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Mississippi law theoretically allows rape victims access to abortion, an exemption state leaders tout. But the doctors and advocates who work with victims say in reality, that access is almost nonexistent.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, allowing Mississippi’s 2007 trigger ban to take effect in July, abortion has been legal in the state in only two cases: when necessary to save the life of the mother and when a pregnancy resulted from a rape that has been reported to law enforcement. 

“It does in fact have an exception for rape and it has an exception for life of the mother,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in a television appearance earlier this year. “I think that there’s no doubt that there are instances, there are individuals that certainly push for exceptions, and that’s okay.”

But doctors told Mississippi Today that they’re not aware of anyone in the state who will provide the procedure for rape victims because of concerns about potential legal consequences and logistical hurdles. 

Mississippi Today surveyed more than 20 hospitals and hospital chains in the state about whether they would provide legal abortions to people who have reported a rape to law enforcement. Some of the state’s biggest hospitals – including the University of Mississippi Medical Center and North Mississippi Health Services – refused to comment at all. 

Of those that responded, none said that its doctors would provide abortions for people who had reported a rape to law enforcement.

“I don’t think people in Mississippi can have comfort around, ‘Oh, if I’m raped, I will have access,’” one Jackson-area OB/GYN told Mississippi Today, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the physician did not have permission from their employer to talk to the media. “You probably won’t. You’ll have to find someone to do it that includes a hospital with the whole team there supporting that, and that’s much more difficult.”

A medical professional could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of providing an illegal abortion. Because for years all of the state’s elective abortions – which includes all procedures that are not medically necessary – took place at Mississippi’s sole abortion clinic, many OB/GYNs around the state lack the training to perform the procedure. 

That means victims of sexual violence will likely be forced to travel hours away from home to end a pregnancy that resulted from rape. 

Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment for the story. 

Before Mississippi’s trigger ban took effect, the state’s sole abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, provided abortions for rape victims. The clinic is now closed.

Diane Derzis, the clinic’s owner, said most of the time clinic staff did not know when they were serving a patient who had been raped. But a few times a year, law enforcement came to the clinic to pick up fetal remains, which could be used to gather DNA evidence to identify an assailant.

Derzis said she doesn’t believe anyone in Mississippi will provide abortions for people who have reported a rape.

“They’re screwed,” she said of rape victims. “Plain and simple. No one is going to take the responsibility or the liability … People are scared to death, not just there but all over the country about what they can and can’t do. And they’re just not going to be willing to put themselves or their licenses on the line.”

Even before Dobbs, Mississippi doctors were wary of providing abortions. The Pink House exclusively employed out-of-state OB/GYNs who flew in monthly for a few days at a time. 

Anti-abortion activists protested at the homes of Mississippi-based abortion providers. 

“We go to the neighborhoods and tell everybody in the neighborhood what they do,” long-time anti-abortion activist David Lane told Mississippi Today in June. “They don’t like that. But if it’ll get rid of them, and it’s legal, we’ll do it.”

It’s unlikely that any Mississippi doctors who do provide legal abortions will talk publicly about it – both for fear of legal action and to avoid attracting anti-abortion activists. 

Rob McDuff, an attorney at the Mississippi Center for Justice, which represented the clinic before it closed this summer, said he does not expect to see prosecutions of medical providers for performing abortions under the law’s exceptions. 

“I fully expect that state officials will allow health care professionals to use their best judgment in the difficult situations they will encounter, and I don’t think those doctors and nurses will be prosecuted,” he said. “If any are, we stand ready to defend them without charge, just as we will defend any others who are arrested for abortion-related crimes.”

Mississippi is one of a handful of states that bans abortion but has an exception for rape. There is no exception for incest. 

Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine and an expert in reproductive rights, said that exceptions for rape and incest can serve a political purpose without actually ensuring victims have access to abortion.

“Lawmakers get to satisfy part of their base that is skeptical about their anti-abortion lawmaking, or they get to say, ‘We put into the law these exceptions,’ hoping that people won’t pay close attention,” Goodwin said. “But if you unpack what that looks like, those burdens are inordinate.”

