When the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion in the United States, Dr. Cheryl Hamlin was at her computer researching ways to expand access to medication abortion in a post-Roe country.
Since 2017, the Boston-based OB-GYN has traveled to Mississippi once a month to provide abortions at the state’s only abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, also known as the Pink House. The clinic is part of the case at the center of the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday morning.
“I didn’t expect it today, and I guess I was still holding out hope, so now we can let that go I guess,” she told Mississippi Today.
Abortion rights advocates in Mississippi expect that medication that can end a pregnancy under 11 weeks will become the cheapest and most accessible form of the procedure in the state. Websites like Plan C provide information about online pharmacies that can ship the pills, and Austria-based Aid Access provides prescriptions for people living anywhere in the United States, including Mississippi.
Mississippi’s trigger ban applies to medication abortion, but it’s not clear how the state could stop the flow of pills through the mail given that pharmacies and providers can be based overseas and following their own country’s laws. Hamlin hopes to get involved in efforts to help people get the pills.
“That’s kind of what I was in the middle of when I heard the news, so I guess I’ll go back to that,” she said.
During her most recent shift in Jackson, in early June, Hamlin knew she might never work at the Pink House again. But when she asked the clinic director Shannon Brewer if she ought to make plans to return in July, Brewer said yes, so Hamlin booked another ticket just in case Roe stood.
Now, she’s hoping to travel to Las Cruces, New Mexico, instead. The Pink House’s out-of-state doctors, leadership and some staff are planning to move there to open a new clinic they’re calling Pink House West, about an hour from El Paso.
When she began working in Mississippi, Hamlin was struck by how lack of access to health care shaped her patients’ trajectories to the clinic. Maybe they didn’t have a regular OB-GYN, or weren’t sure how to get contraceptives without health insurance.
During her recent shifts in Jackson, she had been careful to explain that Roe could soon be overturned, forcing the Pink House to close. But many people who came to the clinic didn’t know that.
Now, Hamlin was afraid for the women of Mississippi.
“They’ll either have to be under the radar and go to another state or they’ll have to somehow get pills,” she said. “Sometimes they’ll need medical care but they’ll be afraid to get it. Some people won’t be able to get access. They’ll continue a pregnancy that they won’t be able to afford or physically continue. And I have no doubt that women having miscarriages, and it’s going to be mostly poor and women of color, are going to be scrutinized for their miscarriages, because there’s no way to tell the difference.”
The doctor said she hopes the ruling will energize supporters of abortion rights. She wants to see the right to abortion restored across the country.
“It took them 50 years to overturn it,” she said. “I don’t want it to take 50 years again, because I won’t be alive.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that established a person’s right to an abortion. Mississippi will likely be one of 13 states to ban the abortion procedure immediately due to a trigger law passed by legislators in 2007.
Mississippi Today is compiling a list of statements from politicians, advocates and others:
Attorney General Lynn Fitch
Today marks a new era in American history. Roe v. Wade is finally behind us. This decision is a victory, not only for women and children, but for the Court itself. Now, our work to empower women truly begins. #empowerwomenpromotelifepic.twitter.com/3B3CiIMmTD
It’s a great day for life! I’m proud to be part of the movement that has fought to protect life while the Left would see millions of innocent lives lost to the despicable act of abortion. This SCOTUS decision is a win for every life lost too soon and every life yet to be born.
The day so many prayed for is here. HB1510 is law and Roe v. Wade is no more. With love for children and the women who bear them, we move forward to secure strong and lasting legal protections and cultural support for life, and a vibrant network of abortion alternatives. 1/3
In a phone interview with Mississippi Today, Colón vowed to defy the ruling and continue working to provide abortion access for Mississippians.
“What I will be doing is what I have been doing, and that is focusing all of my attention and all of my efforts and all of my resources on making sure that Mississippians can access the abortion health care that they need and deserve… If they want to go a clinic, I’m going to help them. If they want to self manage their abortion, I’m going to help them do that as well.”
ACLU of Mississippi
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
This ruling will upend nearly 50 years of abortion rights across the country.
“This is a momentous day for our nation, and Mississippi led the charge. This decision is an answered prayer, marking the beginning of the next chapter in our fight to protect the unborn,” said Wicker. “The Court’s ruling confirms what many legal experts have known for decades – that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and the power to set abortion policy should rest with the people and their elected representatives.”
Statement from co-foundersJamie Bardwell and Danielle Lampton
“We believe every person deserves access to the full range of reproductive health services, including abortion. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization will lead to devastating impacts across Mississippi, particularly for people who are low-income and uninsured and unable to travel hundreds of miles for health care. Today, we grieve for our neighbors in Mississippi and across the South.
Mississippi is one of only 12 states that still hasn’t expanded Medicaid coverage for eligible low-income people. This failure exacerbates health disparities that primarily harm Black Mississippians. Even more incredulous is the state’s refusal to extend Medicaid coverage for 12 months after a baby is born, cutting off coverage at 60 days postpartum. While policymakers claim they care for the health and well-being of children and families, their actions demonstrate otherwise. In a state where Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than White women, a lack of expanded postpartum care is a direct attack on families.
The Dobbs decision will increase the demand for contraception in Mississippi. As the Title X grantee in Mississippi, Converge remains dedicated to supporting clinics in our network so they can provide access to the full range of FDA-approved contraceptives as well as emergency contraception and other necessary preventive care. Federal law has long prohibited the use of Title X funds for abortion care.”
