Supreme Court mifepristone case will affect millions. Don’t base ruling off junk science.

Access to safe and effective medications like mifepristone should be based on rigorous scientific research and the medical community consensus – not the fringe opinions of a few extremists.

Julia Kaye
Jan 31, 2024

Overturning Roe v. Wade was just the beginning.

In Idaho v. United States, the question is whether states can disregard longstanding federal protections and bar doctors from providing abortions to patients experiencing medical emergencies.

The second case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. Food and Drug Administration, targets access to mifepristone, a safe and effective medication used in most abortions in this country and for miscarriage management. Since its FDA approval a quarter century ago, mifepristone has been safely used by more than 5 million people.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2024/01/31/supreme-court-abortion-pill-mifepristone-junk-science/72370445007/

GOP legislatures in some states seek ways to undermine voters’ ability to determine abortion rights

Legislative efforts in Missouri and Mississippi are attempting to prevent voters from having a say over abortion rights

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO Associated Press
January 28, 2024

CHICAGO -- Legislative efforts in Missouri and Mississippi are attempting to prevent voters from having a say over abortion rights, building on anti-abortion strategies seen in other states, including last year in Ohio.

Democrats and abortion rights advocates say the efforts are evidence that Republican lawmakers and abortion opponents are trying to undercut democratic processes meant to give voters a direct role in forming state laws.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/gop-legislatures-states-seek-ways-undermine-voters-ability-106743537

UK anti-abortion charity with links to MPs ran misleading Facebook ads

Right to Life UK boosted its spend on the social media platform tenfold in three years

Sian Norris and Manasa Narayanan
Sat 16 Dec 2023

A leading UK anti-abortion charity with ties to MPs and peers has increased its Facebook advertising spend more than tenfold in three years, spending nearly £190,000 on advertising campaigns.

In a joint investigation, the Observer and the Citizens analysed the spend and content of hundreds of Facebook ads paid for by Right to Life UK between June 2020 and November 2023. The findings reveal the charity – which provides the secretariat for the Pro-Life All Party Parliamentary Group – spent an average of £117,000 in 2023, an increase from an average £11,400 in 2020, £16,900 in 2021 and £43,600 in 2022.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/16/anti-abortion-charity-misleading-facebook-ads-mps-right-to-life-uk

‘I feel conned into keeping this baby’

An anti-abortion millennial couple promised women thousands of dollars to cancel their abortions. The women had their babies, but the couple didn't always hold up their end of the deal. BI investigated, and now they say they'll pay out $10,000 the women never got.

Bethany Dawson, Louise Ridley, and Sarah Posner
Dec 8, 2023

Tara couldn't afford to keep the baby.
It was fall 2021, and she and her husband were "totally broke and really struggling," she said.

They were staying at Tara's mother-in-law's home in Texas, sleeping with their kids in a converted garage with no air conditioning or heat. They could barely buy formula for their 3-month-old or food for their toddler. Her husband, an electrician, hadn't had work since the pandemic started, and Tara had incapacitating postpartum depression. "It was hard for me to get out of bed every day," she said.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.com/pro-life-let-them-live-promised-women-money-cancel-abortion-2023-12

15-week abortion bans are the center of Republican debate. Experts say that cutoff is arbitrary.

Anti-abortion politicians have recently linked 15-weeks to fetal pain. That benchmark has been moving for years — and it's still not accurate.

Shefali Luthra
December 6, 2023

The Republican debate over abortion has centered around one number: 15. Backers of a 15-week federal ban tout it as a compromise measure, even in the face of recent electoral defeat.

Anti-abortion advocates hope congressional candidates will embrace this measure, and they’re pushing GOP presidential candidates to promise they would sign such a bill.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/12/15-week-abortion-bans-arbitrary-number-republican-debate/

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

Americans Deserve Better Than Abortion Pill Misinformation

Self-managed abortion through pills is safe, private and effective. Media outlets have a role to play in stopping the spread of misinformation.

9/16/2023
by JENNIFER LINCOLN

Since the fall of Roe, there have been countless attempts to chill speech about abortion, and misinformation has run rampant. Just last month, a prominent newspaper published one of the most egregious examples yet: an op-ed by David Reardon titled “Coercive Abortions Are at the Heart of the FDA Abortion Pill Case.”

Reardon holds a degree from Pacific Western University, an unaccredited correspondence school that closed in 2006 after a lawsuit from the state of Hawaii. Medical professionals and researchers have repeatedly criticized his research for methodological flaws and biases—and reproductive health experts have argued that his conclusions are not supported by scientific evidence.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/16/mail-order-abortion-pills-safe/

16.09.2023

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice extremism

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

refuting anti-choice lies

USA – The oxymoron at the heart of GOP abortion ‘compromise’

Opinion by Mary Ziegler
Tue August 29, 2023

The South Carolina Supreme Court’s recent abortion decision is a reminder of the importance of state constitutional law in the post-Roe era. By upholding a six-week ban virtually identical to one struck down by the same court in January, this ruling means that South Carolina will go from a state that welcomed abortion seekers from across the region to one where the procedure is available for only as little as a week after a person confirms a pregnancy.

But the court’s decision — and the legislative strategy behind the law that the court upheld — is also a perfect reflection of an evolving Republican strategy to push back on abortion: paying lip service to the importance of reproductive liberty with exceptions or rhetorical flourishes while offering no real access at all.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/29/opinions/abortion-ban-south-carolina-gop-strategy-ziegler/index.html

29.08.2023

Opinion

anti-choice deception

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice hypocrisy

anti-choice legislative strategy

Abortion Is So Popular Republicans Are Inventing Conspiracy Theories to Trick Americans Into Voting Against It

BY CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI
AUG 21, 2023

Abortion bans are unpopular. So unpopular that Republican extremists seem to have to invent conspiracy theories to trick Americans into voting for them.

That’s the major takeaway from recent political battles in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In all three states, abortion-related ballot initiatives and elections were framed by right-wing groups as the only thing standing between parents and “trans ideology” in the classroom.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/08/abortion-votes-republican-plan-trick-transphobia-ohio-wisconsin-michigan.html

21.08.2023

Commentary

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice hypocrisy

Words Matter: Why We Must Demand Accuracy And Combat Anti-Abortion Language

Aug 1, 2023
By Amanda Seller, President MSI United States

The battle for reproductive rights in the United States and elsewhere is being fought on uneven ground because of anti-choice misinformation and misleading language. Now, a year after the end of Roe v. Wade, it’s more important than ever to speak out against anti-choice lies.

The anti-choice movement is playing a game of disinformation, using emotive language that eschews the reality of modern, safe abortion to manipulate people into support. And they’re winning.

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeseq/2023/08/01/words-matter-why-we-must-demand-accuracy-and-combat-anti-abortion-language/?sh=7d5d55527af8

01.08.2023