Now that the Pink House is closed, Mississippians’ nearest options for a legal abortion are in Florida, where it is permitted up to 15 weeks of pregnancy, or southern Illinois, where the town of Carbondale has become an access point for people living in ban states across the South and Midwest. 

When lawmakers added an exception for rape to Mississippi’s pre-Roe abortion ban in 1966, they considered requiring a local judge to first certify that a rape had taken place. But they rejected that idea on the grounds that it embarrasses victims.

The exception now requires victims to file “a formal charge of rape … with an appropriate law enforcement official.”

Forensic nurses told Mississippi Today that they’re also concerned about leaving their patients’ ability to access a medical procedure in the hands of law enforcement.

Nationally, only about a third of sexual assaults are reported to police. And only about a sixth of those reports result in arrests. 

In the vast majority of rape cases, the victim knew the assailant, so filing a police report could have life-altering consequences. 

Fear of retaliation, the belief that police won’t help them, and considering the assault a personal matter are among the reasons people choose not to report, according to Department of Justice statistics.

Chance Lovern, a nurse at the Ochsner Rush emergency room in Meridian, said his experience aligns with the national data: Most of the patients he has worked with knew their attacker. 

The sexual assault exams he performs are careful and detail oriented. Patients stand on a sheet to change so any physical evidence can be collected. Nurses document physical injuries like bruises and fractures, and perform vaginal and anal swabs for DNA. At every stage, a patient can ask to stop or skip part of the exam. 

He asks victims if they have contacted the police, but he never urges them to do so.  

“It’s a traumatizing event already,” he said. “It’s going to be their decision in the long run if they want to.”

Alizbeth Eaves, one of the state’s few certified sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE) and the trauma and SANE program manager at Ochsner Rush in Meridian, said the language of the rape exception is also unclear. What constitutes “a formal charge?” Is it simply filing a police report, or does someone have to be charged with the crime?

She recently saw a 16-year-old who had been raped by her uncle starting when she was 14 years old. The teenager’s father caught his brother in the act and called the police. But when they arrived, they initially refused to arrest the uncle.

“The investigator says, ‘She’s 16, it’s consensual, there’s nothing we can do,’” Eaves said. 

Eventually, the uncle was arrested on two counts of statutory rape, stemming from previous incidents. But it was easy to imagine the case taking a different turn.

“If she had gotten pregnant from that sexual assault that day, and law enforcement refused to press charges because, quote, ‘She was 16 and [it was] consensual,’ she would have been forced to carry that pregnancy, because a formal rape charge would not have been filed because law enforcement wasn’t going to do that,” Eaves said. 

A Mississippi forensic nurse who spoke on the condition of anonymity also said she routinely sees police demonstrate skepticism and even hostility toward victims. She has heard officers ask victims whether they actually wanted to have sex with their assailants and suggest that they should not have been alone with them. 

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Mississippi’s trigger ban took effect, Stephanie Piper, sexual assault program manager at the nonprofit Gulf Coast Center for Nonviolence, helped a woman who had become pregnant after unwanted sex get an appointment for an abortion in Florida. Instead of a six-hour round trip drive to Jackson, she had a 10-hour round trip to Tallahassee. 

In that case, the woman knew the man who impregnated her and had previously had consensual sex with him. She had no interest in filing a police report. 

“She was scared if she didn’t have sex with him something worse was going to happen,” Piper said. “In my eyes that’s a sexual assault. If she came forward to law enforcement and said everything I just said, they’re probably not going to go forward with the case.”

Lovern, a native of Philadelphia, Miss., grew up in the Pentecostal church, surrounded by opposition to abortion. His work as a nurse has changed his perspective, introducing him to situations where abortion was medically necessary. And he can see how carrying a pregnancy to term could change a sexual assault victim’s life forever. 

“I’m not saying that they wouldn’t love their child any differently, but it’s always going to bring back a physical presence of that assault,” he said. 

The post Can rape victims access abortion in Mississippi? Doctors, advocates say no. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: A Bad Sign appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has received a $5.8 million federal grant to build a new workforce training center to help the tribe up-skill members and combat labor shortages for jobs ranging from IT to health care. 

The U.S. Economic Development Administration funded the grant through the American Rescue Plan Act’s Indigenous Communities program. Choctaw economic development director John Hendrix said the new 50,000-square-foot Advanced Workforce Training Center will open in the Pearl River community in about a year, complete with hands-on equipment and computer labs covering skills from electrical work to phlebotomy. 

