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A three-judge panel of the state Supreme Court has rejected the petition of Jackson Women’s Health Organization to allow the resumption of abortions as early as this week.

The Supreme Court justices have said that instead they will wait for arguments from Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office to be submitted before ruling on the petition of the abortion supporters. The three-justice panel of James Kitchens, Dawn Beam and Kenneth Griffis has given Fitch’s office until July 25 to respond to a petition requesting that the Supreme Court rescind the abortion ban.

The abortion ban was put in place after Fitch’s office successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, a decades-old decision that provided a national right to an abortion.

The abortion ban went into effect in Mississippi on Thursday. At the time the ban went into effect, Jackson Women’s Health Organization was the only abortion provider in the state. The clinic had filed a lawsuit asking that the ban been postponed based on a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling saying that there was a right to an abortion in Mississippi’s constitution separate from the right granted under the U.S. Constitution in Roe v. Wade.

Despite the state Supreme Court saying the right to an abortion existed in the Mississippi Constitution, Chancery Judge Debbra Halford of Franklin County refused to stop the ban from taking effect.

Now the clinic is asking the state Supreme Court to rule on the issue and is requesting a quick decision.

In a motion, attorneys for the clinic said, “By July 25, Mississippians will have been without abortion access for over two weeks. They will have been denied their rights under the Mississippi Constitution to privacy and bodily autonomy, as they are compelled by the state to endure the risks of pregnancy and bear children against their will. The deprivation of constitutional rights, and the harms of forced pregnancy and childbirth, are substantial and irreversible. Absent relief from this Court, the harm will continue.”

The three-judge panel rejected that argument, opting instead to wait for arguments from the AG, due July 25.

The abortion ban is in effect in Mississippi because of a trigger law passed in 2007 that went into effect if Roe v. Wade was overturned. Attorneys for the abortion clinic say the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling recognizing a Mississippi constitutional right to an abortion supersedes the trigger law and another Mississippi law banning abortions after six weeks.

The post Supreme Court rejects plea for quick ruling on effort to stop abortion ban appeared first on Mississippi Today.

In preparing for the next phase of the “pro-life agenda” following the fall of Roe v. Wade, Gov. Tate Reeves boasted publicly that his staff conducted a thorough review of Mississippi law to find ways to improve the current environment for people expecting to give birth.

But there’s no written record of this analysis, according to documents Mississippi Today obtained through a public records request.

Instead, records show the administration briefly consulted with four people by email — two anti-abortion advocates of Choose Life MS, a pediatrician and a local judge — and gathered template legislation written by Washington-based Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, one of the most powerful anti-abortion lobbying groups in the nation.

A Reeves spokesperson said the “thorough analysis” the governor has discussed publicly was a verbal briefing, not a written document, which is why the office didn’t produce more to the news organization.

Last January, Reeves’ policy advisor Kristen Windham wrote an email to Janet Thomas, director of Choose Life MS, saying, “I enjoyed our meeting last week and appreciate the willingness to help Governor Reeves develop a plan going forward.”

Choose Life MS, led by its president and longtime anti-abortion lobbyist Terri Herring, is a private advocacy nonprofit that collects and disburses funding to crisis pregnancy centers — organizations known for persuading pregnant women against abortion. The Legislature has given Herring’s organization power over which pregnancy centers will be able to receive newly created tax credits by including in statute that the credits will be reserved for nonprofits that are eligible under Choose Life MS’s grant program.

Windham also corresponded with Hattiesburg pediatrician Anita Henderson, president of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who had a different take on what a “pro-life agenda” would look like. Henderson recommended the state extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to a year — a proposal with bipartisan support that Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn killed in 2022.

“Not sure if he (Reeves) would be interested in meeting with her,” Windham wrote in an email, forwarding Henderson’s recommendation to another Reeves staffer.

Reeves has yet to meet with the pediatrician, Henderson told Mississippi Today. Plus, Henderson reached out to the governor’s office, not the other way around.

“Postpartum care is low-hanging fruit,” Henderson said. “It is a really easy option to show moms and babies that they’re supported.”

