Meet The Good Doctor at Mississippi’s Only Abortion Clinic

By Carla Murphy Jul 31, 2014

Dr. Willie Parker provides abortions because he is a Christian. It’s a viewpoint that trips up the anti-abortion protesters outside Mississippi’s only (and besieged) abortion clinic, the doctor says in an amazing Esquire profile. A 2-to-1 appellate court ruling yesterday spared the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. But that’s a small victory for women and families in the South. From the article:

…[A] similar law [requiring abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges] may soon leave the state of Texas–home to twenty-seven million people–with just six abortion clinics. It is already law in North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah and looms over Alabama, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Louisiana and is likely to spread to other states, pressed by a nationwide conservative movement that uses regulation to force a result democratic votes cannot achieve. So Parker flies down from his home in Chicago for several days twice a month to perform the service so few other doctors are willing to provide.

Parker at one point in his career refused to do abortions. But he had what he calls a "come to Jesus," moment. Check out his Esquire profile as well as the conditions facing women seeking help at Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Let us know what you think.