Abortion Clinic Misses Deadline

An anti-abortion demonstrator attempts to give a leaflet to a driver leaving the Jackson Women's Health Organization, Mississippi's only commercial abortion clinic, while other abortion foes gather to pray Friday. / Photos by Rogelio V. Solis/AP

Mississippi’s only abortion clinic missed a Friday deadline to comply with a 2012 state law that requires each of its physicians to get hospital admitting privileges — a law the governor said he signed with the hopes of shutting the clinic down.

The state Health Department won’t immediately close the clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The department will set an inspection later, and if it orders a shutdown, the clinic can appeal. Clinic administrator Diane Derzis said every Jackson-area hospital where the clinic applied for privileges said no.

“They were clear that they didn’t deal with abortion and they didn’t want the internal or the external pressure of dealing with it,” Derzis told The Associated Press in a phone interview Friday.

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has said repeatedly that he wants Mississippi to be abortion-free.

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