washington: Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic will have to close unless a federal judge halts a new state law requiring its physicians to obtain admitting privileges to local hospitals, according to a court motion filed yesterday. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization renewed its request for a federal judge to prevent state officials from enforcing the law, which the clinic said was an unconstitutional attempt to ban abortion in Mississippi.
Mississippi, which had as many as 14 abortion providers in the early 1980s, has some of the country’s strictest abortion laws and one of the lowest abortion rates. It also has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the United States - more than 60 percent above the national average in 2010. The law, which took effect on July 1, requires all abortion providers to be board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and have admitting privileges at a local hospital.
Advocates of the new law, including numerous state lawmakers, said it was designed to protect women’s health. But some also have expressed hope it will shutter the Mississippi clinic. The clinic’s providers already are board-certified OB-GYNs, but the only one who had admitting privileges at the time of the law’s passage provides limited service at the clinic. The two doctors who provide the majority of procedures were denied privileges after a months-long effort by the clinic to obtain them. Clinic owner Diane Derzis told Reuters she sent applications on behalf of all the physicians to every hospital within a 30 mile radius. All of the hospitals ultimately rejected the requests or refused to even consider them, she said.Reuters
