The State of Roe - 2021

Today marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Since its passage in 1973, we have seen over 1,200 restrictions passed in states making access harder and stigma greater. In six states, there is just one clinic left, hanging on by the thinnest of threads. Like Mississippi.

That’s why this week in Mississippi, it seems only fitting for this year’s Roe anniversary there would be an introduction of a full ban on abortion. On January 18th, Rep. Dan Eubanks introduced a bill calling for a total abortion ban and criminalization of abortion in Mississippi.

Abortion would be criminalized as murder, and banned without exception. But wait. There’s more. It would be a felony to even TELL someone HOW to procure an abortion, or how to self-manage an abortion. OK…right.

And then there’s even more…

Eubanks also is of the “fine for thee but not for me camp”. Per Ashton Pittman of Mississippi Today, “Eubanks’ latest anti-abortion bill coincides with his introduction of a bill to ban public and private employers alike from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for employees. In an audio message to supporters of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus earlier this month, he said vaccine mandates would mean “it is merely a matter of time before we as citizens lose all freedoms or say even over our very own bodies.” It’s your health. It’s your body. And you should have every say on what is forced into it and upon it. Anything less is nothing short of medical rape,” the anti-abortion Republican said of potential vaccine mandates in the Jan. 3 message.

So, Rep. Eubanks, "It’s your health. It’s your body. And you should have every say on what is forced into it and upon it. Anything less is nothing short of medical rape”. Ok. Right. Gotcha...

This bill, MS HB 338, is just one of several abortion bans being introduced in state legislatures this year; Oklahoma, Indiana, North Dakota, all have total bans being introduced. While the Biden administration will undo many of the previous administration’s federal policies, that does nothing to stop the bills coming from state legislatures. And every year there are more.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, “Between January 1, 2011 and July 1, 2019, states enacted 483 new abortion restrictions, and these account for nearly 40% of all abortion restrictions enacted by states in the decades since Roe v. Wade.”

Here in Mississippi, Roe v. Wade is hanging on by the tiniest of threads. Even though this bill may be unconstitutional, that doesn’t mean they won’t try. And it makes other bills stigmatizing abortion and making access nearly impossible look downright reasonable.

And meanwhile, people will think the one clinic is inaccessible to them. A right is nothing without access. And abortion is already damn near inaccessible in Mississippi, the poorest state in America, with a 24 hour waiting period, and so many other obstacles to overcome.

Mississippi has a Republican super-majority, and passed a six-week ban in 2019, so there’s no reason to think the Legislature won’t pass this bill, as unconstitutional as it is.

As a matter of fact, Rep Eubanks and his fellow legislator friends Steve Hopkins and Chris Brown came by the clinic in 2019 after the passage of the six week ban to glad hand and gloat. Check out this video from that day in 2019.

Every day, We Engage, the Pinkhouse Defenders, along with clinic escorts and defenders across the country, we are here for patients – first and foremost – whatever that may look like.

Because today, almost 50 years later, we still are fighting to maintain a hold on a right that we supposedly already have.

#WeEngage #RoeVWade #StopTheBans #ClinicEscort #ClinicDefender #WeWontGoBack #PinkhouseDefenders