The last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, Jackson Women's Health Organization, may be closed at the end of the day. Federal Judge, Daniel P. Jordan, a W. Bush appointee and former Mississippi GOP Chair, is deciding this afternoon if the temporary injunction he handed down on July 1st allowing the clinic to stay open in the face of a clearly unconstitutional law passed by the MS legislature will be permanent. The injunction prevents Mississippi from putting into effect a law which requires that local abortion doctors be OB-GYNs AND have admitting privileges to a local hospital.
The clinic says the admitting privileges are not medically necessary and that it has been unable to obtain them for its two out-of-state OB-GYNs. It also argues in court papers that the requirement "gives hospitals a third-party veto over the availability of abortion in Mississippi" and that the clinic would face "irreparable harm" if the law were enforced.
Problem is, it's a Catch 22 designed purposefully to shut down the clinic. Because local Jackson doctors are afraid to provide abortions due to anti-abortion harassment and threats, doctors have to come from out of state. Therefore, the local hospitals won't give them admitting privileges because they are not bringing in any paying patients. Also, the issue isn't a problem, as the clinic has had only one transport to a hospital in the past 2 years, and that was a precautionary hospitalization. More below the lady part.
My friend, Diane Derzis, owns the clinic and proudly accepts the title of "Abortion Queen". Her clinic in Birmingham was just closed down by the state of Alabama on a witch hunt. To add insult to injury, the Birmingham clinic was the clinic that was bombed 10 years ago by Eric Rudolph resulting in the death of an off duty policeman and the maiming of a nurse.
These are just two of the many examples of the War on Women that rages against abortion and abortion clinics in this country. Anti-abortionists are trying to put State laws in place that close down clinics, thus doing something that they haven't been able to do via overturning Roe v. Wade.
This assault is relentless and mind boggling. Mississippi and Alabama are 2 of the poorest states and are at the bottom of every list of lifestyle problems: maternal mortality is high, they have a high number of uninsured, etc. The abortion clinics in these 2 states have not contributed to this. Neither state is good on feeding poor kids or getting healthcare to their citizens. They truly believe in life before birth and after death, but not in between.
This story is evolving and I will update as news comes in.
1:38 PM PT: YES! For now, the clinic will remain open.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
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