- SCOTUS will soon hear the Dobbs v Jackson women’s health organization, a case that could undo Roe v Wade, which protects abortion law at the federal level.
- Jackson Women’s Health is the only abortion clinic in Mississippi and is at the heart of the case.
- The clinic faces a lack of resources and daily harassment from anti-abortion protesters.
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Before the pandemic, 2,500 people walked through the doors of Jackson Women’s Health, now the last abortion provider in all of Mississippi, looking for abortions every year. That number has since grown to around 3,000 a year during the pandemic as more clinics closed their doors.
To accommodate all patients – an influx of people from other states like Louisiana and Alabama – Shannon Brewer, the director of Jackson Women’s Health in Jackson, Mississippi, said doctors and clinic staff work from morning to night.
After Mississippi officials voted to ban abortions after 15 weeks of gestation in 2018, Jackson Women’s Health officials sued the state, citing the Roe v. Calf. But in May, the Supreme Court agreed to take Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a reproductive health case that could overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade judgment, which protects a person’s right to abortion without undue state federal restrictions .
As SCOTUS prepares to hear the case, abortion advocates and proponents worry about the fate of reproductive health care.
On June 3, Brewer, who has been with Jackson Women’s Health since 2001, spoke in a panel hosted by Rewire News Group about the struggles her organization has faced over the past two decades, including limited funding, overworked staff and constant harassment by anti-abortion demonstrators.
“We’re on the cutting edge of the Supreme Court,” Brewer said while on the podium. “But we were always on needles and needles, with all the new laws that keep coming back. It’s actually a constant struggle here, because as soon as we’ve cleared a hurdle, something else appears.”
Anti-abortion protesters camp and call patients on entering “w — s”
AP Photo / Rogelio V. Solis
Brewer said their tactics have stepped up in recent years, but they have encountered little resistance from law enforcement, she said.
During the panel discussion, Brewer said the protesters wore the same vests as hospital escorts to intercept patients walking up to the light pink building. They throw pamphlets against abortions through the patient’s open car window. They stand on ladders to look over the clinic’s fence and call the patients “murderer” and “w — s” as they enter the building.
In 2019, Brewer and her team convinced city officials to issue an ordinance to prevent non-patients from entering the clinic grounds. But the regulation didn’t last long.
“The next thing we know is that the signs were removed,” said Brewer, who she later learned that abortion advocates were suing the city over the ordinance.
“So they took the regulation back, which basically leaves us alone,” Brewer said.
Funding is often tight as the staff looks after thousands of patients each year
AP Photo / Rogelio V. Solis
In addition to the lack of government support, Brewer noted the lack of community support for Jackson Women’s Health.
“The only thing that is our biggest obstacle is getting people to come up and speak up when it comes to this clinic. People will talk about it behind closed doors and in private, but when it comes down to it, to come forward, this is the time to “step up, people don’t,” Brewer said during the panel.
As a result, the clinic has had periods of financial instability, compounded by pandemic travel expenses and limited funding, according to Brewer.
Many doctors at the clinic live out of state and found that flights, rental cars and gasoline were three times as expensive as they were before the pandemic. When there was a shortage of protective equipment for medical personnel, it became another struggle to afford the equipment.
Now that SCOTUS has agreed to hear Dobbs speak against Jackson Women’s Health, Brewer urges the public to donate money directly and join forces to support the right to abortion.
“At some point you can’t just say, ‘I’m in favor of the choice.’ It’s all about action, “Brewer said.
source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/what-its-like-inside-the-last-abortion-clinic-in-mississippi/
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