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Editor’s note: A full list of cities and counties that opted out are included at the bottom of this story.

At least 28 cities and a dozen counties completely opted out of Mississippi’s medical marijuana program by the May 3 deadline, but the state’s health department isn’t keeping an official list of all the municipalities restricting cannabis businesses.  

It is also unclear if the Department of Revenue, the other state agency charged with running and overseeing the program, has any sort of official list of local governments who don’t want to participate. The agency didn’t respond to a request for comment by the time of publishing.

Both agencies will soon be accepting applications to administer licenses for the state’s long-awaited medical marijuana program. 

The Mississippi State Department of Health does have an optional verification form for municipalities on its website, but in a statement MSDH said “there is no mandate for local governments to report to us that they are opting out.” The department also said it does not have a comprehensive list. 

As a result, the most complete list showing which areas have opted out of the program was put together by the Mississippi Cannabis Trade Association, a business and advocate group. Their list shows cities around Jackson and counties in the Delta choosing not to allow dispensaries, cultivation and production facilities to open in their areas. 

Ken Newburger, the director of the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association, said the law itself didn’t include a directive for municipalities to report. At the same time, the lack of an official list at this point shouldn’t embolden anyone to attempt to get around the system when it’s time to put in applications, he said. 

“If you try to open a dispensary in a city that has opted out, the local officials have every power to 1. Stop you and 2. Report you to the state,” Newburger said. 

There has been some confusion in the week after the opt-out deadline. Flowood, for example, voted to opt out of all three categories the law allows cities to have a say in: distribution, cultivation, and processing products. Yet, some thought the city must have opted in because it will have a testing facility.

But testing facilities aren’t one of the categories municipalities can control – so the city’s medical marijuana status won’t affect the testing facility slated to open there.  

READ MORE: As Mississippi cities opt out of medical marijuana, business hopefuls shut out

Each county’s decision to opt out only covers its unincorporated areas, meaning some cities within opt-out counties are still able to have businesses in the program. Patients who live in opt-out areas can still possess and take medical marijuana. 

The trade association is working with advocates and entrepreneurs in opt-out areas to sign petitions that would trigger a special election over the matter. Local governments that opted out also have the choice to opt back in at any time.

Those that didn’t opt out by the May 3 deadline, however, don’t have any flexibility.

Beginning in June, the health department says it plans to begin accepting online applications for licenses for patients, medical practitioners, cultivation facilities, processing facilities, testing facilities, waste disposal businesses and transportation businesses. 

The Department of Revenue is responsible for licensing dispensaries and will start accepting applications in July. The agency now has waiver forms available that allow potential businesses to get permission from schools or churches to operate if they’re less than 1,000 feet away but no closer than 500 feet. 

Without a waiver, dispensaries must be at least 1,000 feet away. The law also doesn’t allow dispensaries to be within 1,500 feet of each other. 

READ MORE: New medical marijuana law draws millions in Mississippi investment

Melvin Robinson III, the spokesman for the trade association, said so far the early stages of the program and its rules are rolling out as expected. 

“Everyone is excited as it gets closer to the date,” Robinson said.

Given the interest, Robinson said he won’t be surprised if the agencies handling licensing wind up hitting a backlog in applications. He expects their websites to be swamped once they start accepting online applications this summer.  

Newberger said the health department is using a portal for applications that has been used and tested in other states. He, too, expected an application rush.

“Not everyone who applies is going to get one,” he said. 

The Department of Health has said it plans on a 30-day approval period for its business and physician related licenses and a five-day period for patients. 