Henderson noted that after making abortion illegal, Mississippi could see an additional 3,500 babies born per year, and with a preterm birth rate of 14%, that could translate to 500 more babies in neonatal intensive care. Additionally, the number of children in Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services custody could likewise increase.

In recent State of the State addresses, Reeves promised to take action to “make Mississippi the safest and most supportive state in the country for mothers,” and “make it even easier to adopt … to ensure that these children are not twice-abandoned.” He asked his staff to work on a plan to accomplish this.

As a result of their efforts, the governor’s office has drafted a policy agenda which centers on directing an unspecified amount of public funding to crisis pregnancy centers, reforming the state’s youth court system and offering new cash incentives to adoptive parents.

The plan does not address extending postpartum Medicaid coverage — a policy supported by several advocacy groups and many Republican lawmakers — or providing direct assistance to low-income expectant mothers.

“One issue that needs constant attention, however, is the resources available to children of parents facing long-term incarceration or even those who are on probation but struggling to provide the care and attention needed,” Judge Toni Terrett, a circuit court judge in the western region of the state, told a Reeves staffer by email in January. “The answer may not always be adoption in those situations, but these children may need special attention to make sure they are not lost in the shuffle.”

Terrett told Mississippi Today that since offering her initial advice, she has not had any more conversations with the office.

In recent years, Mississippi has led the nation in reducing its notoriously backlogged CPS caseload, while promising to unify families instead of separating them. But at the same time, the state has failed to pull down available federal funding to help families in poverty care for their children through prevention services, while welfare officials misspent millions that could have been used for this purpose. Experts say an emphasis on incentivizing adoption and increasing CPS intervention could reverse the state’s progress and perpetuate trauma.

“I’m all for it. Give as much financial assistance as you possibly can. But if you’re stopping at wanting to give it to everyone but the biological family, then you have a flaw in your logic,” said attorney Kimberly Russell, who previously led child welfare efforts under the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Mississippi and the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Also absent from the governor’s agenda are any plans to improve access to education for young women and mothers, though Reeves recently said in an interview that providing educational opportunities would be “the best thing we can do for them.”

The three-page Reeves administration policy agenda, drafted before the U.S. Supreme Court decision and titled “Possible actions ahead of life-favoring Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs case,” proposes six measures. It is published here for the first time:

• Enact Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s “Support for Mothers and Babies Act”: Create a competitive grant for crisis pregnancy centers, which includes reporting requirements and auditing procedures
• Statewide judicial reform: Create a uniform, state-funded youth court and more rapid pathways for permanent placement; provide state funding for parent representatives; allow county prosecutors to terminate parental rights
• Increased adoption incentives: Create a multi-year grant award for parents who adopt children in CPS custody – $20,000 over four years, for example.
• Extended “Safe Haven” law: Increase the amount of time a mother is allowed to relinquish her child after birth, which Reeves’ agenda says is currently 72 hours (though state law actually says 7 days); the agenda doesn’t advocate for extending to a specific time period, but cites other states that allow up to seven days, 30 days, or even as long as a year.
• Roundtable discussions: Gather representatives from CPS, centers for pregnancy choices, pregnancy help organizations, adoption agencies, hospitals, clinics and Medicaid to communicate “about the overall process.”
• Address current CPS case backlog: Fund special youth court judges, prosecutors and caseworkers to reduce adoption and custody cases.

Reeves has touted a bill he signed this year, the Pregnancy Resource Act, which provides $3.5 million in tax credits to donors of eligible pregnancy resource centers and crisis pregnancy centers. Centers must meet requirements under Choose Life MS’s grant program to qualify.

Getty Israel, founder of community health clinic Sisters in Birth, which is in the process of opening a birthing center, said she met a dead end when trying to secure eligibility from Choose Life MS.

“You gotta get the blessing of the Mississippi pro-life people,” Israel said. “… You gotta be a part of this clique, this political clique, this so-called pro-life clique or anti-abortion clique, in order to take advantage of that tax credit. That sounds very, very much like discrimination to me.” 

