JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – On Thursday, July 7, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, known as The Pink House, will close its doors.
Gov. Tate Reeves responded to the news on Twitter on Thursday morning, saying, “Today we wake up in a state where the church doors are open and the abortion clinic’s doors are closed. All the Glory to God the Father! Amen!”
Jackson, Mississippi became the center of the Supreme Court ruling overturning the Roe v. Wade precedent in a case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — the clinic’s challenge of a 2018 Mississippi law to ban most abortions after 15 weeks.
The Pink House had been doing abortions through 16 weeks, but under previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings, abortion was allowed to the point of fetal viability at about 24 weeks.
One day before the closure, there were protesters on both sides of the abortion debate outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
On Tuesday, Judge Debbra K. Halford denied a request by the abortion clinic to block Mississippi’s “trigger” law, which will go into effect on Thursday.
The court also refused to block a separate law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
One abortion-rights supporter said, “Abortion is not just a woman’s issue. It’s a trans issue. It’s a disability issue.”
WJTV 12 News also spoke with one woman, who said she entered the Pink House 31 years ago and later regretted her decision.
“The circumstance was kind of a sense of relief, and then all of a sudden when it did come back 10 years later, it hasn’t gone away since,” said Regina Minga, who opposes abortion.
Abortion access has become increasingly limited across the United States after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
With the Mississippi clinic closing, Diane Derzis, who has owned the Mississippi clinic since 2010, and Shannon Brewer, the Pink House director, will soon open an abortion clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico. They plan to call it Pink House West.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
