Inside Mississippi's Last Abortion Clinic
Jackson Women's Health Organization holds the dubious distinction of being Mississippi's only remaining abortion clinic. In 1981, there were 14, but thanks in part to increasingly repressive legislation, the others have closed.
Last April, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed a new law requiring any doctor performing abortions in the state to have permission to admit patients at a local hospital. That's a problem for Jackson Women's Health, since neither of its two doctorsboth of whom fly into Mississippi to provide abortionshas admitting privileges. Bryant called the law "the first step in a movement, I believe, to do what we campaigned on...to try to end abortion in Mississippi."
Abortions in Mississippi are now only legal in clinics until 16 weeks of pregnancymany other states permit the procedure up to 24 weeks. The state requires abortion clinics to abide by many of the same building codes as hospitals, even though other medical offices don't have to follow these rules. Doctors must perform a sonogram and offer the patient an opportunity to see the image and listen to the fetal heartbeat. All women must attend counseling with a doctor and then wait at least 24 hours before undergoing the procedure. Minors must have the consent of both of their parents. A few other states have passed some of these restrictions, but Mississippi has them all.
Mississippi already has one of the lowest abortion rates in the United States, with just 5 percent of women electing to end their pregnanciescompared to 19 percent nationally. It is one of just three statesalong with North and South Dakotathat have only one clinic and zero providers who live in-state.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/inside-mississippis-last-abortion-clinic
dsc
(52,162 posts)Both Dakotas have only one clinic and in both cases the clinic is on the border with Minnesota meaning that much of the state is hundreds of miles from the nearest clinic. In the case of MS most would only be a hundred or so miles away. Not great but the Dakotas have it worse.
Rhiannon12866
(205,405 posts)Turning back the clock forty years for women...