- The Mississippi Center for Justice dropped a lawsuit seeking to restore legal abortion in the state.
- The legal challenge was pulled after the state's last abortion clinic shut down and was sold.
- The state's last clinic was shut down and sold because of "dim prospects for a speedy and meaningful ruling," a lawyer said.
A lawsuit filed by the Mississippi Center for Justice to reinstate legal abortion in the state has been dropped as the last remaining clinic — which was at the center of the landmark Supreme Court case overturning Roe v. Wade — was shut down and sold this week.
"Diane Derzis, the clinic's owner, has now sold the clinic's building in light of the dim prospects for a speedy and meaningful ruling that would allow the clinic to reopen," Rob McDuff, one of the attorneys for the Jackson Women's Health Organization who works at the Mississippi Center for Justice said in a statement.
"Accordingly, we have dismissed our case on the clinic's behalf. If the clinic is not in a position to reopen in Mississippi, it no longer has a basis to pursue this case in the courts," McDuff added.
The state lawsuit — based on a 1998 decision from Mississippi's state Supreme Court that ensured the right to abortion — was filed on behalf of the Jackson Women's Health Organization just after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade that enshrined the federal right to an abortion.
Mississippi's trigger ban, which completely banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, went into effect on July 7, shortly after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was decided on June 24.
McDuff said state court denied the organization's motion to block the ban. He added that The Mississippi Supreme Court then declined to hear an appeal on an emergency basis.
"Diane's work is not done and we applaud her commitment to continuing to ensure people can exercise their right to abortion," McDuff said in the statement.
He added that she is working on opening a new clinic in Las Cruces, New Mexico, "where she can provide abortion care without fear of being put in prison for 10 years."