Last Updated on July 18, 2023
National File has learned that Mississippi GOP Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann served as the Director and Vice President of a for-profit Jackson abortion clinic, according to official records kept by the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office. Though he claims to be pro-life, Hosemann’s involvement with the abortion clinic hounded his losing congressional campaign decades ago, before being swept under the rug. Delbert Hosemann is up for re-election this year and is currently engaged in the Mississippi GOP’s primary contest.
Delbert Hosemann served as the Director and Vice President of the South Jackson Woman’s Clinic, according to documents kept by the Mississippi Secretary of State. The clinic performed abortions and was a regular target of pro-life demonstrators, who were frequently arrested there in the late 1980s.
Established in 1976, just three years after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide, the South Jackson Woman’s Clinic closed in 1991.
Hosemann’s high-level involvement with the abortion clinic is immortalized in a document kept by the Mississippi Secretary of State, which lists him as a Director and Vice President, alongside Director and President Dr. Larry Lipscomb, of the dissolved South Jackson Woman’s Clinic.
Revelations of his involvement with the abortion clinic hounded Hosemann’s 1998 campaign for Congress and were covered in the media at the time.
He attacked the revelations as “sleazy” but confirmed his involvement with the South Jackson Woman’s Clinic.
Hosemann claimed at the time that his work with the clinic was limited to legal work in the 1970s and 80s, that he was never the clinic’s Director or Vice President, and that there must have been a mistake in the Secretary of State’s document.
Hosemann insisted that the clinic did not perform abortions during his time with them, a claim that Dr. Lipscomb also made in a letter he wrote on Hosemann’s behalf. That claim, however, is completely unverified and appears to be contradicted by media reports of pro-life demonstrations and activism in Jackson in the 1980s that mention the clinic by name.
Hosemann’s assurances and the word of an abortionist seemed to be enough for Mississippi Right to Life and Hosemann received the group’s 1998 endorsement, but lost his congressional election anyways.
After that, Hosemann’s abortion clinic links were seemingly swept under the rug, and even though he lost the congressional contest, his political career continued.
He served as the Secretary of State of Mississippi from 2008-2020, under Governors Barbour and Bryant.
In 2019, Hosemann was elected Lt. Governor and assumed office in January 2020.
It is important to note that, as previously mentioned, Hosemann claims that there is a mistake in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s documents and that he was never the Director or Vice President of the South Jackson Woman’s Clinic.
If this is true, why didn’t he correct the record when he was Secretary of State?
Adding another disturbing layer to the story of the apparently Hosemann-directed South Jackson abortion clinic is the fact that his fellow Director, Dr. Larry Lipscomb, was fined for the illegal dumping of medical waste, which was found in a ditch on the side of the road in the vicinity of the clinic.
The fine was paid by Dr. Lipscomb in 1992, just months after the South Jackson Woman’s Clinic permanently closed.
According to a Clarion-Ledger report dated May 19th, 1992, the waste contained pregnancy tests, blood-filled viles, hypodermic needles, and documents bearing patients’ names. The discarded materials dated as far back as 1987.
In addition to his links to the abortion clinic, Hosemann has been criticized for his response to the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Conservatives and pro-lifers have called his statement on the matter tepidly enthusiastic at best, and some suggest that his statement included a common pro-abortion talking point.
“The Court’s decision today returns the right to protect the unborn to the states. Mississippi is a leader on this critical issue, with a law already in place which will prohibit abortion,” Hosemann said after Roe was struck down. “I am pro-life.”
“I am also pro-child,” he added. “In addition to protecting the unborn, we must also focus on other ways to support women, children, and families.”
The last two sentences of Hosemann’s Roe v. Wade statement have been said to reek of talking points employed by the eugenicists of the 20th century and, increasingly, abortion activists of the 21st century, who claim that to abort a handicapped child or to abort a child out of economic convenience is both pro-child and pro-woman, because it spares both pre-born children and their mother from a potentially rough life.
Related: MS GOP Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann Installed Democrats as Senate Chairmen
