Thanks to a new law taking effect today, Mississippi may become the only state without an abortion clinic. →

shortformblog:

The law requires anyone performing abortions at the state’s only clinic to be an OB-GYN with privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. Such privileges can be difficult to obtain, and the clinic contends the mandate is designed to put it out of business. A clinic spokeswoman, Betty Thompson, has said the two physicians who do abortions there are OB-GYNs who travel from other states.

Michelle Movahed of the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights is one of the attorneys representing the Mississippi clinic in its federal lawsuit. She said in an interview Friday that several states — including Mississippi, Kansas and Oklahoma — have tried in the past two or three years to chip away at access to abortion.

“One of the things that has really been surprising about Mississippi is how open the legislators and elected officials have been about their intentions,” Movahed said. “They’re not even pretending it’s about public safety. They’re openly saying they’re using this law to try to shut down the last abortion provider in the state.”

The state’s governor, Republican Phil Bryant, says that this is the intended effect, as he wants the state to be “abortion-free.” There is only one abortion clinic in the entire state.

There is no such thing as no abortions, only such a thing as no safe abortions.

(via fuckyeahplannedparenthood)

10 months ago  /  144 notes  /   / /Source: shortformblog