Mississippi's only abortion clinic faces new hurdle

[Thom Little]

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.


http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051226/NEWS/512260358/1002/news

[LynneSin]

1. This is so why we need EC and RU486

Because god forbid we make it as easy as visiting your local drugstore or gynecologist. But now the idiots are invading the pharmacy - assholes!

[Maat]

2. I agree, LynneSin.

I am so sick of religious extremists dictating how people live in this country.

They need to migrate to the same state and leave the rest of us alone.

[LynneSin]

5. Let them migrate to Iraq

I don't want them in the US and I don't want a good state ruined by those assholes.

[Maat]

8. You have a point.

:rofl:

Yes, in Iraq those kids will have huge plots of land to grow up on, and a thriving democracy!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. Do Mississippi hospitals perform abortions?

[Thom Little]

6. No, the clinic in Jackson is the state's one and only abortion provider.

The Mississippi legislature has been deliberately trying to shut down abortion clinics for a long time by putting heavy regulations on them which they can't afford. It's been the same pattern over and over. Terri Herring gets her anti-abortion pals in the state house to pass some new ridiculus restriction. More clinics shut down, but the one in Jackson always manages to pull through. Now it's the last one left. Since the anti-abortionists can obviously see that their tactics are working, the Jackson clinic has become a big symbol for them. They believe they can make Mississippi abortion-free, and given all their allies in the state house plus the fact that courts have refused to block what they're doing, they'll probably succeed in sooner or later getting every last clinic out of the state.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

7. Wow. Hard to believe

you can't get an abortion in the hospital.

With the poverty level in Mississippi this is so unfair.

I think all those megachurches should open orphanages.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. The same thing is happening

here in Kansas.

[iamjoy]

31. I Think They Can

the article only references clinics and also refers to them meeting "amublatary surgical center" standards.

So, my guess is that hospitals can still perform abortions. The thing is, hospitals are far more expensive than clinics.

[sandnsea]

68. In life or death situations

Most hospitals don't perform them unless the woman is dying, some if her health is deteriorating. Hardly any perform them routinely, at least not in Oregon. Not that I know of anyway. You want an abortion, you've got to go to a clinic. And to the best of my knowledge, ours are all in Eugene, Salem or Portland. This is the reality for most women in rural America.

[bammertheblue]

4. the ONLY abortion clinic in Mississippi?!?!?!

Holy shit.
I guess I've led a sheltered life in liberal areas, because I can't imagine having only ONE abortion clinic in the whole state.
I first went to Planned Parenthood at 15 and I always knew where to go if God forbid I needed an abortion.

I guess they think it doesn't matter if abortion is legal or not as long as poor or rural women don't have access to it (or birth control, education, or any of the other services these places provide).

[Maat]

9. And yet, federal aid for social welfare programs is being cut.

So, the a poor woman in Mississippi is supposed to carry every pregnancy to term, her benefits will be cut, and she will NOT get new aid for the new baby, beyond basic medical benefits.

And none of the religious conservatives in my area are busy adopting.

[pitohui]

12. yes, some people on DU are remarkably sheltered

i've addressed this before, that in louisiana and mississippi the right to abortion is no longer in existence for most women

i've been greeted w. hoots of disbelief, but if you are poor and desperate, you likely don't have the funds to drive to jackson, even if you're middle class, if you're married, and your husband doesn't want you to get the abortion, you have no free choice, because as a practical matter you can't disappear that long unless you actually live in the area

i'm told the delta has infant mortality rates on a par with bangla desh, health care for many women (men too i suppose) just doesn't exist

[bammertheblue]

15. I feel icky all over now

I knew abortion was pretty much off-limits to a lot of rural women because they could not get to the cities to a provider, but I did not know there was only one abortion provider in the whole state.
I guess living my whole life of 22 years in Minnesota and now in DC I am pretty sheltered :( but I hope to learn.

[KDLarsen]

24. Me too..

.. I mean, aren't we talking about the US of A & not some third-world country that is being run by religous nutjobs?

