Several months back, anti-choice groups around the country were descending upon Mississippi to attempt to push their loony “personhood amendment,” which would have stated that life begins at fertilization, and may very well have resulted in a de facto ban on abortion and even some contraception. Supporters of personhood amendments wear their misogyny on their sleeves, and luckily, once Mississippi residents found out what the bill was all about, they voted it down.
But as the headline suggests, Mississippi just won’t stop, as they’ve now passed a bill, signed by the Republican governor, which may end up closing Mississippi’s only remaining abortion clinic:
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill Monday imposing restrictions on the state’s sole abortion clinic that could force it to close.
[...]
The Mississippi law requires all physicians who work at in-state abortion clinics to be board-certified with admitting privileges at a local hospital.
Mississippi once had several abortion clinics. Only one remains: the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in the state capital. Owner Diane Derzis has said it will be difficult for her doctors to obtain local admitting privileges, since many of them live out of state and commute to the clinic, fearing harassment by anti-abortion groups.
Which is why it’s so clever of the anti-woman crowd to push this bill! These people simply have no respect for the fact that Roe v. Wade is actually the law of the land, and unless we lose our minds as a nation (more than we already have), it will remain so. Moreover, they refuse to understand that closing the state’s last abortion clinic won’t actually do away with abortion in Mississippi — it will simply make it less safe, less regulated, and women’s health will suffer as a consequence.
Living on the border with that sad state, people around here like to snark at Mississippi for being easily the most backward, backwoods state in the country, so I’ll just leave y’all with a quote from one of my friend’s brothers: “Mississippi needs to be closed temporarily for repairs.”
[h/t Blue Texan]
I was watching Bill Maher the other night, and I cannot remember for the life of me which state it was, but I am reasonably sure it began with an A (Alabama, methinks).
But they have passed a law which states that life begins not at birth, not in the 3rd trimester, not even at conception, but life begins at (get this) the end of the woman’s last period!!!
WTF??????
Peter, Maher also said, they believe life begins at erection. That of course was a joke, the ‘last period’ sounds like it might be a joke too. (But not far from the truth).
Don’t care. That is a hetero problem. Let them fight the enemy for once.
Peter, I blieve that Arizona has a bill defining a child’s life as starting the first day of the mother’s last menstrual cycle — possibly 2 weeks before conception. I don’t believe it has been signed into law, but apparently has a good chance of this. It is H.B. 2036.
Just another way to control people. And we really need to care about this because the people pushing this nonsense are the same ones who are working overtime to eradicate our rights.
For christianists it is all about control. They use religious fervor to try and foist a resumption of the idealized past they’ve come to believe from their rewrite of history. A past where women knew their place and other religionists did as well. A past where LGBT people were only a dark murmur hidden in the shadows. A past where white men, no matter how uneducated, unethical or undeserving always had the top place at the table.
Can’t wait to go back to that.