-- A federal judge in Mississippi on Wednesday ordered an extension
of his temporary order to allow the state's only abortion clinic to stay
open.
The order will be in
place until U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan can review newly drafted
rules on how the Mississippi Department of Health will administer a new
abortion law.
He then plans to rule on whether the temporary order will become permanent, or whether the clinic must shut its doors.
The law took effect July 1
and requires all abortion providers in Mississippi to be certified
obstetrician/gynecologists with privileges at local hospitals. Doctors
at Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion provider in
the state, come in from other states, and only one of its doctors is
authorized to practice at a nearby hospital.
Supporters of the new law
say it is intended to protect women from unscrupulous practitioners,
but others say it's part of a move to outlaw abortions in the state.
Even Republican Gov. Phil Bryant called it "the first step in a
movement, I believe, to do what we campaigned on: to say that we're
going to try to end abortion in Mississippi."
Since the law went into
effect, the Jackson Women's Health Organization has remained open under
Jordan's temporary order blocking enforcement of the law. The clinic is
trying to comply with the law, according to owner Diane Derzis, but it
has been hampered by red tape and the cumbersome application process to
obtain hospital privileges.
Derzis said the clinic
has applied for privileges at seven hospitals within a 30-mile radius.
One, a Catholic hospital, has already told the clinic "not to bother,"
she said.
The clinic is seeking a
permanent injunction allowing it to stay open while it fights the law,
which Derzis and other opponents say violates Roe v. Wade, the 1973
Supreme Court decision that struck down many state laws that restricted
abortions.
"It's unconstitutional,
frankly," said Amelia McGowan, a staff attorney with the American Civil
Liberties Union, which is against the new law.
If Jordan decides not to
make his temporary order permanent, the state can begin a 60- to 90-day
administrative process to begin closing the clinic for noncompliance
with the new state law.
Officials at the clinic,
which has been in operation for eight years, say they would have to
choose between being shut down or risking civil and criminal penalties
by continuing operations during an appeals process.
"We've been able to be
with women at a time in their lives where they are in crisis, when they
need to have something done and need that support," Derzis said. "That's
why it has to be available. It has to be."
Some backers of the bill
say it is not an attempt to end abortion in Mississippi, but simply a
way to protect women's health by ensuring physicians carry out abortions
and follow the patients to a local hospital afterward.
"The governor has made
it clear that he signed the legislation for the health and safety of
women," said Steven Aden, a consulting attorney to the state. "So while
he is pro-life, he also said that this is a health and safety provision.
I don't see why that's hard to understand."
Despite some past minor
citations, the Jackson Women's Health Organization has a very good
record with the Mississippi Department of Health, an official there told
CNN.
Mississippi is one of
the toughest states for the abortion-rights movement. Its laws require a
24-hour waiting period and parental consent if the patient seeking an
abortion is a minor. Seven other states require abortion providers to
have hospital privileges, but no other state requires that an abortion
provider be an OB/GYN, according to the Guttmacher Institute in
Washington, a sexual and reproductive health organization.
"All of that is wrapped
in that cloak of conservative religion," said W. Martin Wiseman,
director of the Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State
University.
"When you are in this
state, you cannot separate an issue from religion," Wiseman said. "The
normal rationale used in other states doesn't fly here. You'll find very
few legislators -- regardless of whether they are white, black,
Democrat or Republican -- who will say 'I'm pro-aborton."
Bryant signed the bill
into law in April after the Republican-dominated legislature
overwhelmingly passed it. Bryant said he signed the bill to support
women's health, but he also says Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and
should be overturned. He has since filed a "friend of the court" brief
in the case against the Jackson clinic.
Derzis said she believes
that the real intent of the newly elected Republican majority was to
end abortion in the state, not to improve women's health care.
"I love that it's white
old men making those statements," she said. "This is not about safety.
This is about politics, and politics do not need to be in our uterus."
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