[raccoon]

42. Looks like those two are becoming the same thing

"the US of A & not some third-world country that is being run by religous nutjobs"

[MountainLaurel]

45. They always have been

It's just that those third-world areas never got any attention from the media or middle-class folks.

[bettyellen]

75. 3 or 4 states have only one clinic each. Miss and one of the Dakotas

are two, and myabe Montana?
and they are having to fight hard to keep them open.


on edit, it was a Dakota, possibly not montana. ooooops.

[tinrobot]

10. Does Mississippi offer free healthcare?

Do they offer free birth control so women won't get pregnant?

Do they offer prenatal care for all the expectant mothers who can't afford it?

Do the maternity wards offer free delivery services for those who are poor?

Do they offer free healthcare for poor newborns?

Free diapers? Formula? Medicine?

Probably not.

Funny how these people are so interested in bringing fetuses into the world yet they have absolutely no interest in helping those babies live healthy lives outside the womb.

[depakid]

13. You've GOT to be kidding me

Sorry if I offend my fellow DU'rs from Mississippi, but that state is basically a third world country, with Southern Babtists (as opposed to Catholics or Muslims) as the ruling theocratic (and often policymaking) class.

Look at the stats and see for yourself- or if you get the chance, drive around and hang out for awhile and see for yourself.

[tinrobot]

17. Ummm... I was being rhetorical.

Of course they don't provide healthcare. I was trying to point that out.

It's really disgusting how these people work so hard to "protect" fetuses in the womb by preventing abortions -- yet they do nothing to protect babies once they leave the womb by giving them proper healthcare and nutrition.

Hypocrites... every last one of them.

[depakid]

18. According to the stats, they're also not much interested

in educating the kids, either. I know they're extremely poor, but education (and family planning) are two of the proven ways to rise out of poverty.

[bleedingheart]

28. clearly they don't read that bible they are always thumping

because clothing, feeding, sheltering and educating the poor would be a goal of theirs...

[pitohui]

14. are you mad?

free healthcare? the entire state of louisiana would move there tonight if they did, starting with me

it is very slightly easier to get disability benefits in mississippi than in louisiana, but that isn't saying anything, since getting disability benefits in louisiana pretty much requires hiring a lawyer and banging a head against the wall for 2-5 years

[wickerwoman]

25. They aren't even interested in bringing fetuses into the world.

They are interested in punishing people for having sex. In their sick, twisted mentality God is up there in His frigid Heaven watching everyone from the edge of His throne getting ready to drop baby bombs on anyone who dares to have sex (especially outside of marriage.)

I simply can't fathom the kind of short-sighted idiocy that sees children as a punishment. And the harder they make it for single parents, the more righteous they can feel about the fact that they can't get laid.

[SSX]

60. Answers to your questions

free birth control? Yes, although a large number of patients refuse to accept it. Free tubal ligations after age 21 through Medicaid.
Free prenatal care? Yes, through Medicaid to all women insured or not who choose to accept it.
Mississippi's prenatal and antenatal care through Medicaid is the most comprehensive in the country. A woman becomes eligible for Medicaid by becoming pregnant.
Free delivery services for poor? For all women through Medicaid. Not all women need it free, but it is available.
Free health care for newborns? Yes, through Medicaid and the State Health DEpartments. Mississippi also has the most extensive genetic and newborn screening program with follow-up counseling in the US.The screening is mandatory statewide.
The Women's Infants and Children "WIC" program offers nutrition assistance
to some families. Various hospitals have programs through their volunteers that provide some items for newborns and their families but are limited in scope.

In reply to hospitals in Mississippi being able to perform abortions, 2 years ago the State Legislature changed the age of viability from the medically accepted 24 weeks to 20 weeks.They also made it illegal for any state monies to go to institutions that provide abortions unless the life of the mother is threatened, regardless of the viability of the fetus.Few hospitals in the state will provide abortion services for any reason.

