Navigating Mississippi’s strict abortion laws remains confusing for many residents more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights in
Rykia Bernard writes on the hyper-polarization of women’s-rights issues, specifically in southern states, since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“The overturn of Roe v. Wade has stripped constitutional rights away, caused dangerous situations, and has led to rampant misinformation that not only harms, but can kill women,” Rachele Chung writes.
On March 7, 2023, Catholic Bishop Louis F. Kihneman III of Biloxi, Miss., and Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of Jackson, Miss., celebrated the March 7, 2023, passage of Senate Bill 2212, which will give new mothers 12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage, with Working Together Mississippi. It awaits Gov. Tate Reeves’ signature. “We believe that access to affordable health care is a fundamental human right, one that is necessary for the flourishing of families and communities,” the bishops write.
Christine Dickason and Kaitlyn Barton submitted a response to State Auditor Shad White’s report, “Dads Matter: The Taxpayer Cost of Fatherlessness,” writing that the report is misinforming and misleading and that it “pulls our attention away from systemic issues plaguing the state.”
Hattiesburg, Miss., native Virginia Sciolino writes that when having discussions centering abortion and women’s reproductive rights, emotional intelligence and empathy is needed to break barriers and to challenge systemic disparities. We should “come into conversations with an emphasis on empathy, boundaries, mutual care and respect,” she writes.
Mississippi’s only abortion clinic could be forced to cease operations in two days unless a judge agrees to block a near-total abortion ban from taking effect. In Hinds County Chancery Court this morning, an attorney for the Jackson Women’s Health Organization argued that the Mississippi State Constitution protects the right to abortion and asked Judge Debbra K. Halford to block the ban’s enforcement.
The photos in this gallery show the events that unfolded outside the Pink House on the day the Dobbs decision came down.
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, upending decades of legal precedent in the United States and allowing states to enact full abortion bans. But in Mississippi, some abortions will remain legal until a 2007 trigger law goes into effect, likely in early July.
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