Rep. Zakiya Summers
This is a sad day. Read my statement on the SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v. Wade. pic.twitter.com/DxYsFsbuiK
— Rep. Zakiya Summers (@zakiyasummers) June 24, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that established a person’s right to an abortion.
Mississippi will likely be one of 13 states to ban the abortion procedure immediately due to a trigger law passed by legislators in 2007.
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his opinion.
Republican state officials in Mississippi lauded the decision on Friday.
“Today marks a new era in American history — and a great day for the American people,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch in a statement. “I commend the Court for restoring constitutional principle and returning this important issue to the American people.”
Fitch did not say in her statement whether she has made the official determination that Roe has been overturned, which would effectively put Mississippi’s trigger law into effect.
“We intend to give the opinion and the analysis contemplated by the law the thoughtful attention they deserve,” Michelle Williams, Fitch’s chief of staff told Mississippi Today.
“Our state’s historic case before the United States Supreme Court was the catalyst for overturning Roe v. Wade and has made the nation safer for children than it was just a few short hours ago,” said Gov. Tate Reeves.
Chief Justice John Roberts, concurring in the judgment issued by the Court, wrote that he would have taken “a more measured course” by getting rid of the fetal viability line established by Roe and Casey, but not overturning Roe entirely.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan wrote in their dissent that above all others, poor women who cannot afford to seek out an abortion in a state where it remains legal will be harmed by the Court’s ruling.
“As of today, this Court holds, a State can always force a woman to give birth, prohibiting even the earliest abortions,” the justices wrote. “A State can thus transform what, when freely undertaken, is a wonder into what, when forced, may be a nightmare.”
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationcenters around Mississippi legislation passed and signed in 2018 called “The Act to Prohibit Abortion After 15 Weeks.” That law and an even stricter law that would ban abortion after six weeks were both ruled unconstitutional twice in the last few years — by both a U.S. District Court and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The U.S. Supreme Court in May 2021 decided it would take up Dobbs after meeting 13 times to consider it, a move many legal analysts called unprecedented.
This marked the first time since the landmark 1973 abortion rights case Roe v. Wade that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up a a pre-viability ban — a law that prohibits access to abortion based on the amount of time pregnant before the fetus is viable, or around 24 weeks.
The authors of Mississippi’s abortion ban bill said that one motivating factor for passing it was that a challenge to the law could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Assuming this bill were to become law, these challenges take two to three years to make their way up to the Supreme Court,” state Sen. Joey Fillingane, the Republican who authored the bill, said at the time. “The United States Supreme Court … has indicated that the state has a couple of interests when it comes to regulating abortion. One is protecting the health and life of the mother. Another is protecting the potentiality of human life.”
After the New Orleans-based federal appeals court upheld the lower ruling by also overturning both Mississippi’s 15-week and six-week bans, Attorney General Lynn Fitch petitioned the Supreme Court to take the case, citing state’s interests in regulating abortion.
In Mississippi’s original appeal to the Supreme Court, Fitch argued the 15-week ban complied with existing precedent, and that the court should only overturn Roe if it concluded there was no other way to uphold the ban.
The particular question the justices agreed to decide in accepting the case was “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.”
Fitch then filed a brief on July 22, 2021, that abandoned this earlier, narrower focus on pre-viability restrictions.
In the brief, Fitch urged the Court to overturn Roe, calling it and further abortion-related rulings, most notablyPlanned Parenthood v. Casey, “egregiously wrong.” The state argued they recognize a right with no actual constitutional basis.
“They have proven hopelessly unworkable,” Fitch wrote. “They have inflicted profound damage … And nothing but a full break from those cases can stem the harms they have caused.”
When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the Dobbs case on Dec. 1, 2021, Chief Justice John Roberts, viewed as the most moderate of the court’s conservative wing, appeared frustrated with what he suggested was a bait-and-switch strategy the state used to transform the case into a challenge to Roe and Casey. Roberts voiced his preference to stick to that narrower question on pre-viability bans, saying “the thing that is at issue before us today is 15 weeks.”
Justice Samuel Alito rejected that position, saying “the only real options we have” are to reaffirm Roe or to overrule it.
The ruling also opens the door to changes to other landmark decisions. In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the due process clause of the 14th amendment does not secure any substantive rights, and that in the future the Court should revisit cases that established the right of married people to obtain contraceptives, the right to engage in private, consensual sexual acts and the right to same-sex marriage.
Abortion will likely become illegal in Mississippi in almost all cases within the next few weeks.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion, Mississippi’s 2007 trigger law looks set to take effect. The law permits abortions only when the mother’s life is at risk or when the pregnancy resulted from a rape that has been reported to law enforcement.
The trigger law takes effect 10 days after the attorney general issues a determination that Roe has been overturned. For the first time in 50 years, it will be nearly impossible to obtain a legal abortion in the state of Mississippi.
On Friday morning, Attorney General Lynn Fitch released a statement praising the ruling.
“Roe v Wade is now behind us, consigned to the list of infamous cases that collapsed under the weight of their errors,” the statement said. “This decision is a victory not only for women and children, but for the Court itself.”
But the statement does not constitute her official determination that Roe has been overturned.
“We intend to give the opinion and the analysis contemplated by the law the thoughtful attention they deserve,” chief of staff Michelle Williams said in an email.
