Jackson Women's Health Organization

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Jackson Women's Health Organization
AbbreviationJWHO
NicknamePink House
Established1995;29 years ago (1995)
DissolvedJuly 6, 2022;2 years ago (2022-07-06)
Type Reproductive health and abortion clinic
HeadquartersFondren, Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
OwnerDiane Derzis
Affiliations National Abortion Federation
Website jacksonwomenshealth.com

Jackson Women's Health Organization (abbreviated JWHO and commonly known as the Pink House [1] [2] ) was an abortion clinic located in a bright pink building in Jackson, Mississippi's Fondren neighborhood. [3] It was the only abortion clinic in Mississippi since the other one closed in 2006. [4] The JWHO closed its doors on July 6, 2022, following the Supreme Court of the United States' decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , and the day before Mississippi's near-complete abortion ban went into effect. [5]

Contents

The clinic was established in 1995. [6] JWHO provided multiple reproductive health services, including abortions up to 16 weeks, birth control and checkups. [7] [8] The clinic was a member of the National Abortion Federation, which sets compliance standards for abortions to ensure the safety of patients and provide attentive care. The medical staff at JWHO consisted of OB/GYNs, licensed nurses, technicians, and counselors.

In March 2015, JWHO was vandalized, with security cameras destroyed and a generator severely damaged. [9] As of 2022, the clinic's owner was Diane Derzis. [1]

Mississippi politicians, including Governor Phil Bryant, attempted to close JWHO with TRAP laws since 2012, when Bryant signed a law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. [10] This was problematic for JWHO, because neither of its two doctors who performed abortions had such privileges. [11] In response to the law, JWHO filed for a restraining order to allow them to remain open temporarily. On Sunday, July 1, 2012, a federal judge granted them this order, preventing enforcement of the law until at least July 11, 2012. [12]

In 2013, Derzis told ABC News that both of JWHO's doctors lived out-of-state and flew in every week to work there. [13] In April 2013, Judge Daniel Porter Jordan III issued a ruling blocking part of the law that would have closed JWHO. [14]

In 2014, a divided panel of judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision blocking Mississippi from using the law to close JWHO. [15] In a statement accompanying the ruling, Judge E. Grady Jolly wrote that, "Mississippi may not shift its obligation to respect the constitutional rights of its citizen to another state". [16] In 2016, the Supreme Court refused to review the 2014 decision, thereby allowing it to stand. [17]

In March 2017, a U.S. federal court permanently blocked the state of Mississippi from closing JWHO for noncompliance with the law, while still allowing the law to move forward. [18] [19]

Additional cases were filed in March 2018 and December 2019. [20] In a 2018 lawsuit, the plaintiffs said that there was a specific point at which the abortion would be wrongful ("Gestational Age Act"). [21] This point was determined under the Gestational Age Act as 15 weeks.[ clarification needed ] This was later blocked by United States District Judge Carlton W. Reeves and upheld at the Fifth Circuit.

The state challenged the case where it was certified by the Supreme Court as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in May 2021, to be heard in the 2021–22 term. Oral arguments in court for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Organization began on December 1, 2021. [22] On September 20, 2021, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and 24 medical organizations submitted an amicus brief in support of Jackson's Women's Health Organization. [23] They deemed the ban on abortions after 15 weeks as a threat to safe medical care for women. In June 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that there existed no constitutional right to abortion, and upheld the Mississippi law, overturning the precedent set in 1973 by Roe v. Wade and in 1992 by Planned Parenthood v. Casey . Derzis announced in July that the clinic would close permanently, and that the building had been sold. [24]

As of January 2023, the former clinic has been converted into a consignment store. [25]

Related Research Articles

This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortion law in the United States by state</span>

The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly, depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction, although there is no uniform federal law. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions; others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while some allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlton W. Reeves</span> American judge (born 1964)

Carlton Wayne Reeves is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi and chair of the United States Sentencing Commission.

Abortion is the termination of human pregnancy, often performed in the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. In 1973, the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade recognized a constitutional right to obtain an abortion without excessive government restriction, and in 1992 the Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey invalidated restrictions that create an undue burden on people seeking abortions. Since then, there has continued to be an abortion debate in the United States, and some states have passed laws in the form of regulation of abortions but which have the purpose or effect of restricting its provision. The proponents of such laws argue they do not create an undue burden. Some state laws that impact the availability of abortions have been upheld by courts. In 2022, Roe and Casey were overturned by the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, meaning that states may now regulate abortion in ways that were not previously permitted.

