aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Monday, December 26, 2005

The illusion of legal abortion

If Roe v Wade is the law of the land, how does this happen?

Mississippi’s only abortion clinic is waiting to hear whether it will be granted a new state certification to continue performing its full range of procedures.

The requirement to meet higher standards came after an aggressive push by anti-abortion advocates, who are trying to shut down the clinic.

“We believe that if they comply and the clinic is safer for women ... at the very least, Mississippi has made the back-alley abortion clinic - or the front-alley abortion clinic as we call them - safer for women but not for unborn children,” said Pro-Life Mississippi President Terri Herring.

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which treats more than 3,000 women a year statewide, said a setback would not mean defeat and may only put the issue back in front of a judge. The clinic, which is still operating, risks having to scale back the kinds of abortion it can perform.

As I said last summer, I’m pro-abortion rights. Safe legal and rare is good by me; so long as it is available everywhere.

Nathan Newman is right: we have to win in the legislature. We have to get out there, start this fight over again, make our positive arguments and win on the merits.

RELATED: South Dakota has no doctors but one clinic. The doctors fly in from MN.

UPDATE: Much more here.