Mississippi's last abortion clinic persists

[Rose Siding]

"Mississippi is the picture of the future," said Susan Hill, a North Carolina-based businesswoman who owns several clinics, including the one in Jackson. "It's the perfect laboratory for any restriction; there's no way, politically, that it won't sail through the Legislature."

Roy McMillan, an anti-abortion activist who has been protesting outside Mississippi clinics for 25 years, is delighted that he no longer has to ponder which clinic to target.

"Thankfully, we've arrived at a time I always wanted — when the women have to come through us," said McMillan, dressed in a well-worn Santa Claus suit as he confronted clinic employees and patients on a recent weekday. "I would love our state to be the first to be abortion-free."
...
The Legislature has been so diligent that Pat Cartrette, executive director of Pro-Life Mississippi, says her group no longer has a wish list of abortion laws — all its priorities have been enacted. Her group is now targeting the Jackson Women's Health Organization, asserting that one of the three doctors working there has vision problems.

"We don't need to wait for the Supreme Court to outlaw abortion," Cartrette said. "If we shine the light on the abortionists and the abortion industry, it will self-destruct, and we're seeing that happen in Mississippi."
...
"Some Mississippi women drive across the state line to get abortions, but the poorest of the poor are either having the kids or getting a back-alley abortion," said Larry Rodick, who heads Planned Parenthood's Alabama office. "Some of those women probably end up getting sick and dying, though we'll never know because they don't put it on the death certificate."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002132445_abortion28.html

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. its a shame abortion clinics in areas like this

don't hire their own redneck bodyguards to do some baseball batting outside the clinics to the protestors. Some of them good ol boys need a good Lousiville slugger upside the head.

Know what I mean, Vern?

[Not_Giving_Up]

3. I guess the redneck cops won't protect the clinic either?

That's really obnoxious. There has to be a reason why all of the other clinics in the state are gone. Where are the doctors and nurses who worked at them? Shouldn't somebody be asking them why they are no longer doing abortions? Isn't it likely that their answers will be that they feared for their lives??

[Rowdyboy]

33. Pardon, but those "redneck" cops are mostly black

The city is 70% black, the mayor is black, the chief of police is black, and a large majority of police are black. I live here and am friends with many of them. Crime is explodng and they don't have the manpower to do everything they're expected to do.

I know you've been spoon-fed stereotypes about the south since birth, but you need to learn they're not always true.

[OnlyInAmerica]

5. Are you serious?

You advocate beating protestors with baseball bats? As long as the protestors don't block women from entering the clinic or attempt to assault them they are doing nothing wrong. Should corporations hire people with baseball bats to beat protestors? Maybe businesses should hire people to pummel union workers on strike? I suppose the RNC could've hired people to beat the demonstrators in New York as well? I don't agree with their message, but I'll defend their right to speak it as long as it is done in a non-violent, non-threatening manner.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. um

they've gotten all the other clinics closed. And they harass the workers and the people who enter the clinic.

It's just a matter of time before they start throwing firebombs through the windows of this clinic.

I don't advocate beating anyone, but I wouldn't mind having a few dozen large burly men with baseball bats and hair triggers stand in front of them and wait for them to do something stupid.

[OnlyInAmerica]

9. Well

It's quite a stretch to go from throwing verbal harassment to throwing firebombs. I agree that they should have security on site to prevent/deter any form of violence or assault, but obviously I don't believe in beating people because they protest a clinic or harass patients. Union members harass those who cross picket lines to go to work, but they shouldn't beat them. Apparently the protestors have done nothing but draw attention to the clinics in an attempt to shut them down. Like I said, detest the message, defend the messenger.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. Search page, here I go.

[OnlyInAmerica]

10. Search away

God forbid someone not advocate beating protestors. What kind of values are those???

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. Straw man. See post #11. (nt)

[Bridget Burke]

19. Armed security is the idea.

Generally, armed security do not need to use their weapons.