“It’s a game changer for the next generation,” Hendrix said. 

The tribe currently has a small center with a few classrooms, but Hendrix said the space doesn’t meet the growing demand for new trade skills. The reservation alone supports about 5,000 workers.

“We’ve got several vacancies,” Hendrix said. “We need health care workers and IT professionals. We have 3-million-square-feet of buildings and need vocational technicians.” 

The facility will offer new skill training and partner with a nearby community college for required certifications. It will also help current reservation employees learn new skills, like management. 

The center will also have a makerspace for advanced manufacturing skills and access to technology such as 3D printers. It will also support entrepreneurs and small businesses as an incubator for start-ups. 

“We have undertaken many projects to help our community members prepare to face a challenging and ever-evolving job market,” Chief Cyrus Ben said in a statement. “This Workforce Training Center is a key component of our strategy to increase the skills of our Tribal members, whether they choose a career on or outside of our Tribal lands.”

The Choctaw are the only federally recognized tribe in Mississippi with more than 11,000 members across 34,000 acres in 10 counties. 

Hendrix said more on-site training for in-demand jobs will give tribal members who aren’t interested in four-year colleges other options. The center will keep tabs on skills needed for jobs on the reservation as well as what is in-demand at nearby private companies. 

“This brings it closer to home,” he said, “and then after a 12-to-16-month program, they can have immediate employment opportunities.”

The post Choctaw tribe receives $5.8 million grant to fund new job training center appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A federal judge has denied a temporary restraining order aimed to prevent a Mississippi police department from violating Black residents’ constitutional rights and acting violently towards them. 

U.S. District Court Judge Tom Lee rejected a restraining order and injunctive relief against the Lexington Police Department, which has been the subject of a lawsuit filed last month by civil rights organization JULIAN and the National Police Accountability Project. 

Lee wrote the depiction of Lexington police’s tactics and harm against Black citizens are disturbing, but the plaintiff’s memorandum is made primarily of claims and assertions not backed by evidence. 

“The list of their unsupported allegations is unfortunately long but nevertheless worth detailing, because by separating out and discarding them from consideration, the picture becomes somewhat clearer, and it is more easily seen that injunctive relief is unwarranted,” he wrote.

The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Mississippi by five Black Lexington residents against Sam Dobbins, the former police chief; Charles Henderson, the interim police chief; the Lexington Police Department and the City of Lexington. 

Plaintiffs allege the Lexington police engaged in racial and retaliatory abuse and harassment against them and Black residents, including unlawful searches and seizures, false arrests, and excessive force, which violate the First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendments. The plaintiffs said Henderson has maintained the custom of how Lexington police treats Black residents started by Dobbins, and that is the reason why injunctive relief was needed, according to court records. 

Lexington has a population of about 1,800 and is 86% Black.

In his order, Lee lists and breaks down 23 claims he said lack evidence, including that Dobbins continues to patrol in Lexington after his firing, multiple incidents of excessive force during arrests or interactions with residents and that Black residents have been afraid to speak with attorneys or activists due to fear of retaliation.

Dobbins, who is white, was appointed police chief in July 2021. Plaintiffs alleged he led a department practice of violating the constitutional rights of Black citizens. 

In July of this year, an audio recording surfaced of Dobbins using a racial slur and homophobic remarks. He also talked about killing people while a member of law enforcement and shooting one person multiple times. 

As a result, the Board of Aldermen fired Dobbins by a 3-2 vote. Henderson was appointed interim chief. 

The judge wrote there are also unsupported claims made about Lexington’s municipal government: how the city has endorsed the police’s ongoing misconduct and how Board of Aldermen members harassed and retaliated against Black residents. 

Lee also dismissed the temporary restraining order because the plaintiffs failed to show a likelihood that they could prove there were civil rights violations. 

In the case of unlawful arrests, he reviewed several of the arrests the plaintiffs experienced and found that Lexington police had probable cause to make them. 