A six-week abortion ban, also called a "fetal heartbeat bill" by proponents, is a law in the United States which makes abortion illegal as early as six weeks gestational age, which is when proponents claim that a "fetal heartbeat" can be detected. Medical and reproductive health experts, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say that the reference to a fetal heartbeat is medically inaccurate and misleading, for a conceptus is not called a fetus until eight weeks after fertilization, as well as that at four weeks after fertilization, the embryo has no heart, only a group of cells which will become a heart. Medical professionals advise that a true fetal heartbeat cannot be detected until around 17 to 20 weeks of gestation when the chambers of the heart have become sufficiently developed.

The Red River Women's Clinic was originally located in Fargo, North Dakota, and for many years was the only abortion clinic in North Dakota. It began operating in 1998. The clinic's director is Tammi Kromenaker. In 2013, the Center for Reproductive Rights sued on behalf of the clinic over a law requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges to local hospitals.

Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, 579 U.S. 582 (2016), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court announced on June 27, 2016. The Court ruled 5–3 that Texas cannot place restrictions on the delivery of abortion services that create an undue burden for women seeking an abortion. On June 28, 2016, the Supreme Court refused to hear challenges from Wisconsin and Mississippi where federal appeals courts had enjoined the enforcement of similar laws.

Abortion in Oklahoma is illegal unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman.

Abortion in Texas is illegal in most cases. There are nominally exceptions to save the mother's life, or prevent "substantial impairment of major bodily function", but the law on abortion in Texas is written in such an ambiguous way that life-threatening or harmful pregnancies do not explicitly constitute an exception.

Abortion in Alabama is illegal. Historically, Alabama's abortion laws have evolved from strict regulations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to a period of liberalization following the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. However, Alabama has consistently enacted legislation aimed at restricting access to abortion.

As of 2022, abortion in Missouri is illegal, with abortions only being legal in cases of medical emergency and several additional laws making access to abortion services difficult. In 2014, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 52% of Missouri adults said that abortion should be legal vs. 46% that believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. According to a 2014 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) study, 51% of white women in the state believed that abortion is legal in all or most cases.

Abortion in Arkansas is illegal except when it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant individual. Doctors determined to have performed an abortion face up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $100,000.

Abortion is illegal in Kentucky. There were laws in Kentucky about abortion by 1900, including ones with therapeutic exceptions. In 1998, the state passed legislation that required clinics to have an abortion clinic license if they wanted to operate. By the early 2010s, members of the Kentucky Legislature attempted to ban abortion in almost all cases and had also introduced the early abortion bans. Prior to 2019, Kentucky law prohibited abortions after week 22. This changed when the state legislature passed a law that moved the prohibition to week 6 in the early part of the year. A bill passed and made effective in April 2022 lowered the threshold to 15 weeks, the second most restrictive limit in effect in the United States behind Texas, and introduced regulations that made abortion illegal until it was blocked in federal court.

Abortion in Michigan is legal throughout pregnancy. A state constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee abortion rights was placed on the ballot in 2022 as Michigan Proposal 22–3; it passed with 57 percent of the vote, adding the right to abortion and contraceptive use to the Michigan Constitution. The amendment largely prevents the regulation of abortion before fetal viability, unless said regulations are to protect the individual seeking an abortion, and it also makes it unconstitutional to make laws restricting abortions which would protect the life and health, physical and/or mental, of the pregnant individual seeking abortion.

Abortion in Mississippi is illegal. The new law took effect on July 7, 2022, after Mississippi State Attorney General Lynn Fitch certified on June 27, the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on June 24 of that year. State Attorney General Lynn Fitch's certification made Mississippi's 2007 'trigger law' go into effect and ban all abortions in the state, “except in the case where necessary for the preservation of the mother's life or where the pregnancy was caused by rape".

Abortion in North Dakota is illegal. The state's sole abortion clinic relocated to Minnesota.