The value is protecting a woman's right to choose. Of course, in many clinics, the women are just coming in for birth control advice. But they still have to run the gauntlet of the unloved.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Dubya goes around with armed security

That doesn't mean he has the intention to order them to shoot people on a regular basis. Likewise with the rednecks and the baseball bat. It's to intimidate potential troublemakers.

Or would you like for that last clinic to be vulnerable to harassment so it closes?

[OnlyInAmerica]

29. The poster said...

"It's a shame abortion clinics in areas like this don't hire their own redneck bodyguards to do some baseball batting outside the clinics to the protestors. Some of them good ol boys need a good Lousiville slugger upside the head."

Some of them good ol boys need a good Louisville slugger upside the head.

Sounded to me like it was for more than intimidation, but perhaps I didn't interpret it correctly.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

34. Exactly. You didn't interpret correctly.

Shop elsewhere for evil abortionist behavior.

[Demeter]

35. I Wouldn't Bet the Farm on That Notion--or even a wooden nickel!

[Scout]

14. Have you ever been to a clinic with these idiots outside?

I've escorted many clients into several different clinics past these bozos ... they DO try to block women from entering the clinic ... they chased us with their van one time, almost ran us down in the parking lot. They scream obscenities at the women and shove little plastic fetus dolls in their faces. One client was followed into other stores after she left the clinic, and harrassed inside K-Mart ... store security "showed them out."

Their "message" is not communicated in a non-threatening, non-violent way.

[OnlyInAmerica]

31. No I haven't

If they're chasing you with a van, trying to run you over and hitting you in the face with plastic dolls then that is assault. In those instances I have no problem with someone using force against them. However, if there is a group of people outside saying mean things I don't believe force is justified.

[arikara]

38. Sorry, but that's just plain sick... words can cut like a knife

If the law isn't going to protect the women, then someone needs to. Why should some raving nut be allowed to stand around and verbally hurt, threaten or scare a woman who has already had to make a very difficult decision. It is none of their business whatsoever. If they were as "pro-life" as they profess to be, they would be working to make sure that no child that is born ever has to go hungry. They just want control over women, they are not "pro-life" at all, they are "pro-control".

They are as nutty here in BC but we have a bubble zone around the clinics to keep the loonies away from the women. One of them shot a doctor and nearly killed him a few years back which I think was one of the catalysts for the bubble zone.

[arikara]

36. Actually the corporations do have people

to get rid of protestors and deal with striking workers.



Bought and paid for with your tax dollars too.

[Selatius]

2. It's a damn shame Miss. has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates

I can see these two facts just colliding and making a big wreck, but nobody is going to notice because they don't want to. I oughta know. I fucking live here.

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. can you move out of there?

No offense, but Mississippi and other states like this don't deserve intelligent people living there. They dont' deserve your tax dollars and they don't deserve the benefits of having a sizable population (which is due in part to the minority of clear-thinking Democrats who make up 35-45% of the state).

[jmcgowanjm]

13. Arkansas has the highest teen pregnancy

Fayetteville's abortion clinic closed last year.
My wife had to get another OB-Gyn.

[eleonora]

6. disgusting

well, works for Bush.

poor teen pregnancy->no abortion->poor kid->church brainwashing->no education->vote for the Repugs guaranteed for the next 50 years.

There's a think tank out there who thought this.

[okieinpain]

15. I really believe that dems should step back from abortion. allow

abortions to become hard to obtain. maybe then some of these stupid ass women and men who oppose it because of their pastors shaming them into it will wake up. when women start getting on welfare, with 4 and 5 kids, or you start having homeless shelters saying they are being overwhelmed because of the large number of super sized families, the sheeple will understand the consenquence of their actions.

when the party girls find out that they can't get an abortion, maybe they will find time from their partying to set aside a few hours to get out and vote. this might not be such a bad thing.