Cities that opted out of dispensaries and cultivation/processing

• Amory
• Belmont
• Brandon
• Booneville
• Caledonia
• Carrollton
• Clinton
• D’Iberville
• Ecru
• Flora
• Gluckstad
• Greenwood
• Horn Lake
• Kilmichael
• Lucedale
• Madison
• New Albany
• Noxapater 
• Pass Christian
• Picayune
• Poplarville
• Pontotoc
• Ridgeland
• Southaven 
• Sumrall
• Tishomingo 
• Vaiden 

Cities that don’t allow dispensaries but do allow cultivation and processing

• Winona 
• North Carrollton

Counties that opted out of dispensaries and cultivation/processing (only applies to unincorporated areas)

• Carroll County
• George County
• Leflore County
• Lincoln County
• Newton County
• Neshoba County
• Pearl River County
• Pontotoc County
• Tippah County
• Union County
• Choctaw County
• Lauderdale County

Counties that don’t allow dispensaries but do allow cultivation/processing (only applies to unincorporated areas) 

• Jones County
• Madison County

Clarification 5/11/22: This story has been updated to show Madison County has opted out of dispensaries but does allow cultivation.

The post At least 28 cities have opted out of medical marijuana, but the state is not keeping track appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Veteran civil rights attorney Carroll Rhodes of Hazlehurst said Tuesday that talks are ongoing over whether to file a lawsuit challenging the 174 state legislative districts for diluting the voting strength of Mississippi’s minority population.

Rhodes, who has been involved for decades in efforts to ensure Black voters have opportunities to elect candidates of their choice, said the NAACP, Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union and others are still debating whether to challenge the redistricting plan approved by the Legislature during the 2022 session as unconstitutional.

“There are additional districts to be created for Black voters to elect candidates of their choice,” Rhodes said Tuesday during a virtual media presentation by multiple attorneys involved in redistricting litigation throughout the country.

During the 2022 session, the Mississippi Legislature enacted a “status quo” redistricting plan, Rhodes pointed out. Under the plan, 42 of the state’s 122 House districts are majority African American, while 15 of the 52 Senate districts have majority Black populations.

The redistricting plan was approved even though based on the 2020 U.S. Census data the state’s non-white population grew during the last 10 years while the state’s white population decreased significantly.

Based on the 2020 Census, Mississippi’s white population decreased 95,791 people the past 10 years to 1,658,893. During the same time period, the Black population declined just 13,940 to 1,084,481. Other minority groups experienced slight upticks, though still making up a much smaller percentage of the state’s overall population when compared to the white and African American population.

The percentage of Mississippians identifying as other than solely white or African American was 3.85% in 2010, and now stands at 7.36%, according to Census data.

Under the plan approved by the Legislature and facing a possible federal lawsuit, 29% of the Senate districts are majority African American while 34% of the House districts are. Based on the 2020 Census, the state’s African American or partially African American population is 38%, while the white population is 59%.

During the media presentation, Rhodes said the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the redistricting plan approved by the Legislature for the four U.S. House districts is ongoing. No one is certain whether the three judge federal panel that is hearing the congressional lawsuit will rule before the 2022 election. The party primary election for the House seats is June 7. The general election is slated for November.

Rhodes, who is representing the NAACP in the congressional U.S. House redistricting lawsuit, said there is more time to decide whether to challenge the newly drawn state legislative districts since those elections will not occur until 2023.

The post Civil rights attorney signals possible lawsuit over new legislative districts that dilute Black votes appeared first on Mississippi Today.

HATTIESBURG — Janice Jones scanned the growing crowd, her brown eyes squinting in the bright sun. 

About 30 people, some wearing red t-shirts and holding signs, were gathering at a fountain near University of Southern Mississippi’s Danforth Chapel for a protest. The group planned to march to President Rodney Bennett’s office and deliver more than 250 pledge cards calling on him to raise the university’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

All week, Jones and her fellow custodians had talked about attending. Custodians she didn’t know had stopped her in the hall to ask if she was going. But now it was fifteen minutes past four, the rally was set to start, and only one of Jones’ coworkers had shown up. 

“Most of them are Black,” she said. “I’m looking, and I’m like, where are all the Black faces?” 

Jones has worked as a custodian at USM for about three years. She hadn’t intended to stay for long until a car accident at the start of the pandemic left her scrambling to save for knee surgery. These days, she clocks in just before 5 a.m. for her shift, cleaning toilets, sanitizing desks and door handles, and sweeping sunflower seeds from between seats in the M.M. Roberts Stadium. For that work, Jones makes about $10 an hour, the lowest wage on campus. 

