Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, won a temporary injunction yesterday against a 2012 law that threatened to shut its doors.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III extended a temporary injunction that prevents the state from closing the clinic as it tries to come into compliance with a 2012 law requiring all doctors who perform abortions at the clinic to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The injunction was extended until the constitutionality of the law can be determined in a current pending lawsuit against the state. So far, no hospital within 30 miles of the clinic has granted admitting privileges to any of the doctors.
In his opinion, Judge Jordan wrote “Closing its doors would – as the state seems to concede in this argument – force Mississippi women to leave Mississippi to obtain a legal abortion… [This] would result in a patchwork system where constitutional rights are available in some states but not others.”
