USA – These States Have More Abortion Clinics Today Than They Did a Decade Ago

These States Have More Abortion Clinics Today Than They Did a Decade Ago
Even as Republican-dominated legislatures passed laws designed to shut down clinics from coast to coast, some states saw an uptick in abortion clinics.

Dec 23, 2019
Alys Brooks

In a decade in which dozens of abortion clinics were shut down by medically unnecessary state laws, around 14 states—mostly in the Northeast and West—have seen an increase in clinics, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.

While the latest Guttmacher data is from 2017, other research, including a recent Abortion Care Network report focusing on independent clinics, indicates that clinics continue to close at an alarming rate. These closures include abortion clinics in states with Democratic-majority legislatures, like Whole Woman’s Health in Illinois, which closed in June, the same month Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed a landmark pro-choice law.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2019/12/23/these-states-have-more-abortion-clinics-today-than-they-did-a-decade-ago/


Why a NY woman came to Colorado for a 32-week abortion

Why a NY woman came to Colorado for a 32-week abortion
Forty-three states place some restrictions on abortions after a certain point in pregnancy, but Colorado isn’t one of them

By Anna Staver, The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: October 13, 2019

In the spring of 2016, Erika Christensen and her husband walked past a tall, wooden fence that obscured the Boulder office of Dr. Warren Hern from the street and into his waiting room.

Printed signs taped to bulletproof glass told her all electronic devices — even cellphones — were prohibited and asked her to tell someone on staff if she needed to leave for any reason. The only items she could carry through the door were a printed book, her identification card and a check for $10,000.

Continued: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/13/late-abortion-women-2020/


It’s 2040. We Need to Keep Abortion Legal in New York.

An Op-Ed From the Future
It’s 2040. We Need to Keep Abortion Legal in New York.

Thanks to a landmark ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion is now illegal everywhere except New York (and Hawaii). But a new bill threatens the legal status of abortions.

By Lucy Ferriss

Oct. 7, 2019

As the New York legislature convenes this week to begin debate on S9764, I would like to offer my thoughts as a gynecologist who still provides that rarest of services, abortion. Our legal status is under threat, as our lives have been for decades. More important, the legislators pressing for the passage of this bill are dishonest in their motives and willfully blind to the consequences of its probable passage.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/opinion/roe-vs-wade-abortion.html


New York Woman Faces Up to Eight Years Behind Bars for Selling Abortion Pills Online

New York Woman Faces Up to Eight Years Behind Bars for Selling Abortion Pills Online
In February, FDA agents showed up at Ursula Wing’s door with an arrest warrant and seized her computer and phones, her daughter’s iPad, boxes of medication abortion pills, and a dozen packages that she was set to mail.

Aug 9, 2019
Imani Gandy

A New York City woman who sold medication abortion pills to more than 2,000 people over two years has been indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. If convicted, she could face up to eight years in prison.

In 2012, the woman, Ursula Wing, posted on her blog the Macrobiotic Stoner about her experience terminating her pregnancy using pills that she had bought online. Four years later, she found herself running a business providing medication abortion pills to customers who needed them, including a teenager who was afraid to tell her parents that she was pregnant, and a woman who hid her abortion from her abusive partner.

Continued: https://rewire.news/ablc/2019/08/09/new-york-woman-faces-up-to-eight-years-behind-bars-for-selling-abortion-pills-online/


USA – States Lead the Way in Promoting Coverage of Abortion in Medicaid and Private Insurance

States Lead the Way in Promoting Coverage of Abortion in Medicaid and Private Insurance

Adam Sonfield, Guttmacher Institute
Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher Institute
First published online: June 24, 2019

Advocates and policymakers working to ensure that everyone can afford an abortion scored a number of important victories within just a few days of each other: On June 13, Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a law expanding abortion coverage in private insurance and Medicaid. Just one day earlier, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker had signed a law expanding private insurance coverage of abortion as part of a broader abortion rights law. The same week, New York City allocated $250,000 to a nonprofit abortion fund to directly assist patients, including patients traveling from other states.