In the past, Israel turned down a small donation from Choose Life MS because she said the process was too invasive – requiring her to add its logo to her website, for example.

Israel also met last year with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America organizers, who represented that they were eager to provide services for pregnant women and asked her for a “wish list” of policies she’d like to see. Israel sent the list, but she said nothing ever came of it. 

This wasn’t a surprise to Israel, who said the Legislature has consistently turned down resources for the tangible services her organization provides.

“They (Republican leadership) are just not serious about improving health outcomes among women who are gonna become pregnant and making sure those babies are born full term, but with all their limbs and healthy, and that they can thrive. They just want babies to be born. That’s a political check,” Israel said. “I have never been able to get Tate Reeves’ office to even allow me to meet with him or anyone there. I’ve been trying for years.” 

As part of its work with the governor’s office, Choose Life MS also conducted a survey of 14 pregnancy help organizations to gauge their needs and shared the results. Some of the needs the centers identified included increased shelter capacity, transportation, fatherhood programs, mental health services, websites, mobile units, a washer and dryer and sonogram services.

Henderson said transportation and assistance in applying to Medicaid are two needs that pregnancy centers could consider meeting.

“Over half of the counties in Mississippi do not have an OBGYN. So moms are traveling significant distances to see their doctor, which costs gas money, time, and loss of work. Those are reasons that many moms delay care or miss GYN visits,” she said. “The other thing I see … moms who find out that they are pregnant, when they apply for Medicaid, it can take a month for their Medicaid application to go through for them to learn that they are eligible. So that is a month lost, in terms of prenatal care, prenatal vitamins, testing and treatment.”

Currently, Choose Life MS collects revenue from the sale of specialty car tags and distributes the funding to about 40 of these organizations – which are noticeably sparse in the Delta and southwest Mississippi, areas with higher Black populations. If the tax credits were evenly distributed, each center would benefit from $87,500 in tax exempt donations.

In 2016, Choose Life MS said it had exceeded $3 million in revenue from the car tags since 2002 and that number is now $3.5 million, according to its website. The nonprofit’s annual revenue, according to its 990 forms, is around just under $150,000 a year and has been on the decline.

In some states, governors have chosen to use funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, or welfare, to subsidize pregnancy centers. With its proposed legislation, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America aims to get more direct legislative appropriations to these organizations so they don’t rely on political whims from year to year.

“I have watched over the years, and it’s certainly not perfect by any stretch, but since 1973, since Roe, the social services delivery system, the smorgasbord of services available to families and children has grown tremendously,” said Susan Liebel, director of state affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “… The trick is to get, of course, the right services in the right places with the right people who need them in the time that they need them. That’s the trick.”

But some public health professionals, like Israel, are skeptical about the mission and capacity of the existing centers.

“I made it very clear that I wasn’t impressed with what the pregnancy resource centers were doing, simply discouraging women to have an abortion and not helping pregnant women,” Israel said of her conversations with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. “They (crisis pregnancy centers) are not willing to refer their clients to me and I’m offering all these services and I’m right here in the city of Jackson. And this is my area of expertise. But they won’t refer patients to me because I don’t agree with their religious and political agenda.”

Herring, who has direct lines with Reeves’ office on crafting future plans, did not respond to Mississippi Today’s requests for an interview for this story.

Herring, a failed Gov. Phil Bryant nominee to the Mississippi State Health Department board and part of the “pro-life coalition” Reeves announced in 2019, appears to be a darling of Republican leadership.

In 2019, after the Senate passed another restrictive abortion ban under his leadership, Reeves called Herring out by name, tweeting, “Thank you to @Terri_Herring and other pro-life Mississippians who worked and prayed for this. Your work will save lives.”

See the entirety of the governor’s office response to Mississippi Today’s public records request below.

The post Records show Reeves staff did sparse analysis to draft post-Roe agenda appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A man has been indicted for the murder of former DeSoto County lawmaker Ashley Henley a year after she was shot and killed. 

