Lawrence Hurley

OXFORD, Miss. (Reuters) – Barbara Phillips found out she was pregnant just months before her planned start to law school this summer 1973.

At the age of 24, she desired an abortion. With its Roe V. Wade landmark decision, which recognized the constitutional rights of women to end a pregnancy, the U.S. Supreme Court had already legalized abortion in America months before. Mississippi did not allow abortions, so she was forced to have one in her home town of Port Gibson.

Phillips is a Black woman who was involved in civil rights movements. She could sense her dreams of becoming a lawyer falling away.

Phillips said, “It was devastating. Phillips confessed that she was in desperate need of help, as she sat on her patio at Oxford’s cozy, one-story home. Oxford is a college town located 160 miles (260km north) of Jackson, Mississippi.

The Roe decision meant that 46 states in the United States had criminal abortion prohibitions. Women with high-status and connections were often denied access to abortion, especially if they were white.

Phillips found a New York physician willing to perform an abortion thanks to the assistance of a feminist organization. New York was the first state to allow out-of-state women to have abortions before Roe. For the procedure, she flew to New York.

Phillips, now 72 years old, doesn’t regret having had an abortion. In Chicago, Phillips attended Northwestern (NASDAQ;) law school and realized her career goal. She had her son years later when it was time.

Phillips stated, “I was determined for myself to decide what I wanted with my life”

The Roe decision has brought about a new wave of attacks on abortion rights in the United States. Many states have passed Republican-backed restrictions that restrict abortion. A case in which Mississippi wants to revive its ban on abortion within 15 weeks of gestation, will be heard by the Supreme Court Dec. 1. Mississippi raised the stakes further by asking the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority of 6-3, to repeal Roe v. Wade.

A ruling like this could reverse the clock for Mississippi which has only one abortion facility and all other states back to the environment that Phillips had nearly half a century ago.

A large portion of America may return to the days when women who wish to terminate a pregnancy have the option of either a dangerous and illegal abortion or traveling far to obtain legal abortions.

The Supreme Court is also examining Mississippi’s abortion law. Although the Supreme Court heard arguments on November 1 in opposition to Texas’s ban on abortion within six weeks, it has not yet made a ruling.

LAWS FOR TRIGGER LAWS

According to Guttmacher Institute (a research organization that supports abortion rights), Mississippi is among a dozen states that have so-called “trigger laws” that prohibit abortion in most or all cases.

Most people live in the South. Therefore, a Mississippian woman could not obtain an abortion in Arkansas or Tennessee. Florida and Illinois are the closest states to which abortion is legal in short-term.

Guttmacher reports that Mississippi’s average woman driving distance to get to the clinic will increase to 78-380 miles or 125-610km each.

Some abortion rights supporters fear that there will be a return of grisly, illegal back-alley abortions. However, abortion pills have been a significant development since pre-Roe. Mississippi is one of 19 states that have placed restrictions on medications-induced abortions.

Mississippi officials seem unsure of what a post Roe Mississippi might look like. Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Republican Governor Tate Reeves declined interviews when they asked the court for Roe to be overturned.

Andy Gipson (Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce), a Republican State Legislator, helped to shepherd 2018’s passage of Roe v. Wade, a 15-week ban. It was called Roe v. Wade, “antiquated and outdated law based upon antiquated and obsolete science.”

Gipson refused to answer questions on Mississippi, or the southeast United States, without access to abortion rights. He instead focused his interview on details about the 15-week ban.

Gipson claimed that it is false to portray this as an image of an outright ban in the southeast. He also noted that Mississippi’s law does not require the Supreme Court’s formal overturning Roe.

Fitch claimed in court papers how scientific advances such as the contention that a foetus can sense pain earlier during pregnancy highlight that Roe and an subsequently issued 1992 decision, which affirmed abortion rights, were “decades old.”

Pro-abortion rights activists claim any Mississippi law that is upheld would mean Roe will be effectively dissolved, giving the states unlimited power to ban or limit abortion.

Phillips is concerned about the possibility of unregulated, dangerous abortions returning to harm women’s health.

Phillips expressed concern that Phillips would find more girls and women in back alleys. Phillips said, “I am afraid we will find them on country roads. Dead.”