USA – A ‘dangerous precedent’: Doctors and patient advocates fear restricted access to abortion pill

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that could limit access to mifepristone.

March 25, 2024
By Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

About two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court on Tuesday will revisit the issue of reproductive rights, this time contemplating whether to limit access to mifepristone, the first of two pills used in medication abortion.

Ahead of oral arguments and eventual ruling, doctors and patient advocates are expressing alarm about what might happen if the high court decides to tighten access to the drug.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/doctors-fear-restricted-access-abortion-pill-mifepristone-rcna144955


USA – Abortion pill legal challenge threatens miscarriage care

One of the most widely used treatments for miscarriage is in jeopardy

By LAURA UNGAR AP Science Writer
May 6, 2023

Less than a year after losing her daughter Emilia at five days old, Jillian Phillips suffered a miscarriage. It was Halloween weekend in 2016, and her doctor said she could wait for it to end naturally, have a surgical procedure or take medication.

She chose the medicine, passed the remains of her nine-week pregnancy at home and buried them in a memorial garden, near some of Emilia’s ashes.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/abortion-pill-legal-challenge-threatens-miscarriage-care-99136739


USA – With telehealth abortion, doctors have to learn to trust and empower patients

January 17, 2023
MARA GORDON

Like many pandemic-era remote workers, Robin Tucker starts her work day sitting on her sofa with a laptop, wearing soft pants and a T-shirt. But the Washington, DC-area nurse practitioner and midwife doesn't have a typical work-from-home job. She provides abortions over the Internet, a service that has only become available in the United States in the last few years.

Her career, she says, has turned out to be very different from what she learned in midwifery school, where she'd spend long shifts in a high-intensity labor and delivery unit, helping patients give birth.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/01/17/1140778856/with-telehealth-abortion-doctors-have-to-learn-to-trust-and-empower-patients


Maternal and infant death rates are higher in states that ban or restrict abortion, report says

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN
Wed December 14, 2022

The rates of mothers and newborn babies dying during pregnancy, at birth or postpartum are much higher in states that currently ban or restrict abortions than in states preserving access, according to a new report.

The researchers analyzed data on deaths and other health outcomes using the most recent data available – from 2020 and earlier – and compared rates based on states’ current abortion access policies, as of November, after the Supreme Court decision this summer that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Continued:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/health/maternal-infant-death-abortion-access/index.html


Challenges increase for immigrants accessing abortion after Roe reversal

From language to travel barriers, immigrants are left with few options.

By Amanda Su
July 17, 2022

After Texas' Senate Bill 8, which banned any abortions after the detection of embryonic cardiac activity, was allowed to go into effect last year, Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a physician at Planned Parenthood Center for Choice in Houston, said interstate travel was often the only recourse he could suggest for patients seeking to terminate their pregnancy.

But for one patient, that wasn't possible. Due to her pending immigration case, the patient could not travel more than 70 miles or would risk jeopardizing both her ability to remain in the country and the security of her two children, he said.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/challenges-increase-immigrants-accessing-abortion-roe-reversal/story?id=86404717


Hundreds Of People Who’ve Had Abortions Tell Biden: ‘We Need To Hear From You’

As a historic Supreme Court decision approaches that could have a devastating impact on reproductive access, activists want more from the president.

By Alanna Vagianos
03/10/2022

In just a few months, the constitutional right to get an abortion in the United States could disappear or be severely limited. Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that afforded that right, is facing a serious challenge in the high court. Meanwhile, conservative state legislatures are on a rampage: 2021 saw the most abortion restrictions ever enacted in a single year.

But President Joe Biden has said very little on the topic. His administration has made some limited moves to protect abortion care in the wake of these historic attacks, but abortion rights activists are worried that the president’s hesitance will have major consequences.

Continued: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hundreds-people-abortions-biden_n_622a12bde4b0fe0944d24ee7?k3


USA – Abortion is essential, especially during this pandemic | Opinion

Abortion is essential, especially during this pandemic | Opinion

Posted Jun 06, 2020
By Kristyn Brandi

I heard it twice in one day: “I don’t know what to do.”

As a doctor practicing in Newark, I see patients with a broad diversity of lived experiences. Itis unusual to hear the same story back to back. But we are in unusual times. Two people: one, a patient in my obstetrics clinic, the other a close friend. Both were concerned about being pregnant in the time of COVID-19.

Continued: https://www.nj.com/opinion/2020/06/abortion-is-essential-especially-during-this-pandemic-opinion.html


USA – Senate Republicans Want to Protect Babies ‘Born Alive’ After an Abortion. That Doesn’t Happen.

Senate Republicans Want to Protect Babies ‘Born Alive’ After an Abortion. That Doesn’t Happen.
The U.S. Senate will vote on the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act” in the coming weeks. Here's what that means.

by Carter Sherman
Feb 15 2020

Abortion politics are, to put it lightly, contentious. But in the coming weeks, the Senate will vote on what may be their third rail: abortions that occur late in pregnancy.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell set up votes for a 20-week ban on abortions and a bill known as the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act.” While neither are expected to hit the 60-vote threshold they’d need to pass, the vote on the “Born-Alive” bill is red meat for conservatives — and the legions of anti-abortion voters they’re hoping to galvanize ahead of the 2020 elections.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/g5xdgb/senate-republicans-want-to-protect-babies-born-alive-after-an-abortion-that-doesnt-happen


USA – “Failed” abortions, a period-tracking spreadsheet, and the last clinic standing: the controversy in Missouri, explained

“Failed” abortions, a period-tracking spreadsheet, and the last clinic standing: the controversy in Missouri, explained
Hearings will determine if Missouri will be the first state without an abortion clinic.

By Anna North
Oct 31, 2019

At a hearing over an investigation of Missouri’s lone abortion clinic, a state official testified to something that has disturbed reproductive health advocates in the state and beyond: With the help of state medical records, his office had created a spreadsheet tracking patients’ menstrual periods.

The goal, according to the Kansas City Star, was to investigate “failed” abortions, instances in which the patient needed to return a second time to complete the procedure. The idea was apparently that, by gathering data on patients’ periods, state officials would know who was still pregnant after a scheduled abortion.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2019/10/31/20939890/missouri-abortion-clinic-hearing-periods-roe-wade


USA – What’s missing from the conversation about late abortions, explained by a doctor

What’s missing from the conversation about late abortions, explained by a doctor
Abortion opponents are accusing doctors of infanticide. Here’s the reality of abortion late in pregnancy, according to a doctor.

By Anna North Updated
Apr 29, 2019

President Trump on Saturday yet again claimed that doctors in America are executing babies. “The baby is born,” Trump said at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “The mother meets with the doctor. They take care of the baby. They wrap the baby beautifully, and then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby.”

Trump’s inflammatory words are part of a larger movement. At an especially contentious time in the abortion debate, opponents of the procedure have focused their attention on abortions that happen late in pregnancy. In some cases, they’re implying that laws allowing l

continued: https://www.vox.com/2019/3/11/18246702/trump-abortion-ralph-northam-virginia-green-bay