Diane Derzis, the owner of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, the facility at the center of the Dobbs case, has said it will close. She plans to open a new clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, about an hour from El Paso.
In 2019, the state passed a law banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy – before many people know they are pregnant. That law contains no exception for people who have been raped, meaning victims would have an extremely narrow window during which they could obtain an abortion.
But advocates are determined to maintain access to the procedure, which about 5,000 Mississippians obtained in 2020, according to the Mississippi Department of Health.
The rate of abortions in Mississippi was 4.3 abortions occurring in the state per 1,000 reproductive-age women in 2017– one of the lowest in the country. But the rate of Mississippians receiving abortions was 8.3 per 1,000 reproductive-age women, according to the Guttmacher Institute, indicating that many Mississippians have already been seeking abortions out of state. (The national rate was 11.4 per 1,000 reproductive-age women in 2019.)
The trigger law and fetal heartbeat ban apply to all forms of abortion, including medication abortions that the World Health Organization says can safely end a pregnany up to 12 weeks. Pro-life lawmakers see a need for stricter laws against the pills, which can relatively easily be obtained online for about $100 in many cases.
Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, previously told Mississippi Today that legislation specific to medication abortion could direct law enforcement to focus on the issue, perhaps with funding to support enforcement efforts.
But reproductive rights advocates and many legal experts say it will be nearly impossible to keep medication abortion out of the state, given that state police can’t search people’s mail. Local abortion rights activists vow to help maintain access to the pills.
“We are going to do it right under their noses, and they won’t know, or they will know it, but they’re not going to be able to prove it,” said Michelle Colón, executive director of SHERo Mississippi, a nonprofit that aims to promote leadership among Black women and girls in the state.
Medication abortions already accounted for the majority of abortions performed at Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Abortion funds in the state and across the country also plan to continue raising money to help people pay to travel out of state for the procedure. For many Mississippians, the closest place to obtain a legal abortion will be southern Illinois. Every neighboring state is also set to ban abortion in almost all cases.
CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, a clinic that is more accessible for many north Mississippians than the Jackson clinic, has announced plans to set up a new location in Carbondale, Illinois – a six-hour drive from Jackson.
In the days after the leak of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion overturning Roe, Gov. Tate Reeves appeared on several national television programs and claimed Mississippi would focus on “helping those moms that maybe have an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy.”
He also declined to rule out prohibitions on certain forms of contraceptives, like Plan B and IUDs. He later said he is “not interested in banning contraceptives” but refused to answer a question from Mississippi Today about what, exactly, he considers to be a contraceptive.
Republican leaders have offered few proposals to address the state’s abysmal infant and maternal health outcomes. This year, Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, killed a Republican-led proposal to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months after childbirth.
Black women in Mississippi are about three times as likely as white women to die of pregnancy-related complications.
The Legislature recently passed a bill that will provide a $3.5 million tax credit for crisis pregnancy centers, loosely regulated nonprofits that offer counseling and resources for pregnant women but which sometimes peddle inaccurate information about abortion.
Laura Knight, president of the advocacy group Pro-Life Mississippi, said in an email to Mississippi Today that that legislation was “one small step” toward addressing the state’s high infant mortality rate.
“As a registered nurse, when I look at the data, it seems to me that a very complex set of factors – one of them being that we also have the highest rate of out-of-wedlock births – contribute to this problem,” she said of infant deaths in Mississippi. “There is not going to be a simple solution.”
Knight also said Mississippi’s maternal mortality rate is “already very low.”
“According to the CDC, the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age is unintentional accidents, followed by cancer and heart disease,” she wrote. “It seems we’d want to concentrate our efforts on those problem areas.”
Fitch’s statement pledged to “renew our commitment to weaving a safety net that helps women in challenging circumstances and gives their children life and hope.” But it offered few specifics.
Republican leaders, including Gov. Tate Reeves, have made similar claims in recent weeks. In an op-ed earlier this month, Reeves said he wants to “strengthen our social services infrastructure” and “build grant programs” for expectant mothers following the likely end to legal abortion in Mississippi.
But his office did not respond to questions about how much money his administration would invest in those programs and whether the governor would support extending postpartum Medicaid coverage for new moms – a measure that died in the Legislature this year. About 60% of pregnant women in Mississippi are on Medicaid.
Ole Miss pitcher Dylan DeLucia celebrates the final strikeout of the team’s win over Arkansas during an NCAA College World Series baseball game Thursday, June 23, 2022, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/John Peterson)
OMAHA — Mike Bianco called Dylan DeLucia’s Thursday pitching performance on college baseball’s biggest stage “legendary.” It was that — and more.
With this remarkable Ole Miss baseball season hanging in the balance, Bianco handed the ball to DeLucia, and the sturdy right-hander delivered the game of his life. DeLucia pitched a four-hit shutout for a 2-0 Ole Miss victory that vaults the Rebels into the College World Series best-of-three championship series against Oklahoma.
Rick Cleveland
That championship series begins Saturday night, which gives Ole Miss fans – and college baseball fans in general – 48 hours to discuss one of the most impressive pitching performances ever seen here.
Listen: No Razorback baserunner ever made it to third base. Only two made it to second base. No Razorback leadoff hitter ever reached first base. Not only did DeLucia never walk a batter, only three times did a Razorback batter see a three-ball count. He struck out seven and induced 11 ground ball outs.
