USA – We Need Courageous Leaders Who Stand Up to Anti-Abortion Extremists

Anti-abortion violence has increased significantly since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Our political leaders must not cower.

9/2/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER

While headlines focus on politicians’ efforts to ban abortion at the state and national levels, anti-abortion forces are also working at the local level to erode abortion access—even in deep blue states such as Massachusetts. In addition to pumping massive funds into anti-abortion fake clinics in blue states, they are also working to block municipal protections for abortion healthcare by using threats and legal intimidation.

Recently, in the progressive Western Massachusetts city of Easthampton, both the mayor and city council president—both Democrats that claim to support abortion rights—voted against an ordinance to protect access to reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care. The ordinance was supported by over 20 reproductive and trans rights groups in the community, who were perplexed and frustrated by their actions.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/02/anti-abortion-massachusetts/

The Britons and Americans trying to reverse abortion rights in Africa

British academic Calum Miller attacked the legalisation of abortion in an Ethiopian medical journal and said it could have contributed to maternal deaths

By Michael Day, Chief Foreign Commentator
July 16, 2023

The US Supreme Court’s decision last year to sweep away a woman’s right to an abortion has set back civil liberties in America by several decades. But the culture wars that threaten Americans’ rights are also having a knock-on effect – and a potentially far deadlier one – thousands of miles away.

Sub-Saharan Africa already has the highest rate of unsafe abortions and unintended pregnancies in the world. Now health workers say right-wing Catholic groups in the US are using the Supreme Court ruling to redouble their efforts to deny women in some of the world’s poorest countries the right to safe terminations.

Continued: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/the-britons-and-americans-trying-to-reverse-abortion-rights-in-africa-2461329

Alito said Dobbs would lower the temperature. Instead, it fanned the flames of abortion extremism.

Federal prosecutions of abortion-related crimes are way up in the year since the court overturned Roe v. Wade.

by BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN
06/24/2023

When the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion a year ago, Justice Samuel Alito suggested that returning the issue to lawmakers might alleviate extremism on both sides of the issue.

Roe v. Wade and other rulings protecting abortion, Alito wrote, had “enflamed debate,” “deepened division,” and prevented a “national settlement of the abortion issue.”

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/24/abortion-extremist-violence-dobbs-00103539

NARAL Pro-Choice America Releases New Research on Anti-Abortion Extremism

June 1, 2023

Washington, DC — Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America released a series of new research memos detailing how anti-abortion extremists are ramping up their radical attacks on our rights in a post-Dobbs America. Emboldened by the fall of Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion lawmakers and groups are sneaking “personhood” ideology into state and federal law, targeting contraception, and working to enact once-unthinkable policies such as instituting the death penalty for people who have an abortion.

NARAL Pro-Choice America Vice President of Communications and Research Angela Vasquez-Giroux released the following statement: “It’s never been clearer that anti-abortion extremists like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and the politicians who do their bidding were never going to stop at Roe….”

Continued: https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/2023/06/01/naral-pro-choice-america-releases-new-research-on-anti-abortion-extremism/

01.06.2023

News

Angela Vasquez-Giroux

anti-choice extremism

anti-choice restrictions

anti-choice violence

Naral Pro-Choice America

pro-life murders

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

United States

Anti-choice

USA – Abortion Clinics Are Dealing with More Arson, Stalking, and Anthrax Threats Now

Abortion providers feared they’d see an increase in harassment and threats if Roe v Wade was overturned. They were right.

By Carter Sherman
May 11, 2023

Dr. Gabrielle Goodrick has provided abortions for 26 years. And up until a few years ago, she never had to deal with protesters at her Phoenix, Arizona clinic.

But in the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the protests at her clinic have become so large and loud that, for the first time, Goodrick has had to enlist people to help escort patients through the picketers.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7bday/rise-in-abortion-clinic-harassment-after-roe

USA – Outspoken abortion provider LeRoy ‘Lee’ Carhart dies at 81

by Lisa Baumann, The Associated Press
Apr 28, 2023

LeRoy “Lee” Carhart, who emerged from a two-decade career as an Air Force surgeon to become one of the best-known late-term abortion providers in the United States, has died. He was 81.

