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

[adkinsfamily]

me personally, I got fixed. but if for some reason I got pregnant( not god sent) I would most def have an abortion!
I have 3 kids and don't want more, hints: tubed tied.

[adkinsfamily]

only women can bare a child. we've only had rights for about 60 yrs...so let's take away the right mother nature gave us.the choice to become mother's. they give us the right to getting our tubes tied and b. control why not abortion? of course not as a b. control method. here's perspective) what if a woman got her tubes tied and the procedure didn't work and she got pregnant and wanted or got an abortion would that be bad? bec/ the woman took the ultimate b. control plan to try and prevent abortion..it happens.

[adkinsfamily]

adding to that.

their are millions of children already in foster homes never to be adopted, especially amungst poor black communities. or poverty period.
and just to add my own comment, I'm tired of these christian based people putting god in the name of abortions being stopped. as if these fetus's are GOD'S children". if every child created was meant to be born why would he allow a baby to be born into a home where maybe(perspective) a low income family wanted an abortion and couldn't get one had "GOD'S CHILD" and he grew up in a home home with depressed, addicted abusive parents..more than likely single mother WHY would GOD do that to a child? because this child's only outcome is foster care to "maybe be adopted or a big possibility of being put in an abusive foster home! and grow up to be a victim of society(criminal).. so since I've said that let me tell you that their are 20 million kids already in foster homes and children services....and juvenile centers..and abandoned babies, so yeah let's add MILLIONS MORE!! mother's have mothering instincts if she knows her life is not fit to raise a child let a mother be the decision. NOT GOD( whom is not here today or a mother) let the women of this country make the decisions, not politicians or opinions "MOTHERS!" I'm speaking to anyone, just my opinion..new here!

[adkinsfamily]

i'm new here! hi.
I believe abortion is pro-woman because a woman's choice is her responsibility and business, no one elses.
I have 3 children, 11, 8, 3 and I got my tubes tied as a "hopefully"permanent birth control method because I know I couldn't handle another child and abortion would be a big possibility. it's my choice to not want 4 kids, just like it's a choice of any woman rather to have a baby at all. i'm not for abortion, but i'm not against it. I just don't understand these right winged politics and people that are for banning abortion but yet sex is not talked amungst teenagers very often in christian conservative homes..sex is normal, not bad! parents don't want their daughters to get abortions but won't put them on b. control? sex happens...we did it young..our kids are going to do it young! it's natural(nature). have the sex talk. get your daughters on b. control, don't make your kids feel bad for having sexual thoughts, that's what's wrong with society today, and people wonder why teen mothers were throwing their newborns in trash cans to die? they would have been cursed by their parents and been whores of society! I know this feeling first hand I was 16 when I had my oldest child, and I was just another teenage pregnancy statistic..If my mom would have asked me "are you having sexual thoughts, or are planning sex?" I would have told her "yes" and that I need b. control, along with a lot of teens..of course I'm glad I didn't because I have a wonderful 11 yr old son! when my son is 14,15,16 I will gladly put condoms in his stocking stuffer because when the time comes I will not be there to give him advice, he can just rely on the fact that he can be honest with me and open and I will not CRUCIFY him because of sex. it's normal if you have a teen talk to them..not this it's bad don't do it non-sense, because mom do you like sex? let's be honest..and try to be with your kids..

[dublinrose37]

And ironically some of the most vocal pro lifers are the very same ones who support cutting welfare to needy families, so they care about the unborn babies but once they are here its every one for themselves which just goes to show they don't give a toss about life ( or quality of life ) they just want to force women to remain pregnant.

[Beachcomber]

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.

[AbigailAdams]

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

[AbigailAdams]

Hah yes that would focus their minds a bit!

[Beachcomber]

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.

[BelfastBloke]

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.

[AbigailAdams]

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.

[Beachcomber]

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.

[vesuvia]

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.

[lizzypuffs]

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

[AbigailAdams]

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

[vesuvia]

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.

[feministefatale]

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.

[dublinrose37]

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

[NormaStanleyFletcher]

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

[AbigailAdams]

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.

[Beachcomber]

North Dakota is at it too.

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

[GetOrf]

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.

[Beachcomber]

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.

[feministefatale]

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.

[GetOrf]

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