Young girls do not have $300.00, or parental consent for an abortion.Several have 5 or 6 babies prior to the age of 21 when the state can tie their tubes on request of the patient.In the State of Mississippi a 12 or 14 year old pregnant child has autonomy over her medical care if she agrees to carry the pregnancy to term. A right retained by her parents if she wants to abort.Many, many women of all ages do not take advantage of the free birth control or prenatal services offered by the state.

[Book Lover]

67. I would refuse nonreversable birth control, too (nm)

[Cerridwen]

72. Could you provide links, please? Thanks. My googling skills

seem a bit off this morning.

[SSX]

73. my links are my RN wife

She helps deliver at-risk babies at Wiser Women's Hospital, a division of University Hospital. Because of Ms.'s stand on abortion she gets to see 12 and 13 year olds give birth on a daily basis. Any number of them having no idea that they are pregnant or even knowing how they became that way. 16 year olds having their third babies with 30 year old grandmothers in the waiting room is standard fare. She often will work an entire week w/o seeing a live birth. My son and I have learned not to ask "how was your day?" at the dinner table.
A Google search of-"Mississippi Medicaid pregnancy benefits" will get you started.

[Cerridwen]

74. A belated "Thank you!"

I couldn't get my brain to come up with good google keywords and I kept hitting blank walls. Such will a cold scramble the gray matter.

[superconnected]

16. ONE ABORTION CLINIC!

For all women who are raped and get pregnant in the state.
For all women who find out the child in the womb is grossly deformed or severely brain damaged.
For all women who accidentally get knocked up in that uneducated below poverty ridden state.

And these idiots are trying to close it!

I can't even imagine people being this stupid.

[Mend]

19. it is time to leave Mississippi....everyone who can should go

and those that can't should be helped to get out by the rest of us. There cannot be many good reasons to live there. The schools are horrible and the university is nicknamed Ole Miss, the slave owner's wife. If all the good people left, who cares what the wing-nuts do?

[hollowdweller]

20. Miss is a perfect example of GOP principles in action

Severe restrictions on abortion and birth control- one of the top states for teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Very stingy social welfare system- very unhealthy and uneducated population.

Laws that totall favor business over workers- last or nearly last mean average income of all states.

[elfin]

21. I just donated- here is the site

https://feminist.org/donations/foundation/donate_clinic_miss.asp

[Scout]

22. wonder where all those posters are

who argued with me when I stated, with references, that 80% of the counties in the United States had no abortion provider?

This just disgusts me, what women are expected to go through for medical care.

[pitohui]

23. scout, i was wondering the same

i remember that argument too, where are they now indeed

[xchrom]

26. ding! ding! ding!

it always amazes me that people think the fight for women to control their own bodies has gone any where beyond the most basic arguments.

education{re: women} seems to have resulted in a kind of false thinking that women have ''arrived''.

well, this situation in mississippi gives the lie to that -- and i firmly believe that conservatives in miss. will manage to get that one clinic closed.

[bleedingheart]

27. that is just pathetic.....great way to make poor women's lives even harder

but hell..the wealthy white women promoting the anti-choice dialogue don't give a flying shit.

[MountainLaurel]

34. You've got that right.

:grr:

[yowzayowzayowza]

29. PBS Frontline covered this war of attrition.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/clinic/view/

[Nutmegger]

46. Frontline did an excellent job

as always!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

30. The folks who run that clinic...

...must be one hell of a courageous group. I wouldn't want that job.

[Cerridwen]

32. Kick

because everyone who keeps saying let them repeal Roe, the states will decide, need to know what's really going on.

Edit to add information about their agenda:

"“The formula is simple. Every time we reduce access, we reduce the abortion rate, and every time we reduce the abortion rate, we reduce the abortion industry’s political strength. If we continue that process, there will come a point at which we will so decimate the abortion industry’s ability to continue the fight, that our political effort will have a legitimate chance for success,” Crutcher explains."

from this link: http://www.nuvo.net/archive/2005/03/30/mark_crutchers_obsession.html

[Cerridwen]

33. And another kick, dammit! n/t

[ismnotwasm]

35. Why? God, Why?

I don't have time to look up Mississippi's poverty stats. Or the relationship to poverty and crimes, Or the relationship between little or no prenatal care and the whole plethora of complications up to and including fetal and maternal death that accompany it. Or even the availability of health care. But I can imagine, I can just imagine.