This burst of action builds on a nationwide push to overturn the Hyde Amendment, which currently bans abortion coverage under Medicaid and other federal health coverage programs. Expanding coverage will help people overcome one substantial barrier to abortion—the cost of abortion services—and will be particularly important for people with low incomes, people of color and people with disabilities.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2019/06/states-lead-way-promoting-coverage-abortion-medicaid-and-private-insurance


USA – Following in the footsteps of New York state, Illinois, Vermont, Maine, and Nevada have all passed more liberal abortion laws

USA – Following in the footsteps of New York state, Illinois, Vermont, Maine, and Nevada have all passed more liberal abortion laws

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
June 19, 2019

Everyone is reporting that aggressive anti-abortion restrictions have been passed in numerous US states, especially in recent months. Less reported is the good news that, following the positive changes in the law in New York state, which we reported earlier this year, New York City officials announced on 14 June that they would allocate $250,000 to pay for low-income patients to have abortions. Moreover, four other US states have also liberalised their laws this year. In fact, about a quarter of the provisions to expand abortion access since 2011 have passed in the past three weeks alone, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight. Thus, a different kind of civil war has begun in the USA between stations.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/usa-following-in-the-footsteps-of-new-york-state-illinois-vermont-maine-and-nevada-have-all-passed-more-liberal-abortion-laws/


New York could become first city to provide abortion funding

New York could become first city to provide abortion funding

By Caroline Kelly, CNN
Sat June 15, 2019

(CNN)New York is slated to become what abortion activists say would be the first city in the country to provide funding for abortions.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, both Democrats, announced a budget agreement Friday that included funding for individuals seeking abortions in the city.

continued: https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/politics/new-york-city-abortion-funds/index.html


My Life As An Abortion Provider: ‘It’s Actually one of the Safest Medical Procedures That We Can Perform’

My Life As An Abortion Provider: 'It's Actually one of the Safest Medical Procedures That We Can Perform'

By Kashmira Gander
On 4/20/19

As state legislatures across the U.S. debate bills restricting access to abortions, people like Dr Meera Shah are on the ground providing reproductive healthcare which she describes as a “basic human right.”

So what is it like to be an abortion provider at a time when, according to research by the National Abortion Federation published last year, anti-abortion campaigners have been emboldened by the current political climate to ramp up attacks against providers?

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/abortion-1400011


USA – The First Time Women Shouted Their Abortions

The First Time Women Shouted Their Abortions
Fifty years ago, a group of women stood up in a church and talked about ending their pregnancies. The way they did so still shapes how we discuss the topic today.

By Nona Willis Aronowitz
March 23, 2019

You couldn’t just casually threaten suicide — you had to sound like you meant it, the woman onstage recalled. “You have to go and bring a razor, or whatever: ‘If you don’t tell me I’m going to have an abortion right now, I’m going to go out and jump off the Verrazzano Bridge.’”

The woman was speaking in 1969. Legalized abortion nationwide was still four years away; in New York, so-called therapeutic abortions were legal — but only if a doctor judged you mentally unfit to have a child. And so, the woman explained, she ended up seeing two psychiatrists who, to her relief, deemed her suicide threats real enough to be granted the procedure. The crowd clapped and roared at the absurdity of it all, until the woman explained that after her abortion, she was stuck in the maternity ward to recover — right next to crying babies. The crowd wasn’t laughing anymore.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/opinion/sunday/abortion-speakout-anniversary.html


USA – She Started Selling Abortion Pills Online. Then the Feds Showed Up.

She Started Selling Abortion Pills Online. Then the Feds Showed Up.
What happened when one woman tried to make safe and cheap abortion pills available through the mail.

Chelsea Conaboy
Mother Jones - March/April 2019 Issue

For two years, before she headed off to her full-time job as a web developer, or after she put her daughter to bed at night, Ursula Wing ran a business selling abortion pills from the bedroom of her New York City apartment. The 40-year-old single mother would fill orders that had been submitted through her website, dropping a piece of inexpensive jewelry into a mailer with a return address for “Fatima’s Bead Basket.” Hidden behind a panel taped inside were one tablet of mifepristone and four tablets of misoprostol.

continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/she-started-selling-abortion-pills-online-then-the-feds-showed-up/