American women's right to abortion under attack again, this time in Mississippi.

[Beachcomber]

thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/28/1252261/mississippis-only-abortion-clinic-could-be-forced-to-close-in-january/

Mississippi has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation, as well as the lowest abortion rate.

I disagree with pinkification usually but this is different;

thinkprogress.org/health/2013/01/31/1519841/mississippi-last-abortion-clinic-message/

It's a constant battle

Sometimes the fight seems never-ending, especially when we are having to fight just to maintain the status quo. It makes me so sad for those women in Mississippi. Their rights being eroded in a very real and frightening way. And this is a supposedly western culture we are talking abut here. So you can only imagine what it is like for women at the moment in countries where their rights aren't even acknowledged.

Jesus. That is really all I can think of to say.

So scary to see people who can't win the actual legal argument using back door approaches.

Yes, it is very calculating.

Yes it is scary shit. They don't even hide their agenda do they?

Jesus that's scary and the comments underneath...

Good grief. I cannot believe that Mississippi has only one abortion clinic anyway. let alone one that is about to close. Jesus.

It's disgusting. I recently read that 1/3 of American women have had an abortion. Not 1/3 of American women are pro choice supporters, but 1/3 have had an actual abortion.

With those kinds of numbers you couldn't imagine our rights could be eroded that way. But unfortunately as we represent less than 20% of the government that is unlikely to change.

I don't like the pink building because I think it makes the building a more obvious target and women who live there and need it's services more conspicuous.

I'm in two minds about the building - I agree it makes it more conspicuous. It makes me worried that it really is going to close down and the staff have decided to do this as a final 'fuck you'. Also women shouldn't need to hide to access state sanctioned abortion.

It is just so wrong - abortion is legal, there are health care practitioners willing to provide the service and yet the women of Mississippi may have this right taken away from them.

This is the sort of thing that makes sex = PIV so misogynistic.

Mississippi is bloody huge. I looked it up loser - it is larger in sq miles than Greece. Staggering that there is just the one clinic anyway. And now that is going because of a deliberate and pernicious bureaucratic policy.

North Dakota is at it too.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/31/north-dakota-anti-abortion-bill-hearings

The building is a kind of "bring it on" statement isn't it!

And YY to the dichotomy of sex = PIV and then non-access to abortion.

And some people say that feminism has got us all we need, ya know, the vote, equality, all that stuff...

And this shit is going on.

I despair sometimes

I really hope it stays open, I find the war on abortion rights in america at the moment frightening. They need to be opening more clinics, not closing them Mind you I come from a country where all abortions are illegal so even one would be a good start

Also women shouldn't need to hide to access state sanctioned abortion.

They shouldn't but if they feel their lives, jobs or just privacy is at stake they should have the option of hiding.

I fear this is going to end badly for women trying to exercise their federal legal right to abortion in Mississippi.

I bet the Republican state legislators will also try to deflect any blame from themselves by claiming they have only set up a licensing regime and it is hospital administrators who are responsible for any closure of the abortion clinic. That will be very disingenuous of the legislators.

GetOrf wrote "it is larger in sq miles than Greece"

or, to put it another way, closer to home for most Mumsnetters, Mississippi is almost the same size as England.

Fuck, that is even more frightening. It is the war on women.

I love the states but at times like this I hate them. Its like roe vs wade never happened. It makes my blood boil.

I think one of the biggest problems with the Roe v Wade ruling of 1973 by the federal US Supreme Court is that, although it ruled that abortion is legal throughout the USA and it overturned many state bans that were in force at the time, the other part of the ruling is that each state can impose its own restrictions on access to abortion. It was probably the best the pro-choice people could hope for at the time, but it seems that state legislatures have been a major battleground with attempts to make abortion in various states unobtainable if not illegal.

That does seem to be the problem vesuvia - it is ridiculous that the hospitals in Mississippi can refuse to co-operate with this clinic. You would think it would be against federal law, but it appears not.

And so, the right to abortion remains a constant battle in many parts of the US. And of course that just encourages the anti-choicers because they know that their activism may actually achieve making abortion very hard for women to access.

feministefatale, I agree. Women should be able to hide if they need to. They shouldn't need to though IYSWIM.

I've been thinking about the Roe vs Wade ruling. It really is a special kind of cruelty to say "Yes we acknowledge that women should not be forced to give birth if they don't want to but we aren't going to require that anyone facilitates that right." It sends out the message that they really don't give a shit about women and their rights.

Some commentators are comparing the impact of Roe vs Wade to the upcoming Supreme Court deliberations on gay marriage.

The basic thread of the political musings being: should the Supreme Court impose what is a legitimate right (gay marriage) on the whole country?

Because actually, as the years go by gay marriage is being voted through, state by state, and it's proving that there is no threat to hetero marriage, or the country, or whatever. And gradually, more and more people are realising that their opposition is groundless, and going state by state means that in the future, it will be an almost complete non-issue.

The other point of view is, "Fuck that, gay people have waited long enough for marriage equality".

From a political point of view, the comparison to Roe vs Wade is that federal imposition of this law in ALL states provides a rallying point around which conservatives can safely fulminate.

I didn't express that all very well, but I'm in the middle of feeding the kids.

That sounds about right AbigailAdams. How depressing.

It is why there is this constant attempt to erode women's reproduction rights in the US, I think - because they don't actually have full rights.

This case in Mississippi makes me sick - there is a clinic, there are people willing to provide an abortion service, abortion is state sanctioned, and yet other people can put their misogynistic moralising spanner in the works.

As you say, it is very cruel to say to women 'yes you need and have the right to abortion, afraid there's nowhere for you to have one though'. The women of Mississippi should all refuse to engage in PIV.

Hah yes that would focus their minds a bit!

Why should other people's beliefs be able to override women's rights?

Yes, that is exactly it. The attaining of reproductive rights as enshrined in law are so that women are not dependant on a whim or a belief. And American women don't have that, unbelievably.