How much do Mississippians value access to birth control?
How much do Mississippians value access to birth control?
I asked around
With several states seeking to limit access to contraception, and efforts underway to do so on the federal level, it is natural to wonder how the idea sits with average Mississippians.
Restricting access to birth control – or even to information about it – may sound ludicrous, yet here we are.
Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance has suggested using a long-dormant 19th century law known as the Comstock Act, which was used to restrict the mailing of contraception, as a way to deny access to abortion pills. The law was named for Anthony Comstock, a prudish anti-vice crusader and U.S. postal inspector whom the irreverent period magazine Puck lampooned as “the village nuisance.”
The Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 likewise supports resurrecting the 1873 law, which a century ago resulted in the imprisonment of birth control proponents for distributing materials deemed “lewd” through the U.S. mail.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has also called for a review of Griswold v. Connecticut, the landmark decision that confirmed the right of married couples to contraception (the rights of single people were later added). Note that some articles linked here are subject to paywalls.
Some far-right conservatives, meanwhile, are “sowing misinformation that inaccurately characterizes IUDs, emergency contraception, even birth-control pills as causing abortions,” the Washington Post reported.
Mississippi’s U.S. senators, Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker, voted against a bill to enshrine the right to contraception in federal law. Gov. Tate Reeves publicly refused to rule out supporting a state birth control ban.
All of which is notable given that Mississippians, like most Americans, have long taken the right to birth control for granted.
Hoping to gage the zeitgeist and get a read on how such prohibitions would sit with local residents, I conducted a series of random Q&As, as well as an ersatz focus group (OK, a bachelorette weekend), in my hometown of Natchez, Mississippi.
The results are not a scientific survey but reflect viewpoints of Mississippians from different walks of life in one prototypical town. Admittedly, that includes my mother and my aunt, who were at the time playing their weekly domino game. In a city of 15,000 where you’ve lived your entire life, almost anyone you encounter is going to be a friend or a friend’s friend, an acquaintance, a mortal enemy or a blood relative. That said, the sources cited here are definitely not a homogeneous group. They represent a fairly typical cross section.
Among the venues I used were various bachelorette hotspots, a family dining room and a cocktail bar. I did not attempt to enter a gas station men’s room to conduct condom machine interviews, though the thought crossed my mind.
Readers who have their own opinions on the topic are encouraged to weigh in, using the comments button below. It would be illuminating to hear from people who are, in fact, against contraception, and why. Spoiler alert: I did not come across anyone who holds such an opinion during these interviews.
The following are responses to the question, “Do you think access to contraception is important?” To protect respondents’ privacy, I have used initials rather than surnames.
“While it isn’t an issue for me personally anymore, I do have a daughter in her twenties. While there may be a few fringe groups that would like to take away contraception, it is not now, nor will [it] ever be on the platform of the current GOP candidate. Scare tactics are being used to promote this idea but it is wrong.” — Jane W., 61, restaurateur
“It’s a top priority because the pull-out method clearly isn’t effective. You can ask my child.” — Kelly G., 39, nurse
“Banning contraception in Mississippi is like banning umbrellas and raincoats assuming it will never rain again.” — Charles P., 38, transportation project manager
“Who, me? As a woman at forty-five, who at least knew there were choices, I’m terrified for and would be terrified if I had lots of fertile years left. I’m scared at forty-five and what are my odds? But I see where it’s going and it’s not good.” — Elizabeth H., 45, college professor
“It’s important that everyone be able to have access to birth control, not only for unintended pregnancies but for the health of women who have hormone issues such as endometriosis. As a young woman about to be married, I fall into both those categories.” — Madeline B., 29, radiologic technologist
“It’s super important to me to have access to contraception because I think it’s crucial to be able to choose when or if you want to get pregnant. You can’t trust or rely on the everyday Joe to do his part, and even when you try to put that trust in them... he’ll probably do it wrong anyways.” — Monique R., 31, florist
“We already have enough dumbasses running around Mississippi. We need to keep the birth control around... and this is coming from a Catholic.” — Elizabeth W., 29, optical assistant
“It’s important to me because it’s my right to be able to choose if I want to take birth control or not. It’s good for it to be accessible because we don’t need more idiots running around reproducing more idiots. However, idiots usually aren’t the ones taking birth control to begin with, so I don’t know if that even matters.” — Emma H., 28, restaurant manager
“It’s very important for me to have access to contraceptives. My career is a major aspect of my life right now and contraceptives give me the peace of mind to focus on my work without the stress of an unplanned pregnancy.” — Kathryn L., 33, artist
“Here in Mississippi, as my boyfriend from Louisiana likes to tell me, we have limited access to any good healthcare. So, while it obviously doesn’t affect me directly at all, I think our state has proven that a lot of bad things could be prevented with easier access.” — Oran C., 31, marketing manager
“We’ve got enough deadbeat dads. We don’t need any more.” — Margaret, 58, teacher
“We’ve got enough babies taking care of babies.” — Kathy G., 65, teacher
“Mississippi cannot afford not to provide free contraception. Pay now or pay double later!” — Sissy D., 64, teacher
Up next: How contraception became a political target
Image: Puck magazine cover, via Library of Congress; Natchez map, via VisitNatchez.org; empty pill packet, via Peter Pappas/Creative Commons
Kerry Rose Graning is a Mississippi writer, artist and lapsed archaeologist. Her work has appeared in the Oxford American, the Bitter Southerner, and Hakai, among other publications. She is currently at work on a documentary about the SEC, a family road trip, and the scattering of her grandfather’s ashes.
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