If You Needed an Abortion in Mississippi
(It was never easy)
You have already made the decision to have an abortion, not an easy choice. Now you need to get to the clinic. Remember that there is only one clinic in Mississippi so you may need to drive a long distance. If you don’t have a car, you’ll need to find someone to take you. Since Mississippi has a 24-hour waiting period you’ll have to find a place to stay or make the round-trip drive twice. You’ll need to take at least two days off from your job. If you have children, you must arrange for their care while you’re away. You need to find the money ($600-$850) since the state does not allow Medicaid or ACA funds to be used. If you work for the state or the Federal government your insurance will not pay for the care you need.
So, before you even get to the Pink House, you have made the decision to seek abortion care, made the arrangements with work and for your kids, found the money, and driven, sometimes three hours, to get there.
You are greeted by two groups, the clinic escorts who will help you get inside and the antis who will shout, call you a baby killer, and urge you to change your mind. There are no laws in Mississippi to protect your right of entrance to the clinic. But the escorts will be there standing in the blazing sun, encouraging you, talking back to the protestors, giving safe passage past the mob.
Once inside you will wait safely with other women. Next, you have a group counseling session with the doctor. In addition to outlining the procedures, the doctor (who flew in from another state) will be forced by the state to tell you that abortion could cause breast cancer. She will quickly counter the State’s lies with truth, but still, they are forced on you and on her.
Once you’ve had a sonogram (another unnecessary procedure that you pay for), you will meet individually with the doctor and then set up your second appointment to return for the abortion. As you leave the antis will try to hand you more information hoping to dissuade you from returning.
You go through all this for a safe, legal, lifesaving medical procedure.
But no more. As of July 7, 2022, the state of Mississippi, following the ruling by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, will force the closing of the Pink House. This in a state that
- has the highest rate of infant mortality in the country,
- has the second highest rate of maternal death,
- has the highest rate of teen pregnancy,
- does not require insurance to cover contraceptives,
- and where 62% of pregnancies are unplanned.
There is no justice for the women of Mississippi.