Shortly before her car accident, Jones learned about a group called United Campus Workers (UCW). The labor union, an affiliate of Communication Workers of America, was looking for custodians to join its “Fight for $15” campaign, and she quickly got involved in the chapter. But the pandemic made it difficult to organize. As USM went “back to normal,” turnover increased. Jones said it felt like the workload tripled. USM started bussing Jones and the remaining custodians around campus, often requiring them to work “mandatory overtime” at 1.5 times their typical hourly pay.

Then in January, Bennett, who made history when he became USM’s first Black president eight years ago, announced his intent to step down in 2023. Jones and other members of UCW spotted an opportunity. One of Bennett’s first acts as president had been to establish the $10 minimum wage on campus — UCW thought maybe that could be one of Bennett’s last acts too. So about a month ago, UCW members got together and voted to hold a protest the first week of May. 

In front of the fountain, Jones tried to put her coworkers out of her mind as Samuel Ewing, another UCW member, climbed onto a concrete hedge to start the rally. Through a megaphone, Ewing told the crowd that he was one of the many workers on campus who made far less than $10 an hour. As an adjunct professor, he had taught four classes this past year and made just $12,000. 

UCW’s campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, he said, would benefit “a broad swath” of workers on campus. 

“I’m talking custodial, janitorial workers, these are library workers, administrators — the people who run this university, who make this place what it is,” he said. “If we want to be a place that’s welcoming to students, that’s supporting the students, we’ve got to support the people who make this university work.” 

“The university is going to raise the wage,” Ewing continued, “but they’re only gonna do it if we demand it. They’re only gonna do it if we show them that we want it, that we deserve it, that we need it, and that we’re gonna build a healthy community.” 

“Yes, yes!” Jones said, nodding her head. 

It was February 2020, and Jones was taking her 12 o’clock break outside the liberal arts building when a tall, white man with long hair approached her. His name was John Jester, he said, and he was an organizer with United Campus Workers. Did she have some time to talk about the union? 

As Jones smoked a cigarette, Jester started his spiel. UCW got its start in 2000, he said, when a group of faculty, student workers and community members at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, voted to form a “wall-to-wall” union that any employee could join. Now, amid a national wave of unionization, UCW was on a mission to organize higher education in the South — a difficult task in Mississippi, considering state law bans public employees from going on strike. 

“We’re not trying to go for an election,” Jester said. “It’s really about bringing all the different constituencies around campus together — faculty, tenured and non-tenured, grad staff, facilities and maintenance — and just identifying the issues that need to be changed.” 

If Jester wanted custodians to join UCW, Jones said there were a lot of places he could start. For one, custodians needed a significant raise. Most took on extra jobs to make ends meet; at the time, Jones was working for a temp agency. 

Another issue, Jones said, was the attendance-based point system used by the Physical Plant, the department that oversees custodians. Per the policy, custodians can accrue points for missing a shift, clocking in late, or leaving early — accumulating 10 points can result in dismissal. The policy was intended to curb excessive absences, but Jones said she felt like it was regularly misused. She said she was one of many custodians who were given points even after providing human resources with a doctor’s note. 

About a month later, the pandemic hit Mississippi. Jones was driving a van for her second job when she got into an accident and tore a ligament in her right knee. She requested accommodations at USM, but the best the school could do was limit the time she spent cleaning stairs. To this day, Jones wears a blue brace because she is still saving to pay for surgery.

“They explained there’s no such thing as ‘light duty’ out here,” she said. “You either can do the job or you can’t.” 

Jones gave Jester her phone number that day in February 2020. Over the course of the next year, she regularly joined him outside the gate of the Physical Plant to talk to her coworkers about unionizing. 

When Jones talked to coworkers about the union, she tried to explain it through her personal experience. In the 1960s, when she was growing up in Hattiesburg, her dad had been a member of the union at the now-closed Hercules chemical plant. He was one of the first Black employees there. Jones, who described herself as a “nosy child,” said she would bug her dad to explain why he was “always talking about ‘the union.’” She later learned a union steward had helped her parents access credit that allowed them to buy their home, a small three-bedroom in an all-white neighborhood. 