DeLucia gave up two first inning singles – and then only two hits for the rest of the game. He needed 19 pitches to finish the first inning – and then only 94 for the last eight innings. Bianco had his two ace relievers Josh Mallitz and Brandon Johnson fresh and ready to go. He never needed either.
But Ole Miss did need every bit of DeLucia’s heroics, because Arkansas ace Connor Noland was nearly as good. Said Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn, who knows a thing or two about Omaha and the College World Series, “It was one of the best pitchers’ duels I’ve ever seen here.”
The game lasted a mere two hours, six minutes. That’s how good the pitching was. Let’s put it this way, those Ole Miss fans who couldn’t wait to get home from work to watch the last few innings of the most important baseball game in school history were bad out of luck. By the time they got home, it was over, and they could pop the corks.
Remember, DeLucia was pitching on short rest, having lifted the Rebels to a Saturday victory over Auburn, going 7.2 innings and giving up only one run.
Surely, given the short rest, Ole Miss coaches were hoping against hope for five, maybe six, good innings from DeLucia and then to turn it over to the likes of Mallitz and Johnson. Asked how many innings he thought he could go, DeLucia answered, “I just stayed with it. … I just looked and saw all those zeroes going into the eighth, and I was just like it’s my time to finally finish this game.”
He did it in style, retiring the last seven batters he faced. Remember, these weren’t ordinary hitters he was dealing with. Arkansas packs a wicked punch. The Razorbacks were hitting .335 with six home runs and 14 doubles in their four previous World Series games.
Asked about DeLucia, Rebel captain Tim Elko responded, “Hat’s off to him. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a better pitching performance in a clutch situation.”
DeLucia said he lacked command of his fastball early in the game and went mostly with sliders. Van Horn noted that DeLucia’s fastball, which is often in the mid-90s, was topping out at 90-91 mph, probably due to the short rest.
“… But he located and he pitched,” Van Horn said. “That’s what it’s all about. It’s about pitching, and he did.”
So did Arkansas’ Noland, who matched DeLucia’s zeroes through the first three innings, facing only nine batters, the minimum.
Ole Miss got the only run it would need in the fourth. Ever-dependable Justin Bench singled to right field and then moved to second on Jacob Gonzalez’s grounder to second base. Elko struck out for the second out, which meant that the Rebels needed a timely, two-out hit from Kevin Graham, who promptly laced a double down the right field line scoring Bench easily.
Said Noland, when asked about the pitch Graham hit, “It was a curve ball right down the middle. He’s a hitter, he turned on it.”
Van Horn went a little further later in the press conference, saying, “Thank God, I don’t ever have to see Kevin Graham hit against us again. Seems like that guy is always up. I have nightmares about him, I’ll be honest with you.”
The Rebels added an insurance run in the seventh when Elko singled, followed by Graham – that man again! – beating the Arkansas shift with a well-placed ground ball through the spot where a shortstop normally plays. Elko moved to second on Graham’s hit and then scored on a Calvin Harris’ single to right.
Other than the first inning, DeLucia endured only one tense moment. With two outs in the seventh inning, Arkansas put runners on first and second on an infield hit, followed by an infield error. That brought up Brady Slavens, who had hit a massive home run over the centerfield wall in Arkansas’ Wednesday night victory.
Slavens was almost a hero again, bouncing a ground ball between Elko and second baseman Peyton Chatagnier. Chatagnier ranged far to his left, reached and stabbed the ball and threw a strike to Elko to nip Slavens at first. It was a Major League play.
Arkansas made a few of those type plays, too, which made for such a classic game. Said Van Horn, “I like offense. I like defense. I like good pitching. I just like good baseball, and that was a good baseball game.”
Next up for the Rebels: Red-hot Oklahoma, which went through its side of the bracket without a defeat. The Sooners (45-22) have a decided advantage in that they will have a rested ace – and a rested pitching staff.
Bianco said he has only seen brief patches of Oklahoma this season and here. “We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and then,” he said.
Van Horn didn’t mind talking about the championship series. In fact, he brought it up.
“It’s going to be a good series for them with Oklahoma,” the Arkansas coach said. “Oklahoma is going to be rested and have all their arms loaded and ready to go. But the way Ole Miss has been playing down the stretch, it might not matter.”
The victory was Ole Miss’s 40th of the season against 23 defeats – amazing when you consider they were once 24-19 and going seemingly nowhere. Now they are in Omaha, college baseball’s Valhalla, on the precipice of a national championship.
Who would have believed it?
“We did,” Elko answered a similar question on Wednesday. “If you don’t believe in yourself, you’re beaten before you ever play the game.”
The Mississippi Public Service Commission announced a $300 million settlement on Thursday with Entergy Mississippi over profits the company received in running the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Station in Port Gibson.
The settlement, the largest in the PSC’s history, ends Mississippi’s involvement in a multi-state dispute with Entergy. As part of the agreement, $200 million of the settlement will go towards offsetting rising natural gas costs for customers, $35 million will go towards direct payments or bill credits to Mississippi ratepayers, and the remaining $65 million will go towards savings for future mitigation costs.
The $35 million in direct rebates from the settlement will be divvied up and amount to about $80 per Entergy Mississippi customer. Customers can choose to use that money as a credit towards their electric bill or get the amount in a check.
