Pregnancy loss in America has long been a lonely experience. Abortion bans have made it perilous.

In post-Roe America, the medical and legal stakes associated with losing a pregnancy are high, especially in the 14 states where abortion is now almost entirely outlawed.

Shefali Luthra, Health Reporter
December 7, 2023

It had only been three weeks since Ann Carver and her husband started trying to have a baby, and somehow, she was already pregnant. In the summer of 2022, she’d become a mom.

The couple told everyone they knew, too excited for early pregnancy secrecy and caution. Carver was 26. She felt like there was no reason to worry.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/12/pregnancy-loss-post-roe-america-abortion/


The Right to Contraception: State and Federal Actions, Misinformation, and the Courts

Mabel Felix, Laurie Sobel, and Alina Salganicoff
Oct 26, 2023

Introduction
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling has heightened interest in affirming the right to contraception. While the Court’s majority opinion stated that the Dobbs decision does not “cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,” Justice Thomas argued in his concurring opinion that in future cases, the Court should reconsider precedent that relied on the same principles as Roe – including Griswold v. Connecticut, the Court’s 1965 landmark decision that recognized the right of married people to obtain contraceptives – and overturn those decisions. The prospect of the Court overturning Griswold moved some in Congress to introduce federal legislation that would protect the right to contraception, though that legislation is unlikely to advance in the current divided Congress. Similarly, some state legislators have recently introduced measures to protect the right to obtain contraceptives.

Continued: https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/the-right-to-contraception-state-and-federal-actions-misinformation-and-the-courts/


USA – Many women can’t access miscarriage drug because it’s also used for abortions

BY: CAITLIN DEWEY
OCTOBER 21, 2023

Since losing her first pregnancy four months ago, 32-year-old Lulu has struggled to return to her body’s old rhythms. Lulu, who asked to be identified by her first name to protect her privacy, bled for six full weeks after her miscarriage and hasn’t had a normal menstrual cycle since.

Such disruptions aren’t uncommon after miscarriage, which affects roughly 1 in 10 known pregnancies. But for Lulu, they’ve also served as a persistent reminder that she couldn’t access the drug mifepristone — her preferred method of care — to help her body pass the miscarriage. Instead, her doctor prescribed a drug called misoprostol, which on its own is less effective.

Continued: https://ncnewsline.com/2023/10/21/many-women-cant-access-miscarriage-drug-because-its-also-used-for-abortions/


USA – Pharmacies begin dispensing abortion pills

A handful of pharmacies are offering the pills 10 months after the Biden administration allowed them to do so.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and LAUREN GARDNER
Oct 6, 2023

A handful of independent pharmacies across the country have quietly begun dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone under new rules created by the Biden administration earlier this year, even as a looming Supreme Court case could reimpose restrictions or ban the drugs entirely.

Thousands of branches of major pharmacy chains are poised to join them — making the drugs more accessible to millions of people nationwide and kicking off a new phase of the legal and political battle over the most popular method of ending a pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/06/pharmacies-begin-dispensing-abortion-pills-00120397


Abortion bans fuel a rise in high-risk patients heading to Illinois hospitals

By Kristen Schorsch, WBEZ Chicago
SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

When she was around 22 weeks pregnant, the patient found out that the son she was carrying didn’t have kidneys and his lungs wouldn’t develop. If he survived the birth, he would struggle to breathe and die within hours.

The patient had a crushing decision to make: continue the pregnancy — which could be a risk to her health and her ability to have children in the future — or have an abortion.

Continued: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/hospital-abortions-npr-partnership/


Abortion bans are fueling a rise in high-risk patients heading to Illinois hospitals

August 23, 2023
By Kristen Schorsch
3-Minute Listen with Transcript

When she was around 22 weeks pregnant, the patient found out that the son she was carrying didn't have kidneys and his lungs wouldn't develop. If he survived the birth, he would struggle to breathe and die within hours.

The patient had a crushing decision to make: continue the pregnancy — which could be a risk to her health and her ability to have children in the future — or have an abortion.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/23/1193898181/abortion-bans-are-fueling-a-rise-in-high-risk-patients-heading-to-illinois-hospi


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/


Biden readies sweeping rollback of Trump-era abortion crackdown

"We have a ton of work to do to undo the harm over the last four years," said Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson.

Jan. 18, 2021
By Chloe Atkins, NBC News

President-elect Joe Biden is poised to roll back several of the Trump administration's most restrictive sexual and reproductive health policies, including limits on abortion.

Reproductive rights advocates expect Biden to quickly overturn Trump-era rules, like banning federal funds for foreign and national health organizations that promote and provide abortion and giving employers more freedom to deny free contraceptive coverage for their workers.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-readies-sweeping-rollback-trump-era-abortion-crackdown-n1254552


USA – They’re Doctors. They’re Also Incredibly Effective—and Dangerous—Anti-Abortion Activists.

They’re Doctors. They’re Also Incredibly Effective—and Dangerous—Anti-Abortion Activists.
Your OB-GYN could be one of them.

Marisa Endicott
June 4, 2020

In April 2019, when meetings like this still took place, Diane Foley took the stage in Indianapolis, looking out into the faces of anti-choice advocates and doctors who were gathered for their annual conference. The Health and Human Services official began her presentation: “Opportunities for Collaborative Engagement in Policy Development.” The bland, policy-wonkish title belied its almost-revolutionary substance: nothing less than a major shift in American health care—and a threat to the more than 4 million primarily low-income people who rely on a key government program for family planning and other care.

Title X, which Foley oversees as the head of the Office of Population Affairs—and which also includes the government’s teen pregnancy program—offers health care providers more than $286 million in funding each year. Just a month before her presentation, a new rule passed that would, for the first time, prohibit Title X recipients from performing abortions on-site or even providing abortion referrals. This effectively shut out a quarter of all clinics that were getting funding—including Planned Parenthood, which has traditionally received some $60 million a year from the program and provides more than 2.4 million patients with a slew of services, from birth control to cancer screenings to wellness exams.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/american-association-pro-life-obstetricians-gynecologists-aaplog-anti-abortion-doctors-june-medical-supreme-court-decision/


America’s first generic abortion pill, explained

America’s first generic abortion pill, explained
The introduction of a generic abortion medication could mean lower costs for patients, but barriers to access remain.

By Anna North
Aug 20, 2019

In 2000, a new method of abortion became available in America: an oral medication called mifepristone.

Previously, the procedure in the early stages of pregnancy often involved emptying the uterus by suction. But taken with another medication called misoprostol, mifepristone can end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks without the need for an in-clinic procedure. Patients can go through much of the process in whatever setting they like, with whomever they like — or alone.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/20/20750226/abortion-pill-mifepristone-pregnancy-genbiopro-mifeprex-generic