This Clinic Stays Open: A Comprehensive History of Reproductive Rights in Mississippi, 1966-2015.

Bacon, Alicia (2016) This Clinic Stays Open: A Comprehensive History of Reproductive Rights in Mississippi, 1966-2015. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Jessica Wilkerson from History, University of Mississippi.

Preview

Text This Clinic Stays Open Final.pdf Download (904kB) | Preview

Abstract

In 1966, Mississippi became the first state to reform its criminal abortion laws when it legalized abortion in the case of rape. From the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 to 1986, Mississippi experienced a rapid and dramatic expansion of abortion services and the practice remained relatively unrestricted. Today, Mississippi boasts some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation and only one clinic remains open in the state. Through analysis of newspaper clippings, legislative documents, court rulings, and statistical analyses, this thesis discerns how and when reproductive rights came to be so threatened in Mississippi. The findings show that the level of abortion restrictions women in Mississippi face today is the result of conscious, calculated efforts of legislators and anti-abortion activists to chip away at the legal framework protecting reproductive rights over the course of several decades. The narrative of reproductive rights in Mississippi has largely been obscured and ignored in historical memory and popular media, and despite the state’s conservative and religious demography, the current lack of access to abortion services in Mississippi was neither foreordained nor inevitable.

Actions (login required)

View Item