The PSC said in its press release that without the $200 million for offsetting rising natural gas costs, Mississippians would have seen an extra $15 on their electric bills starting in 2023.
The PSC first brought the dispute to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2017 over “certain accounting and financing aspects” of the nuclear plant, the PSC said in a release.
When a utility company, in this case Entergy, builds or operates a power plant, the company gets a return on investment for those costs, agreed to by the regulatory body. Because the power from Grand Gulf is sold wholesale, FERC regulates the prices that the energy is sold for.
The PSC alleged to FERC, which ruled on the settlement, that Entergy’s return on investment was higher than what FERC originally allowed. As a result, Entergy made more than it should have from charges that were passed onto customers, Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley explained.
“Their return on equity was more than what it should have been,” he said. “That’s agreed to by the FERC. We were arguing that profitability was inflated and actually should have been less of a cost and translating to lower rates for Mississippians.”
Separately, Entergy’s other subsidiaries in Arkansas, Louisiana and the city of New Orleans are also facing litigation over Grand Gulf’s services. The regulators for those service areas are alleging that the station doesn’t run as effectively as other nuclear plants and charges customers for the plant to run even when it isn’t producing power, among other complaints.
Those three other regulators are also challenging the Mississippi PSC’s decision to increase output from the Grand Gulf station years ago, Presley said.
Mississippi Public Service Commissioners Brandon Presley, Dane Maxwell and Brent Bailey announcing a $300 million settlement with Entergy Mississippi on July 23, 2022. Credit: Alex Rozier / Mississippi Today
“That plant provides some of the lowest cost electricity that Mississippi is getting, with zero carbon emissions,” Presley said.
In addition to the $300 million, the settlement also puts a moratorium on Entergy’s future return on investment for the power station, Presley added.
In a statement Thursday, Entergy said that the “taxing, financing, accounting and operating of Grand Gulf before FERC are proper, well-reasoned and in the best interest of its customers and the company.
“However, Entergy officials explained that the ongoing cost of the dispute at FERC and the uncertainty it created for customers, employees and stockholders led the company to seek a resolution,” the utility provider said.
Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo faces challenger Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell in Tuesday’s runoff for the GOP primary for the 4th District House seat, serving South Mississippi.
Palazzo, facing a crowded field of Republican challengers in the midterm primary, received about 32% of the vote; Ezell about 25%, forcing a runoff.
The two candidates spoke with Mississippi Today ahead of the runoff and a scheduled Friday debate on Coast television station WLOX.
Here is some background on the candidates, what they believe the top issues are and what differentiates them from one another.
The candidates
Ezell, who grew up in Pascagoula, is a 42-year veteran law enforcement officer in South Mississippi.
He started his career with the Pascagoula Police Department, working his way from jailer to chief of detectives, then served as chief of police for the city of Ocean Springs. He was elected sheriff of Jackson County, a post he has held since 2014.
Ezell has a degree in criminal justice from the University of Southern Mississippi and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.
Mississippi Today Senior Politics Reporter Geoff Pender interviews Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell on Tuesday, June 21, 2022.
Palazzo, a Coast native, is a certified public accountant who ran his own business before taking his current office. He is a former state legislator, and has held the 4th District U.S. House seat since 2011.
Palazzo is a Marine Corps veteran and serves in the Mississippi National Guard.
Mississippi Today Senior Politics Reporter Geoff Pender interviews U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo on Tuesday, June 21, 2022.
Voters’ issues
Both candidates said inflation — particularly soaring gasoline prices — is the top issue they hear from 4th District residents as they campaign.
“The cost of energy is off the charts,” Palazzo said. “It was to be expected — President Biden when he was on his campaign said we would end our reliance on fossil fuels. Well, guess what? Now we have $5 a gallon gas. He cancelled Keystone pipeline on day one, killing hundreds of thousands of jobs, and many of those were in Mississippi, where we have pipe manufacturers.”
Ezell said he hears from constituents: “Gas prices, grocery prices, not having groceries in some stores. I’ve talked with some of our trucker friends and they said the fuel prices are killing us, making it hard to get our goods to the stores. People are very upset about this.”
Palazzo said illegal immigration, with attendant human trafficking and drug smuggling is another major issue for South Mississippi.
Ezell said high taxes and overregulation are also major issues.
Policies and proposals
Both candidates said they would push for deregulation, particularly on the energy sector.
Ezell said he would work to get fertilizer and other costs down for Mississippi farmers “so they can make a profit.”
“There are so many regulations out there right now,” Ezell said. “… We need to work with like-minded conservative people in Congress to get some policies in place to make life better for people, like getting grocery prices down … We need to see about cutting the gas tax, for the truckers who get the goods to the stores … We’ve just got to remove some of these regulations so that we can help people earn a living.”
Palazzo said: “As someone who’s worked offshore, I know the importance of American energy — drill here, drill now. We need to unleash American energy resources and get America back to being energy independent, and I think we can do that.”
Palazzo said he would also push to re-start plans to build a U.S. southern border wall and increase military spending, and protect tax cuts and jobs legislation passed in 2017.
Candidates list accomplishments
Palazzo said his accomplishments as a congressman include, “I was able to secure $1.4 billion for the border as the homeland security negotiator on the Appropriations Committee in 2019, and we were building the wall two years ago and securing America.”