Carhart died Friday, according to Clinics for Abortions & Reproductive Excellence in Bellevue, Nebraska, where he was the medical director. His cause of death was not released by the clinic.

Carhart began focusing on abortions after retiring from the Air Force in 1985. He was one of only a handful of late-term abortion providers in the U.S. and was among the most vocal.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/leroy-lee-carhart-dead-a8f547515880406fa20b2be32fa6a3be

They helped their friend get an abortion. Now a bitter ex-husband is suing them

Marcus Silva’s lawsuit is a metaphor for the creepy, stupid and cruel nature of the anti-choice movement

Moira Donegan
Sat 15 Apr 2023

It wasn’t initially clear how Marcus Silva, a Texas man, even knew about his ex-wife’s abortion. Last month, just weeks after the divorce his wife had filed for was finalized, Silva filed a “wrongful death” lawsuit against three of her closest friends, seeking $1m from each. He claims that the women helped his wife obtain abortion medication in July 2022 – two months after she had filed for divorce from him, and just a few weeks after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v Wade and states like Texas outlawed abortion. And Silva had text messages to prove it.

continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/15/texas-abortion-bounty-hunter-law-friends-sued

Florida’s abortion ban and “pro-life” hypocrisy

Women’s lives are on the line after Ron DeSantis, notoriously ultra-right Governor of Florida, signed a six-week abortion ban

April 14, 2023
by Natalia Marques

On April 14, the Florida state legislature passed one of the most strict abortion bans in the country, which outlaws abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The same day, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quietly, with little fanfare and a private ceremony, signed the bill into law. Florida is following in the footsteps of many US states in passing laws to restrict or ban abortion after the downfall of Roe v. Wade last year. A six week ban is considered especially absurd by medical professionals, as one in three women don’t even learn they’re pregnant until after six weeks.

continued: https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/04/14/floridas-abortion-ban-and-pro-life-hypocrisy/

Florida Senate approves 6-week abortion ban as two Republicans vote ‘no’

Democrats argued that the bill supported Christian principles over health care for women, and that the government should not interfere in decisions that a patient makes with a doctor.

By AREK SARKISSIAN
April 3, 2023

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Senate on Monday approved a proposed ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, with two Republicans opposing the bill amid outbursts from protesters.

The bill, S.B. 300, would ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for women facing life-threatening harm during pregnancy, and exemptions of up to 15 weeks for victims of rape, incest and human trafficking. There’s also $30 million for the Florida Department of Health to expand programs that support contraception, parenting and pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/03/florida-senate-6-week-abortion-ban-00090202

War on women: The link between white supremacy, “men’s rights” and anti-abortion politics

My research finds a strong connection between white supremacy, support for "men's rights" and anti-abortion views

By ANTHONY DIMAGGIO
APRIL 1, 2023

Efforts by Republicans and their allies to roll back abortion rights continue, with a looming federal ban on the abortion pill mifepristone, which accounts for more than half of all pregnancy terminations each year. That case is being decided by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, and was litigated by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian advocacy group that was also involved in the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision last year, which overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, has adopted various terms used by anti-abortion advocates in his comments from the case, referring to "chemical abortion" and "mail-in abortion," for example, phrases that are widely rejected in medical professional settings. His language has led to concerns that the judge is tipping his hand to the anti-abortion movement, and will likely declare a national ban on mifepristone.

The right-wing Christian dimension to the anti-abortion movement has long been obvious, and even as the proportion of evangelical Christians has steadily declined in American society, the religious right has become a highly influential force in the Republican Party. What is missed in this discourse, however, is any discussion about the ways that both white supremacist and male supremacist ideology appear to be driving the contemporary push to outlaw abortions in America.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2023/04/01/on-women-the-link-between-supremacy-mens-rights-and-anti-abortion/