Brittany Watts, Ohio woman charged with felony after miscarriage at home, describes shock of her arrest

by Jericka Duncan, Rachel Bailey, Cassandra Gauthier and Hilary Cook
January 26, 2024
Video interview: 10 minutes

When Brittany Watts woke up at her Warren, Ohio, home on Sept. 22, 2023, she knew she was miscarrying.

Her 22-week-old fetus had been declared nonviable by doctors several days prior. Bleeding and in pain, she spent a total of 19 hours in the hospital over a span of two days, begging to be induced.
But an ethics group at Mercy Health - St. Joseph Warren Hospital had concerns about Ohio's abortion laws and how they applied to Watts' case, ultimately resulting in hours of delayed care.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brittany-watts-the-ohio-woman-charged-with-a-felony-after-a-miscarriage-talks-shock-of-her-arrest/


Do pregnant women have a right to urgent medical care? No, according to a US court

Federal judges sided with a Texas law that allows the state to push pregnant patients to the brink of death before allowing medically necessary abortion

Moira Donegan
Wed 10 Jan 2024

Do doctors have an obligation under federal law to keep their patients alive, even if their patients happen to be pregnant women? Do doctors have an obligation to prevent maiming – or irreversible organ damage, or other kinds of serious bodily harm – and if so, does that obligation extend even to women? Do women have a right to access medically necessary care even if they are pregnant? No, according to the US fifth circuit court.

That’s the conclusion reached by a three-judge panel recently in Texas v Becerra, a case in which Texas sued the Biden administration over guidance that directed all hospitals receiving federal funds to perform “necessary stabilizing treatment” on patients – including abortions on pregnant patients undergoing medical emergencies.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/10/pregnant-women-urgent-medical-care-us-court-texas


‘Deeply Disturbing’: Federal Court Rules Texas Can Ban Emergency Abortions

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray called the 5th Circuit's ruling "a horrifying and astonishingly dangerous decision from a court that has shown repeatedly they have absolutely no regard for women's lives."

JAKE JOHNSON
Jan 03, 2024

The conservative-dominated 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late Tuesday that Texas hospitals and physicians are not required by federal law to perform abortions under emergency circumstances.

The 25-page decision stems from a legal challenge that Texas filed in response to guidance issued in July 2022 by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The guidance states that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) "protects providers when offering legally-mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations."

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/news/5th-circuit-texas-abortion


It’s 2023, but certain men are desperately grasping for control of women’s bodies

Barrington Salmon
DECEMBER 30, 2023

America harbors a profound and deep-seated hatred for women. The misogyny is pervasive, leaching into just about all areas of life, tainting, polluting and poisoning relationships, the home, marriages, the workplace, friendships, education, intimacy and the privacy of the bedroom.

This toxic brew continues to percolate into the pores of the US consigning the distaff gender to second-class citizenship and systematic discrimination. This despite women comprising approximately 51.1 percent of the U.S population.

Continued: https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/12/30/its-2023-but-certain-men-are-desperately-grasping-for-control-of-womens-bodies/


Texas attorney general says he will sue doctor who gives abortion to Kate Cox

Ken Paxton issues threat after judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, can get an abortion

Ava Sasani
Fri 8 Dec 2023

The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has threatened to prosecute any doctor who provides an abortion to Kate Cox, a woman with a non-viable pregnancy, advising hospitals to ignore a court order issued on Thursday allowing her to get the procedure.

The rightwing Paxton issued the warning to three Houston-area hospitals after a Texas judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, may obtain an abortion under the narrow medical exceptions offered by the state bans.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/08/ken-paxton-texas-abortion-kate-cox


A Texas judge ruled a pregnant woman who sued the state seeking an abortion can legally terminate her pregnancy

By Ashley Killough, Ed Lavandera and Andy Rose, CNN
Thu December 7, 2023

…After the ruling, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned Cox’s physician she could still face civil and criminal penalties at some point should she perform the court-ordered procedure.

… Molly Duane, Cox’s attorney, … said the fight is far from over, as the ruling only applies to Cox and does not “restore access” to abortion to thousands of other women. She called the state’s argument “callous in the extreme,” and said “they don’t care whether people live or die as long as they’re forced to give birth.”

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/us/texas-abortion-ruling/index.html


Texas Woman Granted Emergency Abortion Against State’s Wishes

Ryan Autullo
Dec 7, 2023

A Texas woman can immediately terminate her pregnancy for health reasons, before the state’s Supreme Court rules on a larger challenge to the state’s abortion ban, a state district court judge ruled Thursday.

The emergency hearing in Travis County came two days after Cox sued the state, saying that her doctors told said her fetus won’t survive and the pregnancy is threatening her life and future health. Cox, 20 weeks pregnant, asked the court to approve the termination “now” as a medical exception to the abortion ban because her physicians are refusing to conduct the procedure so long as the baby has a heartbeat.

Continued: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/texas-woman-granted-emergency-abortion-against-states-wishes


Ken Paxton’s latest Texas abortion argument is a breathtaking abdication

If Texans lose their children, their fertility, or even their lives, it’s simply not Texas’ problem.

Nov. 29, 2023
By Andrea Grimes, journalist and activist

“There’s gonna be some hard calls.”  That’s how a lawyer with the Texas Attorney General’s office callously shrugged off the question of how, and indeed whether, doctors are allowed to save the lives of pregnant women during a hearing at the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s hearing put the state’s disregard for its own responsibility to protect and defend “life” in devastating relief.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/texas-abortion-ban-supreme-court-ken-paxton-rcna127147


Wisconsin’s dangerous abortion restrictions threatened my life and will continue to harm women

Hannah Thompson

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Nearly a year and a half after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban went back into effect, it may be easy for some to forget the harm that the ban has been inflicting. But as anti-abortion lawmakers in our state continue to pass legislation to obstruct and stigmatize abortion, I can’t forget what these restrictions do to women like me.

I was 19 weeks pregnant when I went into previable preterm labor with advanced cervical dilation: Our son had not developed enough to survive outside of my womb.  My husband and I would inevitably lose him. We couldn’t imagine that our state’s laws would create a situation that would nearly cost me my life in the process.

Continued: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2023/11/13/wisconsins-dangerous-abortion-restrictions-threatened-my-life-and-will-continue-to-harm-women/


Virginia – ‘It’s cruel’: the last southern refuge for abortion rights might soon fall

Virginia is the only southern state that hasn’t restricted abortion post-Roe. Is that about to change?

Carter Sherman in Charlottesville, Virginia
Tue 31 Oct 2023

By the time Chasity Dunans learned about her pregnancy, she had already lost the right to end it.

She had gotten her period in July, but towards the end of the month the 23-year-old mother of one started to have heartburn and wrenching stomach pains. She told herself: you’re not pregnant, you’re just sick. When the pain didn’t stop, she gave in and saw a doctor.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/31/virginia-abortion-rights-ban-south-state