So, how about Do Mississippi men honor and respect women? Are they refusing to have sex outside of committed relationships where having children is a choice between partners? Are they supporting the born children, even when the relationship or marriage breaks up? Anybody know the stats on that?
Are these same people who are refusing to allow a women her choice, are they walking thier talk? Is there prostitution in Mississippi? Do men procure prostitutes? If they do, how do they know the woman is on birth control? How do they know that it worked? Do they check up on her welfare? You know, just to see if she's ok?

Are there bars and taverns in Mississippi? Do men engage in casual, drunken sex? Do they know that the women is on birth control? Do they know if it worked? Do they call her afterward, you know, just to see if she's ok?

Do couples stay together forever, or break up in Mississippi? Do people engage in one night stands? Is there rape in Mississippi? Incest? Is the women or girl pregnant? Does the male know? Does he care? Does the state give a SHIT after the baby is born?

I won't even ask if emergency contraception is available in Mississippi

I say men, because men don't get pregnant, not as a slam against men.

But Goddamit, if someone's penis is even close to a vagina and ejaculates, pregnancy is possible.

And then the state of Mississippi punitively blames women who carry all the costs and danger of pregnancy.
Women
are not
baby incubaters. They have the right to terminate pregnancy. Period

This is beyond bullshit.

[atommom]

36. Kicking because this is too important to let slide.

[politicat]

37. This makes Kansas look enlightened and progressive....

What is wrong with this picture? Take a state that regularly ranks in the bottom ten on education, health care, number of high school graduates, number of college graduates, spending on schools, roads, community needs, and in the top ten on infant mortality, preventable disease, STD transmission, diabetes, heart disease, birth defects, et cetera and now ...

let's limit the access to abortion and make all of these issues WORSE. Because that's what happens.

I'm sorry for your pro-birthers out there, but the simple facts are this: people don't abstain from sex just because abortion isn't readily available. Even if women want to abstain to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies, there are such things as marital rape, date rape and unplanned intercourse. That's the way it's always been. And if abortions are expensive and difficult to obtain, people will come up with cheaper, illegal alternatives. And if you do manage to force every child conceived to be birthed, those children will be abandoned. We don't have orphanages in any great numbers anymore primarily because of effective birth control and abortion.

So think about it this way, pro-birthers: What you want, you have to pay for. If you don't want abortions, be prepared to pay for orphanages, specifically, state run orphanages where religion can't be forced down the children's throats. An abortion costs $400 - a one time expense. To care for a child in foster care costs $25,000 a year, for 18 years. These kids aren't going to be adopted - we can't get the kids we have in the system now into stable, permanent homes. Adding 7500 a year is not going to make that situation better.

I expect your checks in the mail tomorrow. Because you're going to pay for it... one way or the other.

[atommom]

40. Ouch. Have you been following Kansas politics or something?

Sadly, I can't argue with you at all. And there are so many zealots out there in every state, hoping to shut all of the clinics down. I don't think the general public realizes how serious this really is.

[politicat]

48. Next-door neighbors... where Kansas is, Colorado follows shortly.

We import our bigger crazies from Kansas, so it is in Colorado Liberals' best interests to keep an eye on Kansas so we know what's coming down the pike.

That, and I have acquaintances who do clinic escorting over there (the self-styled Maggot Punks) so I get all of the news....

[atommom]

49. Very true. Though we have some crazies here who want to

implement TABOR, like Colorado. Bad, bad idea.

[politicat]

51. Yeah, especially since we just neutered it.

In the Nov election, we had to put it in a state of suspension, otherwise we were going to have to cut child-welfare enforcement, road funding, prison high school and college programs, the prison guard budget, and a bunch of other things.

TABOR is a bad idea. We are a National Laboratory for Bad Fiscal Management....

[MountainLaurel]

43. *Crickets*

Apparently the forced birthers on DU are all offline today.

