One State down?

You've probably heard it before, politicians declaring that they want to make their state "abortion free."

Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi has often stated that he wants to end abortion in Mississippi.

Unfortunately for the women of the state, Gov. Bryant and others have made Mississippi dangerously close to becoming the first state post Roe which would have no abortion clinic.

Of course this doesn't mean that Mississippi will be an abortion free state at all- it just means that women in Mississippi will have no place in their state where they can obtain a safe legal procedure. As more and more states look to enact legislation requiring admitting privileges, the number of clinics able to meet this unnecessary and frivolous requirement are minimal at best because hospitals can deny these privileges simply because they want to.

This battle has been going on for over a year in Mississippi. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III let the law take effect in July 2012, after the clinic sued the state. Judge Jordan blocked the state from closing the clinic however, while it tried to comply. Now the clinic is back in court fighting to keep its doors open after area hospitals have refused to grant admitting privileges to the clinics doctors. I strongly encourage you to view my post on admitting privileges before continuing (if you haven't already) as it explains what the admitting privilege requirements really mean and why the only purpose for them to exist is to force clinics to close. In short, admitting privileges have nothing to do with the quality of care, competency of the doctor and lack of said privileges does not prevent patients with abortion related complications from receiving care- at all. Patients cannot be turned away if they haven't been sent by a doctor with admitting privileges and there is no added benefit to any patient who has been referred to a hospital by a doctor with admitting privileges.

The court is now faced with the decision of whether or not the admitting privilege requirement can be enforced while simultaneously avoiding creating an "undue burden." Confused? I don't blame you. If the admitting privilege requirement is enforced the only clinic in Mississippi providing abortion services will be forced to shut down. Shutting down the last clinic which provides LEGAL abortions in the state of Mississippi could be construed as an undue burden as it is forcing women to go out of state to obtain abortion services. As far as the undue burden aspect we must look to the case of Planned Parenthood v Casey which was decided in 1992. Though the ruling did hold the basic principle of Roe v Wade- that abortion would remain legal in the United States up to "viability," the ruling also granted states the right to impose restrictions on how and when and under what circumstances women would be allowed to obtain abortions. Since the term "undue burden" is entirely subjective (look HERE to the case in Texas where a Judge stated women would not be inconvenienced by a lack of access to clinics because they could just "drive faster") what can and cannot be considered an undue burden is highly subjective.

Because there are states with pending admitting privileges legislation and states with this legislation that have already been deemed "constitutional" under appeal (ahem, Texas), it is difficult to predict what the outcome will be in Mississippi. If the court upholds the admitting privilege requirements then the last clinic in Mississippi will be forced to close. While Mississippi will be the first state to effectively negate the legality of abortion it will certainly not be the last and as usual the casualties will be women. This is a dangerous road to be going down and as Governor Bryant and other abortion rights foes will find out there is no way to drive the need for abortions out of any state- with or without clinics women will always need abortion services whether or not the state is willing to grant them a safe procedure or not. Mississippi should not be proud to be the first state to deny women that right.