It’s taking longer to get an abortion in the US. Doctors fear riskier, more complex procedures

BY LAURA UNGAR
December 9, 2023

A woman whose fetus was unlikely to survive called more than a dozen abortion clinics before finding one that would take her, only to be put on weekslong waiting lists. A teen waited seven weeks for an abortion because it took her mother that long to get her an appointment. Others seeking the procedure faced waits because they struggled to travel hundreds of miles for care.

Such obstacles have grown more common since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, doctors and researchers say, causing delays that can lead to abortions that are more complex, costly and in some cases riskier — especially as pregnancies get further along.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-care-wait-times-us-roe-dobbs-7b0a328bb34b0acb3d37e359a63712fc

Choosing sterilization, delaying treatment: Medical choices in U.S. are changing amid new abortion laws

Doctors, patients making care decisions on premise abortions illegal in wake of Supreme Court decision

The Associated Press
Jul 16, 2022

A sexual assault survivor chooses sterilization so she won't be forced to give birth if she's is ever attacked again.

An obstetrician delays inducing a miscarriage until a woman with severe pregnancy complications seems "sick enough."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-abortion-laws-repercussions-1.6522965

USA – It Can Already Take Weeks To Get An Abortion

And the Supreme Court could soon make it take even longer.

By Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
Data Analysis by Holly Fuong
Charts by Elena Mejía
Published Apr. 18, 2022

Last week, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a law outlawing abortion in the state. If it isn’t blocked by the courts, the legislation — which has no exceptions for rape or incest — would be one of the harshest measures to become law at a time when anti-abortion lawmakers are all but competing with each other to pass new restrictions.

But in a sense, Oklahoma legislators who want to end
abortion don’t have much more to do in their state. New data exclusively
analyzed by FiveThirtyEight shows that it’s already very difficult to get an
abortion appointment in Oklahoma — and it has nothing to do with the state’s
new ban. Ever since the Supreme Court allowed a highly restrictive abortion law
to go into effect in Texas last September, Oklahoma’s four abortion clinics
have been overrun with demand from out-of-state patients. When a team of
academic researchers posed as pregnant people and called the Oklahoma clinics
at the beginning of March, all four told the callers they couldn’t schedule
them for an appointment.

Continued: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/it-can-already-take-weeks-to-get-an-abortion/

What Happens When It’s Too Late to Get an Abortion

Nov. 22, 2021
By Diana Greene Foster
New York Times

On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. If the court decides to uphold the Mississippi law — as it may well do — that would mean American abortion rights would no longer be protected up to the point of fetal viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Replacing this viability standard, which has been in place since 1992, with some lower threshold is sometimes framed as a necessary compromise between people who oppose abortion rights and those who support them. The suggestion is that Americans should relinquish the right to abortion in the second trimester to preserve access in the first, which is when about 90 percent of abortions take place.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/opinion/abortion-supreme-court-women-law.html

Barriers to Access to Abortion for Migrant Women in Spain

Barriers to Access to Abortion for Migrant Women in Spain

April 11, 2019

Spain has a law limiting access to public healthcare services for migrants with irregular immigration status
Advocacy groups condemn the restriction, which undermines the sexual and reproductive rights, including abortion rights, of migrant women

Madrid, 11 April 2019 – The international organization Women’s Link Worldwide and the Commission for the Investigation of Violence Against Women have filed a complaint with the Spanish Office of the Ombudsman detailing the cases of six migrant women with irregular immigration status whose access to abortion was delayed by the Madrid public health system. The women were victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, or otherwise at risk.

