Federal judge blocks Arkansas law banning nearly all abortions

Law, which was set to take effect on Friday, was approved by Republican-led legislature and signed by Asa Hutchinson

Maya Yang and agencies

Wed 21 Jul 2021

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a law passed in Arkansas that would ban
nearly all abortions.

The law, which was set to take effect on Friday, had been approved by
Arkansas’s Republican-led legislature and signed by the state’s Republican
governor, Asa Hutchinson.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/21/arkansas-abortion-ban-federal-judge-blocks


Activist artists hang ‘God Bless Abortions’ banner on Christ of the Ozarks monument

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS NEWS
by: Heath Higgs
Posted: Jul 9, 2021

EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A group of activist artists is claiming responsibility for a banner strung across the Christ of the Ozarks monument in Eureka Springs overnight on Friday.

Guerilla art collective Indecline said in a press release that it is responsible for a “God Bless Abortions” banner hanging across the 67-foot statue of Jesus located atop Magnetic Mountain.

Continued: https://www.nwahomepage.com/northwest-arkansas-news/activist-artists-hang-god-bless-abortions-banner-on-christ-of-the-ozarks-monument/


Arkansas near-total abortion ban certain to face legal showdown

The bill does not does not include exceptions for rape and incest.

By Ivan Pereira
10 March 2021

Arkansas's latest move to restrict abortion access for its residents will likely head to court as proponents and opponents of a new law debate over the future of reproductive rights in the state.

Both sides of the issue contend that the legal battle could have larger implications for the rest of the country.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/arkansas-total-abortion-ban-face-legal-showdown/story?id=76368920


Contemporary abortion restrictions and cautionary tales from history

Carla Ramazan
Dec 18, 2020
Reno Gazette Journal

Nearly 20 years ago, my aunt died obtaining an unsafe abortion in our home country, Romania, because federal laws made it impossible to safely terminate a pregnancy. Today, the United States is bordering on a reality where abortion is inaccessible, if not illegal, especially in Republican-controlled states such as Arkansas. This year, a federal court ruled that a variety of first-of-their-kind abortion regulations can be implemented in Arkansas. This decision will push those who seek abortion-care into dark situations.

Beginning this August, doctors in Arkansas
are prohibited from performing dilation and evacuation abortions on patients,
and consequences for not complying include up to six years in prison. Doctors
will also be required to notify local law enforcement when patients under the
age of 17 seek an abortion and will be forced to involve family members of the
patient in deciding how to dispose of fetal tissue remains.

Continued: https://www.rgj.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/12/19/contemporary-abortion-restrictions-and-cautionary-tales-history-ramazan/3953803001/


USA – John Roberts’ Stealth Attack on Abortion Rights Just Paid Off

A federal appeals court will allow Arkansas to create degrading new hurdles for people seeking abortions.

By Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern
Aug 07, 2020

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in June Medical v. Russo was hailed by many liberal court watchers as a win for reproductive rights, as the court declined to overturn Roe v. Wade and formally eliminate the right to an abortion. On Friday, however, a federal appeals court ruled that June Medical significantly narrowed the constitutional right to abortion access. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel swept away an injunction that had blocked Arkansas from enforcing a slew of abortion restrictions, including a requirement that patients pregnant as a result of rape notify their rapists before terminating their pregnancy. The appellate court’s decision confirms that Chief Justice John Roberts’ controlling opinion in June Medical will serve as a tool to eviscerate abortion rights. Those who briefly heralded him as a champion of reproductive freedom were too caught up in the halftime show to see the game.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/john-roberts-8th-circuit-abortion-rights-arkansas.html


The Inside Story Of How Arkansas Exploited COVID To Stop Abortions

The Inside Story Of How Arkansas Exploited COVID To Stop Abortions
Under pressure by anti-abortion activists ― including a board of health member ― the state health department became a weapon in the war against abortion.

By Melissa Jeltsen, HuffPost US
June 22, 2020

On the first day of April, Marsha Boss, a 68-year-old Catholic pharmacist, uploaded a photo to Facebook. Snapped on a sunny day, it showed the parking lot outside Little Rock Family Planning Services, one of two abortion clinics left in Arkansas. “We watched three cars from Texas come in, three from Tennessee and one from Alabama all coming to our great state to get an abortion,” she wrote in her post. “How sad is that?”

