Meet 18 women who shared heartbreaking pregnancy journeys in post-Roe world

On the Brink: Women detail impact of abortion restrictions on their health care.

By Nadine El-Bawab, Tess Scott, Christina Ng, and Acacia Nunes
December 16, 2023

…In a monthslong investigation, 18 women from across 10 states shared their deeply personal stories, chronicling their heartbreaking journeys and how, in some cases, they were brought to the brink of death because they couldn't access timely care in their home states.

The women appeared in a companion broadcast, "Impact by Nightline: On the Brink," with exclusive interviews by Diane Sawyer and Rachel Scott, which looks at the hidden health care crisis playing out in clinics and exam rooms across the country. So many families posing the question: is this what lawmakers intended? "On the Brink" premieres Dec. 14 on Hulu.

These are their stories.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/meet-18-women-shared-heartbreaking-pregnancy-journeys-post/story?id=105563366

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

Kate Cox case reveals toll of US abortion bans on women in medical emergencies

Lawsuits from women denied the procedure despite health risks shows how bans don’t allow for complexities of pregnancy

Carter Sherman
Sat 16 Dec 2023

When Kate Cox got the news that her baby would probably only live for a few days, she went online to figure out her options. A 31-year-old mother of two living in Texas, Cox could not get an abortion, but she also knew that she did not want to make her baby suffer.

That’s when Cox came across the news that 20 Texas women had come forward to tell a court that they, like her, had been unable to get abortions in medical emergencies. Within days, Cox went public too: she became the first woman since the fall of Roe v Wade to sue for an abortion while actively pregnant.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/16/abortion-ban-lawsuits-pregnancy-complication-emergency-kate-cox

Behind the Scenes at the Dismantling of Roe v. Wade

By Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak
Dec. 15, 2023

On Feb. 10 last year, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. showed his eight colleagues how he intended to uproot the constitutional right to abortion.

At 11:16 a.m., his clerk circulated a 98-page draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. After a justice shares an opinion inside the court, other members scrutinize it. Those in the majority can request revisions, sometimes as the price of their votes, sweating sentences or even words.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/15/us/supreme-court-dobbs-roe-abortion.html

‘The Choice is Yours’: Why a feminist coalition is pushing for expanded abortion rights in Iraqi Kurdistan

A local NGO is leading the first campaign of its kind to expand women’s legal access to abortion in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Maxine Betteridge-Moes
14 December, 2023

When 21-year-old Tre* found out she was pregnant, she was shocked and panicked. As an unmarried woman in Iraqi Kurdistan, she was using protection because she was not ready to have a baby. After missing her period, she went to a local clinic for an ultrasound. When the doctor congratulated on her pregnancy, she burst into tears.

“This shouldn’t be happening to me. You need to help me,” she pleaded to the doctor.

The doctor, in compliance with the law, refused to help her. Tre went to visit four other gynaecologists who she said rudely dismissed her. Eventually, through a friend, she was able to obtain abortion pills on the black market to terminate her pregnancy. She described the process as scary, humiliating and isolating.

Continued: https://www.newarab.com/features/kurdistan-feminist-ngo-pushes-more-abortion-rights

Texas Supreme Court rules against woman who sought abortion hours after she says she’ll travel out of state

A state district judge granted the request last week, but the Texas Supreme Court directed the lower court to vacate its order Monday.

Dec. 11, 2023
By Daniella Silva and Aria Bendix

A Texas woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis and who was awaiting a decision from the Texas Supreme Court about whether she would be allowed to get an abortion said Monday that she has decided to leave Texas to get the procedure.

Kate Cox, a mother of two who is around 20 weeks pregnant, found out just after Thanksgiving that her developing fetus has trisomy 18, a fatal diagnosis. Seeking to terminate the pregnancy to protect her health and future fertility, she and her husband sought a court order to block Texas’ abortion bans from applying in her case.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-woman-sought-abortion-court-order-leave-state-rcna129087

Kate Cox explains why she is suing Texas over abortion law

Kate Cox, for the Dallas Morning News
Dec. 11, 2023

We have always wanted a large family, and after our 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son came along, Justin and I began planning and trying for one more.

Because both of my earlier pregnancies required C-sections, we knew this one and any subsequent pregnancy would be considered a higher risk to me and to the pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.ourmidland.com/opinion/voices/article/kate-cox-explains-suing-texas-abortion-law-18546890.php

11.12.2023

Opinion

abortion story

Center for Reproductive Rights

Outrage as Texas Supreme Court Halts Kate Cox’s Abortion

Dec 09, 2023
By Sean O'Driscoll

Legal commentators have reacted with outrage after the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked a pregnant woman from obtaining an emergency abortion.

The court's ruling has blocked a district court's decision to allow Kate Cox to abort a fetus that has a fatal trisomy 18 genetic defect, also known as Edwards' syndrome. Most babies with the defect will die before or shortly after being born.

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/outrage-texas-supreme-court-kate-cox-abortion-1850981

Texas supreme court temporarily blocks woman from abortion for non-viable pregnancy

Dallas woman was earlier allowed abortion by judge, even as state attorney general threatened to sue doctors who perform procedure

Richard Luscombe and agencies, The Guardian
Sat 9 Dec 2023

The Texas supreme court stepped in late on Friday to temporarily stay a judge’s ruling approving an abortion for a woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, the latest development in a protracted legal wrangle over one of the most restrictive bans in the nation.

Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from Dallas, had been granted a temporary restraining order from a lower court on Thursday, allowing her to proceed with an emergency procedure at 20 weeks.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/09/texas-supreme-court-temporarily-blocks-woman-from-abortion-for-non-viable-pregnancy

Texas attorney general says he will sue doctor who gives abortion to Kate Cox

Ken Paxton issues threat after judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, can get an abortion

Ava Sasani
Fri 8 Dec 2023

The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has threatened to prosecute any doctor who provides an abortion to Kate Cox, a woman with a non-viable pregnancy, advising hospitals to ignore a court order issued on Thursday allowing her to get the procedure.

The rightwing Paxton issued the warning to three Houston-area hospitals after a Texas judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, may obtain an abortion under the narrow medical exceptions offered by the state bans.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/08/ken-paxton-texas-abortion-kate-cox