“With the ships we build at Ingalls (shipyard) we’ve been able to secure $26 billion for 26 different ships in 10 years, and that is so vital to our national security, but also to our quality of life here, because of the dependence we have on those jobs created locally,” Palazzo said. He said he has also worked to keep federal flood insurance affordable for homeowners on the Gulf Coast and worked to support the state’s military installations, including for upgrades at Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg to expand training.
“The number one driver of the economy in South Mississippi is federal spending,” Palazzo said. “We have to admit that to ourselves, but it’s good federal spending — national security, NASA programs, NOAA to help predict storms — and every bit of that goes through my committee where I sit on Appropriations.”
Ezell said: “Some of my greatest accomplishments are being a husband and a father and a grandfather … I started working in the jail, and worked my way all the way up to chief of detectives at Pascagoula. During that time, I was a competitive shooter, and got to travel all around the southeastern part of the country to compete and shoot and learned a lot of techniques from other officers. I also graduated from the FBI’s national academy, where I excelled in all fields of training and received an award for physical fitness and attention to duty. I am also proud of that. During my time at the Pascagoula Police Department, I went to night school at USM and got a degree in criminal justice. That was a big thing for me. I was only the third person in my family to get a college degree.”
Ezell said that as sheriff, Jackson County was the first in the state to open its own crime lab, to avoid backlog problems faced by the state lab and “to save taxpayers money and help all the surrounding agencies in our county have a crime lab.” Ezell said under his tenure his agency has also recently opened its own shooting range and training facility.
“When I first took over as sheriff, the former sheriff had been indicted and removed, and all the police chiefs came to me and said, ‘Mike, help us rehabilitate and get this (narcotics) task force back together,’ which we have done and now have a highly respected organization,” Ezell said. “We have our own budget, and don’t have to depend on seizures or anything like that for funding.”
What differentiates them?
Ezell said one thing that differentiates him from Palazzo is, “I will be available. You won’t have to look for me.”
Palazzo has for years faced criticism for not being very visible or accessible in his district.
“What I’ve heard so many times around this district is we don’t know where (Palazzo) is at,” Ezell said. “Where is our representative? We don’t know where he’s at, we can’t talk with him, he won’t call us back. I will be available. I will be in the district and I will return your phone calls … General rule 101 with the sheriff’s office is if you call, somebody better call you back and if not, I’m going to be asking you why did you not call that person back. That’s just a common courtesy, be it a sheriff or police officer or state representative or congressman.”
Palazzo said his experience and seniority in Congress, and relationships he’s built over years are needed for the 4th District.
“Most importantly, I have a proven, conservative voting record,” Palazzo said. “My opponent has no record where he has ever cast a vote on issues that matter most for South Mississippians, whether it’s pro-life, whether it’s pro gun, pro military or pro business. For 12 years I’ve been serving South Mississippi and I have a proven record of delivering for them on all those issues.
“… Seniority is important in the military and it’s important in Congress,” Palazzo said. “That’s how you get on the key committees and get key assignments.”
He said that should Republicans retake the House this midterm, he would be in line to be the chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee of Appropriations where he can push for building a border wall.
Recently, all other Republican challengers in the first primary vote threw their support behind Ezell. U.S. House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana in a trip to South Mississippi endorsed Palazzo.
The two candidates have agreed to a televised debate, scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday on WLOX-TV on the Coast.
“I’ve been to multiple debates, Steven Palazzo has not been to any of them,” Ezell said of this election cycle.
Palazzo said: “I think it’s important for voters in South Mississippi to see the contrast.”
The winner of the June 28 GOP runoff will face Democratic former longtime Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree and Libertarian Alden Patrick Johnson in the Nov. 8 general election.
Mississippi again leads the nation in teen births despite declining rates both in the state and across the country.
Mississippi’s rate dropped significantly over the past two decades but still lags behind the rest of the country. In 2020, the most recent year for which data was available, teenagers in Mississippi gave birth at a rate of almost double the national average, according to th4e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Advocates and a former state senator point to Mississippi’s unchanging – and in their view, lackluster – sex education law.
Though the curricula for core subjects like math and science are reviewed and updated every five years, the Mississippi Department of Education has not approved any new sex-ed curricula in over a decade.
Josh McCawley, deputy director of Teen Health Mississippi, a policy and advocacy group focused on the sexual and reproductive health of teenagers, said this inaction means Mississippi’s sex ed content is wildly out of date, with issues like consent and relationship violence largely absent.
“It’s really difficult to do really good sex education in 2022 when you're working with curricula that was written in the 1990s,” McCawley said.
Even if more curricula were approved by the state education department, there’s no guarantee schools would switch to a new one.
“Once a school picks a curriculum, they tend to stick with it,” said Scott Clements, state director of MDE’s School Health Programs.
Many of Mississippi’s teen mothers are 18 or 19 years old and out of reach of the primary school system. The birth rate among that age group is three times higher than that of 15- to 17-year-olds.
While reforming Mississippi's sex education policy is an important piece of the puzzle, McCawley said the need to address major issues like intergenerational poverty means it’s not the end-all, be-all for addressing the state’s high teen birth rate.
“It’d be great if there was one solution, but unfortunately, there's many contributing factors that create an environment in which Mississippi has the highest teen birth rate in the country,” McCawley said. “It’s going to take a lot of people from a lot of different sectors: education, health, social services, housing. It will take a lot of factors to address what we're seeing.”
