Abortion Services Restored at South Austin Planned Parenthood

[PeaceNikki]

10. Mississippi is down to one provider in the entire state. One. And they fight to stay open every day.

http://news.msn.com/us/abortion-clinic-owner-committed-despite-pressure

Abortion clinic owner Diane Derzis has stared down protesters, laughed off those who call her "baby killer" and smiled through clenched teeth while bantering with people who want to close her centers in the South.

She has been an abortion rights advocate for decades and owned clinics since 1996, but Derzis is facing some of the biggest political and legal pressure she has ever seen. She spars with pastors and politicians alike, and her latest fight is to keep open her Mississippi clinic, the last one remaining in the state.

"If they think they're going to make me feel badly about what I do — not gonna happen," said Derzis, a 59-year-old Virginia native who has lived in Alabama for decades.

...

Sunsara Taylor, of New York, is spokeswoman for Stop Patriarchy, a group that supports "abortion on demand and without apology." She said Derzis is doing important work.

"It really matters tremendously — the courage, the bravery, the self-sacrifice to keep women's right to abortion available, especially in places where the whole state apparatus is so dead set against women's reproductive rights," Taylor said this month in Jackson.