Missouri’s last abortion clinic will stay open after ruling ends contentious year-long legal battle

Missouri’s last abortion clinic will stay open after ruling ends contentious year-long legal battle

By Reis Thebault and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
May 29, 2020

Missouri has narrowly avoided a return to a time before Roe v. Wade after an independent arbiter ruled that its last operating abortion clinic can continue offering the procedure.

After a year-long legal battle that pitted allegations of grave violations against accusations of regulatory overreach, the Planned Parenthood in St. Louis won a rare victory in a state that has become increasingly hostile to abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/29/ruling-saves-missouri-abortion-clinic/

As Missouri Clinic Awaits Its Legal Fate, Abortions In State Have Virtually Halted

As Missouri Clinic Awaits Its Legal Fate, Abortions In State Have Virtually Halted

March 12, 2020
Sarah McCammon

Missouri could soon become the first state in the nation without a clinic providing abortions, but Planned Parenthood officials say the last remaining one there has already all-but ceased performing the procedure.

The clinic, Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, is at the center of a licensing dispute between the organization and Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson's administration. That clinic's future is in the hands of a state commission that is expected to issue a decision in the coming weeks or months.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/12/814768754/as-missouri-clinic-awaits-its-legal-fate-abortions-in-state-have-virtually-halte

Missouri – “The right to abortion has been decimated”: Shocking stories characterize abortion rights hearing

"The right to abortion has been decimated": Shocking stories characterize abortion rights hearing
Missouri women were subject to needless pelvic exams, part of a cruel tactic from anti-choice legislators

Shira Tarlo
November 17, 2019

After she learned her fetus was affected by a rare, severe abnormality that would result in her pregnancy ending either in stillbirth or a baby whose life necessitated immediate medical intervention, a small business owner from Missouri and her husband decided the "greatest act of love" they could take as parents would be to terminate the pregnancy. In deciding to terminate the pregnancy, the couple didn't expect politics to play a role in their experience — but that's exactly what happened.

"Libby's story is heartbreakingly linked with the political landscape in Missouri — something I never thought I would have to navigate when learning the most devastating news of our life," Jennifer Box said in emotional testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. "This meant I moved at the direction of the government."

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2019/11/17/the-right-to-abortion-has-been-decimated-shocking-stories-characterize-abortion-rights-hearing/

USA – Sex-selective abortions: Reproductive rights are being pitted against gender equality

Sex-selective abortions: Reproductive rights are being pitted against gender equality
Critics say the bans are "anti-abortion ruses" rooted in an effort to racially profile Asian American and Pacific Islander women.

Oct. 27, 2019
By Safia Samee Ali

When Dr. Colleen McNicholas treats a woman seeking an abortion in Missouri, she must, under penalty of law, ask a series of uncomfortable questions probing why the woman wants the procedure, including if it’s because of the fetus's gender.

That question, which she said patients find “absurd” and “completely inappropriate,” is a requirement that was left intact by a Missouri federal judge who halted several other restrictive measures, such as a ban on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy, signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, in May in an effort to block abortion access.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sex-selective-abortions-reproductive-rights-are-being-pitted-against-gender-n1067886

USA – The Strategy Behind Where to Build Abortion Clinics

The Strategy Behind Where to Build Abortion Clinics
The bifurcation of abortion access in the United States means more clinics should be built on the border of states with onerous anti-choice restrictions, advocates say.

Oct 11, 2019
Erin Heger

After 18 months of secret construction, Planned Parenthood will open one of the nation’s largest abortion clinics in southern Illinois this month, expanding access not just in the state but across the midwest.

The new health center in Fairview Heights, Illinois, will replace the city’s smaller Planned Parenthood clinic, which provided family planning and medication abortion services to more than 5,000 patients in 2018. The location of the new facility, just 13 miles from Missouri’s last remaining abortion clinic in St. Louis, was strategically chosen to reach as many patients in the region as possible, said Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2019/10/11/the-strategy-behind-where-to-build-abortion-clinics/

USA – Violence against abortion clinics hit a record high last year. Doctors say it’s getting worse.

Violence against abortion clinics hit a record high last year. Doctors say it's getting worse.

By Kate Smith
Updated on: September 17, 2019

For one of the last abortion doctors in Missouri, harassment, stalking and death threats are a part of regular life. But this year, it's been worse than ever.

Colleen McNicholas, the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, is one of many providers who told CBS News they've seen an uptick in violence this year, both against themselves and their clinics. They say the increased harassment has coincided with newly enacted state laws restricting legal abortion and polarizing rhetoric surrounding the procedure.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/violence-against-abortion-clinics-like-planned-parenthood-hit-a-record-high-last-year-doctors-say-its-getting-worse/

USA – I Volunteered For Abortion Rights In Missouri & It Made Me Rethink My Entire Life

I Volunteered For Abortion Rights In Missouri & It Made Me Rethink My Entire Life

By Kara Lewis
August 22, 2019

In this op-ed, writer Kara Lewis explains how volunteering at a Planned Parenthood clinic changed what feminism meant to her.

