To Understand the Cost of the War on Women Look to Mississippi
This film about reproductive rights has never been more relevant.
April, a 24 year old single mother and a central character in Jackson, prepares for the birth of her fifth child. Jackson Documentary/Maisie Crow
P.R. LOCKHART
MAY 5, 2017 6:00 AM
Few policy areas have been so strongly affected by the first 100 days of the Donald Trump administration as women’s health care and access to reproductive services. Trump promised he would launch an all-out offensive against abortion access protections and organizations like Planned Parenthood, and with the Republican Congress has begun the process. Across the country, emboldened anti-abortion state legislatures have tried to pass a new wave of abortion restrictions.
But in Mississippi, extensive abortion restrictions have been on the books for years. It's one of a handful of states with only one operating abortion clinic—the Jackson Women's Health Organization, which Mississippi conservatives have fought to close—leaving thousands of women, particularly low-income women of color, with limited access to services. The state has poured resources into more than three dozen crisis pregnancy centers, which offer non-medical services and counsel women against having an abortion. A new crisis pregnancy center opened right across the street from the clinic late last month.
There was a time when what was happening in Mississippi was seen as unique. Now women across the country fear that their state could be next.
Enter Jackson, an award-winning documentary highlighting the realities of living in a state seeking to eliminate abortion access. Released on the festival circuit last June and broadcast nationally on Showtime earlier this week (Showtime Showcase will rebroadcast the film on Friday and it is now available on demand), the documentary offers an intimate look into the lives of three women: Shannon Brewer, the director of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization; April, a 24-year old single mother of four children facing an unplanned pregnancy; and Barbara Beavers, the executive director of the pro-life Center for Pregnancy Choices, a Jackson-based crisis pregnancy center. In following the often intersecting lives of its subjects, Jackson not only highlights the struggles of operating Mississippi’s last clinic, but also explores what life can be like in a state with few options. Filmed over three years and drawing from more than 700 hours of footage, Crow deftly connects the women’s stories to one another and to developments at the state and national level and gives viewers an opportunity to understand the people caught up in the fight for reproductive rights.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/maisie-crow-jackson-documentary-mississippi-last-abortion-clinic
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