Billy Lamar Brooks was indicted by a grand jury on June 30, according to court records. The indictment accuses him of killing Henley on or about June 14, 2021, which authorities said is the day after her body was found. 

He appeared in court July 7 and had his bond set at $250,000, according to court records. 

Henley, a Republican who represented House District 40, was shot and killed in Yalobusha County while mowing grass outside of the burned-out mobile home where her sister-in-law, Kristina Michelle Jones, was found dead in December 2020. 

Authorities said in 2021 the gunshot that killed Henley was “non-accidental.”

The Yalobusha Sheriff’s Department, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, District 17 District Attorney’s office and other agencies investigated the case as a homicide. 

Brooks, who lived across the road from Jones, was arrested and charged with arson in June 2021 for burning the trailer where Jones’ body was found. At the time, he was not charged with the death of Jones. 

He was indicted in February on a charge of maliciously setting fire to the home of Jones and Terry Henley, according to court records. 

Prior to her death, Henley had expressed frustration on social media about the investigation of her sister-in-law’s death. 

Henely represented District 40 from 2016 to 2020. She ran for a second term in November 2019 but lost by 14 votes. Henley challenged the election results and requested a new election, but that request was denied. 

Before becoming a legislator, she was a teacher. Henley is survived by her husband and a son.

The post Man indicted in killing of former lawmaker Ashley Henley appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today reporters Isabelle Taft, Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison discuss issues related to abortion and health care in Mississippi in light of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision saying abortion is no longer a protected right under the federal Constitution. But importantly, how does the 1998 state Supreme Court decision saying there is a right to an abortion factor into the new world created by the overturning of Roe v. Wade on the federal level?

The post Podcast: The many unanswered questions about abortion in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Unserved 1955 warrant for Carolyn Bryant Donham’s arrest in Emmett Till case found.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Speedy Justice? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Multiple states, ranging from true blue California to deep red South Carolina, are using their sizable growth in revenue collections to return money directly to the taxpayers this year.

Like most other states, Mississippi is experiencing sizable, even unprecedented revenue growth. But the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves opted to not return any of that revenue growth to the citizens this year.

California is returning up to $1,050 on a sliding scale with high wage earners receiving less or nothing at all based on their income levels. But under the California program, a married couple earning $150,000 or less with at least one dependent will receive the full $1,050. California is also using the surplus funds to provide rental assistance. South Carolina is providing up to $800 and Maine is providing up to $1,700 for couples earning less than $200,000.

In total 14 states have doled out some type of stimulus or rebate, and many others are pondering such a move. Many states are saying they are providing the funds to help with the high price of gasoline.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves recently touted on social media that effective July 1 the largest tax cut in Mississippi history would go into effect. Technically it did. The last line of House Bill 531, known as the Mississippi Tax Freedom Act and authored by Speaker Philip Gunn, says the legislation goes into effect July 1, 2022.

But in actuality, the text of the bill reveals that Mississippi taxpayers do not reap any financial benefits from the legislation until 2023 — nothing for the current calendar year.

Starting Jan. 1, 2023, the 4% tax on the first $5,000 of taxable income will be eliminated. That means starting in January, Mississippi workers should receive a little extra in their paychecks, or alternatively, workers will receive the benefit of the tax cut when they file their taxes for 2023 sometime before April 15, 2024.

According to the Tax Foundation, the elimination of the 4% bracket will save Mississippi taxpayers up to $200 in calendar year 2023.

In addition, with the elimination of the 4% bracket, Mississippians will not be taxed on their first $18,000 for a single filer and the first $36,000 for a married couple. When the tax cut is fully enacted in 2026, a married couple earning $80,000 annually will save $834 in state taxes while a single person earning $40,000 will save $417.

State Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, citing data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said of the Mississippi tax cut: “Once fully implemented, only 37% of the tax cut will go to Mississippians earning, on average, $90,000 and less. In other words, nearly two-thirds of the savings from the tax cut will go to the wealthiest 20% of earners.”

