Last month, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed a law requiring doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges in a local hospital. Mississippi has one clinic left, where, because of the state's anti-abortion climate, they commute to work from Alabama. It's no secret that Mississippi Republicans, in particular, are delighted by the prospect that they might put the state's one and only clinic out of business.
Mississippi State Representative Bubba Carpenter, speaking to the Alcorn County GOP on Thursday, said as much:
"We have literally stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi. Three blocks from the Capitol sits the only abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi. A bill was drafted. It said, if you would perform an abortion in the state of Mississippi, you must be a certified OB/GYN and you must have admitting privileges to a hospital. Anybody here in the medical field knows how hard it is to get admitting privileges to a hospital...
"It's going to be challenged, of course, in the Supreme Court and all -- but literally, we stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi, legally, without having to-- Roe vs. Wade. So we've done that. I was proud of it. The governor signed it into law. And of course, there you have the other side. They're like, 'Well, the poor pitiful women that can't afford to go out of state are just going to start doing them at home with a coat hanger.' That's what we've heard over and over and over.
"But hey, you have to have moral values. You have to start somewhere, and that’s what we've decided to do. This became law and the governor signed it, and I think for one time, we were first in the nation in the state of Mississippi."
I got a chance to ask Representative Carpenter about the coat hanger part today. "That was what a lot of our critics on the House floor said during the debate," he told me. "That was just some language that some of the African-Americans used." A few white Democrats also spoke out about the old "home remedies," he remembered, but in the end the measure passed with support from several Democrats.
The owner of the state's lone clinic says she'll sue to block the law, which takes effect July 1, if her doctors can't get admitting privileges. Tonight on the show, yet more anti-abortion legislation in the states.
(The video above comes by way our pal James Carter. You can see a slightly longer version on the Alcorn County GOP's channel.)
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I'm deeply saddened that this is my home state. I am pro-choice but am very doubtful I will ever have an abortion but that is my own personal beliefs and opinion. Yes, Mississippi is a very conservative Christian state but even the beliefs of the majority aren't the beliefs of all. The state showed that last year, when they voted on a similar bill and lost. The legislature and Governor passing this regardless of the state vote, is ridiculous. I don't know a single Christian that wants others beliefs forced upon them via state laws, so why would we push our beliefs on other people. What a woman chooses to do with her body is no one's business but hers and her doctor. This should not be a morality issue because if you don't believe in abortion, great. Then don't have one. This country has a seperation of Church and State but that lines keeps getting more blurry. I, for one, am fed up with people who claim to be Christians and have "morals" judging others because they believe something different. Our elected officials passing laws based on their own personal morals and beliefs is just a way for them to feel morally superior and cause reactions from the public, all of which take away from the issues they should be dealing with such as our state and national debt, and education. Hats off to you Governor, for shifting the public eye from your and the state's faults on to morality issues that shouldn't be your choice in the first place.
I like how they're all against abortions.
Well, then, thanks the state representative and tell him it was very courageous of him to volunteer to adopt all of the babies that will start appearing on his doorstep in eight months.
If he balks, sue him in paternity court since he's the reason for the baby being alive and around...
Then watch him balk down from his "high and mighty" moral stance.
How come not even one of them recognizes that sperm make up 50% of a pregnancy and therefore 50% of the responsibility?
Steralize the hangers and there should be no problem.
@Patrick Blodgett thanks for making my point. Your response speaks plainly to the lack of understanding surrounding this issue. Is it possible that you have exchanged science for common sense? Is science the barometer for every human endeavor? Is there nothing else, say human experience?
It is a general misconception for the public to believe that the loudest complainers to be the most anxious for its welfare. Does one of these legislators have an online coat hook sales site?
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life. I see the white Republican males in Mississippi are giving it their best effort.
The average IQ in Mississippi is 85. Considering this guy is below average...
http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab214/yakfiend/bubba.jpg
The Republican Party is a racist, bigoted off shoot of the tea party. They keep doing stuff to hurt African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, the poor, gays, labor, the environmentalists and women. bascically the Civil war never ended. We are the party of Lincoln now and the racist whites went over to the Republican Party. Lincoln is spinning in his grave.
it being difficult to get admitting privileges is less difficult than getting good health care in that state.
We now have lots of republican run states that make it difficult to impossible to get an abortion, AND birth control, and are also pretty much against helping people in need. "god, you sure did create some f'n idiots".
Anyone want contact info for Rep Bubba Carpenter (coat hanger man)?
Rep. Lester "Bubba" Carpenter
8 Carpenter Dr.
Burnsville, MS
38833
H(662) 427-8281
102-C (office) (601) 359-2425
lcarpenter@house.ms.gov
Where is ole bubba's moral values for the men who help put women in this predicament?