“He would explain to us that when you have a union, you have a group of people that are gonna be there for you,” she said. “Some companies, they’re in control of everything — whatever they say or decide, it’s entirely up to them. When you have a union rep, you’ve got somebody that’s gonna fight for you.” 

Some of Jones’ co-workers responded to her stories enthusiastically and they too started passing out fliers. But others were wary. They’d sign pledge cards but never show up to meetings. Once, Jones said that several coworkers she’d invited to an off-campus UCW meeting left when they couldn’t find parking at the restaurant. 

In Mississippi, which has long had one of the lowest rates of union membership in the country, Jones knew that organizing was a fraught and unfamiliar subject for many people. But she hadn’t realized exactly how scared her coworkers were of losing their job — not the money, but some of its crucial benefits, like access to the state of Mississippi’s retirement plan and discounted tuition for their kids. 

It also seemed to Jones like custodians were being warned not to speak out. During summer 2021, Jones and Jester were leafleting outside the gate when a police car pulled up. The officers told Jester he was violating the campus solicitation policy and had to leave. (USM officials did not dispute this description of the incident.)

Jones doesn’t know who called the police, but after Jester left, a manager at the Physical Plant asked Jones to follow her back to her office so she could make a copy of UCW’s fliers. Jones told her no, she was off the clock. If she wanted one, she could’ve asked Jester for it. 

Around the same time, 24-year-old Kyrelle Harris, a former custodian, said he was fired because he accumulated too many points. Harris said he was outspoken about how USM made him use vacation time when he got COVID in early 2020 and was still too sick to return to work after his quarantine period. After he complained, he said he started to get “nitpicked” about his work on the job. 

In a statement, Margaret Ann McCloud, USM’s spokesperson, wrote USM “offers staff members with medical conditions access to multiple avenues of employment protection” and does not retaliate. She said “only one Physical Plant employee has lost a job for excessive absences under the points system in the past 12 months.” 

Harris never joined UCW, even though he wanted his working conditions to improve. He said he couldn’t afford the $15 monthly dues on his paycheck. He also said he felt like custodians who had advocated for higher wages never got anywhere, which made him feel discouraged from trying. 

After Ewing finished his speech on Thursday, he led Jones, Jester, and the rest of the protesters in a short march to the Aubrey K. Lucas Administration Building, where Bennett’s office is. Jester paused on the steps. He held up a manila envelope of pledge cards, turned to Jones, and nodded. They had spent a year working toward this moment, but neither of them knew what to expect. “Alright,” he said. 

The inside of the administration building was cooler than outside, lined with dark wood and granite. In a single-file line, Jones, Jester, and J. Theresa Bush, a third member of UCW, walked up to the front desk, introduced themselves to the receptionist, and asked if they could talk to Bennett. After a moment, a white man came out, and Jester handed him the envelope. They turned to leave. Then Bennett walked out the glass doors of his office. 

“Good to see you,” he said. “Tell me what this is about.” 

Since Bennett became president in 2013, USM has grown its economic footprint and reached record levels of enrollment. Raising the minimum wage that year was just one of a number of decisions that garnered good will. According to Gulf Live, Bennett made the decision in response to a request from a worker at an open forum. 

“This will allow employees to live the type of life that USM employees should be able to live,” Bennett said at the time. “I think it will allow employees to spend more time with their families and children. It’s the right thing to do, and it will have an impact on the economics of the community.” 

But in the eight years since the raise, many low-wage workers say their take-home pay has not significantly increased. In a statement, Jim Coll, USM’s chief communication officer, said that “while the USM minimum pay rate has remained the same, employees at all pay levels have received pay increases on multiple occasions over the past decade, and have benefitted from promotion opportunities.”

Standing next to Bennett, Jones felt nervous. She thought he seemed surprised by the protest, and she hoped he would take them seriously. 

“We’re just appealing to you,” Jester said, “because when you came in you raised the wages.” 

“That was a real priority for me when I first got here to do that,” Bennett replied. 