The national teen birth rate has declined 75% from its 1991 peak, a trend attributable to lower rates of sexual activity among young people and the increased use of contraception.
The birth rate for teenagers ages 15–19 dropped in 31 states but increased in Mississippi in 2020. Rates among the states ranged from a low of 6.1 per 1,000 births in Massachusetts to a high of 27.9 in Mississippi.
Mississippians, however, are less likely to use highly effective forms of contraception like intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants. As of 2018, the number of patients at publicly funded Title X clinics who used such contraception was just 7%, compared to 18% nationally. In recent years, people have sometimes struggled to reach the clinics over the phone and have waited months for an appointment or been told that it’s up to the doctor on staff to determine what kind of birth control they receive.
Lawmakers passed the state's sex education law in 2011, which required each school district to choose between “abstinence-only” or “abstinence-plus” curricula. All must stress that abstaining from sex is the only method that offers foolproof protection from out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
Attempts to change the law to require the curricula be medically accurate or evidence-based have failed. One of those attempts was by former Sen. Sally Doty, a Republican from Brookhaven and one of the few Republicans who supported changing the law.
Doty introduced the “Personal Responsibility Act” in 2016 which passed through the Senate Education Committee but was never brought up for a vote. The bill would have required sex ed curricula be evidence-based and would have also required that sex ed be taught twice in primary school, once in middle school and once in high school. The 2011 law did not set specific age requirements.
Doty, who is now the executive director of the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff, still supports those changes being made. She also advocates for changing to an opt-out rather than opt-in policy, ending the segregation by gender for sex ed instruction and removing the curricula requirements in state law that prevent evidence-based curricula used in other states from being used in Mississippi.
“I don't think sex among teenagers is different in Mississippi than in any other state,” Doty said.
Doty said that the absence of comprehensive sex ed in schools, or parents providing it at home, is detrimental to a teenager’s development, and means that many young people are only getting their sex education from pornography on the internet. Doty said that inaction by the Legislature isn’t helping either.
“There's some real problems with the law as it stands … it's a difficult situation to talk about. But I don't think anyone can look at the numbers in the state, and say that we don't need to talk about it,” Doty said.
Some of the restrictions in the state law also place an undue burden on school districts, according to McCawley. Mississippi's law requires parents to opt-in their child to sex ed, which creates a logistical barrier that keeps kids with parents who support sex ed out of the classroom.
“If a student isn't opting in, it's mostly not because of parental disagreement, but because of the lack of efficiency of getting permission slips home and back,” McCawley said.
Keeping boys and girls separate during sex ed instruction places another burden on schools that especially harms rural, short-staffed school districts, according to McCawley.
The law also bans the demonstration of condoms and other methods of contraception. Teachers can tell students how to use them, but not show them. This has led to creative workarounds by advocates like Sanford Johnson, who went viral in 2012 for a video where he teaches students “how to put on a sock.”
While Johnson, now the executive director of Teach Plus Mississippi, a nonprofit that trains teachers in understanding education policy, believes that more comprehensive, sex-positive services and resources are available to young people now than there were a decade ago, there’s a lot of work to be done. According to the sate health department’s 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 54% of Mississippi high school students have had sexual intercourse, and 39% did not use a condom the last time they had sex.
Johnson says policy that treats young people like they’re not worthy of the truth contributes to these risky behaviors.
“We know what works,” Johnson said. “When you present kids with all the information, they are going to make better decisions.”
Eleven sex ed curricula were approved by the state education department in 2011. Of 142 public school districts in the state, 80 have chosen abstinence-only instruction and 62 have chosen abstinence-plus, according to current data from MDE.
The approved curricula vary in substance and tone. The Game Plan curriculum, currently in use by Wilkinson County School District, was co-developed with former professional basketball player A.C. Green and is sports-themed.
The REAL Essentials WAIT curriculum is currently used by 12 school districts and describes the proper use of a male condom as an “at risk” behavior for contracting HIV/AIDS. The curriculum includes activities like an STD crossword puzzle and prompts for classroom discussions like: “When it comes to sex, men are like microwaves and women are like crockpots!”
Ninety school districts teach Choosing The Best curriculum. Of those, 61 are using an abstinence-only version and 26 are using an abstinence-plus version. Abstinence-plus curricula teaches students about the risks and failure rates of contraceptive methods that aren’t abstinence.
The second most popular curriculum is Draw The Line/Respect The Line, an evidence-based, abstinence-plus curriculum currently in use by 26 school districts across the state.
The contents and quality of sex ed instruction vary by district. While two districts might be using the same curriculum, there’s no guarantee that they teach the same lessons. The state sex ed law lists six components of abstinence-only instruction but does not require each be covered.
While organizations like Teen Health Mississippi and Mississippi First have lobbied for legislators to update the state’s sex ed law for years, no action has been taken. The law was re-authorized as written in 2016 and 2021.
“The state Legislature really doesn't want to touch something like sex education until they have to,” McCawley said.
Another concern among advocates is that Mississippi’s sex ed law, as imperfect as it is, isn’t being followed. McCawley said that the sense of urgency and level of oversight that existed after the law was passed isn’t present anymore, and it’s likely many districts are no longer in compliance with the law.
“As time has gone on, the oversight has decreased, and districts have really caught on to that,” McCawley said. “They kind of realized that they can do whatever they want, if anything, and there's going to be no repercussions for that.”
