Pink to white: What has happened to the "Pink House" one year after abortion clinic closed
A year ago, the intersection of North State Street and Fondren Place looked a lot different.
Anti-abortion protesters and pro-abortion activists — some with signs, others with Bibles — swarmed around a small pink building: The Jackson Women's Health Organization clinic, known as the Pink House. It was the last abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi.
June 24th marks one year since the United States Supreme Court ruled against the clinic in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a landmark decision in which the court held the Constitution does not give women the right to an abortion. The court's decision overturned Roe v. Wade, as well as Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Twelve days later, the Pink House was forced to close its doors after Mississippi's trigger laws went into effect, banning nearly all abortions. The closing of the clinic ended decades of conflict. Now, the closest states for Mississippi women who are seeking an abortion are Illinois and North Carolina.
The Pink House is now white and inside you will find a collection of luxury furniture and artwork. The tiny patients' rooms where women would see doctors have had their walls knocked down to open up the space.
The consignment shop is called Hunt and is owned by David Carpenter. He bought the property in July 2022 and moved his shop from its former location on Old Canton Road this past March. It was always a dream of his to open a consignment shop and when he moved from Atlanta to Jackson five years ago, he decided to make it happen. He has now owned the store for four and half years.
For Carpenter, who refused to comment on whether he was pro-life or pro-choice, the decision to buy the property was all business.
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"It's in the heart of Fondren, it's prime location everything is pretty much within walking distance," Carpenter said. "I wanted to be accessible and with the hotel being next door it's appealing not to just the locals but also to the people out of town."
He said he wasn't concerned about the building being known as a former abortion clinic. Nobody has bothered him about the building's history, Carpenter said, and he has only received some calls from residents saying they are glad to see a new business in Fondren.
"I've had very positive feedback," he said. "It only helps the community when there's something else, another business, that's keeping the community viable."
On to pinker pastures
On the last days of the Pink House being open in Jackson, Shannon Brewer said she remembers it felt like the doctors and staff were working around the clock.
"Patients were coming from everywhere, patients were calling all day. It seemed like everybody and all the patients were panicked about the facility closing," Brewer said. "I remember that very vividly. Reporters were everywhere, protesters were everywhere. It was pretty hectic."
Brewer, who was talking on the phone from Las Cruces, New Mexico, is the executive director of the Las Cruces Women's Health Organization abortion clinic, now known as "Pink House West." It is the new facility the organization opened in August after having to shutter the Mississippi clinic. On that last day, she remembers her staff being "devastated."
Since then, she has traveled back to Jackson regularly to visit family and has driven by the former clinic and seen the now white shop that has taken its place — a feeling she described as strange because she had spent a majority of her life there. The color also threw her off.
"Someone had already sent me a picture of it before I came, but actually passing by there and seeing it was weird," she said. "It was kind of weird, not only the clinic not being there after all these years, but (also) the color of it. I thought that was a weird color, to paint it white."
Brewer said she misses the clinic and the women of Mississippi because "I knew them and I knew their struggles and everything they were dealing with." She first got started at the clinic when her aunt, who was the former director, called her one day and asked if she had any interest in working part-time.
The main thing Brewer said she misses about the Pink House is the women of Mississippi.
"I'm still dealing with women, but it's a different type of women because it's a different type of area, and their needs are different," Brewer said. "So, I'm learning these new needs, as opposed to what I was used to (in Mississippi), so I kind of miss talking to those women a lot. ... I understand the struggles of trying to make it in Mississippi, trying to put food on the table in Mississippi. I understand being a single parent, I understand struggling, I understand everything that women go through everyday there."
One employee of the Jackson clinic joined Brewer in her move to Las Cruces and she said she tries her best to stay in touch with other staff members who worked at the Pink House.
Brewer's organization has also opened an abortion clinic in Bristol, Virginia where she said she has seen some of the same anti-abortion protesters who also protested at the Jackson location. There is also going to be a clinic opening in Chicago in the coming weeks.
"I just want everybody to know — because I know a lot of people there (in Jackson) — that I'm still fighting for women, just at a different address," Brewer said.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: See what stands where last MS abortion clinic once stood
