Around 30 people, men, women and children, are praying on the sidewalk outside of the Jackson Women's Health Organization. Laura Duran, President of Pro-Life Mississippi, says they are joining more than 500 cities across the country in the 40 Days for Life campaign. "We're not going to be bullied, we're still going to come out and pray for these babies and these moms that are in a big choice right now," says Duran.
The recent death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has created tension around Roe v. Wade, the decision that legalized abortion in 1973. Advocates say if President Donald Trump fills the seat with a conservative justice, that ruling could be overturned. Pam Miller, with Sidewalk Advocates for Life, supports that change. "I hope to see them address it, and turn it back to states where the states will have the say so, as it should have been, and not just a national blanket of abortions legal in every state for all nine months," says Miller.
Also standing outside the clinic is the abortion-rights group Pink House Defenders. Organizer Derenda Hancock says if Roe V Wade is overturned, abortions could no longer be done in Mississippi. She says "Mississippi has a trigger law, which means the day after Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion will be illegal here in Mississippi. Who does that affect? People of color, poor people, that's who it will affect. If this last clinic closes, what then?"
Close to a dozen states have trigger laws designed to automatically ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
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