“Even if the court assumes for present purposes that there was no probable cause for the arrests, and also assumes that the arrests were attended by an unreasonable use of force, the court still finds that plaintiffs have not demonstrated a likelihood of proving an official policy of either arresting people without probable cause or of excessive force,” Lee wrote. 

Toward the end of the ruling, Lee notes that most of the plaintiffs’ complaints happened under Dobbins’ leadership. In court testimony, Holmes County Sheriff Willie March said Lexington’s policing has improved and calls he has received from residents about the police have decreased since Dobbins’ firing. 

Before the judge’s ruling, defendants responded to the complaint and denied most of the allegations. Dobbins invoked qualified immunity several times in relation to actions he took while serving on the police force. 

Dobbins also asked that the court dismiss the complaint, deny plaintiffs relief and award him attorney fees, costs and expenses “associated with the defense of the frivolous” action, according to court records. 

The post Federal judge denies restraining order filed against Lexington police appeared first on Mississippi Today.

PHILADELPHIA – Tanya Cook climbs into the gray van and starts her day as she always does: picking up the elderly to bring them to daycare. 

Cook, the transportation manager at New Beginnings Adult Day Care in Philadelphia, has a list that’s shorter today than she planned. Two participants canceled at the last minute, but they’ll have over 50 seniors at the center that day. 

Many adult daycare service providers in Mississippi are struggling or have closed in recent years due to low reimbursement rates from Medicaid and years of legislative gridlock. The centers provide crucial services to elderly and disabled people and allow their caregivers to work and have lives outside of caretaking.

Before COVID-19, New Beginnings averaged around 70 participants per day but now only sees 45 to 60 – still a marked improvement from the 30 or so they saw each day after a multi-month shutdown in 2020.

“They keep saying they’re going to wait until this is over,” Cook said. “I don’t know if this will ever be over. But some of them are slowly coming back.”

Adult daycare is a nearly invisible facet of the care system for elderly and disabled people. The centers provide transportation and meals, in addition to administering medication. Attendees participate in exercise and socialization activities. Often, they serve as participants’ only opportunity for social interaction outside of the home. 

Cook had never heard of adult daycare until she started working in one in Oct. 2017. In that time, she’s driven every route in the center’s service area. It covers eight counties total, stretching as far as Morton, more than an hour’s drive away. 

Cook remembers getting calls from participants one month into the COVID-19 shutdown where they asked: ‘Are you going to come get us?’

 “They’re stuck at home all day, so this is their way out of the house,” Cook said. 

That was the case for Jean Anderson, an 85-year-old Philadelphia native who has been coming to New Beginnings for over four years. After her husband passed away, her case worker asked if she’d like to start attending an adult daycare, and she agreed to try it out. 

“I was getting lonely at the house by myself,” Anderson said. “This keeps you from sitting there and doing nothing all day.” 

There were at least 126 adult daycare service providers across Mississippi pre-pandemic, but around 30% of them have closed permanently over the last few years, according to Benton Thompson, president of the Mississippi Association of Adult Day Services.

 “Their volume dropped due to COVID, and they couldn’t continue operations with the same overhead costs and limited revenue,” Thompson said. 

The bulk of those overhead costs come from staffing, which includes a family nurse practitioner and social worker, along with seven other required positions. Under quality assurance standards set by the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, each facility must maintain a minimum staff-to-participant ratio of one to six, or one to four in a facility that serves a high percentage of people who are severely impaired. 

The vast majority of those who use adult daycare services are enrolled in Medicaid’s Elderly & Disabled Waiver program. The waiver provides home and community-based services for Mississippians who would require nursing home level care if not for the alternative forms of care the waiver provides, like adult day care. At New Beginnings, 98% of its clients are on the waiver. As of June 2022, there were 17,022 waiver recipients across the state, according to the Mississippi Division of Medicaid.

The problem with this system, workers and advocates say, is that reimbursement rates have stagnated while costs have continued to rise, meaning only those who bring in a high number of participants can break even.

Currently, adult daycares receive a maximum reimbursement of $60 per person each day from Medicaid. They can only bill for up to four hours of care, though they’re required to be open for eight.

“We’re at the mercy of (Medicaid) case workers,” said Michelle McCool, administrator at New Beginnings. “It’s all based on numbers, and if they don’t refer clients to us, or if there’s a backlog of people waiting to get into the waiver program, we can’t survive.”

