64K women and girls became pregnant due to rape in states with abortion bans, study estimates

The research letter, published by JAMA Internal Medicine, estimated that nearly 520,000 rapes were associated with 64,565 pregnancies across 14 states.

Jan. 24, 2024
By Megan Lebowitz

More than 64,000 women and girls became pregnant because of rape in states that implemented abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overruled, according to a new research estimate published online Wednesday.

The research letter, published by JAMA Internal Medicine and headed up by the medical director at Planned Parenthood of Montana, estimated that nearly 520,000 rapes were associated with 64,565 pregnancies across 14 states, most of which had no exceptions that allowed for terminations of pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/64k-women-girls-became-pregnant-due-rape-states-abortion-bans-study-es-rcna135565

I Miscarried in Texas. My Doctors Put Abortion Law First

Jan 21, 2024
By Erin A. Snider

For nearly five hours I alternate between lying in a fetal position on our bathroom floor and curling up against the wall, shivering uncontrollably one moment, and burning up the next.

I vomit three times on the floor. I rock back and forth in tears, repeating out loud, to myself, to God, to my husband and my dog on the other side of the door, to please, please make this stop. The pain is so blinding that I think I'm hallucinating.

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/i-miscarried-texas-doctors-abortion-law-1861677

India – ‘Fetus is normal’ — AIIMS asks HC to reconsider order allowing abortion for 31 weeks pregnant woman

Delhi HC order allowed abortion citing psychiatric report that woman was suffering from extreme trauma. Hospital's application says 'feticide' in this case 'neither justified nor ethical'.

BHADRA SINHA
16 January, 2024

New Delhi: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has expressed reservations about a Delhi High Court order permitting abortion to a 31-week pregnant woman.

In an application filed Monday before the high court, the hospital said the “fetus is grossly normal” and, therefore, “feticide” in the case “is neither justified nor ethical”.

Continued: https://theprint.in/judiciary/fetus-is-normal-aiims-asks-hc-to-reconsider-order-allowing-abortion-for-31-weeks-pregnant-woman/1925498/

USA – The Catholic Hospital System Killing Women

How Ascension hospitals are fueling the maternal death rate

JESSICA VALENTI
JAN 11, 2024

Earlier this week, The New Yorker published a piece about a young woman killed by Texas’ abortion ban. Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick, the first reported post-Dobbs death, had diabetes, hypertension, and a history of pulmonary edema; she went to the emergency room with breathing problems just seven weeks into her pregnancy, and multiple times thereafter with ever-increasing issues. Yet even as Yeni got sicker and sicker, at no point did a doctor advise an abortion. No one even mentioned the possibility.

… The very same day that Yeni’s story was shared with the world, National Nurses United (NNU) released a report showing how Ascension is fueling the U.S. maternal mortality crisis. In fact, NNU called Ascension, which has 140 hospitals in 19 states, “one of the nation’s worst offenders for closing obstetrics units.”

Continued: https://jessica.substack.com/p/the-catholic-hospital-system-killing

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

Malta – Woman fined €58 for assaulting Doctors for Choice activist

Jennifer Grech said that pro-choice messages ‘hurt her feelings’

January 2, 2024
Edwina Brincat

A woman, found guilty of assaulting a pro-choice doctor during a peaceful roadside protest, later saying that the message on the activist’s placard “hurt” her feelings, was fined €58.

Judgment was delivered on the incident which took place on May 9, 2022, when Isabelle Stabile, a gynaecologist and member of Doctors for Choice, was assaulted by Jennifer Grech during a protest on Aldo Moro Street, Marsa.

Continued: https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/woman-fined-58-assaulting-doctors-choice-activist.1076001

02.01.2024

News

anti-choice violence

Astrid May Grima

Doctors For Choice Malta

18 Months After “Dobbs,” Here’s How Abortion Providers and Activists See Things

Abortion funds and logistical support groups are enabling people to travel out of state to obtain abortion care.

By Eleanor J. Bader , TRUTHOUT
December 28, 2023

After the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs decision eviscerated the already limited federal right to abortion, 14 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia — banned the procedure.

In some of these states, clinics closed. According to The Guardian, 42 U.S. clinics shuttered in 2022, plus 23 more in 2023. But as disturbing as this is, it is not the full story. Despite financial, legal and political obstacles, many clinics in states that have banned abortion have pivoted, continuing to provide essential reproductive health services such as contraceptives, STI testing and treatment, and routine gynecological exams, with some expanding to deliver prenatal and gender-affirming care. In addition, new clinics have opened in states like Wyoming and Maryland where abortion remains legal.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/18-months-after-dobbs-heres-how-abortion-providers-and-activists-see-things/

I hadn’t broken Poland’s abortion laws – so why did the police raid my flat?

Artist was humiliated by the authorities and lambasted by the press after terminating a pregnancy, but refuses to be silenced

As told to Weronika Strzyżyńska
Wed 27 Dec 2023

In May, I made the decision to take abortion pills to end a pregnancy. I wasn’t scared. I’ve been involved in LGBTQ+ and pro-choice activism in Poland for years, I know my rights and knew I wasn’t breaking the law. Though Poland’s abortion law is strict, terminating your own pregnancy is not illegal. So, like thousands of Polish women every year, I ordered the medication online from Women Help Women, a secure source abroad.

One night, two weeks after I’d taken the pills, I was at home when suddenly there was a loud banging on my front door and shouts of “police!”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/27/poland-abortion-laws-pani-joanna-activist

Prosecuted for a miscarriage: Ohio demonstrates the ghoulishness of post-Roe America

Post-Roe politics are turning every pregnancy into a potential crime scene

Dec. 21, 2023
By Andrea Grimes

Give birth, die trying, or go to jail.

To the anti-abortion politicians and lobbyists who got their wish when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, these have always been the only acceptable pregnancy outcomes. Ideally, they’d like a country full of meek, compliant (and mostly white) women whose sole mission in life is to have children. But since pregnancy is dangerous, it’s unavoidable that a number of those women will die in the process — especially in the United States, where our maternal mortality rates (particularly for Black and brown people) are already exceptionally high, and rising. That’s too bad, of course, but for anti-abortion forces it’s better than the alternative: Women who think we have the right to make our own decisions about when, where and whether to carry a pregnancy to term.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ohio-woman-miscarriage-case-brittany-watts-rcna130511