USA – Roe isn’t just about women’s rights. It’s about everyone’s personal liberty.

Roe isn’t just about women’s rights. It’s about everyone’s personal liberty.

by Nancy Northup July 8, 2018
The writer is president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

On Monday, President Trump is expected to announce his nominee to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Given the president’s promise to appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, it’s widely understood that his nominee will pose a clear danger to women’s reproductive rights. What most don’t realize is that everyone’s personal-liberty rights are on the line.

The constitutional framework of Roe is about far more than abortion. It’s about rearing our children without unwarranted government interference. It’s about choosing whom we want to marry. It’s about deciding with whom we want to create a home. It’s about the right to use contraception. It’s about what the Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey explained is the “promise of the Constitution that there is a realm of personal liberty which the government may not enter.”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/roe-isnt-just-about-womens-rights-its-about-everyones-personal-liberty/2018/07/08/527d8548-8160-11e8-b658-4f4d2a1aeef1_story.html?utm_term=.75815dc9eed1

USA – With Reproductive Rights in Great Jeopardy, ‘Plan C’ Is More Important Than Ever

With Reproductive Rights in Great Jeopardy, ‘Plan C’ Is More Important Than Ever
Plan C—making "missed period pills" widely available—would give users the power to decide whether or not they wished to test for or confirm pregnancy before taking pills to bring on their period.

Jul 6, 2018
Francine Coeytaux, Victoria Nichols & Elisa Wells

Four years ago, we argued for an important new family planning option. We envisioned a method that could be used at home when a period was late to induce menstruation and thus reassure individuals that they were not pregnant. Plan C, we posited, was not only possible—the technology already existed in the form of mifepristone and misoprostol—but could be the answer to the age-old question asked by women around the world, “What do I do if my period is late and I don’t want to be pregnant?” With the recent news of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s resignation and the rising concern about a likely shift in the balance of the U.S. Supreme Court, the need to ensure timely and affordable access to innovative reproductive health options like Plan C is even more urgent.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2018/07/06/reproductive-rights-plan-c/

Abortion laws in Latin America show what the US could look like in a world without Roe v. Wade

Abortion laws in Latin America show what the US could look like in a world without Roe v. Wade

Grace Panetta
July 5, 2018

President Donald Trump is slated to announce his nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy next week, and it has abortion-rights activists worried about what it could mean for the future of reproductive rights in the United States.

During his campaign, Trump promised to nominate judges who he hoped would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case, which legalized abortion nationwide. He even went so far as to say that women who seek abortions should be criminally punished if it did become illegal again.

Continued: http://www.businessinsider.com/if-roe-v-wade-falls-us-abortion-looks-like-latin-america-2018-7

The Anti-Abortion Lobby In The UK Has More Power Than You Realise

The Anti-Abortion Lobby In The UK Has More Power Than You Realise
Jeremy Hunt's refusal to extend at-home abortions to women in England has nothing to do with women's welfare, and everything to do with politics

by Vicky Spratt
July 4, 2018

Donald Trump really has a way with words doesn’t he? As the news that Supreme Court judge Anthony Kennedy was retiring, women’s hearts raced. This is the Hand Maid’s Tale-esque moment American women had feared since the news broke that Trump had beaten Hillary: it is the right’s chance to undo Roe versus Wade: the landmark ruling that legalised abortion in America.

What has Trump said about it? Simply, when it comes to replacing Kennedy he plans to pick ‘a great one’ who, presumably, will be about as great as America is right now under his watch. Perhaps ‘great’ for Trump is a bit like ‘Brexit’ for Theresa May – a catch all phrase for something chaotically bad.

Continued: https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/real-life/the-anti-abortion-lobby-in-the-uk-has-more-power-than-you-realise/

What Will Happen If Abortion Is Banned In The U.S.? Just Look At These Countries.

What Will Happen If Abortion Is Banned In The U.S.? Just Look At These Countries.

Andrea González-Ramírez
July 3, 2018

"We use the phrase in Latin America," Paula Avila-Guillen, a human rights expert and director of Latin America Initiatives for the Women’s Equality Center told Refinery29, "'Las ricas abortan, las pobres mueren.' [Rich women have abortions, poor women die.]"