Some legislators have attempted to increase the reimbursement rate for adult daycare services every year since 2015. Each time, it has either died in committee or passed in both chambers, with each side unable to agree on a final version. 

If passed, the bills would have more than doubled the level of reimbursement that adult daycares like New Beginnings currently receive. Their per-person reimbursement would increase to $125 and the centers could also be reimbursed for transportation costs separately. Thompson believes the lack of awareness about adult day services is what has caused this repeated failure to act from lawmakers.

“I think it’s due to a lack of knowledge,” Thompson said. “I think most of them sitting up there in Jackson voting on these bills have never been to an adult day service and don’t understand the benefits.”

Thompson believes that expanded utilization of adult daycares would save the government money in the long run by preventing costly hospital stays and delaying costlier institutionalized care in a nursing home setting. He also pointed to the benefits for the primary caregivers of participants who have them, which sometimes provide the only way for them to run errands, work or just simply have a break.

“If you don’t give that caregiver a break, then they’re going to become a participant (person who needs adult daycare),” Thompson said. 

On Friday, Jeanette Carter is one of the few participants at New Beginnings dressed up for that day’s theme: Remembering 9/11. The 68-year-old is wearing a red, starry tank top and American flag baseball cap. She walks around the room, talking to her friends and looking for places to help out before the scavenger hunt.

Carter has been coming to New Beginnings nearly five days a week for over a year and a half. The only days she’s missed were due to catching COVID-19 in Oct. of last year. 

“If this place was open seven days a week, believe me, Jeanette would be here,” Carter said.

She only started coming to New Beginnings after the previous center she went to closed during the pandemic. In that brief period, she was scared of being stuck at home. 

“I get out of hand at times,” Carter said. “I can’t be nobody else but me and they understand me. I don’t know what I’d do without this place.”

The post Hit hard by pandemic, providers of care for the elderly struggle to stay afloat appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Cassandra Welchlin, executive director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, and Mississippi Today health reporter Will Stribling discuss the roundtable’s Mississippi Voices project. The project is seeking to elevate the experiences of Black women and girls who face barriers to accessing health care by collecting and sharing their stories.

READ MORE: Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable launches project to highlight barriers to health care

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The post The Pulse: Cassandra Welchlin appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Inside the College Hill Baptist Church in West Jackson, in front of a tall, blue backlit cross, the city’s town hall to discuss its unceasing water woes Tuesday night began with a prayer.

“We thank you now Lord that we have assembled in this place, to discuss issues within this city, particularly our water,” said Louis Wright, the city’s chief administrative officer. “Continue to uplift the mayor as he looks out for the citizens of this community. We pray that Lord you will give us the blessings and the wherewithal that we need in order to overcome the issues that we’re going through.” 

On the 47th consecutive day of a state-imposed citywide boil water notice, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba went into great detail Tuesday night to discuss the logistics of Jackson’s road ahead. During the three-hour meeting, Lumumba talked through bullet points listed on a placard in front of the altar. 

Starting on a more personal note than usual for his recent public appearances, the mayor talked about moving to Jackson with his family at the age of five in 1988. The next year, Lumumba saw the fragility of the city’s infrastructure, he recalled, after some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded in Jackson shut down the water system.

“This is something that has unfortunately become a way of life in Jackson,” he said. Later, he asked the tired faces scattered in the pews in front of him, “How beautiful would it be, for us to say, regardless of party, that we were able to solve this problem in our lifetime?”

Lumumba, along with his chief financial officer, Fidelis Malembeka, pushed back against recent news stories questioning how prepared the city leadership is to tackle the current crisis. Specifically, they defended against the idea that the city lacks a plan, or that it doesn’t truly know how much it would cost to fix the water system. 

The mayor said he feels it’s unfair for state and federal officials to criticize Jackson for not having a full plan when, after he’s shared what planning the city does have, those same officials offer no feedback. 

“There is little to no communication around, ‘Well your plan is lacking this,’” Lumumba said. “When it comes down to it and there’s no funding, it’s later said, ‘You have no plan.’ The reality is that not only this administration, but every administration in the recent history of the city of Jackson has had some type of plan. 

