Alabama is using the notion that embryos are people to surveil and harass women

Even before the court ruled in favor of this vulgar fiction, state authorities relied on the concept to intimidate and jail women

Moira Donegan
Mon 26 Feb 2024

Something that’s important to remember about last week’s ruling by the Alabama supreme court, which held that frozen embryos were persons under state law, is that the very absurdity of the claim is itself a demonstration of power. That a frozen embryo – a microscopic bit of biological information that can’t even be called tissue, a flick laden with the hopes of aspiring parents but fulfilling none of them – is equivalent in any way to a child is the sort of thing you can only say if no one has the power to laugh at you. The Alabama supreme court is the final court of review in that state. It cannot be appealed. For the foreseeable future, frozen cells in Alabama have the same legal status there as you or I do. Is this an absurd elevation of the status of an embryo, or an obscene degradation of human beings? The answer, of course, is both.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/26/alabama-ivf-frozen-embryos-surveillance

Andorra: Activist on trial for raising concerns about total abortion ban at UN meeting

December 1, 2023
Amnesty International

Abortion rights activist, Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, should have never been charged with a crime or put on trial for defending human rights, said Amnesty International, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Women’s Link ahead of her defamation trial on Monday.

Vanessa Mendoza Cortés, President of Stop Violence (Stop Violències), a civil society organisation, was charged with criminal defamation after voicing concerns about Andorra’s total abortion ban at a meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to examine the country’s record on women’s rights in 2019.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/andorra-activist-on-trial-for-raising-concerns-about-total-abortion-ban-at-un-meeting/

A 10-year-old Ohio rape victim got an abortion. Now her doctor is being punished.

Reprimanding Caitlin Bernard for speaking out could have far-reaching chilling effects.

By Nicole Narea
May 26, 2023

The case of a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim who sought an abortion in Indiana just after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year became a major flashpoint in the political debate. On Thursday, her doctor was reprimanded and fined for discussing the case — and physicians worry that it will have a chilling effect on any kind of patient advocacy that conflicts with the political agenda of state lawmakers.

The Indiana medical board found that Caitlin Bernard, an OB-GYN, violated patient privacy laws in publicly disclosing that she had performed the abortion without the consent of the patient or their parents, even though she never named the patient and only provided a general outline of the case, as doctors typically do when performing health advocacy. She will be fined $3,000 and issued a letter of reprimand, but will be allowed to keep her medical license.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2023/5/26/23738974/indiana-abortion-doctor-caitlin-bernard-ohio

As South Carolina governor signs new law, abortion restrictions strain providers in U.S. South

THU, MAY 25 2023
The Associated Press

A wave of newly approved abortion restrictions in the Southeastern United States has sent providers scrambling to reconfigure their services for a region with already severely limited access.

South Carolina joined the Southern states putting stiff restrictions on the procedure Thursday when the governor signed a bill banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy, setting up an anticipated legal challenge from providers. The law goes into effect immediately.

Continued: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/25/as-south-carolina-governor-signs-new-law-abortion-restrictions-strain-providers-in-us-south.html

Tragedies mount for women with ill-fated pregnancies under Texas’ abortion bans

Bridget Grumet, Austin American-Statesman
May 24, 2023

Life took a wrenching twist for Jessica Bernardo last fall. She went from being an elated, expectant mother — listening to audiobooks about pregnancy, teasing her husband about installing child safety gates on the stairs of their Frisco home — to using a private browser on her computer to search for an abortion.

Bernardo desperately wanted the child she named Emma. About 15 weeks into the pregnancy, though, doctors said the child had severe medical conditions and would not survive to birth.

Continued: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/columns/2023/05/24/grumet-texas-abortion-bans-inflict-growing-toll-expectant-mothers/70248396007/

8 women join suit against Texas over abortion bans, claim their lives were put in danger

The original lawsuit was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights in March.

By Nadine El-Bawab
May 22, 2023

The Center for Reproductive Rights is expected to add eight more women to a lawsuit it filed against Texas over its abortion ban, claiming their lives were put at risk due to the law. This brings the total number of plaintiffs to 15.

The suit alleged that Texas' abortion bans have denied the plaintiffs and countless other pregnant people necessary and potentially life-saving medical care because physicians in the state fear liability, according to a draft of the complaint shared with ABC News.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/8-women-join-suit-texas-abortion-bans-claim/story?id=99480988

USA – Abortion access advocacy groups slam bill allowing women to be charged with homicide

The bill goes against Alabama’s 2019 law, which expressly states that women who obtain abortions are not to be prosecuted.

By JACOB HOLMES
May 15, 2023

When Alabama passed legislation in 2019 to criminalize abortions in the state, Republicans were clear: the women receiving abortions were not to be criminalized.

But just a year after Roe v. Wade was reversed, Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, has introduced a bill, HB454, doing just that, eliminating a section in the homicide code preventing prosecutors from charging women for homicide for having an abortion.

Continued: https://www.alreporter.com/2023/05/15/abortion-access-advocacy-groups-slam-bill-allowing-women-to-be-charged-with-homicide/

USA – “We backslid”: Doctors talk about how abortion care changed in 2022

"We backslid": Doctors talk about how abortion care changed in 2022
The Dobbs decision was devastating — but not all the news was bad

By MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
DECEMBER 26, 2022

It came as a shock, in spite of everything. Halfway through the year, we knew it was coming. We knew from the years and years of laws systematically chipping away at abortion access. We knew from the closed clinics. We knew, weeks before, when the Supreme Court's draft opinion was leaked in May. And yet, as I sat in the Salon studios on a Friday in June and a female colleague looked over and said, "They overturned Roe," I felt the immediate sense of free fall terror. The impact was immediate and chilling.

In states with trigger laws, the sense of urgency among patients and providers kicked in right away. Rachel Lachenauer, the Director of Patient Experience at the National Abortion Federation, told Salon last June following the decision, "We're getting absolutely inundated today with callers who are saying 'I just got a call from my facility, or I just called them to check in and I've learned that I'm no longer able to access care in my state."

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2022/12/26/we-backslid-doctors-talk-about-how-abortion-care-changed-in-2022/

Ireland – TD received ‘disgusting’ anti-abortion material in Government envelope

TD received ‘disgusting’ anti-abortion material in Government envelope
Timmy Dooley has ‘no issue’ being sent such material but says it is difficult for female staff

April 16, 2018
Ronan McGreevy

Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley, who favours repealing the Eighth Amendment, has described as “disgusting” graphic anti-abortion material which was sent to him in an envelope franked with a Government harp.

Mr Dooley received a leaflet in an envelope last week depicting graphic scenes of foetuses. Along with the Government harp, it was also marked freepost and was delivered to him in the Oireachtas without a stamp.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/td-received-disgusting-anti-abortion-material-in-government-envelope-1.3463828

Ireland- Myths and lies about abortion must be debunked

Myths and lies about abortion must be debunked
We are all entitled to our own opinions and beliefs – but not our own facts

Apr 2, 2018
David Robert Grimes

Abortion has long been a contentious issue in Ireland, replete with emotive and frequently dubious rhetoric. This was recently exemplified by Save the Eighth billboard campaign featuring an abortion nurse detailing the horrors he had witnessed.

This testimony was somewhat undermined by the revelation it had been fabricated, leading to the unedifying sight of campaign manager John McGuirk rapidly pivoting from legal threats to grudging acceptance, a volte-face hard to distinguish from surrealist performance art. As the referendum looms ever closer, it is inevitable campaigning will become more charged, both online and off.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/myths-and-lies-about-abortion-must-be-debunked-1.3448176