“War on Women” Takes Its Toll: Mississippi’s Last Abortion Clinic Under Threat

June 23, 2012 | Filed under: World News | Posted by: 
The nationwide assault on reproductive and abortion rights that effects everyone with sexual health needs (so, that's everyone, pretty much!) and has come to be known as "The War on Women" may claim its first state as a victim soon. In Mississippi, the final abortion clinic left is fighting for its survival. Bloomberg reports:

 

Beginning July 1, all abortion-clinic physicians must have admitting privileges at a local hospital under a law passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Republican Governor Phil Bryant in April. At the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state’s sole remaining clinic providing elective abortions, none of the three physicians who perform the procedure has been granted those privileges.

Mississippi may become the first U.S. state without a dedicated abortion clinic if the Jackson facility fails to come into compliance. That would mark the most visible victory for the anti-abortion movement, which has fought to abolish the procedure in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to have one.

 

A woman scheduled to terminate her pregnancy at the clinic spoke to Bloomberg:

 

Christen Johnson, a 20-year-old waitress impregnated by her now-ex-boyfriend, may be one of the last women to get an abortion at the Jackson clinic. She had her first appointment there this week to receive state-mandated counseling and plans to undergo an abortion this month. State law requires that 24 hours pass between the two appointments…

… “Opting out and waiting till I am ready would be the better decision,” she said. “If the clinic was closed, my whole life would be ruined.”

 

This is the reality of anti-choice policy. Lives will be ruined.

By Sarah Seltzer | Sourced from AlterNet