Mississippi’s just-closed abortion clinic asks state’s highest court to allow it to reopen

by Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today
July 7, 2022

Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which was the state’s only abortion clinic before it was forced to close Thursday, is asking the Mississippi Supreme Court to allow it to reopen next week.

The request is based on the state Supreme Court’s 1998 decision that said the Mississippi Constitution provided women the right to an abortion. That decision has not been overturned and supersedes laws passed by the Legislature banning abortion in most instances, attorneys for the abortion clinic argue.

The petition filed Thursday with the Supreme Court comes on the heels of Tuesday’s ruling by Chancery Judge Debbra Halford of Franklin County refusing a request for a temporary restraining order allowing the clinic to remain open.

The filing before the Supreme Court noted that Halford opened the hearing on Tuesday with a prayer by a specially-appointed chaplain: “Lord, we pray for the presence of your Holy Spirit in this courtroom today … We seek your truth, not our own. We seek your wisdom, not our own. Bless and inspire Judge Halford in her deliberations and judgments here today.”

The abortion rights supporters are asking the Court to suspend two laws. Mississippi has a trigger law that went into effect based on the U.S. Supreme Court landmark ruling in late June overturning Roe v. Wade, which had recognized abortion rights in the U.S. Constitution.

Another law in Mississippi banning abortions after six weeks also went into effect as a result of the overturning of Roe.

“We hope the Mississippi Supreme Court will abide by its prior ruling that the Mississippi Constitution protects the rights of women to make their own decisions in matters of child birth. But unfortunately, we live in a time when settled rules of law are being cast aside. We hope that doesn’t happen here,” said Jackson attorney Rob McDuff, of the Mississippi Center for Justice, who is representing the clinic. The Center for Reproductive Rights also is representing the clinic.

McDuff argued before Halford that those laws would be trumped by the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling saying abortion rights were protected under the Mississippi Constitution. Only the state Supreme Court could reverse that opinion just as only the U.S. Supreme Court could reverse the Roe decision, McDuff argued Tuesday before Halford.

Halford rejected McDuff’s argument, refusing to grant the temporary restraining order because, she said, it was likely that the state Supreme Court would reverse the 1998 ruling.

In the filing before the Supreme Court, the clinic said Halford “abused her discretion” by basing her ruling on what she believed the Supreme Court would do.

“That reasoning is contrary to the rule of law and to this Court’s authority to have the final word on the meaning of the Mississippi Constitution,” the filing said.

The office of Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued against suspending the enactment of the trigger law and the six-week ban. Fitch also filed the lawsuit – Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – that led to the Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Fitch’s office argued before Halford that the 1998 ruling by the state’s highest court was made based on the fact Roe was national law. Now that Roe has been overturned, the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling is no longer good law. But McDuff pointed out nowhere in the 1998 ruling was that connection made.

The trigger law bans all abortions except in cases where the life of the mother is at risk or in cases of law enforcement-reported rapes. The other law bans abortions after six weeks except in cases of medical emergencies.

“We are simply asking the MS Supreme Court to uphold its own ruling. It would be a mistake to reverse decades of precedent and allow government and politics to override a woman’s right to make health decisions directly impacting her life,” said Vangela Wade, chief executive officer of the Mississippi Center for Justice.

Vangela Wade is a Mississippi Today board member.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Remembering James Caan, ‘Brian’s Song’ and coming of age

by Rick Cleveland, Mississippi Today
July 7, 2022

Gifted actor James Caan died today at the age of 82, leaving behind a remarkable list of memorable characters he played on the big screen and television. Yes, and today, upon hearing the news, I feel a good bit older.

Younger viewers likely will remember Jimmy Caan from playing Will Farrell’s daddy in “Elf.” His most famous role, surely, was that of Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather,” perhaps the greatest movie ever made.

But I will always remember him best for his role as Chicago Bears football player Brian Piccolo in “Brian’s Song.” There’s a story there. Today, I’d like to tell it.

“Brian’s Song” came out on television in 1971. It was the ABC Movie of the Week, and it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. I was 18, trying my best to become a man. I watched with my brother Bobby and my mother on the console TV in the den of our Hattiesburg home.

I wasn’t expecting much, to tell you the truth. TV movies usually weren’t especially good in those days. I didn’t know much about Caan’s work, and Billy Dee Williams, his co-star, was yet to become as widely known as “Brian’s Song” would make him.

I loosely knew the story before watching the movie. I knew that Sayers was one of the greatest football players I had ever witnessed. I knew that he and Piccolo had been Bears teammates in the same backfield. I knew Piccolo had died. There was so much I did not know.

So we watched and the film not only drew us in, but gripped us and gripped us tightly. The late William Blinn’s award-winning script was powerful. But it was the acting — Caan’s Piccolo, Williams’ Gale Sayers and Jack Warden’s George Halas — that made the film so compelling. 

Blinn’s script won an Emmy. Warden won a Peabody Award for best supporting actor. Caan and Williams were both nominated in the best leading actor category. Neither won, and I am not sure how you would have awarded one over the other. Both were terrific.

You probably know the story: Piccolo and Sayers are teammates, Sayers by far the more talented of the two. They become friends. Sayers, a generational athlete, is injured and Piccolo takes his place in the lineup and is the star of a huge Bears’ victory. Meanwhile, Piccolo helps Sayers in his recovery, even challenging him in a race in which Sayers stumbles, but still wins. Piccolo switches positions to fullback and becomes a starter in the same Bears backfield as Sayers.

But then Piccolo begins to lose weight and his performance declines. He is diagnosed with cancer, loses a lung and eventually his life. There are so many poignant scenes filled with pathos and often humor.

Sayers and the Bears are about to play a huge game while the critically ill Piccolo is hospitalized. Sayers challenges the team to win the game for Piccolo, a feat they can’t quite pull off. When the players visit the hospital afterward, Piccolo teases them that the line in the old Ronald Reagan movie wasn’t, “Let’s lose one for the Gipper.”

By then, we were laughing through watery eyes. Then came the scene in which Sayers, being presented the Halas Award as the Bears’ most courageous player, tells the crowd they have chosen the wrong player, that he was accepting for his friend, Brian Piccolo. “I love Brian Piccolo,” Sayers says, struggling for the words, “and I’d like all of you to love him, too. And tonight, when you hit your knees, please ask God to love him.”

By then, the three of us were sobbing, Mama openly while Bobby and I tried to hide our emotions, which neither of us did very well.

A day or two later, our good pal Tim Floyd, the future famous basketball coach, was visiting and Mama told him about the movie and about how Bobby and I cried like babies. Tim laughed and laughed and said something like, “Real men don’t cry.”

Flash forward a few months to the next summer. The re-runs are on and “Brian’s Song” is playing again on the TV in our den. This time, Floyd, future coach of the Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Hornets, has joined us to watch. I made sure of that.

We get toward the end of the movie. Billy Dee WIlliams is making his speech. Mama, Bobby and I hear a muffled sob from across the room. We look. Tim has his head buried in one of the pillows on our couch.

My mama, bless her heart, gets the points for what she said during the closing credits: “Timmy Floyd, what was that you said last year about real men?…”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.