Disabled Texans face more barriers to accessing abortion

Few organizations track the number of disabled individuals trying to access abortion, but abortion providers and groups that help assist Texans obtain out-of-state abortions say they are falling through the cracks.

BY NEELAM BOHRA, Texas Tribune
FEB. 20, 2024

When disabled Texans used to visit abortion clinics, staffers would remember them. They may have needed in-clinic accommodations or American Sign Language Interpreters, and they appeared infrequently. Still, they came.

But more than a year since performing abortions became illegal in the state of Texas, disabled people have become a “missing population” at the clinics still providing abortions out of state, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion provider.

Continued: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/20/texas-abortion-disabled/

Leave My Disability Out of Your Anti-Abortion Propaganda

July 31, 2022
By Kendall Ciesemier

Thirty years ago, when my mother was pregnant, an ultrasound revealed troubling abnormalities: the fetus’s organs were misarranged. This condition, she was told by her doctor, correlated with a wide variety of disabilities that could cause the baby to die at birth. The doctor told my mother that she could seek an abortion. She wanted her to know her options.

My parents had good health insurance, a steady income and a strong support system. They chose to proceed with the pregnancy. A few months later, I was born to a crowd of doctors waiting to assess and treat my condition. I had my first of many major surgeries at 8 weeks old. My parents went to sleep every night praying I’d see another birthday.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/31/opinion/disability-rights-anti-abortion.html

31.07.2022

disability and abortion

disabled fetuses

disabled women and abortion

USA – Brett Kavanaugh’s disturbing abortion history: He ruled against women who were forced to abort

Brett Kavanaugh’s disturbing abortion history: He ruled against women who were forced to abort
In 2007, two disabled women complained about being forced to have abortions. Kavanaugh ruled against them

Amanda Marcotte
August 20, 2018

Much of the discourse around Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's second nominee for the Supreme Court, has been focused around his attitudes on abortion. Anti-choice groups have been crowing that Kavanaugh has a "strong record of protecting life" and will uphold laws written "to protect unborn children." Trump himself promised, during the 2016 campaign, to appoint "pro-life judges." And while some conservatives, in a likely effort to bamboozle both the Senate and the public, have been pretending that Kavanaugh is a moderate when it comes to the abortion issue, both pro- and anti-choice activists seem to agree that Kavanaugh is a threat to a woman's right to choose to terminate her pregnancy.

"Choose" being the operative word here. In 2007, as an appellate judge in Washington, D.C., Kavanaugh was presented with an unusual case involving two women who had wanted to continue their pregnancies but had been forced to have abortions instead. They sued and Kavanaugh ruled against them, denying their claims that they had a right to be consulted about the decision to terminate their pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2018/08/20/brett-kavanaughs-disturbing-abortion-history-he-ruled-against-women-who-endured-forced-abortions/