In private, around the same time, Boss was extending her disapproval to state health officials. Over text messages and in phone calls, she complained that the clinic was violating social distancing guidelines, performing “25 to 30” abortions a day, and warned that out-of-town patients ― many of whom were fleeing abortion bans their states put in place after coronavirus hit ― might spread the infectious disease in Arkansas. She also said she saw someone carrying coveted surgical masks into the clinic, as well as beer.

Continued: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/arkansas-coronavirus-abortion_n_5eeba27ac5b6413b964e4caa?ri18n=true


Why this law could be a bigger threat to Roe v. Wade than near-total abortion bans

Why this law could be a bigger threat to Roe v. Wade than near-total abortion bans
An Arkansas law is less sweeping than bans on abortion in places like Alabama. It could be more dangerous for Roe v. Wade.

By Anna North
Jul 24, 2019

Near-total bans on abortion in Alabama and elsewhere around the country have gotten a lot of coverage in recent months.

But an Arkansas law requiring physician certification could have nearly the same effect without banning the procedure outright — and it might have a better shot at surviving a court challenge

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2019/7/24/20708762/arkansas-abortion-news-roe-wade-supreme-court


Millions of Women Already Live in a Post-Roe America: A Journey Through the Anti-Abortion South

Millions of Women Already Live in a Post-Roe America: A Journey Through the Anti-Abortion South

Jordan Smith
January 18 2019
Video by Maisie Crow, Lauren Feeney

I met Danielle in the counseling room of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson, Mississippi, which sits on a busy corner in the city’s arts district. Its vibrant pink paint job has earned it the name “the Pink House,” and it is the state’s only remaining abortion clinic.

Dressed in gray sweatpants and a T-shirt, Danielle looked pensive as she sat in a narrow room in the back of the building alongside 12 other women there for abortion care. Betty Thompson, a counselor who has worked at the clinic for 24 years, stood before the women, ready to walk them through the necessary paperwork and go over next steps.

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2019/01/18/abortion-roe-v-wade-reproductive-rights/


USA – Reproductive Rights at Risk With or Without Roe

Reproductive Rights at Risk With or Without Roe
In much of the country, access to abortion has already been blocked by state governments, especially for women in poverty. And if Roe goes, access will be scarcer still.

Kalena Thomhave
January 11, 2019

Recent discussions of abortion rights have been understandably chock-full of apocalyptic imagery and language. Some protesters at the U.S. Capitol in the Trump era have dressed as handmaids à la The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s story of an ultra-conservative totalitarian government that compels women to have the children of the wealthy and powerful. After Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, many — on both the left and right — assumed that Roe v. Wade was soon to fall. “Roe v. Wade is doomed,”CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin pronounced last June to much media fanfare.

Continued: https://prospect.org/article/reproductive-rights-risk-or-without-roe-0


USA – The other abortion ban

The other abortion ban
I wanted to provide abortions for my patients. My med school wouldn’t teach me how.

By Stephanie Ho
January 4, 2019

Last year brought one of the toughest moments I’d ever faced as a family doctor. A woman had shown up for her appointment after a three-hour drive to one of our clinics in Arkansas, and we had to turn her away. A state restriction had gone into effect, requiring that abortion providers contract with a physician who has hospital-admitting privileges. It works by weaponizing antiabortion attitudes within the medical community.

My staff and I had been attempting to comply with the law since it was passed in 2015. We reached out to every OB/GYN we could find. Receptionists would hang up on us or refuse to take a message. The doctors who did answer said that while they might personally support a woman’s right to choose, their colleagues did not. One told me that for him to sign on as a backup, he’d need permission not only from his hospital administrator but also from the Diocese of Little Rock — “and after that,” he added, “the pope.” We finally found a willing obstetrician in November.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2019/01/04/feature/i-wanted-to-provide-abortions-for-my-patients-my-med-school-wouldnt-teach-me-how/