JACKSON, Miss. ( Associated Press) — The Mississippi abortion clinic at the center of a US Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade was sold and will not reopen even if a state court allows it, its owner told The Associated Press on Monday.
Diane Derzis said furniture and equipment from the Jackson Women’s Health Organization have been moved to a new abortion clinic soon to open in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Jackson’s clinic is better known as the Pink House because of its bright paint, and it was Mississippi’s last abortion clinic.
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Derzis said people were calling her to ask about buying the building minutes after the Supreme Court released its June 24 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped away women’s constitutional protection for abortion across the country.
He said he doesn’t think the building is used as a medical center.
“I didn’t ask because I really didn’t care,” Derzis said Monday. “It’s a great building.”
The building is located in the Fondren neighborhood of Jackson, home to an eclectic mix of restaurants, retail stores and entertainment venues.
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The Casa Rosada stopped offering medication and surgical abortions on July 6, the day before Mississippi enacted a law banning most abortions. Mississippi was one of several states with a trigger law contingent on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion across the country.
Mississippi’s activation law, passed in 2007, says that abortion is legal only if the pregnant woman’s life is in danger or if the pregnancy is caused by rape reported to the police. You have no exception for pregnancies caused by incest.
The Casa Rosada is still involved in a legal battle in Mississippi. On July 5, a state court judge rejected a request to block the activation law from taking effect. The clinic appealed its decision to the state Supreme Court.
The clinic’s attorneys cited a 1998 Mississippi Supreme Court ruling that said the state constitution invokes a right to privacy that “includes the implied right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.”
The state attorney general’s office argued that the 1998 ruling was based on US Supreme Court decisions in 1973 and 1992 that established or protected the right to abortion, but were overturned on June 24. But Rob McDuff, an attorney with the Mississippi Justice Center who represents the clinic, argued that state judges never said his decision was based on the federal Constitution.
The state Supreme Court has set a July 25 deadline for state attorneys to respond to the clinic’s appeal.
