Standing Between Care and Violence

Abortion-clinic escorts and defenders serve as human shields protecting patients from angry, aggressive protestors. Now, with emboldened extremists and the COVID crisis, they face more danger than ever before.

By Garnet Henderson
Jun 2, 2021

Shelley, an abortion-clinic defender at Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence (CARE) in Bellevue, Nebraska, had a bad feeling on the morning of September 25, 2020. One of those gut bad feelings. It had been a volatile summer. Warmer months typically bring more anti-abortion-rights protesters to clinics, and the groups had been even larger than usual in 2020, likely due to high unemployment rates. By September, the crowds had begun to thin back down to the clinic’s 12 to 14 “regulars.” That morning, one of the regulars was camped out in his usual spot at the base of the clinic’s driveway.

Continued: https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a36061740/abortion-clinic-escorts-defenders-face-violence/


Thickening the Thin Blue Line at the Capitol and the Clinic

In Louisville, Ky., an armed police officer joined an anti-abortion protest outside a clinic. When the thin blue line of the police becomes aligned against upholding the law, injustice prevails.

3/2/2021
by CAROL MASON

Defying the law is not what police and governmental officials are supposed to do; they are supposed to uphold the law. But recent events illuminate concerted efforts to radicalize officers as anti-government agents. Those investigating such radicalization in relation to storming the Capitol might also look at what has been going on around abortion clinics. Anti-abortion militants have a well-developed rationale with which they encourage law enforcement to defy the law.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/03/02/thin-blue-line-capitol-anti-abortion-clinic-police-protest-operation-save-america-kentucky/


Ilyse Hogue, Influential Abortion Rights Advocate, Will Step Down as NARAL Chief

In an interview, Ms. Hogue discussed a tumultuous era for abortion rights and the future of Roe v. Wade.

By Lisa Lerer
Feb. 8, 2021

For Ilyse Hogue, who announced on Monday that she was stepping down as the head of NARAL Pro-Choice America after eight years, abortion rights are at something of a crossroads, with Democrats facing the choice of whether to try to deliver on their promise of codifying Roe v. Wade.

When she assumed the role of president of the abortion rights group in 2013, the Democratic Party controlled the Senate and the White House and had a reliable liberal majority on the Supreme Court. Eight years later, Democrats are back in power but abortion rights face a precarious future.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/us/politics/ilyse-hogue-naral.html


USA – Ensuring Access to Abortion at the State Level: Selected Examples and Lessons

Ensuring Access to Abortion at the State Level: Selected Examples and Lessons

Elizabeth Nash,Guttmacher Institute
Megan K. Donovan,Guttmacher Institute
First published online: January 9, 2019

The October 2018 appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court has called into question the future of Roe v. Wade and abortion access in the United States. Just one month after Justice Kavanaugh took his seat on the bench, voters in Alabama and West Virginia approved state constitutional amendments intended to allow for additional abortion restrictions or even pave the way for outright bans on abortion in the event Roe is undermined or overturned.1

Although the changing composition of the Supreme Court has heightened the risks, efforts to restrict abortion are not new. Policymakers hostile to abortion have been working to undermine abortion care since Roe was decided. As a result, access to abortion already looks very different from state to state, and a person’s access to timely, affordable abortion care can be profoundly impacted by her race, socioeconomic status and available resources.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2019/01/ensuring-access-abortion-state-level-selected-examples-and-lessons


U.S.: Abortion Clinics Report Threats of Violence on the Rise

Abortion Clinics Report Threats of Violence on the Rise

Feb 13 2017
by Mary Emily O'Hara

A new report finds that anti-abortion violence last year was higher than it's been in 20 years — and now that newly confirmed conservative Republican Attorney General Jeff Sessions will oversee law enforcement initiatives that protect an providers from harm, many advocates are on edge.

According to the 2016 National Clinic Violence Survey published last Thursday by the Feminist Majority Foundation, 34.2 percent of U.S. abortion providers reported "severe violence or threats of violence" in the first half of 2016.

That number is up from 19.7 percent in 2014 — and before that, the highest recent peak came in 1995, with an average of 24 percent.

Continued at source: NBC News: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/abortion-clinics-report-threats-violence-rise-n719426