Continued: https://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/en/news-and-publications/press-room/barriers-to-access-to-abortion-for-migrant-women-in-spain

11.04.2019

News

Commission for the Investigation of Violence Against Women

delays in abortion

Estefanny Molina

migrant women and abortion

Women's Link Worldwide

USA – Conservatives Are Perpetuating Dangerous Tropes About Patients Who Need Later Abortions

Conservatives Are Perpetuating Dangerous Tropes About Patients Who Need Later Abortions

Feb 4, 2019
Dr. Daniel Grossman

As an OB-GYN, an abortion provider, and a researcher who studies abortion and contraception, the work I do is fundamentally rooted in medical evidence and science. That’s why I’ve been so frustrated to see a conversation about abortion dominated by ideologically driven misinformation rather than facts unfold over the last week.

Leading conservative figures have used legislation proposed in Virginia and passed in New York to spread lies about abortion. In fact, all Virginia’s bill would do is end the burdensome 24-hour waiting period, remove the state-mandated ultrasound law, and require one doctor—instead of three—to approve a request for third-trimester abortions.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2019/02/04/conservatives-are-perpetuating-dangerous-tropes-about-patients-who-need-later-abortions/

Let’s Talk About The Long Overdue Reforms Needed In The Abortion Laws Of India

Let’s Talk About The Long Overdue Reforms Needed In The Abortion Laws Of India

By Nyaaya
November 22, 2018
Posted by Malavika Rajkumar

A 35-year-old pregnant rape victim discovers that she is HIV positive in her 17th week of pregnancy. She approaches a government shelter, an approved place to conduct an abortion, but is denied the abortion. They demand parental and spousal consent, even though under the law, a woman above the age of 18, does not need such consent.

She approaches the High Court only to have the High Court deny the request. She’s 26 weeks pregnant by the time the case reaches the Supreme Court which recognises the improper treatment she has been subject to, but ultimately denies the abortion because under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, she had crossed the 20 week limit for abortion.

Continued: https://feminisminindia.com/2018/11/22/abortion-laws-reforms-india/

New Zealand – Editorial: Abortion law needs to catch up with real life

Editorial: Abortion law needs to catch up with real life

6 Nov, 2018

Abortion is not a subject most people want to discuss, either as personal experience or as a matter of public policy. New Zealanders who remember our abortion debate of the 1970s probably have no wish to repeat it, but it looks likely the country will need to. The Labour Party wants to remove abortion from the criminal law and treat it as a health matter. Justice Minister Andrew Little has taken the first step, getting advice from the Law Commission on how that might be done.

The debate of 40 years ago ended, as difficult issues often do, in a compromise that satisfied neither side. The Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977 set out conditions under which abortion could be legally performed in New Zealand. Essentially two doctors had to decide that a pregnancy met one of the conditions under which abortion was permitted on the Crimes Act.

Continued: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12154868

New Zealand can’t congratulate itself on International Safe Abortion day

New Zealand can't congratulate itself on International Safe Abortion day

28/09/2018

Terry Bellamak for The Spinoff

OPINION: In New Zealand, some people think we have it pretty good when it comes to abortion access. But with abortion still in the Crimes Act and other people getting to decide whether pregnant people can terminate, we really have no reason to feel safe. Abortion Law Reform New Zealand president Terry Bellamak writes.

Today is International Safe Abortion Day. It's a day when we celebrate those places where abortion is safe, legal, and accessible, and mourn those places where pregnant people still have to get abortion medications over the internet, risk their lives sourcing abortions outside the health system, or face unfounded prosecutions when they miscarry spontaneously.

Continued: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/09/new-zealand-can-t-congratulate-itself-on-international-safe-abortion-day.html

UK – ‘Outdated’ UK abortion laws hampering care for women, doctors say

‘Outdated’ UK abortion laws hampering care for women, doctors say

Study finds threat of prosecution makes doctors less likely to go into abortion provision

Maya Oppenheim
Wednesday 12 September 2018

Doctors think Britain’s “outdated” abortion law hampers their ability to provide the best care for women, a new study has found.

Research from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, a charity which provides terminations and pregnancy advice, discovered that rules such as making two doctors sign off abortion forms give rise to delays.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-abortion-laws-care-women-doctors-british-pregnancy-advisory-service-a8534841.html