(Photo: Pink House via Jackson Women's Health Organization Facebook)
DeKalb, IL — A 20-year-old Mississippi woman is fighting back against the state’s harsh abortion law by escorting patients past confrontations and protests and into abortion clinics.
Asia Brown is the only Black volunteer patient escort at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Many of the women who come to the clinic, known as the “Pink House,” are Black. However, most of the protesters are white, as are most of the clinics’ volunteers.
Brown said she got involved with the Jackson Women’s Health Organization after the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Brown came across a Facebook page documenting the wild and often evasive antics of anti-abortion protesters outside the clinic.
“I can’t imagine the fear, the shame, the panic they must feel when they’re driving up,” Brown said of the patients, according to The Grio.
Last month, the Supreme Court decided to hear a case started by a 2018 Mississippi law that limits access to abortions in the state. The law, which has not been enforced, imposes a ban on almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Last year, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a law that bans abortion based on the race, sex, or genetic anomalies of a fetus, such as Down syndrome.
Brown credits her grandmother for shaping her understanding of race and gender.
“If I have children, these are the things I’m going to be able to tell them,” Brown said, according to The Grio. “I find a lot of what I do comes from a long line of resistance and fighting for survival.”