Imagine living in a place where legislators banned abortion after eight weeks, with no exceptions for rape, human trafficking, incest, or fatal abnormalities. Then, if someone manages to confirm a pregnancy within this period — often, it takes people up to 12 weeks to verify that they are pregnant — they might have to travel more than 200 miles to the state’s lone, persecuted abortion clinic. Along the way, they can expect to see car license plates emblazoned with “Choose Life,” a campaign that funnels money from these plate sales into anti-abortion organizations. They might also stumble upon one of the state’s estimated 69 tax-funded crisis pregnancy centers, which masquerade as real health clinics but peddle religious sentiments and misinformation.

Continued: https://www.bustle.com/p/i-volunteered-for-abortion-rights-in-missouri-it-made-me-rethink-my-entire-life-18687253

Missouri and the Fight for Abortion Rights: How Past Became Prologue

Missouri and the Fight for Abortion Rights: How Past Became Prologue
Missouri’s historic battle for abortion rights presaged in important ways where we are today, and what will be required of reproductive rights advocates in the future.

Aug 1, 2019
Angela Bonavoglia

The time, the late 1960s; the place, St. Louis, Missouri. Judy Widdicombe, a twenty-something self-described supermom, was raising two boys with her husband, working as a labor and delivery nurse in a Catholic hospital, and volunteering one night a week as a counselor on a suicide prevention hotline.

“In those days, there was no official place a woman with an unwanted pregnancy could go for help,” she told me when I interviewed her for my book, The Choices We Made: 25 Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2019/08/01/missouri-and-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-how-past-became-prologue/

01.08.2019

American Civil Liberties Union

Arlene Carmen

bomb threats

Clergy Consultation Service of Missouri

clinic picketing

Closed: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion

Judson Memorial Church

Judy Widdicombe

Justice Blackmun

Kathryn Kolbert

manual vacuum aspiration

National Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion

peritonitis

Planned Parenthood Missouri

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Pro-Life Action League

prosecuting women for abortion

Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region

Reverend Howard Moody

Roe v. Wade

self-induced abortion

self-managed abortion

septicemia

The Choices We Made: 25 Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion

undue burden standard

Webster v. Reproductive Health Services

USA – How Health Officials in Pro-Life States Are Quietly Dismantling Abortion Access

How Health Officials in Pro-Life States Are Quietly Dismantling Abortion Access
Without the fanfare of a bill signing or a Supreme Court decision, the first state without an abortion clinic is in sight.

Rosemary Westwood
July 31, 2019

One spring day in 2017, Dr. Ernest Marshall received an inauspicious letter from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the state's health agency. Marshall, a Louisville native with a round face and a trimmed mustache, has been an OB-GYN and teacher with the University of Louisville School of Medicine for nearly four decades. For just as long, he's owned what is now the state's last abortion clinic. EMW Women's Surgical Center sits on a stretch of sprawling, sparsely populated real estate in downtown Louisville, across from a cinema-sized money lender and down the block from a Subway restaurant.

Continued: https://psmag.com/social-justice/how-health-officials-in-pro-life-states-are-quietly-dismantling-abortion-access

31.07.2019

Commentary

Featured

American Civil Liberties Union

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

anti-choice restrictions

Brigitte Amiri

Capital Care Network

Center for Reproductive Rights

Dr. Ernest Marshall

EMW Women’s Surgical Center

Guttmacher Institute

Hope Medical Group for Women

Jennifer Branch

John Kasich

Kathaleen Pittman

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services

KentuckyOne

Kim Greene

licensing of abortion clinics

Martin Haskell

Matt Bevin

Mike Parson

Operation Save America

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky

Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers

transfer agreements with hospitals

TRAP laws

Vickie Yates Brown Glisson

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt

USA – Here are the 5 things to watch for next in the abortion debate

Here are the 5 things to watch for next in the abortion debate
Most legislatures in antiabortion states are out for the summer. But bills are still being debated by lawmakers and challenged in the courts.

Caroline Kitchener
June 10, 2019

Since January, when most state legislatures convened for their first session since Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, there has been a flurry of far-right abortion legislation. Nine states have passed bills narrowing the time period in which women can legally access abortion. Alabama has effectively banned abortion altogether. (The bills have not yet taken effect, and many have already been challenged in court.)

While a handful of states stay in session year-round, most state legislatures have adjourned for the year. That means there probably won’t be much more antiabortion legislation passed in 2019.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/here-are-the-5-things-to-watch-for-next-in-the-abortion-debate/