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 Two escorts wearing rainbow-colored vests blared rock music to drown
out Anderson and other protesters as patients entered the fenced
lot.
"Ma'am, you are already a mother. Don't let them kill your baby,"
Anderson, 61, told the woman.
The escorts turned up the volume on the Guns N' Roses song "Nightrain"
as the woman was led into the pink-colored building located next to
a Homewood Suites hotel and across the street from a taqueria.
It is a common scene at a clinic at the center of a major legal
fight https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-case-past-could-be-future-abortion-2021-11-23
now before the U.S. Supreme Court that could shape the future of
American abortion rights. The nine justices on Wednesday are due to
hear arguments in Mississippi's bid to revive a Republican-backed
2018 law, blocked by lower courts, banning abortion at 15 weeks of
pregnancy. Mississippi has asked the justices to overturn the
landmark 1973 Roe. v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion
nationwide.
Mississippi is among 12 states https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-case-past-could-be-future-abortion-2021-11-23
with so-called trigger laws designed to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade
is overturned. Additional states also likely would move quickly to
curtail abortion access with such a ruling.
Anti-abortion advocates like Anderson, who cite religious opposition
to the procedure, believe they are closer than ever to overturning
Roe, a longstanding goal for Christian conservatives and a driving
force https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-abortion/at-anti-abortion-rally-trump-assails-democrats-draws-applause-idUSKBN1ZN152
behind some recent Supreme Court appointments https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-court-barrett/trumps-supreme-court-nominee-advocated-overturning-legalized-abortion-idINKBN26M7IS
by Republican presidents.
Anderson said she would "praise God" if the Supreme Court rules the
way she hopes.
'EVERY WOMAN HAS A CHOICE'
The Jackson clinic sees between 60 and 80 patients a week, with most
obtaining abortions by pill. It has two rooms where women can obtain
surgical abortions performed between 11 and 16 weeks of pregnancy.
A 40-year-old woman from Jackson, who was six weeks pregnant and
undergoing a medication abortion, said she was grateful for the
clinic.
"Every woman has a choice on whether to have a child or not. I don't
think it's the state's decision," she said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
Roe v. Wade recognized that the right to personal privacy under the
U.S. Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her
pregnancy. The Supreme Court in a 1992 ruling called Planned
Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey reaffirmed the
right to abortion and prohibited laws imposing an "undue burden" on
abortion access.
Abortion opponents hope the court, with its 6-3 conservative
majority, will narrow or overturn the Roe and Casey rulings in the
Mississippi case.
[to top of second column] |
 Mississippi Attorney General
Lynn Fitch, a Republican, in court papers called
those two rulings "egregiously wrong" and based
on obsolete science. State legislatures should
have more leeway to restrict abortion, Fitch
said. The Roe and Casey
decisions determined that states cannot ban abortion before a fetus
is viable outside the womb, generally viewed by doctors as between
24 and 28 weeks.
Mississippi's 15-week ban directly challenged that finding. Even if
the court does not explicitly overturn Roe, any ruling letting
states ban abortion before the fetus is viable outside the womb
would raise questions about how early states could ban the
procedure.
"Without that clear line that courts could apply, states would be
able to ban abortion at virtually any point of pregnancy," said
lawyer Julie Rikelman of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which
challenged Mississippi's law on behalf of the Jackson clinic.
Mississippi's law and other similar ones passed by various
Republican-led states represent direct challenges to Roe v. Wade.
After the clinic sued to block the measure, a federal judge in 2018
ruled against Mississippi. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in 2019 reached the same conclusion, prompting
Mississippi to turn to the Supreme Court
Sitting behind her desk in her cluttered office, one eye on a screen
showing security camera footage of the anti-abortion protesters
outside, clinic director Shannon Brewer vowed to do whatever she can
to help women access abortion if the Supreme Court rules in favor of
Mississippi. "That would be a huge step backwards.
It would be a slap in a woman's face to say after all these years
you still don't have control over your body," Rikelman said.
Her organization could assist with travel and accommodation costs
and refer women to out-of-state doctors for abortions, Brewer said.
If Roe v. Wade were overturned, more women would have to travel out
of conservative states like Mississippi for abortions, an option
that those with scarce financial resources may be unable to
accomplish, according to a doctor at the clinic who flies in from
Massachusetts.
 "It makes me want to cry," said the doctor, also speaking on
condition of anonymity. "It makes me feel defeated and horrified
that people in this country hate women so much they don't want them
to be able to access a full range of pregnancy care."
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley in Jackson, Mississippi; Additional
reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)
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