Attorney General Lynn Fitch promoting virtual baby shower to support pregnancy centers statewide

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Mississippi is still waiting on an abortion case decision from the Supreme Court. But the state is placing more attention on support available for expectant mothers.

“Will you join me in throwing a virtual baby shower for pregnancy centers all across Mississippi?” asked Attorney General Lynn Fitch in a pre-recorded video attached in a media release Monday.

There are Amazon wish lists posted for the state’s 30 pregnancy centers. It’s the framework of supports that Fitch says will be even more important “when the Supreme Court releases its hold on abortion policymaking.”

We visited one of those centers Monday. They say those material items will help. But they offer more than that - things like sonograms and counseling.

“We’re concerned not necessarily about access to abortion, but what’s causing a woman to consider abortion, what’s making her feel like she doesn’t have the help and the support that she needs, or what situation is she in that is driving her to that,” noted Erin Kate Good, Center for Pregnancy Choices Metro Area Executive Director. “And so that’s where we come in, and our clinic and our clinics are free. They get to walk through the decision, and we’re able to fill those gaps and connect her to resources and support and the community is very important.”

They do note that their conversations with the women cover all their options: becoming a parent, abortion and adoption. And in the Governor’s State of the State address, he referenced the need for supports.

“In the coming months, we will be promoting plans to further protect mothers in our state to ensure that they don’t just receive the basics, that they get the best possible care during their pregnancy. We will work to make it even easier to adopt a Mississippi child into a forever home. We will go further than just preventing abortion.”

But groups like Planned Parenthood Southeast had a different reaction to the Valentine’s Day “virtual shower.”

“I’m more concerned with why did it take this Supreme Court case for our state to be interested in supporting women in this way?” asked Mississippi State Director for Planned Parenthood Southeast Tyler Harden. “These are things that have been exemplified for need for us leading for a very long time. It shouldn’t take a Supreme Court case for folks to realize that there should be more support and more options available for people to protect and carry their pregnancies.”

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