UK – Lower abortion limit from 24 weeks, 700 doctors urge MPs

Reduction ‘long overdue’ because of increased numbers of babies born at 22 or 23 weeks now able to survive

Charles Hymas,
10 March 2024

The abortion time limit should be lowered from 24 to 22 weeks, more than 700 doctors have urged MPs. In a letter to all 650 MPs, the medics have called on them to back an amendment to the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill to reduce the time limit, in what would be the biggest change to the law for a generation.

The medical professionals – ranging from senior consultants to GPs – said a reduction is “long overdue” because of the increased numbers of babies born at 22 or 23 weeks who are now able to survive.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/10/lower-abortion-limit-from-24-weeks-700-doctors-urge-mps/

USA – Lying About Abortion Is the GOP’s Election Strategy

Despite voters making their choice for safe and accessible abortion resoundingly clear at the polls, Republicans are doubling down on their life-threatening bans.

Kylie Cheung
Nov 20, 2023

The weekend after Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to enshrine a right to abortion in the state Constitution, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel went on NBC’s Meet the Press and CNN’s State of the Union to pitch her master plan for Republican candidates on abortion moving forward: lie. Candidates in her party, McDaniel argued to CNN, should follow the lead of a newly elected Republican state senator in Virginia who falsely claimed that he doesn’t support abortion bans; he instead supports “common sense limitations.” On NBC, McDaniel offered an example of how Republican candidates should answer questions about the matter, saying, “It’s confusing right now. But in a time of consensus, can’t we agree on reasonable limitations [on abortion]?”

This was precisely the playbook on which anti-abortion candidates across Virginia ran—and lost—last week. They lost their narrow majority in the State House, giving Democrats control of both chambers of the state legislature and barring Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin from being able to sign an abortion ban into law. The governor, together with Virginia state Republicans, vowed to enact a 15-week ban. Yet Youngkin’s PAC stated that “there is no ban” and referred to the proposed 15-week ban as an ostensibly moderate, reasonable “limit.”

Continued: https://www.damemagazine.com/2023/11/20/republicans-abortion-position/

An Alabama woman was imprisoned for ‘endangering’ her fetus. She gave birth in a jail shower

Exclusive: Ashley Caswell, one of a growing number of jailed pregnant women in Etowah county, is suing officials after she was denied care

Sam Levin in Los Angeles
Fri 13 Oct 2023

In March 2021, sheriffs in Etowah county, Alabama, arrested Ashley Caswell on accusations that she’d tested positive for methamphetamine while pregnant and was “endangering” her fetus.

Caswell, who was two months pregnant at the time, became one of a growing number of women imprisoned in the county in the name of protecting their “unborn children”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/13/alabama-pregnant-woman-jail-lawsuit

USA – Fifteen-Week Abortion Bans Are No Compromise The GOP is haggling over when to ban abortion. So are some Democrats.

By Irin Carmon
Oct 5, 2023

The mainline anti-abortion movement has a problem it thinks a 15-week abortion ban can solve. Accomplishing its cherished dream of overturning Roe v. Wade has come at a cost. Many Republicans are squirming away from the anti-abortion cause as politically toxic, to the point that presidential front-runner Donald Trump seems to think he can blow off the movement entirely. Meanwhile, right-wing activists are fretting that abortion is still too accessible, with patients circumventing state bans via interstate travel or abortion pills by mail. New Guttmacher data even suggest the absolute number of legal abortions went up in the first half of this year.

Continued: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/abortion-bans-15-week-debate-republicans-democrats.html

USA – Slavery rhetoric has long been part of abortion debate. ‘Abolitionists’ take it to next level.

BY: KELCIE MOSELEY-MORRIS
AUGUST 31, 2023

The first time Tina Marshall heard anti-abortion protesters call themselves “abolitionists,’” she said she burst out laughing.

Marshall, a Black woman who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, was counter protesting at an abortion clinic when a mostly white group — save one Black woman — surrounded her and told her they were abolitionists.

Continued: https://kansasreflector.com/2023/08/31/slavery-rhetoric-has-long-been-part-of-abortion-politics-abolitionists-take-it-to-the-next-level/

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

Australia – ‘I was shocked’: Catholic-run public hospitals refuse to provide birth control and abortion

Publicly funded Catholic hospitals across Australia are using the cover of religion to opt out of providing reproductive care – and experts say it has created a ‘postcode lottery’ for access to services

by Donna Lu and Melissa Davey
Mon 21 Aug 2023

When Sarah*, a Melbourne mother, was pregnant with her second child, her GP gave her a surprising warning: if she had any serious complications, concerns about the viability of the pregnancy or believed she might be miscarrying, she should go to the Royal Women’s hospital rather than the Mercy Hospital for Women, where she was planning to deliver the baby.

The reason, the GP told her, was that the Mercy – a public hospital in Melbourne’s north-east – would not assist in terminating a pregnancy due to its Catholic affiliation.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/22/do-australian-catholic-hospitals-perform-abortions-provide-contraception-reproductive-care

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

Anti-Abortion Groups Are Coming for Birth Control—Just as Reproductive Rights Activists Warned

Dark money anti-abortion and pay-to-play groups are predictably responding to the FDA’s over-the-counter birth control pill decision with disinformation.

8/17/2023
by ANSEV DEMIRHAN

In July, the FDA approved the first over-the-counter contraceptive pill, Opill (norgestrel). Opill is expected to be available for purchase online, in pharmacies, and convenience and grocery stores, without a prescription in early 2024.

With barriers to reproductive healthcare increasing—especially for Black, Latino and poor people—and more than 19 million women in the U.S. living in “contraceptive deserts” without easy access to reproductive health clinics, Opill will be a vital tool in the fight for reproductive justice.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/08/17/anti-abortion-pro-life-over-the-counter-birth-control-women/

USA – The GOP’s Plan to Ban Birth Control (Part I)

Redefining Contraception as 'Abortion'

JESSICA VALENTI
AUG 14, 2023

For years, feminists have warned that Republicans want to ban birth control. We’ve pointed to legal and cultural trends showing how contraception is in danger, only to be told again and again that we’re overreacting or being hysterical. Remember how well it turned out when our warnings about Roe were ignored?

This disbelief over the danger to contraception isn’t just run-of-the-mill misogyny—though that’s certainly part of it. Some people simply can’t comprehend why lawmakers who claim to be against abortion would prohibit birth control, which prevents unwanted pregnancies. They haven’t caught onto the fact that Republicans’ real end goal is a return to traditional gender roles, and that overturning Roe was simply a means to that end.

Continued: https://jessica.substack.com/p/the-gops-plan-to-ban-birth-control