Everybody shook hands and, at first, it seemed like Bennett was going to go back inside his office. Then Bush made a request: Would Bennett come back outside with them? An assistant professor of theater, Bush wanted to give Bennett a chance to acknowledge that he had received UCW’s pledge cards to the protesters. 

“Everybody’s there,” she said. “That would be amazing.” 

Outside, Bennett held up the manila envelope of pledge cards. 

“I’ve got my materials,” he said. “So we’ll take a look at it. Thank y’all for being here.” 

After the protest, Jones and her coworker stuck around the fountain and talked about everything they’d like to see improved at work — the point system, the mandatory overtime, the pay. Jones’ thoughts turned to her brief interaction with Bennett. She felt teary-eyed. 

“I hope it doesn’t turn ugly,” she thought. “But he’s on his way out. The way he looked, he’s only going to do what they let him.” 

Jones also kept thinking about her coworkers, the ones who said they’d be there but didn’t come. In the two years she’d been organizing with USM, the chapter had grown to about 30 members, but it was mostly faculty. Still, she was shocked that so few Physical Plant workers showed up because custodians and other low-wage workers stood to gain the most from a wage increase. 

“It’s their security blanket,” Jones said. “They want more, they know they deserve more, but they’re so afraid of losing this job, they just disconnect, and they don’t want to be associated with it, but they’re willing to reap any benefits that come out of this.” 

A local TV station had filmed the protest, and the next day, Jones heard about the segment from some of her coworkers. They could tell she was in the crowd by her bedazzled “Limited Edition” baseball hat and shiny gold hoops. Jones was tempted to ask where they’d been. Instead, she told them they missed out.

The post ‘We need it’: How one custodian is fighting fear to get a pay raise at University of Southern Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Tyler tells the story of falling in love with baseball all over again at Pisgah High and breaks down the MHSAA playoffs ahead of this weekend’s North and South State Championships. Rick updates us all on the state of Mississippi college baseball headed into a crucial week for all of Mississippi’s big three schools.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: It happens every spring appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As Mississippi parents of babies who are formula-fed grapple with the national shortage, parents on government assistance and those who have babies with allergies may face extra challenges.

The formula shortage is having a major impact in Mississippi, which has the second-lowest rate of breastfeeding in the nation. Parents are taking to social media to swap formulas and post about available products that are in stock at stores. Some are even attempting to start breastfeeding again – a difficult and time-consuming process – and doctors have had to issue warnings about homemade formula.

Supply-chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic are one cause of the formula shortage. Manufacturers are struggling to obtain certain ingredients, and labor issues have affected distribution. 

The shortage has also been exacerbated by a recent recall of three major baby formula brands manufactured by Abbott Nutrition after a probe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found bacterial contamination at one Abbott facility in Sturgis, Mich. At least four babies were hospitalized and two died after consuming contaminated formula, the Food and Drug Administration said.

At retailers across the country, 31% of the top-selling baby formula products were out of stock in April, according to an analysis from Datasembly, which tracked baby formula stock at more than 11,000 stores. 

In contrast, the national out-of-stock levels for baby formula were at 11% in November.

Lauren Bolsinger and her husband have been struggling to find formula for their 7-month-old baby girl, Vivianne, for several months, sometimes traveling to 10 different stores in a day and only finding one can of formula. They’ve switched formulas twice due to the shortage, and are now using a generic Walmart brand that upsets their baby’s stomach. 

“Every single day, we’re going to multiple stores just hoping that it’s restocked, but it’s completely out,” Bolsinger, who lives in Madison, said. 

Ashlee Wallace of Brandon has struggled to find the formula her 7-month-old son needs due to a cow’s milk protein allergy. 

“It’s scary to think about,” Wallace said. “What happens if we can’t get it? What do you do?”

Bolsinger has seen other moms in similar situations. She once ran into a young mom who was crying because the store didn’t have the formula she needed. The mom told her she had been to five stores that day searching for a specific formula her baby needs due to her child’s allergies. 

“Being able to get formula for your baby is not something a mom should have to worry about, at any point,” Bolsinger said. 