[Sunny_Sunshine]

16. High price to pay

And the party girls will always get their abortions. It is the poor who pay the price.

[schrodinger_I]

17. I have an idea

Open a drive-through abortion clinic. I am sure that would go over. Don't they have drive-thru liquor stores in MS?

[Bridget Burke]

18. The party girls can go into a private clinic for "appendicitis"

Note to Jenna: You can only use this excuse once.

Indeed, it's the poor women who will suffer. Many of them already have kids to care for.

[okieinpain]

26. well I know some that do not vote. their excuse is "it's a waste of

time." maybe now it might be important.

[AndyTiedye]

20. If We Step Back From Abortion It Will Be Banned for Decades

and so will birth control. They'll do it with the Supreme Court.
Then it will take a Constitutional amendment to get abortion rights back.
They'll do it to birth control too.

[DBoon]

24. You are right about birth control. More than that is at stake

Roe v. Wade is founded on the notion that private sexuality is a private matter not subject to arbitrary government interference. It is based on a notion of a zone of privacy that the law cannot intrude on.

Strike this down and you will see not just birth control outlawed (as it was in many places until court decisions in the 1960's) but new laws governing sexual behavior and other family matters as well.

Anyone who does not follow the puritanical version of sexuality is at risk - not just women seeking pregnancy termination or homosexuals.

[okieinpain]

30. well you know we're not winning this debate. the sheeple are

watching cheerleaders, and desperate housewifes, and getting liposuction, and their boobs done. they really don't care about what we have to say.

so maybe they need to be taught a lesson. maybe you let their asses fend for themselves. a lot of the us, thinks were the looneys, all they hear is save the children, not repugs taking away peoples rights.

[AndyTiedye]

46. How Much of Whose Liberty Would You Give Up to Teach Someone a Lesson???

> they really don't care about what we have to say.

They don't hear what we have to say, because it isn't on television.

> so maybe they need to be taught a lesson.

The imposition of the dominion's idea of morality upon us all
(and most heavily on the poor and Democratic, as always)
is an awfully high price to pay to "teach someone a lesson".
Particularly when it is likely to be irreversible.

[okieinpain]

48. well it's happening whether we like it or not, a little bit at a time.

all we're doing is allowing the people to adjust to the boiling water.

[okieinpain]

27. well maybe that's what it will take for the sheeple to stop sitting

around laughing at us. calling us a bunch of sore losers, whiners, tax and spenders, and any of a dozen other names the repugs have label us with. maybe women turning up dead in alleys, is what it will take for the sheeple to wake up out of their comas.

[AndyTiedye]

45. Nope. The Talibornagains Want It That Way

...and those who will be the victims are already voting Democratic
(or at least, trying to vote Democratic)

[annabanana]

21. sure....let her die in a back alley or seedy hotel room.

after all.. If she had been "pure" and not flaunted herself shamelessly in front of her step-dad like that he wouldn't have been tricked into raping her in the first place.

good plan

[okieinpain]

28. so that's why women need abortions because they were raped

by their step-dads. ok. right.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

40. Yes, that. And about a dozen other reasons. Your point is? (nt)

[genieroze]

42. You sound like my husband.

He says I hope these psychos get everything they want, then maybe people will wake the f**k up.

[sandnsea]

43. It's already that way

In any rural state you have to travel miles to a populated city to get an abortion. You'd be amazed how many young girls in my town go visit an aunt in Portland and oops, have miscarriages. They just don't make the connection because they won't admit they had an abortion anyway.

I can also see there's more stupid asses than just anti-abortion zealots. The girls I know who have gotten pregnant were not party girls. They were "good Christian girls" who didn't use birth control because that would mean they were just like "those party girls". Also, no birth control is 100%, I don't know how that little fact keeps flying right over the heads of otherwise intelligent people.

[Liberty Belle]

44. It's not just "party girls" who will suffer.

How about the 1 in 50 women with ectopic (tubal) pregnancies? These women will die if they can't terminate their pregnancies quickly.