[Endangered Specie]

38. Watch this Frontline episode...

all about Mississippi, which is why Im one of the few who isn't suprised when I hear that they only have one left...


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/clinic/view/


you can watch the whole thing online

[Beausoir]

52. I watched that and was sickened by it.

There are alot of wealthy white fundamentalist women in Mississippi who are sniffing the bedsheets and determining who may and may not have access to health care.

Of course, their spokeswoman had her safe and legal abortion when she was in college. Now she wants to make certain no one else can.

[jmm]

39. 51% of Mississippi children already live in poverty

http://www.childrensdefense.org/earlychildhood/statefacts/MS.pdf

Why don't the self proclaimed "pro-life" people care about the quality of their lives? They don't really care about lives they only want to control them.

[MountainLaurel]

44. Because poor people deserve their fate

According to their thinking. Otherwise, God would have blessed them with a McMansion, a Chevy Subdivision, and access to college.

[saigon68]

63. Many of them are minorities

And apparently by current thinking there "unworthy, lazy and they aren't white"

[Cerridwen]

41. Morning (in the west) kick....n/t

[Cerridwen]

47. The future becomes the past - here is an excerpt from one story

during the time before Roe.

This New York coroner's picture first appeared in MS Magazine in April 1973. When Gerri's picture appeared in MS, no one knew her name or all the circumstances that surrounded her death from an illegal abortion. While it was assumed that she died at the hands of a back alley butcher, the family later confirmed that she died the way most women died before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion in this country in 1973; she died from a self-induced abortion attempt. emphasis mine

Gerri was estranged from her abusive husband when she met Clyde Dixon and became pregnant by him. Terrified that once her abusive husband returned to town and learned it was Dixon's baby she was carrying, he would kill her. She was determined and desperate to end her unintended pregnancy. That desperation and determination made her akin to thousands upon thousands of women in those days that were desperate and determined enough to terminate their unintended pregnancies in spite of the fact that abortion was illegal. Illegality affected the safety of abortion but it never affected the number of abortions that were performed.

Gerri was 6 ½ months pregnant in June 1964. Gerri's boyfriend obtained a medical book and borrowed some surgical equipment. They went to a motel where Dixon tried to perform the abortion. When the attempt failed, when it all went terribly wrong, Dixon fled the scene, leaving her there to die, alone, in this cold impersonal hotel room. She was bleeding profusely and tried with towels to stop it but she couldn't. How frightened she must have been, knowing she was going to die. She was found like this, on her stomach with her knees under her, her face not visible, bloody, nude, alone and dead.

Two lives were needlessly and sadly lost here. This horrible sad picture of death makes clear that illegal abortion not only harms and kills women, it has never ever saved one baby.

NOTE: before you click the link to this story, please know there is a very graphic picture on this page

http://www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org/issues/issues_morality_of_legal_abortion.html

There are many more stories at this site, Life and Liberty for Women, of what happens when abortion is illegal. But be aware, it can be very graphic.

[MountainLaurel]

50. Thanks Cerridwen

This is something that the forced birthers need to see: They should be the ones made responsible for cleaning blood-soaked carpet in hotel rooms, explaining to children why they're never going to see their mommy again, informing parents that their pregnant 16-year-old overachiever was so scared of telling them she was pregnant that she went to a butcher rather than her family physician to terminate a pregnancy.

[Cerridwen]

58. You're welcome. I'm amazed we are still fighting this.

Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. We must not forget nor let others.

Eek! Preachy much, Cerridwen?

/stepping off soap box

[MountainLaurel]

64. I'm not

Women have been fighting for control over their own bodies for millenia now, why should we expect anything to change in 30 years?

[ismnotwasm]

53. Thank you from me, as well

As you point out making abortion illegal will never stop it, might not even slow it, and until we have fully funded health and prenatal care might even inadvertantly increase it. You don't have to go too far to find old "abortificant" methods that endanger women.

[cmkramer]

54. Another problem

From what I understand, a lot of medical schools no longer teach abortion techniques or if they do, it's considered elective. And many medical students are choosing not to learn.