Many states opted to take its surplus funds and give a more immediate, one-time benefit. They opted not to provide permanent tax relief until seeing how the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing inflation would impact the economy over a longer period. They did not want to take funds out of state coffers on a yearly basis until they knew more about whether an economic downturn would severely curtail those unprecedented revenue collections.

Some states opted to provide a combination of immediate rebates and a more modest permanent tax cut.

Mississippi leaders chose to eschew immediate relief for a permanent tax cut that when fully enacted will take about $525 million annually out of the roughly $7 billion revenue stream.

At one point this year, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and some senators proposed a combination of a tax cut and a rebate for 2022, but that proposal did not survive.

Instead of providing rebates this year, the Legislature and governor in the 2022 session opted to spend Mississippi’s $1.1 billion in surplus money providing funds for literally hundreds of projects throughout the state. These included enhancing local and state government infrastructure, tourism projects and for various other items.

In total, the Legislature appropriated about $956 million of those $1.1 billion in surplus funds on those projects and on specific needs for state agencies, leaving about $150 million in surplus funds in what is known as the capital expense fund.

The good news for the state and its citizens is that there will likely be another roughly $1.3 billion in surplus funds for the Legislature in 2023 based on the continued strong surge in revenue collections.

Stay tuned for the 2023 session to see how those funds are spent.

The post Many states used surpluses to give taxpayers a rebate. Not Mississippi. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Frank Dungan of Madison needs a liver transplant, but the focus of his past few months has not been his health. His focus has been a battle between his insurance company and his hospital that left him without insurance coverage at the state’s only organ transplant program.

But as of July 1, Dungan has switched insurers, and he’s getting the medical care he’s had to put off – and, most importantly, is back to “active” status on the transplant list.

After Dungan’s hospital, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), went out of network with his insurer Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi on April 1, Dungan spent months trying to get answers about what that meant for him. UMMC marked him as “inactive” on their transplant list, meaning if the perfect liver match became available, he wouldn’t get a call. 

Blue Cross directed him to the transplant program in Memphis, which was over three hours away from his home, a logistical and financial nightmare. He knew very little about the program, and he had spent years building relationships with his doctors at UMMC, which houses the state’s only transplant program. 

Neither Blue Cross nor UMMC would get him answers about what the out-of-pocket costs would be if he got the transplant through UMMC while it was still out of network with Blue Cross. In May, Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney stepped in and sent a letter to both the insurer and UMMC asking they provide him with what he needs. 

But Dungan said he couldn’t get definitive answers and never received anything in writing. 

“It was to the point it would drive you crazy. Every time the phone rang, you were trying to figure out what other freaking problem we had,” he said. 

UMMC and Blue Cross had agreed to mediation to try and settle the contract dispute, but more than two months after the hospital went out of network, a resolution still seems unlikely. Neither UMMC nor Blue Cross will speak publicly about how the negotiations are going.

The dispute stems from disagreements over reimbursement rates, with UMMC insisting Blue Cross is not fairly reimbursing the safety net hospital for its services and Blue Cross maintaining rate hikes would necessitate a substantial increase in member premiums. The hospital’s reimbursement rates are not public record.

In June, when squeezing in his appointments with various specialists before the continuity of care grace period expired for certain Blue Cross members at UMMC on July 1, one of his doctors found something concerning. He had esophageal varices, a condition that requires a medical procedure that uses elastic bands to tie off bleeding veins. If untreated, the varices can rupture and cause severe internal bleeding.

The condition commonly occurs in people with serious liver disease. 

Dungan said his UMMC doctor told him the banding procedure would be “on my dime.” 

Dungan was scared. He worried when going to bed each night if it would be the night he’d bleed out. He knew something had to change.

“I found a (Marketplace) insurance adviser and asked them if there were options (for me) … See, my insurance agent in my hometown had told me you can’t get health insurance except in December, even he gave me erroneous information,” said Dungan. “I was concerned about that, concerned about premiums, concerned about the language … I didn’t understand some of the language (of the policies).” 