Clements, whose office oversees sex ed compliance, said that monitoring is done every three years but hasn’t occurred since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Monitoring will resume next year and includes reviewing which curriculum is being used and which teachers are providing the instruction.
With all the challenges schools have faced due to COVID-19, sex ed hasn’t been a top priority, he said.
“Unfortunately, like a lot of things with COVID, the focus has been making sure kids can get to school.” Clements said.
Mississippi Today reporter Isabelle Taft contributed to this story.
Arkansas’ Cayden Wallace (7) slides to second on a double in the eighth inning against Ole Miss second baseman Peyton Chatagnier (1). The call of “safe” was upheld upon video review, and Wallace eventually scored the winning run. (AP Photo/John Peterson)
OMAHA — Here we go: It’s Ole Miss vs. Arkansas. Loser goes home. Winner moves on to play for the National Championship.
The two Southeastern Conference Western Division rivals will play Thursday at 3 p.m., thanks to the Razorbacks’ nerve-wracking 3-2 victory over the Rebels Wednesday night.
After five days and 11 games of mostly blowouts in the 2022 College World Series, Arkansas and Ole Miss, two familiar combatants, played a nail-biter that went down to the final pitch with more than 25,000 fans nervously watching.
Rick Cleveland
It was, as Mike Bianco said, “a tough one to lose.” It was, as Bianco also said, “a great college baseball game.”
So now Ole Miss find itself where it has been for weeks — that is, playing a game the Rebels have to win.
Said Peyton Chatagnier, the Rebs’ second baseman: “We’ve been in this situation for a while now … I can’t promise you the outcome of tomorrow’s game, but I can guarantee you we’re not scared. We’re not going to back down. This is nothing new to us.”
The Rebels got the pitching they needed Tuesday night. Hitting was a different story. Three Arkansas left-handers — Hagen Smith, Evan Taylor and Zack Morris — limited the Rebels to just five hits and the two runs, negating outstanding pitching from the Rebels’ John Gaddis, Jack Washburn and Jack Dougherty.
Problems with left-handers are nothing new for the Rebels, who came into the game hitting .241 against lefties, compared to .294 against right-handers.
But on that front, there may be some good news following this tough night for the Rebels: Arkansas ace Connor Noland, who will start Thursday, is right-handed. Ole Miss beat him 6-4 at Fayetteville back in late April, although Noland pitched well allowing four runs over eight innings. Noland went 7.2 innings in the Razorbacks’ 17-2 victory over 3-seed Stanford on Saturday.
The Rebels will counter with an ace of their own, right-hander Dylan DeLucia, who beat Noland in that game back in April and who has been lights out for the Rebels in the postseason.
Said Bianco, “If you had asked four or five months ago in February, would you like this opportunity to have your ace on the mound in a winner-take-all game to get you in the Championship Series, everybody would have said, ‘Yes.’”
No doubt.
Bianco, again: “So rather than look at what happened tonight, I think the thing is to flush this and to look forward to tomorrow with an opportunity to win and be one of the last two teams competing for the National Championship. So rather than woe is us, how about looking at what a great opportunity we have tomorrow?”
Duty dictates we take at least a brief look at what did happen Wednesday night, which was a largely unexpected pitchers’ duel.
Arkansas took the lead with Chris Lanzilli’s second inning solo homer, which barely got out of the park. Ole Miss countered in the bottom of the second with Kemp Alderman’s no-doubt homer. If Alderman clobbered his, then Arkansas’ Bradly Slavens slobber-knocked his fifth inning home run that traveled 436 feet over the center field wall and was hit in to a slight breeze.
Those two Arkansas home runs were all Ole Miss starter John Gaddis allowed in five innings,
Arkansas got what proved to be the winning run in the eighth inning amid some controversy. Cayden Wallace smashed a drive that almost took the glove off Ole Miss third baseman Garrett Wood. Wallace never checked up at first. Meanwhile, Wood retrieved the ball in shallow left field and threw a strike to Chatagnier, who swipe-tagged Wallace, who slid head-first into second.
The call on the field was safe. Ole Miss asked for a review. After a two-minute stoppage, the call on the field was upheld. It could have gone either way. Wallace then scored on catcher Michael Turner’s single.
Asked about the call after the game, Bianco said, “That’s why they have replay. … We thought that Peyton tagged possibly the finger, but again, they got, I think, 22 cameras, and they’ve got people, and they see different views than we do on the board. I don’t think it’s fair for me to comment on a call. They do a great job out there. This is about as smooth as you can do it with instant replay.”
The Hogs led 3-1 going into the bottom of the ninth when the Rebels loaded the bases with nobody out on Alderman’s single (his third hit of the night) and then two hit batters.
But Morris then struck out pinch hitter Hayden Leatherwood and got TJ McCants on a shallow fly ball to left field. With two outs, dependable Justin Bench hit a run-scoring, infield single to make it 3-2.
Jacob Gonzalez then flew out to left field to end the game. The Rebels have thrived on timely hitting in the postseason, but not this night.
“Again, it’s disappointing, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, we have a chance to win it,” Bianco said. “That will take a little time to get over tonight.
“But I would think that everybody, besides what you’ve been through, this is what you play for,” Bianco continued. “Their backs are against the wall, too. They have to win, too. So this is really cool, and you should appreciate the opportunity and the moment and try and be at your best at that moment.”
