USA – How abortion bans are undercutting efforts to prevent domestic violence

OB-GYNs are often the first or only doctors to learn if a patient is facing intimate partner violence. As they leave places with abortion bans, domestic violence victims are feeling the impacts.

By Jennifer Gerson, Shefali Luthra
November 13, 2023

As more abortion bans have gone into effect across the country, it has become far more difficult to perform a standard element of gynecological care: screening patients for domestic abuse.

Research shows that OB-GYNs are often the first or only doctors to learn if a patient is facing intimate partner violence. While women of all ages experience intimate partner violence, it is most prevalent among women of reproductive age, the people most likely to see an OB-GYN. Meanwhile, abortion bans have contributed to reproductive health care providers leaving states, retiring early or declining to practice where the procedure is restricted.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/11/abortion-bans-hindering-domestic-violence-screenings-prevention/

Abortion pill mifepristone: An explainer and research roundup about its history, safety and future

Amid pending court cases and ballot initiatives, journalistic coverage of medication abortion has never been more crucial. This piece aims to help inform the narrative with scientific evidence.

by Naseem S. Miller
November 1, 2023

Access to mifepristone, a medication that’s used for the safe termination of early pregnancy, hangs in the balance while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up a case that could determine the legal future of the abortion medication.

In August, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mifepristone should not be prescribed past the seventh week of pregnancy, prescribed via telemedicine, or shipped to patients through the mail. In September, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to consider a challenge to that ruling.

Continued: https://journalistsresource.org/health/mifepristone-research-roundup/

USA – Faced with abortion bans, doctors beg hospitals for help with key decisions

Vague state laws, and a lack of guidance on how to interpret them, have led to some patients being denied care until they are critically ill

By Caroline Kitchener and Dan Diamond
October 28, 2023

Amelia Huntsberger pulled up a list of the top administrators at her northern Idaho hospital, anxious last fall to confirm she could treat a patient with a potentially life-threatening pregnancy complication. But it was a Friday afternoon — and no one was picking up.

Huntsberger said she called six administrators before she finally got ahold of someone, her patient awaiting help a few rooms away. When she asked whether she could terminate a pregnancy under Idaho’s new abortion ban — which allows doctors to perform an abortion only if they deem it “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman” — the OB/GYN said the decision was punted back to her.

Unlocked: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/28/abortion-bans-medical-exceptions/

US judge blocks law that would have been first to ban ‘abortion pill reversal’

Abortion foes claim practice can be used to halt medication abortion while studies don’t support potentially harmful theory

Carter Sherman
Mon 23 Oct 2023

A law that would have been the first in the United States to ban a controversial practice known as “abortion pill reversal” cannot take effect, a judge ruled late Saturday.
abortion
US district court judge Daniel D Domenico granted a preliminary injunction in the case, ruling in favor of a Catholic health clinic that had argued the law infringed on its first amendment rights.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/22/abortion-pill-reversal-ban-progesterone-judge-ruling

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 – Abortion bans complicate medical training, risk worsening OB/GYN shortages

Thousands of doctors-in-training have lost access to abortion training. Some are fleeing to other states.

By Sara Hutchinson, Washington Post
October 13, 2023

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The journey to Boston was more than 1,500 miles. The plane ticket cost about $500. The hotel: another $400. Amrita Bhagia felt a little guilty about going, knowing that not everyone could afford this trip. But it was important; she was headed there to learn.

So Bhagia, a second-year medical student from Sioux Falls, S.D., caught that flight to Boston to attend a weekend workshop hosted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. There, she joined medical students from around the country for a summit on abortion care. She learned about medication abortion, practiced the technique of vacuum aspiration using papayas as a stand-in for a uterus, and sat in on a workshop about physicians’ rights.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/10/13/obgyn-training-abortion-restrictions/

California Brings First-Time Lawsuit Against Anti-Abortion Movement’s ‘Abortion Pill Reversal’ Scheme

“Those who are struggling with the complex decision to get an abortion deserve support and trustworthy guidance—not lies and misinformation,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

10/9/2023
by JENIFER MCKENNA and CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit on Sept. 21 against a chain of California crisis pregnancy centers and its national parent organization for false advertising of “abortion pill reversal” (APR)—an unproven and possibly dangerous high-dose progesterone intervention the anti-abortion movement claims can “reverse” an underway medication abortion. This is the first lawsuit in the country challenging the CPC industry’s promotion of APR.

AG Bonta’s complaint charges RealOptions Obria, a five-site crisis pregnancy center chain in Northern California, and the Ohio-based Heartbeat International with violating California’s False Advertising Law and Unfair Competition law by falsely advertising “abortion pill reversal” as safe and effective. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to block further dissemination of the misleading claims, in addition to other remedies and penalties available under state law.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/09/abortion-pill-reversal/

09.10.2023

News

abortion pill reversal

abortion reversal

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

American Medical Association

anti-choice deception

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

anti-choice misogyny

Betsy Butler

California Women’s Law Center

crisis pregnancy centers

Designed to Deceive

False Advertising law

George Delgado

Heartbeat International

Mary Davenport

Obria

pregnancy care centers

Privacy International

progesterone

RealOptions Obria

Rob Bonta

Society for Family Planning

Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine

The Alliance of State Advocates

Unfair Competition law

USA – Legal Skirmishes Over Abortion Rights Result in Mass Confusion

In many states, a blizzard of appeals and temporary stays have left patients and physicians unclear of what services are legal

Published 10/08/23
Khaya Himmelman

Following the Supreme Court’s June 2022 verdict in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, ending the constitutional right to abortion, a number of states quickly began to implement abortion bans, which have faced and continue to face legal challenges from reproductive rights advocates across the country.

These ongoing legal battles, explained Jessie Hill, professor of law at Case Western University, tend to favor the anti-abortion side by sowing confusion about the status of the legality of abortion–something that Hill described as “intentional.”

Continued: https://themessenger.com/politics/legal-skirmishes-over-abortion-rights-result-in-mass-confusion

08.10.2023

Commentary

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Amy Domeyer-Klenske

Brennan Center for Justice

Center for Reproductive Rights

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

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 restrictions repel graduating OB-GYNs from conservative states, report shows

Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY
Sept 29, 2023

A survey found new doctors are changing their plans to practice in states with abortion restrictions after the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that preserved abortion as a constitutional right for nearly 50 years.

Researchers from the University of Utah School of Medicine received responses from nearly 350 graduating obstetricians and gynecologists from training sites in 37 states. Findings showed more than 17% of residents said the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision changed their practice and fellowship plans.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/09/29/abortion-new-doctors-avoid-conservative-states-survey-shows/70980770007/

29.09.2023