“There’s a difference between not having a plan and not having mutual priority over its funding.”

Pointing to the existence of a “very detailed plan” the city has shared with the Environmental Protection Agency, Malembeka echoed a clarification Lumumba made just earlier this week, which is that the plan is hidden behind a court-ordered confidentiality agreement.

“I want everyone to understand that the city does have a plan,” he said. “Right now we have restrictions because of the confidentiality agreement that’s in place. That’s a very detailed plan, and once we’re able to share it you will see.” 

Mississippi Today could not confirm with the EPA the existence of the non-disclosure agreement by the publish date of this story.  Earlier this year, WLBT reported that neither the city nor the EPA could disclose a report that informed increases in Jackson’s sewer and water bill rates, although it’s unclear if that is due to the same confidentiality agreement.  

Lumumba, on multiple occasions, estimated that fully repairing the drinking water system would cost a billion dollars, although none of the spending proposals the city has released total more than $80 million.

“Someone will say, you have a billion dollar need, but you’re only showing us $80 million,” Malembeka. “Let’s get to the $80 million first. You can’t get to the billion dollars without getting through $80 million.”

As for reaching that goal, he added that earlier on Tuesday the Jackson City Council approved the next year’s budget that includes $30.8 million for sewer repairs and $30 million for water infrastructure. The council also adopted a plan to spend $34 million of Jackson’s $42 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds on water and sewer, which the state will match on a dollar for dollar basis, Malembeka said. 

Lumumba then addressed reports that state lawmakers are discussing a number of pathways that could take Jackson’s water system out of the city’s hands, such as privatization and regionalization. 

“The problem with privatization is that companies aren’t taking over your system in order to be benevolent, they’re not taking over your system just because they want to come help,” the mayor said. “They want to extract a profit from you.”

Policy experts who spoke to Mississippi Today confirmed Lumumba’s concern that private water systems often raise water bill rates, but added that those systems also have less violations of safe drinking laws. Moreover, any rate increases would have to be approved by the state Public Service Commission. 

Regionalization, or combining nearby cities’ water systems, can create “economies of scale,” lowering costs for a financially struggling city like Jackson, those experts said. But the mayor called it a “problematic solution,” questioning whether it would really lower costs for Jackson and how the needs among the different cities would be prioritized. 

After an hour-long, extensive presentation from the two city bureaucrats on Jackson’s financial outlook, officials opened the floor to questions and comments from residents. 

Ronald Gilbert talked about his time working as an operations supervisor at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant for five years. Gilbert was critical of the city’s hiring and recruiting process for plant workers.

“We weren’t hiring the right people in (1995), we weren’t hiring the right people in 2005, and now you’re going to farm it out to other states,” he said, referencing recent support from other states to bring O.B. Curtis back online as part of a mutual aid agreement.

Gilbert added that when he left his job in 2005 to work in Georgia, he doubled his salary “as a grunt.” 

One woman, Evelyn Ford, talked about her challenges picking up water at one of the distribution sites. Ford had gone to get water for other homes, and said that after being told there was a limit on how much water she could get, a state trooper stopped her and asked for her license. The trooper called her “disrespectful,” she said, and later asked her to leave.

“I might be able to get the water, but I felt humiliated,” Ford said. “We’re already having a hard enough time as it is asking for water from someone else, now you’re telling me you’re going to restrict me.” 

Residents vented on issues outside of just water, discussing crime, economic development, roads, and creeks overflowing with sewage. 

Lumumba, summarizing the sentiment he’s shared at press conferences for the last two years asking for outside help with the city’s water system, responded to the speakers bluntly: “You have a city where our needs exceed our ability to pay for them.”

The post In town hall, Mayor Lumumba tackles criticism and deplores plans to take water control away from Jackson appeared first on Mississippi Today.

On a Saturday full of upsets, Sun Belt teams took down two Top-10 teams and took home a boatload of cash in the process. Is this a new trend, or an anomaly? Also, the Cleveland boys talk about big games upcoming this weekend, whether or not the Braves should make a change at closer and the Saints’ come-from-behind win over the Falcons.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: A big day for the Fun Belt appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Reporter Alex Rozier and the Mississippi Today newsroom have won the September Sidney Award for their coverage of the Jackson water crisis.