Many anti-abortion advocates believe that outlawing the procedure will stop women from trying to terminate their pregnancies, but research has shown over and over again that this isn't true.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/2018/07/203412/abortion-illegal-impact-latin-america-united-states

Want to overturn Roe, Republicans? Get ready for what comes next.

Want to overturn Roe, Republicans? Get ready for what comes next.
July 3, 2018

by Charles Lane, Opinion writer
July 2, 2018

Justice Antonin Scalia did not frame his opposition to Roe v. Wade in terms of opposition to abortion per se. His complaint was that the 1973 ruling created a nationwide constitutional right to abortion, thus channeling the issue into the federal courts and away from normal political processes.

By “foreclosing all democratic outlet for the deep passions this issue arouses,” wrote Scalia, who died in 2016, in his dissent from the court’s 1992 reaffirmation of Roe, “by banishing the issue from the political forum that gives all participants, even the losers, the satisfaction of a fair hearing and an honest fight, by continuing the imposition of a rigid national rule instead of allowing for regional differences, the Court merely prolongs and intensifies the anguish.”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-to-overturn-roe-republicans-get-ready-for-what-comes-next/2018/07/02/eb8ad380-7e09-11e8-bb6b-c1cb691f1402_story.html

USA – What Does the Future of Abortion Rights Look Like?

What Does the Future of Abortion Rights Look Like?

With Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, there’s a great deal of uncertainty about how a reconfigured Supreme Court will react to future cases.
Mary Ziegler
July 2, 2018

In the summer of 1988, abortion-rights attorneys debated whether to appeal a major abortion case involving minors, Hodgson v. Minnesota, to the Supreme Court. Anti-abortion lawyers working with Americans United for Life knew exactly why the opposition hesitated: Anthony Kennedy, a 52-year-old Catholic appointed by Ronald Reagan, had recently taken his place on the Supreme Court.

But instead of steadfastly opposing abortion, Kennedy quickly established his role as the Court’s swing vote on reproductive rights. With him gone, the future of legal abortion—and the activist movements surrounding it—is more uncertain than it has been in recent memory.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/kennedy-abortion-supreme-court/564191/

02.07.2018

fetal personhood laws

Hodgson v. Minnesota

Mary Ziegler

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

10 legal experts on the future of Roe v. Wade after Kennedy

10 legal experts on the future of Roe v. Wade after Kennedy
His decision to retire could lead to more “incremental” attacks against the landmark decision.
By Li Zhouli
Jul 2, 2018

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement has spurred a raft of questions about how key legal precedents could shift under the tenure of a likely more conservative replacement — and chief among these is the fate of Roe v. Wade.

The landmark 1973 case that guaranteed women’s legal right to an abortion has been on conservatives’ target list for some time, and although Kennedy was appointed by a Republican president, he frequently sided with the liberal wing of the court and acted as a swing vote on cases preserving abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2018/7/2/17515154/kennedy-retirement-roe-wade

USA – Bulwark Against an Abortion Ban? Medical Advances

Bulwark Against an Abortion Ban? Medical Advances

By Pam Belluck and Jan Hoffman
July 1, 2018

As partisans on both sides of the abortion divide contemplate a Supreme Court with two Trump appointees, one thing is certain: America even without legal abortion would be very different from America before abortion was legal.

The moment Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced his retirement, speculation swirled that Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion, would be overturned. Most legal experts say that day is years away, if it arrives at all. A more likely scenario, they predict, is that a rightward-shifting court would uphold efforts to restrict abortion, which would encourage some states to further limit access.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/science/abortion-supreme-court-trump.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

USA – Let’s Talk About My Abortion (and Yours)

Let’s Talk About My Abortion (and Yours)

By Cindi Leive
Ms. Leive is a former editor in chief of Glamour and Self.
June 30, 2018

Several months ago, I appeared on a morning TV show alongside Cecile Richards, then the president of Planned Parenthood. Our topic had been women’s activism, and we’d both spoken in equal amounts. But when I checked Twitter later, the violent insults were flying only at Ms. Richards, with commenters calling her a “baby butcher” and “this puke bitch” for her support of abortion rights. None took aim at me — and as I read the stream, I felt more cowardly than I can ever remember, as if I were crouched in a foxhole while Ms. Richards took fire for the rest of us.

Why was I letting her take the heat? After all, I’d had an abortion myself.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/30/opinion/sunday/abortion-kennedy-supreme-court.html