Abortion in Wisconsin has been legal since September 18, 2023, and is performed in Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan through 22 weeks gestation. However, elective abortions in Wisconsin are under dispute after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 24, 2022. Abortion opponents cite an 1849 law that they claim bans the procedure in all cases except when the life of the mother is in danger. However, lower level courts have argued that the law only applies to infanticide and not consensual abortions. The enforceability of the law is disputed and being considered by the state courts. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced that they would resume abortion services in Madison and Milwaukee on September 18, 2023. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin later announced that they would resume abortion services in Sheboygan on December 28, 2023.

Abortion in Wyoming is currently legal due to a temporary court injunction.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), returning to individual states the power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal statutory law.

Mayday Health is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that educates on medication abortion and how to access it in the United States. It was founded in 2022 in response to the Dobbs v. Jackson (2022) court decision that limited access to abortion in many U.S. states. Mayday educates on self-managed abortion and does not sell or distribute the abortion pill. Mayday was founded after the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). The organization launched on the day of the Dobbs decision.

References

  1. 1 2 Harris, Bracey (July 6, 2022). "The Mississippi abortion clinic at the center of the Supreme Court fight shuts its doors for good". NBC News . Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  2. ↑ Perlis, Wicker (June 24, 2022). "Jackson's Pink House staff members say goodbyes, plan for the future in a post-Roe world". The Indianapolis Star . Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  3. ↑ Allen, Samantha (March 13, 2015). "Working at Pink House, Mississippi's Last Abortion Clinic". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ Lockhart, P.R. (May 5, 2017). "To understand the cost of the war on women, look to Mississippi". Mother Jones.
  5. ↑ Pettus, Emily Wagster (July 6, 2022). "Scramble as last Mississippi abortion clinic shuts its doors". AP . Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  6. ↑ PABLO BEAUREGARD, LUIS (June 27, 2022). "Inside the Mississippi abortion clinic that triggered Supreme Court ruling: 'Everyone who kills babies deserves to die'". El País . PRISA . Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  7. ↑ Arnold, Amanda (May 4, 2017). "A New Threat to Mississippi's Only Abortion Clinic Moved in Across the Street". The Cut. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Abortion at SCOTUS: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health". Kaiser Family Foundation. May 4, 2022. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  9. ↑ Cohen, David S.; Connon, Krysten (March 25, 2015). "Not an Isolated Incident". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  10. ↑ Blau, Max (September 28, 2015). "Owner of Mississippi's last abortion clinic won't stop fighting for her patients". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  11. ↑ Sheppard, Kate (January 22, 2013). "Inside Mississippi's Last Abortion Clinic". Mother Jones.
  12. ↑ Rich Phillips; George Howell (July 1, 2012). "Mississippi's only abortion clinic to stay open under restraining order". CNN. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  13. ↑ "72 Hours Inside Mississippi's Lone Abortion Clinic". ABC News. August 1, 2013. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  14. ↑ Robertson, Campbell (April 15, 2013). "Ruling Prevents Closing of Mississippi's Only Abortion Clinic". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  15. ↑ Robertson, Campbell; Eckholm, Erik (July 29, 2014). "Judges Block Abortion Curb in Mississippi". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  16. ↑ Liptak, Adam (June 28, 2016). "Justices' Orders Underscore Ruling Against Abortion Limits". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  17. ↑ "Supreme Court Refuses to Review Mississippi's Clinic Shutdown Law" (Press release). Center for Reproductive Rights. June 28, 2016.
  18. ↑ Regan, Michael (March 18, 2017). "Court blocks Mississippi law that would have shuttered state's only abortion clinic". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Federal District Court Permanently Blocks Mississippi's Clinic Shutdown Law" (Press release). Center for Reproductive Rights. March 17, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Dobbs, No. 18-60868 (5th Cir. 2019)". Justia Law. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Currier [15-week ban]". Rewire.News. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Dobbs". Center for Reproductive Rights . Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  23. ↑ "ACOG Leads Groundbreaking Coalition in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization". www.acog.org. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  24. ↑ "Owner: Mississippi abortion clinic is sold, won't reopen". Politico . July 18, 2022.
  25. ↑ Harris, Bracey (January 12, 2023). "The abortion clinic at the center of the Supreme Court ruling will become a secondhand store". NBC News. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
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