The drinking water system in Jackson — Mississippi’s largest city and home to more than 150,000 residents — failed in late August, leaving thousands of capital city residents with low or no water pressure and little information about when service would be restored.

Mississippi Today’s newsroom sprang to action, deploying every journalist on staff to the story to provide accurate, timely information residents needed immediately. The staff has published more than five dozen stories about the crisis so far in September, covering a broad range of angles. The journalists also relied on public records to add investigative context to why the water system had failed and what was needed to fix it.

The newsroom circulated a text messaging line to reach Jacksonians directly, published an FAQ post, provided resource pages about where to find water and mutual aid links, and partnered with local television station WJTV to stream every major news conference live.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today’s complete coverage of the Jackson water crisis

“Covering this crisis is deeply personal for us,” said Mississippi Today Managing Editor Kayleigh Skinner, highlighting that most newsroom reporters live inside the city limits themselves. “When readers send in questions about whether it’s safe to use their dishwasher, or where in the city they can go to receive free bottled water, we do our best to find them answers because it’s our job, but also because it’s information we need, too.”

The Sidney Award is awarded to outstanding journalism that appeared in the prior month. It is run by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, which honors excellence in journalism in service of the common good, and upholds the legacy and vision of union pioneer and New Deal architect Sidney Hillman. 

Winners so far in 2022 are: The Washington Post, Miami Herald, THE CITY, Reuters, The New York Times, ProPublica, Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV, and now Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today’s deep understanding and long-standing coverage of the Jackson water crisis contributed significantly to the newsroom’s winning, Sidney judges wrote.

“Mississippi Today has been on this story for years,” said Sidney judge Lindsay Beyerstein. “They’re proceeding with determination, creativity and compassion, which shines through in their ongoing coverage.” 

Alex Rozier is Mississippi Today’s data and environment reporter and has covered the Jackson water crisis and flooding for several years. He leads the Mississippi Today Jackson water crisis team, which consists of Anna Wolfe, Geoff Pender, Julia James, Molly Minta, Rick Cleveland, Bobby Harrison, Mina Corpuz, Kate Royals, Isabelle Taft, Will Stribling, Adam Ganucheau, Kayleigh Skinner, Sara DiNatale, Lauchlin Fields, Bethany Atkinson, Nigel Dent, Alyssa Bass, Eric Shelton, Vickie King and Marshall Ramsey.

Sidney Award judges are Jamelle Bouie, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alix Freedman, Harold Meyerson, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and Lindsay Beyerstein.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today wins September Sidney for Crusading Coverage of Jackson Water Crisis

The post Mississippi Today wins prestigious Sidney Award for coverage of Jackson water crisis appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi nurses who take care of sexual assault victims are worried that the state’s abortion ban could force them to stop offering emergency contraception – and they’re not getting any answers from the state’s chief legal officer. 

Months ago, following the Dobbs ruling that allowed an abortion ban to take effect in Mississippi, a group of forensic nurses reached out to Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office for guidance. 

Michelle Williams, Fitch’s chief of staff, never answered their questions about abortion laws – including whether emergency contraception was legal.

When pressed by Mississippi Today, Williams said, “You can look at the law. You can decide whether or not it’s legal. But it is.”

Williams said she had responded to the first part of the email that asked about a project to update the state’s rape kits, which she considered “most relevant,” and then thought the conversation was finished. 

The lack of response left the group of sexual assault nurse examiners concerned about potential legal consequences but determined to keep serving their patients. 

“I’m going to continue to provide the emergency contraception as long as we have it available and give the education and resources that I always have,” said Alizbeth Eaves, one of the state’s few certified sexual assault nurse examiners and the trauma and SANE program manager at Ochsner Rush in Meridian. “But I am afraid that I’m going to be told, ‘That was against the law, and you’re in big trouble for it.’”

Through a records request, Mississippi Today obtained an email sent on July 18 by Shalotta Sharp, special projects coordinator at the Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault, listing legal questions forensic nurses have about how the state’s new ban on abortion could affect their work.

Sharp, who has decades of experience as a certified sexual assault nurse examiner and is a long-time leader in the field in Mississippi, asked if emergency contraception is now outlawed. She also wanted clarification as to whether medical professionals can refer a patient to an abortion provider in another state. 