How about the poor married and women who already have more children then they can afford to care for? Or the pregnant military women coming home from Iraq, knowing they've been exposed to spent Uranium that can cause horrendous birth defects?

How about the women carrying severely damaged fetuses--those without brain stems, or with organs outside the body, or other horrible deformities that can't simply be patched up and fixed easily?
If these children survive past infancy, are you going to pay the staggering cost of caring for them for the rest of their lives? If not, I suggest you please stop making statements aimed at destroying countless lives.

[CrispyQ]

22. Stupidest remark ever . . .

Roy McMillan: "I would love our state to be the first to be abortion-free."

Does this moran really think that closing the last clinic will make Mississippi abortion free?

In the case of Mr. McMillan & Ms. Cartrette, I'm totally in favor of late term abortion -- extremely late term -- like 30 to 50 years late. They are A-holes who have no compassion for those in less fortunate circumstances than their selves.

bumper sticker: "Christians aren't perfect; They just want you to be."

Note: I realize not all Christians can be lumped in that group, but the sentiment certainly applies to the zealots!

[DBoon]

23. End of year donation!!!

http://www.ppalabama.org/Giving.html

Give! Let them know they will not be driven out!

[Book Lover]

25. One simple step to make Mississippi abortion-free

Remove every fertile human from the state boundaries. That's about it.

"Oh, (so say the zealots) we could teach people about birth control and mature sexual decision-making, but then Yahweh would rain thunder and lightening from the sky and kill us all, because He disapproves of us using the brains he put in our heads."

[Yavin4]

32. Just Like Iraq, You Cannot Fight For Someone Else's Freedom

People have to learn to stand up and fight for their own freedom. If they lose their abortion rights, so be it. They will have to live with the consequences. The best that we can do is to protect our freedoms where we live and move to places that are free.

You cannot argue with ignorance. If you could, there wouldn't be any ignorance. Ignorant people have to touch the proverbial hot stove a thousand times before they learn that it's hot. Thousands more have to die in Iraq before they learn that it was all for a lie.

If idiot Americans continue to listen to and believe that multi-millionaire media stars like Sean Hannity and Limbaugh, then they deserve to work for sub-minimum wages. They deserve to lose all of their privacy rights. They deserve to lose their SS, and they deserve to lose their lives and their limbs in Iraq.

I don't know about you, but I'm through arguing with ignorance.

[nodehopper]

37. it's great that Planned Parenthood turned picketers into fund-raising

They launched a program where they get a donation for every anti-abortion picketer!

The more picketers, the more money to supporet PP!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

39. Where does the money come from?

Do people pledge to follow the count of rabid fundies? I heard people did something similar with Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps.

[nodehopper]

47. yeah, ppl who want to donate "sponsor" picketers

[genieroze]

41. If that nut came up to me in a Santa suit, I would say what's da matta

don't believe Christmas is for Jesus? Then I would knock him in the teeth if he blocked my entrance. I personally don't believe in abortion, but I support a womans right to her own body. How do they know why I'm going there? Maybe I need a breast exam and a pap smear. Before my daughter went back to school when she didn't have our insurance she used to go to a clinic that did abortions for a check up because it was cheaper then a private doctor.
"Blacks make up 37 percent of the population, yet account for 73 percent of the state's abortions. Cartrette voices disappointment at Pro-Life Mississippi's failure to make more headway among blacks, while McMillan — who is white — often cradles an African-American doll in his arms while protesting and hands out pamphlets depicting abortion as a form of black genocide."

Hum, you would figure they would be in favor of this, less people one needs to rig the votes for in future elections and less secret Jim Crow voting laws to enforce. In their narrow tiny minds less welfare to pay, even though more whites than blacks collect welfare. Oh yes, less black churches to burn down. Freaking hypocrites.

edited for spelling