Abortion Backers,
Foes Square Off in Miss.
By TIMOTHY R. BROWN,
AP from washingtonpost.com on the Web, July 16, 2006
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(Rogelio V. Solis - AP)
Anti-abortion protestor Patrick Johnston, right, a family practioner
from Ohio, argues with abortion rights advocates during a rally in
downtown Jackson, Miss., Saturday, July 15, 2006. The abortion
rights rally, which attracted more than 150 supporters, and about 15
protesters, was broken up early when police cleared the site after a
bomb was reported in the park. Authorities later detonated a
suspicious case, but did not report its contents |
JACKSON, Miss. July 15 -- Hundreds of
abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion protesters squared off in a
contentious rally Saturday with both sides proclaiming Mississippi a new key
battleground state in the fight over Roe v. Wade.
The National Organization for Women and other abortion rights groups gathered at
a park in downtown Jackson across from the governor's mansion, vowing to counter
an eight-day rally by the national anti-abortion group, Operation Save America.
Operation Save America is holding rallies across Jackson in an effort to force
the closure of Mississippi's only abortion clinic -- a move NOW and abortion
rights advocates say would chip away at Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that legalized abortions.
NOW president Kim Gandy said the contentious rally showed "Mississippi is a
battleground state for sure."
Gandy said if the state's only abortion clinic is closed, "it's going to have a
devastating impact on the women who live here and don't have other options that
they can exercise."
Flip Benham, Operation Save America director, said his group will remain in
Mississippi until the Jackson Women's Health Organization abortion clinic shuts
its doors for good.
"I'm here to tell the truth," Benham said to an abortion rights advocate who
questioned why he was at the rally. "We were out at the clinic earlier
today and we are out here to bring the gospel. Of course, when you do that
-- bring the real gospel -- all hell is going to break loose and all of heaven
is going to come down."
He said there were eight abortion clinics in Mississippi in 1993, the last time
his group came to the state, "and now you have only one abortion mill and what
you are seeing is that all eyes are turned to Mississippi."
Susan Hill, president of the National Women's Health Organization, which manages
the clinic, recently told a local newspaper the clinic has no intention of
closing.
The Jackson Women's Health Organization opened in 1995 and became the last
abortion clinic in Mississippi two years ago. It sees roughly 4,000 women
a year, Hill said.
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