He connected with an insurance broker trained in federal Marketplace plans and found out he did not have to wait until December to sign up for a plan. 

“She walked me through the specifics of the policy, and I found it covered what I needed,” he said. “She explained the deductible, the out of pocket, and the premium, everything.”

Dungan, who had an individual policy with Blue Cross, is now covered by Ambetter, which offers health care plans on the federal Marketplace and is accepted by UMMC. He underwent two procedures to address the esophageal varices earlier this month and has visited his dentist to ensure he does not have any infections in his mouth – a requirement for reclaiming his spot on the transplant list.   

Switching insurances is not an option for some people, especially those whose employers only offer Blue Cross to employees.

But he’s starting from square one with his insurance: he has a new out-of-pocket limit to meet of around $8,000. But his monthly premium dropped from almost $1,200 with Blue Cross to $402 with Ambetter, he said. 

“I’m back confident that I’m getting good health care and confident that my bills are not going to be outrageous,” said Dungan. “I’m confident (the UMMC doctors) are keeping an eye on me.” 

The post In need of immediate care, liver transplant candidate drops Blue Cross for Marketplace insurance appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After blowback from House Republicans, Speaker Philip Gunn and Speaker Pro Tem Jason White have backed out of hosting a fundraiser for former Democratic Rep. Shanda Yates, now an independent.

Gunn and White wrote a mea culpa to the House GOP caucus on Thursday. In their memo, they said, “We believe she is considering joining our party and hope she will,” and said they agreed to help with her fundraiser in an effort to get her to join the Republican Party. They said Yates has “voted with Republicans a large portion of the time, which got her kicked out of the Democratic Party.”

But Gunn and White participating in the fundraiser rankled many Republican House members, who said Yates still votes often with Democrats and is backed by some liberal groups. In their memo, the GOP House leaders acknowledged, “Shanda certainly has some liberal ideas and has cast some liberal votes.”

“In hindsight, as your elected Speaker and Pro Tem, we should not have agreed to host the reception unless she switched party affiliation,” Gunn and White wrote. “… because of the reservations expressed by us to many of you, we have informed Shanda that we will not be able to go forward with hosting or attending any reception for a candidate who is not the member of the Republican Party.”

READ MORE: Mississippi Democrats lost a promising up-and-comer in Rep. Shanda Yates. Now what?

Yates on Friday did not immediately respond to a request for comment and question of whether she is considering a switch to Republican.

Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, on social media on Thursday blasted Gunn and White for planning to host the fundraiser and wrote, “The world has turned upside down!”

“The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Pro-Tem raising money for the most liberal members of the House,” Currie wrote. “She voted against pro-life abortion bills and the Fairness Act which keeps males out of female sports … The Speaker has informed lobbyist (sic) to send money to him and not legislators so we are able to run for re-election and he will decide how and who the money will be spent on. I guess this is his pick.”

Members of the Mississippi Freedom Caucus, which includes a small group of conservative House members, issued a press release Thursday calling on “Gunn and White to disavow liberal Shanda Yates.”

“Yates, who beat out a longtime Republican Bill Denny, ran under a far-left progressive platform,” the release said. “… During her time in the Legislature, Yates has authored bill to remove the prohibition on same-sex marriage, allow gay couples to adopt children, allow for early voting and online voter registration and several bills to expand Medicaid … This is certainly a new low for the Republican leadership in the Mississippi Legislature to help fundraise for a legislator that holds such extreme liberal views.”

The release also described White, seen as longtime Speaker Gunn’s heir apparent, as “former-Democrat turned Republican Speaker Pro Tem Jason White.” White was first elected to the House as a Democrat in 2011, but switched to Republican in late 2012 and has been a top lieutenant on Gunn’s GOP leadership team.

Yates of Jackson is in her first term representing the District 64 House seat, taking office in 2020. In January, Yates announced she was switching to independent because “members of my own caucus and party made it clear that I was not wanted within the Democratic Party.”

The post After Republicans complain, Speaker Gunn withdraws from fundraiser for former Democrat Shanda Yates appeared first on Mississippi Today.