The Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson was at the center of the US Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe vs. Wade at the end of June. On Wednesday, she treated her last patients.
The operator of the clinic, Diane Derzis, announced that she would continue to treat women in the state of New Mexico, about 40 miles north of El Paso. For the time being, New Mexico is a “very open-minded state,” she said. “We were welcomed there.”
Lawyers for the clinic filed the documents with the state Supreme Court on Thursday to ask for it to be reopened. The clinic previously lost in an attempt to temporarily block Mississippi law that bans most abortions.
Responsibility for abortion laws rests with the states
Mississippi is one of 13 states that, prior to the end of Roe vs. Wade, had passed so-called trigger laws that automatically ban or restrict abortion if the Supreme Court decides to do so. Recently, judges in Washington overturned the landmark ruling that legislators could not restrict access to abortions.
The Supreme Court ruled that no fundamental right to an abortion could be derived from the constitution. In doing so, it overturned the 1973 landmark “Roe vs. Wade” ruling that had led to widespread legalization of abortion. Responsibility for abortion laws now rests with the states.