Some mothers who have relied on formula are attempting to restart breastfeeding after previously stopping, according to retired lactation consultant Nell Blakely of Brandon.

Blakely helps run a Facebook support group for breastfeeding mothers. She said she has seen an average of two inquiries a day from moms looking for help with relactation.  

Blakely has been helping walk them through that difficult process with limited success. One method is for the mother to let her baby use her breast as a pacifier, which encourages the mother’s body to produce milk. 

Another method is using a breast pump in several minute increments 10 to 12 times per day.

“It’s doable, but I would never say that it isn’t a whole lot of work,” Blakely said. 

And for mothers on government assistance, finding the right type of formula can be uniquely challenging. The Women, Infants and Children’s Nutrition Program (WIC) only covers four formula types unless an infant gets an exemption through a medical diagnosis. 

There were 84,000 women, children and infants who participated in WIC in Mississippi in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

WIC centers are telling parents who can’t find formula to contact their pediatricians and look into direct shipping from manufacturers if breastfeeding is not an option, said Liz Sharlot, director of communications at Mississippi Department of Health.

Dr. Anita Henderson, president of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a pediatrician at The Pediatric Clinic in Hattiesburg, said her clinic has received many calls from concerned moms over the last few weeks because they’re having trouble finding the formula they use. 

“We’re encouraging them to check in different stores, because smaller pharmacies and grocery stores may get restocked more quickly, or just be utilized less than the large chains like Walmart.”

Some parents are making their own formula at home, a practice that health departments and doctors warn against.

 “Babies need those nutrients in the right combinations and the right concentration, and that’s impossible to guarantee if parents try to make it themselves,” Henderson said. 

Henderson also said it’s important that parents don’t dilute the formula they’re using to try and make their supply last longer. That not only cuts down on the nutritional value of the formula but can cause water intoxication in babies that results in major health problems like seizures.

Health officials are also asking parents not to hoard formula once they find it. Hoarding exacerbated shortages of items like toilet paper and hand sanitizer when those items became hard to find due to supply chain shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 “Please be cognizant of the fact that there are many moms and dads out there and we all want to keep our babies fed,” Henderson said. 

The formula shortage has necessitated large multi-person hunts for the products. Facebook groups for moms are full of people asking where they can find a certain formula, while others alert the group to where they can find formula when they see it.

For Gina Lovette of Hernando, the hunt for formula has “become kind of gamified in a sick way.” She and other moms in the area have created a group chat where they go over their finds, sharing and trading cans of formula when they find the brands another is looking for.

“Moms know we have to look out for each other, but it’s ridiculous that we have to do this at all,” Lovette said. 

The post ‘It’s scary’: Mothers scour stores, social media to find baby formula appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Dr. Cheryl Hamlin added a line to her standard message for patients during their counseling sessions at Mississippi’s only abortion clinic last week.

“As you hopefully have heard, the Supreme Court is probably going to overrule Roe v. Wade, which means this clinic will close,” she said to dozens of people who had traveled to Jackson from as far away as Texas for an abortion. 

About half of the patients hadn’t heard, she told Mississippi Today. So she explained: A draft opinion leaked May 2 indicated the court is poised to overturn the 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion and guaranteed at least a modicum of access to the procedure in every state in the country — even if states like Mississippi imposed such strict and medically unnecessary regulations that only one clinic was left standing.

If the Supreme Court officially overturns Roe, Mississippi has a law on the books that will almost immediately ban abortion in almost all cases. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the clinic at the center of the case before the Supreme Court, will likely stop providing abortions.

One woman asked if that meant Hamlin would be out of a job. Hamlin, who lives in Massachusetts and visits Jackson about once a month for three days of work at the clinic, told her she would be all right. 

“Well, I’m going to be fine,” Hamlin recalled the patient saying. “I’m going to take these pills and I’m never going to come back here.”

“I said, ‘Well, you and I are going to be fine. There’s a whole bunch of people that won’t be.” 

As an OB-GYN in the Boston area, Hamlin says she has lived “in a pretty nice bubble.” She received training in abortion care during her residency at the Boston Medical Center in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it was always a part of her practice. 

