Law Could Force Mississippi’s Only Abortion Clinic to Close
Anti-abortion protesters set up their signs outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization and regularly preach their beliefs to anyone who will listen. They pray the clinic will close. Their prayers may soon be answered.
Clinic owners are in a fight to save the only abortion clinic operating in the state of Mississippi. New state requirements may close their doors forever, making Mississippi the first abortion-free state.
“I want to say over my dead body, but I’m afraid,” said clinic owner and president Diane Derzis.
“We’re going to do whatever it takes to keep servicing the women of Mississippi,” she said.
A state law that takes effect Sunday requires all of a clinic’s abortion providers to be certified OB/GYN’s, and all of them must have privileges at a local hospital.
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“I think the intent is to make sure that women who are receiving these abortions are receiving abortions by a professional physician who is certified,” said state Rep. Sam Mims, who sponsored the legislation.
“If something goes wrong, which it might — we hope it doesn’t, but it could — that physician could follow the patient to a local hospital. That’s the intent. And what happens afterwards, we’ll have to see what happens,” he told CNN.