[MountainLaurel]

56. Medical Students for Choice

Has a lot of great resources on the issue:

http://www.ms4c.org/

A few relevant factoids:

* According to a survey conducted in the U.S. in 2000, 87% of counties overall, and 97% of non-metropolitan counties, had no abortion provider.

* One study estimates that 24% of women having abortions travel 50 miles or more for services (

* Almost half of the women having abortions beyond 15 weeks of gestation say they were delayed because of problems in affording, finding, or getting to abortion services

* Currently, only 5% of all abortions are performed in hospitals where most medical students and residents are trained.

* 49% of pregnancies among American women are unintended; half of these end in abortion.

* According to a study conducted in 1997, only 15% of chief residents in family medicine residency programs had clinical experience providing first trimester abortions. Abortion training in ob/gyn residency programs is also severely limited.

* Many medical students graduate from medical school without ever attending a single lecture on the topic.

[Cerridwen]

57. As well as, if I remember correctly, the opt-out option now

available to doctors and nurses who will not participate in abortion procedures for any reason due to moral or religious concerns.

Sets a scary precedent. What other procedures with which they have moral or religious concerns do they opt-out of? Surgical procedures involving gays? Sex workers? "Promiscuous" women? Those with "the wrong" skin color? Those of the "wrong" political or religious leaning? Where does it start? Where does it end? Should we all be required to wear some medical alert marking with all our "controversial" beliefs, traits, etc. posted conspicuously so those in the medical field who wish to minister to only those whom they deem "fit" will know which of us is worthy of their care? Why don't people see that abortion is just a starting point?

Argh!

[Cerridwen]

59. You're welcome. And you know the sad thing,

abortion was originally just one plank in the family planning agenda which included "fully funded health and prenatal care" and well-baby care and post-natal care and contraception education and sex education and...geez, I'm preaching to the choir again.

See post #58 for my soap box.

:D

[ismnotwasm]

66. I did see that

And I agree wholehearedly.
You know I work in a teaching hospital. Most of the docs on my unit are running around too stressed to get into discussions, but I've run into pregnagncy dilemma's that the doctors have to be considering...Dilemma's that the anti-choice crowd would never consider.

We work a lot in immuniosuppression. I'll just say that people make poor decisions sometimes based on very poor information, or stark, raving fear.

A women's right to choice HAS to be kept.
The results of no choice with all the medical advances in so many fields has changed the horrific picture of the coat-hanger abortion --
multiplied it tenfold.

If anyone really, really cares about life, they will support women's choice and women's rights. It's that critical. Medically it's beyond discussion almost and no one seems to realize it. Sancticy of life depends on it.

[Cerridwen]

71. I can not imagine...while at the same time

I can, somehow imagine. It's almost like some "race memory" kind of thing that women inherit from women through the ages of the dangers of pregnancy and abortion and complications. Sorry, sounds a bit woo woo, I know, but I know of no other way to put it.

My baby sister (she hates when I call her that but she's 14 years younger than I) has had 2 ectopic pregnancies due to endometriosis. Had the anti-choice, anti-woman, pro-birthers had their way in the past, she would not have been able to have the life saving surgery she needed - as you know. Two years ago, she finally had to have a complete hysterectomy - she was only 32 at the time! The endometriosis had started to encroach on her bladder. I wonder how they feel about women who have to have all their "female stuff" removed. Are they "baby killers," too? Are they somehow less than women because they no longer have the ability to be incubators?

Argh! I'm heading off into a rant here. Time to stop or I'll start throwing things.



:nuke: :cry: :nuke: :cry:

[spooky3]

55. kick

[LNM]

61. South Dakota only has one abortion clinic also

There was an article in the MPLS Strib (reprinted from the Washington Post) this week stating that the clinic in Sioux Falls is only open one day a week because they have to fly in doctors from the Twin Cities. Sioux Falls is on the eastern border and 350 miles from Rapid City. North Dakota also has only one abortion clinic.