“We are very thankful for any guidance and direction,” she concluded. “Thank you for your guidance and help!”

Williams responded that same day. She said she was on vacation but had proposed changes to crime victims compensation rules to review and should get back to Sharp soon. She did not acknowledge the other questions about the abortion law. 

Sharp never heard from Williams after that. She had reached out to the attorney general’s office, she said, because the chief law enforcement officer is responsible for providing clarity about what the law actually requires. 

“We certainly don’t want to be doing anything illegal,” she said. “But we also want what’s best for our patients.”

Mississippi Today told Sharp that Williams said emergency contraception is legal.

“If they’re saying that emergency contraception is not considered abortive, and it’s legal, literally that’s all I want to hear,” she said. 

Under the updated rape kit the Attorney General’s Office produced in collaboration with the Mississippi chapter of the International Association of Forensic Nurses this year, the state continues to reimburse medical providers for “medication treatment for prevention of… pregnancy” for victims of sexual assault, regardless of whether the victim reports to law enforcement. 

Only government entities, like counties, legislators and state agencies, can request official opinions from the attorney general, so Sharp’s email did not constitute a formal opinion request. Williams said the office can’t provide opinions outside that channel and that guidance for medical professionals comes from “any number of boards in the state.”

“We’ve been kind of left on read so to speak,” Eaves said. “It’s very frustrating that you’re going to have a trigger law in place and activate that trigger law without giving clear definitions and guidelines.”

Emergency contraception is recognized as part of the standard of care for victims of sexual assault by organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. A copper intrauterine device is the most effective form and is about 99.9% successful at preventing pregnancy if placed within 120 hours of intercourse. Pills like ella and Plan B are also used in Mississippi hospitals. 

Emergency contraception does not end a pregnancy– generally, it stops ovulation so an egg cannot be fertilized. But sometimes, the treatment can function by stopping a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. 

“Where are we calling conception at?” Eaves said. “Because if we’re talking about when the sperm meets the egg, that could potentially take emergency contraception away.”

Some pro-life organizations consider the medication a form of abortion. The advocacy group Pro-Life Mississippi lists “Morning After Pill” on its website under “Types of Abortion.”

Attorneys general in other states have been willing to publicly clarify that emergency contraception is legal. In Missouri, a spokesperson for the office said state law — which bans abortion except in medical emergencies — did not prohibit Plan B after a local hospital said it would stop providing the medication because the “law is ambiguous.”

Mississippi’s ban on abortion defines abortion as “any instrument, medicine, drug or any other substance or device to terminate the pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant.” During the period when emergency contraception is effective, pregnancy tests do not yet detect pregnancy. 

“Obviously, when a person takes emergency contraception, she does not know she is pregnant and may well not be,” said Rob McDuff, a lawyer with the Mississippi Center for Justice, which represented the state’s last abortion clinic before it closed. “Emergency contraception continues to be perfectly legal.”

Forensic nurses interviewed by Mississippi Today said they are still providing emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault. 

“We’re just prescribing it left and right,” said one nurse, who asked that her name not be used because she did not have permission from her employer to talk to the media.

But she’s worried about the future. 

“That in itself is scary, that they (the Attorney General’s office) won’t just commit to saying, ‘Emergency contraception is okay,’” she said.

Eaves said the stakes of providing emergency contraception now feel higher than ever. If someone becomes pregnant following a rape, she is legally allowed to get an abortion in Mississippi only if “a formal charge of rape has been filed with an appropriate law enforcement official.”

That requirement makes Mississippi’s post-Dobbs abortion ban more restrictive than at almost any point in state history. When lawmakers added an exception to the state’s 1952 abortion ban for rape in 1966, they considered requiring a local chancery judge to first determine that a rape had occurred. But they rejected this idea because it would “require making the case a matter of public record and cause embarrassment to a wronged woman.” 

Now, state leaders appear to have no such concerns. 

Read the forensic nurses’ letter to the Attorney General’s Office:

9/14/22: This story has been updated to include a comment from Rob McDuff.

The post Sexual assault nurses asked the AG’s office if Plan B is legal. They never got a response. appeared first on Mississippi Today.