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Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart told the nation’s high court that Roe v. Wade and a follow-up case in 1992 that affirmed it, Casey v. Planned Parenthood, had “haunted” the nation. Mississippi wants the court to overturn Roe v. Wade and uphold a 2018 law it passed banning abortions after 15 weeks.
Jefferson County isn’t just a moderately successful rural example of vaccination outreach—it is the most vaccinated county in all of Mississippi, approaching full vaccination for three out of every four adult residents.
Less than a week after Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves ended his COVID-19 State of Emergency order, the World Health Organization is warning that a new, potentially more dangerous strain of COVID-19 has emerged. In a statement yesterday, the WHO said South Africa first notified it of the variant, known as B.1.1..529 or the Omicron variant, on Nov. 24.
For the third time this month, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch is asking a federal court to block one of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. In a lawsuit filed with the U.S. Western District Court of Louisiana’s Monroe Division, she joined 12 other attorneys general in asking a federal judge to halt enforcement of a vaccine mandate affecting 17 million health-care workers, including those at hospitals and nursing homes.
Christine Loftin believes medical marijuana could save the life of her son, Bryan, who has mitochondrial disease. But more than a year after Mississippians voted to enact a medical marijuana law, Gov. Tate Reeves has not called a special session to create a program.
Noxubee County mothers and educators, many of them resilient Black women, are determined to make it work and find solutions that their students and families deserve. But that is a challenge now, just as it was before the pandemic hit, due to long-term disparities and historic and intentional inequities that made the effects of the pandemic especially acute for the Black women of the county and their families.
Through the partnership of the Mississippi Free Press and the Jackson Advocate, the (In)Equity and Resilience project is gathering and listening to Black women virtually from across Mississippi, creating a safe space for them to voice their stories of vulnerability, fear, injustice, pain and joy. We are also digging out the deep, historic causes of inequities they and their families face.
The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear Mississippi’s challenge to Roe v. Wade for more than a month, but leading abortion-rights organizers say they are not holding out hope for a favorable ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Instead, they are preparing for a post-Roe Mississippi.Â
Damion Portis is a barber who participates in the Mississippi State Department of Health’s Shots at the Shop program, educating his clients on the importance of the vaccine. After months of low Black vaccine uptake, Mississippi has broken through an enormous barrier of vaccine disparity.
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The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).