Could an Abortion Ban Put Your Life in Danger?

What you should know about your medical rights—and what still needs to change to keep you safe.

BY GARNET HENDERSON
PUBLISHED: AUG 16, 2022

In the weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, alarming stories have emerged of pregnant people being denied necessary medical care in some of the 15 states that now ban all or most abortions. To name a few: a woman in Wisconsin bled for 10 days due to an incomplete miscarriage when emergency room staff refused to remove the fetal tissue; one Texas physician said they were told by hospital management not to treat ectopic pregnancies until they ruptured (a life-threatening event); and a Louisiana woman was forced to endure painful labor after her water broke at just 16 weeks, because doctors were told they could not do an abortion procedure.

Continued: https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a40860997/abortion-bans-medical-rights-hospital-pharmacy/

USA – Abortion Fight Could Upend Women’s Health Care. Many Are Worried It Could Limit Their Access to Birth Control

Survey shows most women get contraception at doctor’s office, don’t have copays

BY GABY GALVIN
April 28, 2022

If the Supreme Court weakens federal abortion protections this summer, nearly half of women under age 45 say they would be worried about their ability to access another form of reproductive health care: birth control.

Some states are already taking steps to restrict abortion, and clinicians and advocates have warned the high court’s decision will cause ripple effects across the women’s health landscape. Clinics serving low-income patients, for example, may struggle to continue offering other services such as testing and birth control. Meanwhile, legal protections for abortion and contraception are connected through court precedent establishing privacy rights.

https://morningconsult.com/2022/04/28/birth-control-survey-data-roe-v-wade/

USA – How Abortion Has Changed Since 1973

By Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Anna Wiederkehr
Published Jan. 20, 2022

It’s been almost 49 years since the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973. And in the half-century since abortion became a constitutional right, a lot has changed. Clinics have closed, restrictions have mounted and abortion has become one of the most polarizing issues in American politics. At the same time, women are receiving far fewer abortions than they were in the past.

But something else has changed, too: the women who are seeking abortions.

Continued: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-abortion-has-changed-since-1973/

20.01.2022

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

USA – Yes, it’s easier to get birth control than it was in the 1970s – but women still need abortion care

January 18, 2022
Emily M. Godfrey

A historic ruling on abortion is likely to emerge from the U.S. Supreme Court this year as justices consider whether Mississippi can, in fact, impose a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, challenges the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that protects women’s right to abortion. Meanwhile, Texas enacted its own restrictive abortion law in September – and other states are working to follow suit.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/yes-its-easier-to-get-birth-control-than-it-was-in-the-1970s-but-women-still-need-abortion-care-174026

18.01.2022

Commentary

Featured

Affordable Care Act

contraceptive failure

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

How Trump Transformed the Supreme Court

The legal journalist Linda Greenhouse expects the new conservative majority to change American law on abortion, religion, and affirmative action.

By Isaac Chotiner
November 11, 2021

Despite serving only one term in office, Donald Trump was able to appoint three Justices to the Supreme Court, giving it a six-member conservative majority. In September, the Court declined to block enforcement of a controversial Texas law that prohibits abortions in the state after approximately six weeks of pregnancy and allows almost anyone to sue a person who “aided or abetted” an abortion after that point. After a public outcry, the Court heard expedited arguments on the law earlier this month. Later this term, the Court will also consider the legality of a Mississippi law that bans abortions after fifteen weeks, a case that could result in the Court overturning Roe v. Wade. This week, I spoke about the Court with Linda Greenhouse, a lecturer at Yale Law School and a contributing writer for the Times, where she reported on the Court for almost thirty years. She is the author of the new book “Justice on the Brink: The Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months That Transformed the Supreme Court,” which recounts the time between Justice Ginsburg’s death and the conclusion of the Court’s first term with Justice Barrett.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-trump-transformed-the-supreme-court

It’s the 100th anniversary of the first conference on birth control. Here’s a look at contraception’s lesser-known legacy.

Hannah Good, The Lily
November 6, 2021

One hundred years ago, a group of prominent doctors, social workers, economists and advocates convened at what was then called the Hotel Plaza in New York City for a first of its kind conference. Their aim was to explore the benefits and legality of a technology that was simultaneously novel and impossibly ancient: birth control.

“Our definite aim is to repeal the laws so that the medical profession may give women at their request knowledge to prevent conception,” organizer Margaret Sanger said in her opening speech at the conference. “We believe that with the assistance of the intelligent members of the community we can bring this about in a very short time, but we need your help.”

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/its-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-first-conference-on-birth-control-heres-a-look-at-contraceptions-lesser-known-legacy/

These Texas women struggled to get an abortion before the new law. They say it would be even harder now.

Abortion rights advocates say the law disproportionately affects minors, low-income communities and people of color.

Sept. 30, 2021
By Chloe Atkins

Standing in front of a judge at 17, Veronika Granado said she felt numb as she asked him to grant her a judicial bypass, which would allow her, as a minor, to get an abortion without parental consent or notification.

For Granado, who had just graduated high
school, terminating the pregnancy would allow her to continue her education
without being a young mother at the same time.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/these-texas-women-struggled-get-abortion-new-law-it-would-n1280196

USA – Contraception Is Free To Women, Except When It’s Not

July 21, 2021
MICHELLE ANDREWS

For Stephanie Force, finding a birth control method that she likes and can get without paying out of pocket has been a struggle, despite the Affordable Care Act's promise of free contraceptives for women and adolescent girls in most health plans.

The 27-year-old physician recruiter in Roanoke, Va., was perfectly happy with the NuvaRing, a flexible vaginal ring that women insert monthly to release hormones to prevent pregnancy. But her insurer, Anthem, stopped covering the branded product and switched her to a generic version in early 2020. Force says the new product left her with headaches and feeling irritable and short-tempered.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/21/1018483557/contraception-is-free-to-women-except-when-its-not

Treading Lightly In Abortion Politics, Biden Still Manages To Annoy Both Sides

July 12, 2021
JULIE ROVNER

It took five months for the Biden administration to make a substantive policy change to advance abortion rights. And even that change was buried in a 61-page regulation setting rules for 2022's Affordable Care Act enrollment.

The policy would reverse a Trump administration rule requiring insurers that cover abortion to send separate bills for that coverage. Abortion-rights opponents had hoped the extra paperwork would persuade insurers to stop offering the coverage.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/12/1014806993/treading-lightly-in-abortion-politics-biden-still-manages-to-annoy-both-sides

Republicans would miss legal abortion, just like they would have missed Obamacare

The Supreme Court just saved the Affordable Care Act, and the GOP, for the third time. But what about legal abortion? A post-Roe v. Wade world looms.

Tom Krattenmaker, Opinion columnist
June 17, 2021

When the Republican Party finally got its chance to throw out Obamacare, it acted like a dog that had caught up with the car it was chasing and had no idea what to do next.

The GOP might find itself in a similarly absurd situation if it gets the post-Roe v. Wade world it has been pursuing – which, because of Supreme Court lineup changes and a potentially decisive case heading its way, is on the verge of becoming much more than a politically useful abstract concept.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/06/17/republicans-escape-obamacare-debacle-abortion-next/7583695002/

17.06.2021