constitutional, Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic will be shuttered. This means women who wish to legally exercise their rights to abortions would have to travel to other states. It also means it would be more difficult for the poor, who are least likely to be able to support children in the first place.
It’s Republican governor, Phil Bryant, has been adamant about his stance on abortion, claiming that he wishes to “make Mississippi abortion-free.” On April 2012, the state passed a law that would shut down Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic, according to the National Journal.
The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which runs the clinic, sued and halted the law’s implementation; however, this Monday the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will hear oral arguments. Its decision could force the clinic to close. According to the legislation passed two years ago, physicians who perform more than 10 abortions a year to be certified in obstetrics and gynecology and have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, reports the National Journal.
In an attempt to placate the state, the clinic tried to fulfill the requirements without much success. According to Diane Derzis, owner of the clinic, no hospitals in the area will accept them.
“We applied to every hospital-eight to 10 of them,” she said. “The Catholic hospital turned us down immediately. The rest took a while, but turned us down without looking at the physicians. They put in writing that they were unable to handle the public press from this; they were upfront about it. It’s clear the politics prevailed with this whole thing.”