“They would come to my office, say that’s what they wanted, I scheduled them in the operating room in the hospital, and they went without protesters and their insurance paid for it and it was no big deal,” she said. “I really thought that was what people did. And that was my job. I didn’t see it as any moral imperative.”

Then, Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States. Hamlin read about the state of abortion access in other parts of the country. She wanted to do something. 

She had never spent time in Mississippi, but she got connected to the medical director at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. She went to visit, liked it, and got licensed in Mississippi.

In the fall of 2017, she joined the team of out-of-state doctors who fly in for shifts at the clinic. Almost every month, she travels from Boston to Jackson for a three-day shift. 

Her work days at the clinic start around 8:30 a.m. Clinic staff spend the mornings providing state-mandated counseling, including the claim that having an abortion increases the risk of breast cancer, even though scientific studies show that’s not true. 

After that counseling, patients have to wait at least 24 hours for their next visit, per state law. 

In the afternoons, Hamlin provides surgical procedures and administers the first pill for medication abortions, as required by Mississippi law.

Patients take the rest of the medications at home. More than half of the abortions provided at the clinic are medication abortions, Hamlin said. 

During breaks in the day, Hamlin likes to go outside to visit with the clinic escorts. They call themselves the Pink House Defenders, wear rainbow-colored vests and try to shield patients from the protestors jostling to persuade them to turn around. 

When Hamlin came to Mississippi, she expected the demonstrators and seeing patients forced to travel long distances. But she didn’t foresee how many of her patients would lack access to any kind of regular health care. 

Massachusetts has one of the country’s lowest rates of people without health insurance, at 2.4%. Mississippi has one of the highest, at 11.9%. Among people under 65, the rate is 14.1%. 

Hamlin regularly talks to patients who couldn’t afford to fill their birth control prescription because they are uninsured. When she asks if they have a regular gynecologist, the answer is often no. 

“That’s almost unheard of in Massachusetts,” she said. 

Hamlin, through her work at the Pink House, has already glimpsed what the dismantling of Roe will look like. 

Last year, the Jackson clinic began to see something entirely new: patients from Texas. 

The state banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy last year, with a unique and unprecedented enforcement mechanism. 

Private citizens can sue anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion, and win $10,000 in damages if they’re successful. (People who are sued and win can’t recoup attorney’s fees.)

The Supreme Court allowed the law to take effect. Since September, Texans have gone across the border to purchase abortion medication in Mexico. They’ve traveled to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Louisiana, and the Pink House. 

Texas patients flooding Louisiana clinics pushed Louisiana patients to Mississippi. The Jackson clinic changed its opening hours from three days a week to five. 

Through it all, Hamlin has kept working, wondering how long it will last. 

She arrived in Jackson for her shift on the night of May 2. She was checking emails when she saw the news about the leaked draft opinion. It wasn’t a surprise. 

Since she started working in Mississippi, her counseling sessions have always included information about the movement to overturn Roe. She reminds patients from Texas that Gov. Greg Abbott is up for re-election soon. 

But it was still a shock. 

“Like yeah, this is really going to happen,” she said. 

The next morning, a Tuesday, was a quiet one at the clinic. Regulars passed the word that many of the usual anti-abortion demonstrators had gone to Ukraine for missionary work. 

Hamlin and her colleagues at the clinic are still waiting to see what the final ruling will be – likely in June or July – and what laws Mississippi will pass. The state’s trigger ban, passed in 2007, will likely ban all abortions except in cases of rape and to save the life of the mother. 

Though they haven’t been introduced in the state legislature, other potential laws could seek to prohibit travel or referrals for abortions. 

The Jackson clinic’s director, Shannon Brewer, told NBC last week she plans to open a clinic in New Mexico, about 1,000 miles away from Jackson. Getting patients there, or to southern Illinois, could be expensive and logistically difficult, but Southern abortion funds have vowed to keep helping people access abortions. 

Hamlin worries what could happen to a Mississippian who gets an abortion out of state but develops complications back home. 

