Tennessee Guerilla Women: Mississippi's Looming Abortion Ban

The current issue of Newsweek features a story - The GOP's Abortion Anxiety - about the GOP realization that they have already gone too far with the radical right effort to outlaw abortion.

Already some of them 'get' that a backlash of monumental proportions is coming.

The magazine also has a story about the looming abortion ban in Mississippi. I've pasted an excerpt below, as well as a snippet from the BBC.

Mississippi Churning

Anti-abortion activists in Ole Miss debate the wisdom of a frontal assault on Roe v. Wade.

When "Jane" discovered a few weeks ago that she was pregnant, she nearly collapsed. She already has four kids, ages 6 to 18, to raise on her own, while working full-time as a housekeeper. "I'm struggling trying to take care of them," said the 33-year-old Vicksburg, Miss., native, who gave a fictitious name to protect her privacy. "I'm not financially able" to handle a fifth child. So she turned to what had always been, for her, an unthinkable and morally repugnant option: abortion. On her way in to the Jackson Women's Health Organization in Mississippi last week, anti-abortion protesters descended on her, imploring her not to "murder" her unborn baby. "It isn't that we're selfish, heartless people," she said once inside, her eyes brimming with tears. "When you have that baby, those people aren't going to be around to pay for Pampers or day care."

Her right to have the procedure, however, appears more imperiled than ever. For years, Mississippi anti-abortion activists have sought to shut down the Jackson clinic, the only remaining facility of its kind in the state. With their legislative allies, they've succeeded in passing some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, including a 24-hour waiting period and a requirement that minors obtain the consent of both parents. Now the Mississippi Legislature is considering a bill that would ban all abortions except in cases of rape, incest or a life-threatening condition for the mother.

Last month, it stopped performing second-trimester abortions while it tries to overcome additional regulatory hurdles put in place by abortion foes. If the new bill passes, Susan Hill, president of the National Women's Health Organization, which owns the clinic, vows to sue to block it. "We didn't come to Mississippi to be run out," she says.

More on Mississippi from the BBC:

The women going into this clinic for an abortion are screamed at. One protester, a man, yells "Don't go to those demons, don't let them take your money, don't let them kill your baby". When I ask him why he is being so aggressive, he tells me it's because America needs to know the truth: "Abortion is murder," he says.

Lawmakers have already drafted a bill to ban abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and risk to the mother's life. I am here to see Alan Nunnelee, the larger-than-life figure spearheading the drive to ban abortion in Mississippi.

Mr Nunnelee is a state senator and he is in no hurry. He wants to get this legislation right. Why? Because the senator believes, if good enough, it could reach the US Supreme Court. He hopes this legislation will persuade the Court to overturn Roe v Wade - the ruling that enshrines a woman's right to an abortion.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Mississippi's Looming Abortion Ban