The last abortion clinic in Mississippi closes its doors

Just before dawn Wednesday outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Derenda Hancock propped a hand-scrawled placard on a folding chair.

“We Won’t Back Down,” it said in bold red letters.

Then she put up another sign — “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” — and plopped down on the sidewalk.

“This is the hardest day,” said the 63-year-old volunteer, lighting a cigarette as a boombox played Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’.”

It was the last day of Mississippi’s last abortion clinic. The last day Hancock would wrap her skinny arm around a patient as she ushered her through the clinic’s glass door for an abortion. The last day staffers would answer the phone — “Jackson Women’s Health. May I help you?” — knowing they actually could help.

Dubbed “The Pink House” for its bubblegum-pink exterior walls, the clinic has long been the epicenter of the nation’s fight over abortion and the last bastion of reproductive rights in this staunchly conservative state.

Opening in 1995, an era when antiabortion activists mounted a fierce campaign of intimidation, the clinic steadfastly served women from across Mississippi and neighboring states. Since 2004, it has been the only abortion clinic in Mississippi.

Four years ago, it challenged a new Mississippi law that banned abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, arguing that the new restrictions violated Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion. It was the main plaintiff in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that led the Supreme Court to overturn Roe on June 24.

Three days later, Mississippi’s attorney general certified a 2007 so-called trigger law that bans all abortions, except in cases of rape or when a pregnant woman’s life is in danger. The Pink House had 10 days to perform abortions before the law went into effect.

Hancock, who co-founded the Pink House Defenders nearly 10 years ago, steeled herself for the final showdown between antiabortion activists preaching on the sidewalk and the security guards and volunteers in rainbow-striped vests escorting patients inside.

“The war will always go on, but this particular battle is over,” she said as she adjusted her straw hat in the sweltering heat. “I can’t imagine being 25 or 30 years old in Mississippi today, waking up knowing I have no control over my body.”

Mississippi is surrounded by Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, red states that now ban abortion in all or most cases. The closest clinics for women in Mississippi are now in Georgia and Florida — both places that could see more restrictions. Then the nearest option would be Granite City, Ill., about 500 miles by car.

“Is it sad, yes,” Diane Derzis, the 68-year-old owner of the Jackson clinic, said Wednesday, noting that the phones were ringing nonstop with patients trying to make appointments. “Women in the South and in Mississippi will no longer have direct access to medical services — that is the saddest thing. But it’s also positive because we’re moving forward into a place where we can see other patients.”

Derzis, who has worked in abortion care for 46 years and has adopted the handle “Abortion Queen,” said she plans to open a new clinic, Pink House West, next week in New Mexico. It will be more than 1,000 miles away from Jackson.

Early Wednesday, about an hour after Hancock arrived at the clinic, antiabortion activists were setting up folding chairs outside and erecting signs that said: “WE ARE PRAYING FOR YOU.”

“I feel so sick I could throw up,” said Doug Lane, a 70-year-old pastor. “It’s terrible they’re going to kill babies in there today. These babies shouldn’t be dying. Roe vs. Wade is overturned.”

Lane was arrested for disturbing the peace outside the clinic the day it opened 27 years ago — and he said that the Lord had called him to be there since.

When the clinic’s executive director, Shannon Brewer, who has worked for the Pink House for more than 20 years, stepped out of a white SUV, the escorts gathered around her in the parking lot and clapped.

“Turn to Jesus, Shannon!” an antiabortion protester shouted. “Repent!”

The arrival of Dr. Cheryl Hamlin, who has traveled from Massachusetts for the last five years to perform abortions at the clinic, prompted more heckling.

“You are a wicked, wicked woman and you need to come to God today,” said Allan Siders, a 36-year-old landscaper, clutching a brown leather Holy Bible. “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. No murderers shall inherit the kingdom of God.”