In the decades before Roe, going to a hospital after an abortion could trigger a criminal investigation in which the patient was forced to participate. 

“I think people are going to be afraid to seek care, emergency room care,” Hamlin said. “They may be a little bit now actually. But I think it’s going to get a lot worse.”

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Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi and University of Mississippi Medical Center have agreed on a mediator, who will oversee an arbitration process to settle the contract dispute that has left the state’s largest hospital out of network with its largest insurer.

Walter Johnson, senior counsel at the law firm Watkins & Eager, will be the mediator. Johnson’s bio on the firm’s website states that he has “mediated and arbitrated hundreds of matters for parties both within and outside of Mississippi since 1994.”

“He has mediated some very complex cases and is familiar with the subject matter area,” Mike Haire, Mississippi Deputy Commissioner of Insurance, told Mississippi Today. “We’re excited that the parties have agreed upon someone who we believe will be a very fair and objective mediator, and who hopefully will be able to help the parties find some common ground here.”

Johnson will now reach out to both parties and get all the information he needs before they schedule the first mediation session, Haire said.

“The commissioner (Mike Chaney) is certainly very hopeful that the parties can make great progress, if not find a resolution, by early June,” Haire said. 

UMMC and Blue Cross did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication. 

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney sent the UMMC and Blue Cross a letter on April 21 urging them to agree to bringing in an expert and impartial mediator who could preside over new contract negotiations. 

Blue Cross and UMMC used the mediation process to settle their last contract dispute in 2018, and it took around ten days to strike a deal. At that time, Blue Cross agreed to remove language that made the contract evergreen, meaning the insurance company could no longer change the contract terms at any time.

UMMC claims that between 2014 and 2017, Blue Cross made annual changes to their reimbursement rates that decreased the overall reimbursement UMMC received to care for Blue Cross patients. UMMC received an overall 1% increase as part of the 2018 negotiations, but no changes have been made to their reimbursement rates since then.

Under state agency rules, Chaney is not allowed to directly mediate or help settle disputes over contacts between insurance companies and health care providers.

Chaney’s involvement stems from concerns that UMMC not being in Blue Cross’ network runs afoul of state network adequacy regulations due to UMMC providing services that cannot be found elsewhere in the state, such as its organ transplant unit and children’s hospital.

Blue Cross maintains that even without UMMC, it is still meeting its network adequacy requirement. The insurer also said that the remedy in a situation where network adequacy is an issue is for it to provide network level benefits to its customers for those services, which it has offered to do by directing its members to sign a written direction of payment instructing the insurer to pay the hospital. 

UMMC has declined to accept those payments from Blue Cross, arguing that it would allow Blue Cross to continue paying at unsustainable rates. 

UMMC and Blue Cross have not been in communication since April 1, when UMMC officially went out of network with the insurance company, according to officials from both entities. Tens of thousands of Mississippians – some of them gravely ill and others in need of advanced specialties only available at UMMC – are stuck in the middle of the dispute.

Though the two parties have had similar contract disputes in previous years, this is the first time UMMC has been removed from the Blue Cross network. 

As a result, tens of thousands of Mississippians have been left to face higher out-of-pocket medical expenses or find care elsewhere. Potential transplant recipients who have spent months or years on organ donation waitlists have been placed on hold. Parents of children who require specialized care that can only be provided at UMMC’s children’s hospital have been left with costly and inconvenient options for continuing their child’s care. 

UMMC is asking Blue Cross for substantial increases to inpatient, outpatient and professional reimbursement rates, some as large as 50%. Overall reimbursement from Blue Cross would increase by around 30% in the first year of the new contract. 

Mississippi has the lowest reimbursement rate from commercial insurance companies for inpatient services in the nation, according to a 2021 white paper by the actuarial and consulting firm Milliman. While UMMC maintains that BCBSMS is paying them well below market rates for other academic medical centers in the region, BCBSMS argues that agreeing to the increases would necessitate significant premium increases for their customers – despite a Mississippi Today investigation that revealed the insurer is sitting on an enormous reserve of money.

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