Federal Court Preserves Abortion Access in Guam

Case: Guam Society of OBGYNs v. Guerrero

March 24, 2023
ACLU

HAGÅTÑA, Guam — A federal district court in Guam today denied Attorney General Douglas Moylan’s request that it lift a decades-old permanent injunction and allow a total abortion ban to take effect. This ruling means essential, life-saving abortion care will remain accessible on the island, and doctors and their patients will not face potential criminal prosecution for providing or accessing care.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and attorneys Anita Arriola and Vanessa Williams filed a brief earlier this month in opposition to reinstating the ban on behalf of three Guam-licensed physicians, including the only two physicians providing abortions to patients in Guam, and Famalao’an Rights, a Guam-based reproductive justice group

Continued: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-court-preserves-abortion-access-in-guam

24.03.2023

News

ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project

American Civil Liberties Union

Anita Arriola

Douglas Moylan

Famalao’an Rights

Guam Society of OBGYNs v. Guerrero

Abortion-Related Artworks Removed from Idaho College Exhibition

Lewis-Clark State College cited violations of the No Public Funds for Abortions Act passed last year.

Rhea Nayyar
Mar 7, 2023

An exhibition at the Lewis-Clark State College’s Center for Arts and History in Lewiston, Idaho, became a hotbed of controversy after six abortion-related artworks were removed mid-install. The school cited the No Public Funds for Abortions Act passed last year as the reason for removing works by Katrina Majkut, who curated the show; Lydia Nobles; and Michelle Hartney. The three artists are currently in communication with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which have presented the school with a joint letter calling for the decision to be reconsidered.

The exhibition, titled Unconditional Care: Listening to People’s Health Needs, showcases work about people living with chronic illnesses, disabilities, pregnancy, assault, and gun violence. Three documentary films and one audio piece from Nobles’s As I Sit Waiting series that highlights lived experiences with abortion, Majkut’s embroidery piece depicting prescription abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol, and Hartney’s transcription of a 1920s letter from an unwell mother to Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger begging for accessible reproductive healthcare were removed leading up to the exhibition’s opening on March 3.

Continued: https://hyperallergic.com/806454/abortion-related-artworks-removed-from-idaho-college-exhibition/

07.03.2023

News

American Civil Liberties Union

anti-choice censorship

Center for Arts and History

Katrina Majkut

Lewis-Clark State College

Lydia Nobles

Michelle Hartney

National Coalition Against Censorship

Idaho

United States

Anti-choice

USA – Criminalizing Abortion Care is Wrong, and We’re Fighting Back

Lauren Johnson, Director, Abortion Criminal Defense Initiative, ACLU
February 28, 2023

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and revoke the federal constitutional right to abortion continues to have life-altering and life-threatening consequences. With more than a dozen states banning abortion, a climate of fear and confusion has loomed over health care providers, abortion funds, helpers, and anyone seeking to end their pregnancy in recent months.

Beyond exerting direct control over our bodies and our health, abortion bans and other criminal laws give prosecutors license to investigate, arrest, and prosecute people who provide necessary health care. In some instances, bans and laws can be used or misused to target patients and other people who help them get the care they need. In state legislative sessions across the nation, legislators continue to push for more ways to restrict abortion and criminalize those who provide abortion care.

Continued: https://www.aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/fighting-against-criminalization-abortion-rights-acdi

28.02.2023

News

Abortion Criminal Defense Initiative

American Civil Liberties Union

Abortion Legal Assistance Network Launched: ‘A Strong Defense Against Bullies’

A new alliance of reproductive rights groups aims to “help those involved with abortion care navigate [a] confusing and hostile legal landscape and to provide a strong defense against bullies.”

2/22/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

Six leading reproductive rights organizations announced on Feb. 22 the formation of a new Abortion Defense Network to connect people facing legal threats related to abortion with attorneys who can provide legal advice and representation in civil and criminal proceedings.

