Doctors at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization are scrambling to see as many patients as possible before Thursday, when, barring an unlikely intervention by the state’s conservative Supreme Court, Mississippi will enact a law banning most abortions. Amid stifling summer heat and humidity, clashes intensified Wednesday between anti-abortion protesters and volunteers escorting patients to the clinic, better known as the Pink House. When Dr. Cheryl Hamlin, who has traveled from Boston for five years to perform abortions, walked outside the Pink House, an abortion opponent used a bullhorn to yell at her. “I repent! I repent!” Doug Lane shouted. His words were drowned out by abortion rights advocate Bo Black, who repeatedly screamed at Lane: “Hypocrites and Pharisees! Hypocrites and Pharisees!”. Abortion access is increasingly restricted in large parts of the US as conservative states enact restrictions or bans that took effect when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The court, reshuffled by three conservative justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, issued the ruling on June 24. But the Mississippi clinic has been overwhelmed with patients since September, when Texas enacted a ban on early-pregnancy abortions. Cars with license plates from Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas drive into Jackson’s Fondren neighborhood to bring women and girls—some of whom appeared to be teenagers—to the Pink House. Drivers parked on side streets near the clinic in the shade of pink and purple crepe myrtles, their car air conditioners blasting as they waited. Diane Derzis, who has owned the Mississippi clinic since 2010, drove to Jackson to speak at the Pink House hours after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. “It has been a great honor and privilege to be in Mississippi. I have come to love this state and the people in it,” Derzis told the crowd in the sweltering heat. The Supreme Court decision involved a case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — the clinic’s challenge to a 2018 Mississippi law to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. The Pink House had allowed abortions up to 16 weeks, but under previous US Supreme Court rulings, abortion was allowed up to the point of fetal viability at around 24 weeks. Mississippi’s top public health official, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, was named in the lawsuit but has not taken a public position on the case. The state’s Republican attorney general urged the justices to use the case to overturn Roe v. Wade and give states more power to regulate or ban abortions. Derzis told The Associated Press after the ruling that she had no regrets about filing the lawsuit that ultimately undermined nearly five decades of abortion case law. “We had no choice. And if it wasn’t for this lawsuit, it would be another one,” said Derzis, who also owns abortion clinics in Georgia and Virginia and lives in Alabama. The Mississippi clinic uses out-of-state physicians such as Dr. Hamlin, because no in-state doctors will work there. As the Pink House prepared to close, Dr. Hamlin said she was concerned about women living in deep poverty in parts of the state with little access to health care. “People say, ‘Oh, what should I do?’ he said. “And I say ‘Vote’.” Shannon Brewer, the director of the Pink House, agrees that low-income women will be most affected by not being able to get abortions in the state. Brewer told the AP that anti-abortion protesters know her by name and yell at her, but she tunes them out. “They don’t tell me much anymore but, you know, ‘You come to work to kill babies,’” Brewer said. “I’ve been here 20-something years. So it’s like I don’t hear it when I get out of the car because it’s like the same thing over and over and over again.” Some executives were expected to be at the Pink House on Thursday for paperwork ahead of its closure, but not proceedings. With the Mississippi clinic closing, Derzis and Brewer will soon open an abortion clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, about an hour’s drive from El Paso, Texas, that they will call Pink House West. Hamlin said she is getting a permit in New Mexico so she can work there. Mississippi and New Mexico are two of the poorest states in the US, but they have very different positions on abortion policy and access. New Mexico, home to a Democratic-led legislature and governor, recently took an extra step to protect providers and patients from out-of-state prosecution. We are likely to continue to see a steady influx of abortion seekers from neighboring states with more restrictive abortion laws. One of the largest abortion providers in Texas, Whole Woman’s Health, announced Wednesday that it also plans to reopen in New Mexico in a town near the state line to provide first- and second-trimester abortions. It began winding down operations in Texas after the state Supreme Court ordered an end to abortions at its four clinics. Standing outside the Mississippi clinic on June 24, Derzy was realistic about the future of the building she painted bright pink several years ago. “This building will be sold and maybe someone will tear it down and build a parking lot here,” Derzis said. “And that will be sad, but it served its purpose and many women had their abortions here.”
AP writer Susan Montoya Bryan contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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