‘We’re sick of watching women die’: In Michigan, doctors rally to protect abortion access

Olivia Goldhill
Nov. 7, 2022

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Doctors are on the frontlines of a political battle raging across the country, as abortion rights are added to the ballot in the first election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Michigan is at the heart of the struggle.

“Doctors fought hard for these rights because we’re sick of watching women die,” Melissa Bayne, an OB-GYN in Fremont, Mich., told the audience at a rally Saturday in Grand Rapids. Her voice shook as she told the stories of patients who’ve died from pregnancy complications. The risks of forcing rape victims to carry their attacker’s child are all too real, she said: “As much as I don’t want patients or you to go through this, they do and have. Every day, I see women who’ve had consent stolen from them. Every day.”

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2022/11/07/abortion-michigan-ballot-measure-proposition-3/

States move to protect abortion from prosecutions elsewhere

The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark abortion ruling overturning Roe v. Wade is prompting efforts in liberal states to protect providers and patients who have traveled for a legal procedure

By Jennifer Mcdermott, Geoff Mulvihill and Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press
July 06, 2022

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Democratic governors in states where abortion will remain legal are looking for ways to protect any patients who travel there for the procedure — along with the providers who help them — from being prosecuted by their home states.

The Democratic governors of Colorado and North Carolina on Wednesday issued executive orders to protect abortion providers and patients from extradition to states that have banned the practice.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/states-move-protect-abortion-prosecutions-86331568

06.07.2022

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Alexis McGill Johnson

Senate blocks bill to codify right to abortion

Women’s Health Protection Act failed as expected, but Democrats say the move is about mobilizing voters, not passing legislation

By Mike DeBonis and Rachel Roubein , Washington Post
May 11, 2022

The Senate on Wednesday did not advance legislation that would write a constitutional right to abortion into federal law — a symbolic gesture that Democrats cast as a first step in a larger strategy to mobilize Americans around reproductive rights as the Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade and related decisions.

Wednesday’s vote was 51 to 49 and well short
of the 60 votes necessary under Senate rules. It was largely a reprise of a
failed February vote staged by Senate Democratic leaders, but the issue has new
resonance after last week’s leak of a draft opinion from Justice Samuel A.
Alito Jr. suggesting that the high court is poised to overturn Roe and curtail
guaranteed nationwide access to abortions.

Continued, Unblocked: https://wapo.st/3suVKwC https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/11/abortion-senate-vote/

11.05.2022

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Alexis McGill Johnson

Chuck Schumer

Joe Manchin

Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Roe v. Wade

Women’s Health Protection Act

With Roe endangered, Democrats divide on saying the word ‘abortion’

By Caroline Kitchener
April 2, 2022

After Texas passed its restrictive abortion law last fall, Democrats started talking more about abortion than they had in decades.

House Democrats coalesced around a bill to turn into law the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing most abortions, Roe v. Wade, voicing their support for the landmark precedent in tweets and public statements. A few days later, three congresswomen shared their abortion stories on the House floor. And when he delivered his State of the Union address in March, President Biden became the first Democratic president since Roe to use that platform to call for action on abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/02/abortion-rhetoric-roe/

Texas clinics’ lawsuit over abortion ban ‘effectively over’

Texas abortion providers say their best hope of stopping the nation’s most restrictive abortion law is all but over

By PAUL J. WEBER and JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press
11 March 2022

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Supreme Court on Friday dealt essentially a final blow to abortion clinics’ best hopes of stopping a restrictive law that has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state since September and will now fully stay in place for the foreseeable future.

The ruling by the all-Republican court was not unexpected, but it slammed the door on what little path forward the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed Texas clinics after having twice declined to stop a ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/texas-clinics-lose-court-strict-abortion-law-83390700

Black Women Activists Warn Democrats After Abortion Failure: ‘Don’t Count on Our Votes’

Reproductive rights advocates of color wrote a scathing letter to Congress after it failed to end a federal ban on abortion coverage.

By Kylie Cheung
March 10, 2022

For the time being, reproductive rights advocates’ long-time dream of ending the Hyde Amendment, a half-century-old budget rider that prohibits federal funding of most abortions, is dead in Congress, despite President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to get rid of it.

Since Hyde disproportionately affects pregnant people of color, and particularly Black and Indigenous people, Black reproductive justice advocates have responded to the failure with a resounding warning to Democratic members: “Defend Black women’s rights or don’t count on our votes.”

Continued: https://jezebel.com/black-women-activists-warn-democrats-after-abortion-fai-1848635664

A grave warning’: six months of Texas abortion ban sow fear and anguish

The state’s near-total ban has had ‘devastating’ effects, providers say, and offers a glimpse of the future if Roe v Wade is overturned

Mary Tuma
Thu 3 Mar 2022

The most restrictive abortion law in the US has inflicted “devastating” consequences in Texas since it was introduced six months ago, according to healthcare providers and pro-choice groups.

Senate Bill 8 (SB 8) bars the procedure once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, typically at six weeks of pregnancy or earlier, with no exception for rape or incest. As most people are not aware they are pregnant this early on, the unprecedented law amounts to a near-total ban.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/03/texas-abortion-ban-six-months-grave-warning

Senate rejects Democratic bill to codify abortion rights

The vote failed as the Supreme Court considers the fate of Roe v. Wade.

Feb. 28, 2022
By Sahil Kapur and Ali Vitali

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 46-48 Monday to block a bill pushed by Democrats to codify abortion rights into federal law ahead of an expected Supreme Court decision that could limit access to the procedure.

The legislation, the Women’s Health Protection Act, failed to garner the needed 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and would have fallen short of the 50 votes needed for passage after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., joined Republicans in opposition.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-rejects-democratic-bill-codify-abortion-rights-rcna17968

Neon art installation begins tour of US states where abortion rights are threatened

The month-long tour of Alicia Eggert’s neon text work ‘OURs’ was organised by Planned Parenthood to pressure lawmakers and raise awareness of efforts to restrict abortion rights

Annabel Keenan
4 February 2022

Planned Parenthood and artist Alicia Eggert have joined forces on a cross-country, roving installation to advocate for abortion rights. Titled OURs, the pink neon sign flashes between the phrases “OUR BODIES,” “OUR FUTURES,” and “OUR ABORTIONS”. The installation debuted in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on 22 January, the 49th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade ruling that enshrined abortion rights in US law. The installation is continuing on its tour to several states over the next month.

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and chief
executive of Planned Parenthood, describes the installation as a “beacon of
light in the darkness of this moment”, referring to the increase in abortion
restrictions in several state, as well as the Supreme Court’s recent indication
that Roe vs. Wade could be overturned after having heard arguments in a case
involving Mississippi’s restrictions on abortion in December.

Continued: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/02/04/abortion-rights-planned-parenthood-neon-art-alicia-eggert

04.02.2022

Alexis McGill Johnson

Alicia Eggert

OURs art installation

Cecily Strong’s Goober the Clown makes a powerful abortion statement on ‘SNL’

BY CHRISTI CARRAS, STAFF WRITER
NOV. 8, 2021

One of the most rousing and far-reaching rebukes of Texas’ controversial abortion law was delivered Saturday by a woman dressed as a circus clown.

In a viral segment, “Saturday Night Live” cast member Cecily Strong appeared as the character Goober the Clown on the latest installment of “Weekend Update” to comment on Senate Bill 8, which denies people the right to an abortion by making it illegal for doctors to end a pregnancy after about six weeks.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-11-08/cecily-strong-snl-weekend-update-clown-abortion