[Cerridwen]

62. Thank you for this information! Here's more information and links:

North Dakota:

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/newspoliticsactivism/fean-050825-north-dakota.xml

<snip>

But North Dakota's governor and legislature, Kromenaker says, are clearly anti-choice. Restrictions on abortion access, including biased counseling laws, mandatory 24-hour waiting periods, and prohibitions on insurance coverage of abortion are all part of a larger strategy in the state to chip away at a woman's right to choose.

With only one abortion clinic in the entire state, geographic distance amplifies the problem of restricted access that these laws create.

There is also a refusal clause in North Dakota that allows hospitals and other health care providers to refuse to provide abortions.

The state's parental consent law is also particularly strict: both parents of a minor must be notified and give consent if she wants to get an abortion. No other trusted adult may provide consent in lieu of her parents — the only way around the law is to seek permission from a judge, which delays the procedure. The risks of abortion rise with delay.

<snip>

For example, Kromenaker says, her clinic received a call from a young woman who worked with horses and who took equine medication to cause an abortion, but it didn't work. "We get these kinds of calls occasionally," she says. "We've been asked if swallowing bleach will work or we hear of someone using a coat hanger." (emphasis mine - here it is, the "smoking coat hanger")

<snip>

South Dakota: (possibly the WaPo article you mentioned)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/26/AR2005122600747_pf.html

S.D. Makes Abortion Rare Through Laws And Stigma
Out-of-State Doctors Come Weekly to 1 Clinic


<snip>


South Dakota, those on both sides of the abortion debate agree, has become one of the hardest states in the country in which to obtain an abortion. One of three states in the country to have only one abortion provider -- North Dakota and Mississippi are the others -- South Dakota, largely because of a strong antiabortion lobby, is also becoming a leading national laboratory for testing the limits of state laws restricting abortion, both opponents and advocates of abortion rights say. (emphasis mine)

In 2005, the South Dakota legislature passed five laws restricting abortion, after a bill to ban abortion outright had failed by one vote in 2004. And new laws are virtually assured for the coming year. A 17-member abortion task force, made up largely of staunch abortion opponents, issued recommendations to the legislature earlier this month that included some of the most restrictive requirements for abortion in the country.

The report states that science defines life as beginning at conception and recommends a law that gives fetuses the same protection that children get after birth, thus banning abortion. Until such a ban, the task force recommends requiring that a woman watch an ultrasound of her fetus, that doctors warn women about the psychological and physical dangers of abortion, and that women receive psychological counseling before the abortion, among other measures.

<snip>

Another measure is a "trigger law" that automatically bans all abortions in the state should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. (emphasis mine)

Leslee Unruh, one of the prime lobbyists for the law that created the abortion task force, said, "I want abortion to end."

edit: formatting

[politicat]

70. Rapid City folk come to Boulder and Denver a lot.

We've hosted several friends of friends who have come to the area for abortions because it is cheaper, more convenient and easier to come to Colorado for an abortion than to go to Sioux Falls.

I don't mind doing it - in fact, I'm happy to do so - but I get sick of seeing women coming down here on their own without the other half of the equation.

[Megahurtz]

65. Stupid Psycho "Pro-Life" Idiots!

We do need EC and RU486!

[progressivebydesign]

69. This proves that talk of God punishing people for abortion is BS.

For some reason it struck me... Mississippi was hit HARD by the Katrina hurricane... entire neighborhoods were leveled. So, when we hear scumbags like Pat Robertson and his ilk talking about how God punishes the unbelievers and abortionists and (insert hated minority here), with natural disasters, we know can point out that it is bullshit. Mississippi has one abortion clinic in the entire state. Why exactly would God target them for such distruction and heartache from Katrina??? Many, many, god-fearin' people down there, and yet they were smacked!?!

I know that some people love MIssissipi, as a poster here tonight mentioned, but I can't really understand why. It seems to backward to function.

[okieinpain]

76. I say let them close it. if they don't want a safe abortions let them

close it. when the state starts having a large number of females applying for welfare and child care see what kind of crap they start talking about not having enough money to support all of the new babies and mothers..