“The overturning of Roe v. Wade has unleashed nonstop legal chaos and confusion,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Abortion providers, doctors and even family members of people seeking abortion care are unsure what they might be prosecuted for. Many states have conflicting and overlapping abortion bans that make it nearly impossible to know what is legal and what is not. People are worried they may be prosecuted even for helping someone find abortion services across state lines.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/02/22/abortion-defense-lawyer-courts-assistance/

Canada – Why don’t we call more abortion clinics ‘abortion clinics’? Language matters, advocates say

Some clinics in Canada are changing their names to be more inclusive

Natalie Stechyson · CBC News
Posted: Feb 18, 2023

Women's Clinic. Choice in Health Clinic. Woman's Health Options.

What do these clinics have in common? They all offer abortion services, although it may not be obvious from the names, and advocates say the names themselves may exclude some of those who need help.

But now, there's a movement within abortion care to be more mindful of the language they use — whether that's to be more inclusive, or drop the euphemisms and be more forthright.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/abortion-clinics-language-1.6747788

USA – Meet the Religious Crusaders Fighting for Abortion Rights

Christian conservatives worked to topple Roe. Can members of different faiths save abortion access?

ABBY VESOULIS, Mother Jones
FEBRUARY 17, 2023

The Torah tells its followers to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth,” so that’s what Lisa Sobel, a devout Jewish woman from Louisville, Kentucky, set out to do.

It wasn’t easy. First, she endured three years of infertility. Then, she and her husband embarked on a $50,000 in vitro fertilization (IVF) journey, during which they had to discard four embryos before implantation because of genetic abnormalities. Finally, in April 2019, Sobel delivered a healthy baby girl. Immediately after, she began hemorrhaging and almost died.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/02/religious-clergy-fighting-for-abortion-rights/

State Abortion Rulings Post-Dobbs Begin Defining Scope of Rights

Jan. 17, 2023
Mary Anne Pazanowski

State top courts have begun weighing in on whether their laws provide greater protection for abortion rights than the federal constitution, with mixed results.

A majority of South Carolina’s Supreme Court justices recently held that the state constitution’s guarantee against unreasonable invasions of privacy extends to abortion. But the Idaho Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion, holding that there’s no fundamental right to abortion in the state constitution.

Continued:: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/state-abortion-rulings-post-dobbs-begin-defining-scope-of-rights

17.01.2023

American Civil Liberties Union

anti-choice restrictions

Brennan Center for Justice

Center for Reproductive Rights

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Abortion rights groups look to build on their victories with new ballot measures

Efforts are already underway in 10 states to push citizen-led ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion in their constitutions.

Dec. 23, 2022
By Adam Edelman

Energized by a perfect record on ballot measures in last month’s midterm elections, abortion-rights groups are setting their sights on more victories over the next two years.

Activists are already planning citizen-led ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion rights in the constitutions of 10 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/abortion-rights-groups-look-new-ballot-measures-2023-2024-rcna61317

The Fight Over Abortion Access In Guam Has Broad Implications For Women In The Pacific

Guam is a hub for medical services in the region, often the first stop for patients seeking care before coming to Hawaii.

By Anita Hofschneider
Dec 23, 2022

This political moment feels familiar to Anita Arriola. Thirty-two years ago, the attorney filed a lawsuit to stop what would have been the most restrictive ban on abortion in the United States from going into effect in her home island of Guam.

It was a bill sponsored by her mother, then a local senator, and unanimously approved by Guam’s unicameral Legislature. Arriola had been a public interest attorney in San Francisco before returning home to the U.S. territory. She took on the case, despite the family tension and the threat of excommunication by Guam’s archbishop.

Continued: https://www.civilbeat.org/2022/12/the-fight-over-abortion-access-in-guam-has-broad-implications-for-women-in-the-pacific/

USA – After wins at the ballot, abortion rights groups want to ‘put this to the people’

November 11, 2022
Sarah McCammon

Abortion rights supporters had a successful run of ballot measures this year. In every state where voters were asked to weigh in directly on abortion rights, they supported measures that protect those rights and rejected initiatives that could threaten them.

Those victories have abortion rights advocates looking at where they can next take the fight directly to voters.

Contiuned: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/10/1135757008/after-wins-at-the-ballot-abortion-rights-groups-want-to-put-this-to-the-people

11.11.2022