Indigenous women, facing tougher abortion restrictions post-Roe, want Congress to step in

Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY
Dec 12, 2023

April Matson was a single mother of two on a six-hour interstate quest to find a legal abortion. 

Matson loved being a parent, but the 25-year-old Native American couldn’t afford another child on her small salary as a food co-op manager. So, in 2016, Matson and a friend set out from Rapid City, South Dakota, for the long drive to Fort Collins, Colorado, for a $650 abortion. To save money, Matson spent two nights after the procedure recovering in a tent at a campsite. 

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/12/12/indigenous-women-abortion-restrictions/71333894007/


USA – Medical exceptions to abortion bans often exclude mental health conditions

Pregnant people were more likely to die from mental health conditions than any other cause, a CDC analysis found.

Nada Hassanein, Stateline
October 24, 2023

More than a dozen states now have near-total abortion bans following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, with limited medical exceptions meant to protect the patient’s health or life.

But among those states, only Alabama explicitly includes “serious mental illness” as an allowable exception. Meanwhile, 10 states with near-total abortion bans (Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming) explicitly exclude mental health conditions as legal exceptions, according to an analysis from KFF, a health policy research organization.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/10/medical-exceptions-abortion-bans-mental-health-conditions/


Indigenous communities navigate abortion after Roe

States with some of the largest Indigenous populations also have some of the strictest restrictions

By Noel Lyn Smith and Maddy Keyes, News21
Tuesday, Aug 29, 2023

ALBUQUERQUE – Rachael Lorenzo calls it their “auntie laugh,” a powerful chuckle that lasts long and fills any space. Aunties are prominent figures in Indigenous culture who offer comfort when one needs help.

Aunties answer the phone when no one else does.

That’s what Lorenzo, who is Mescalero Apache, Laguna and Xicana, does as founder of Indigenous Women Rising, a national fund that covers the costs of abortions – and the traditional ceremonies that follow – for Indigenous people.

Continued: https://www.the-journal.com/articles/indigenous-communities-navigate-abortion-after-roe/


Post-Roe, Native Americans face even more abortion hurdles

By LAURA UNGAR and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
Feb 13, 2023

A few months after South Dakota banned abortion last year, April Matson drove more than nine hours to take a friend to a Colorado clinic to get the procedure.

The trip brought back difficult memories of Matson’s own abortion at the same clinic in 2016. The former grocery store worker and parent of two couldn’t afford a hotel and slept in a tent near a horse pasture — bleeding and in pain.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-us-supreme-court-oklahoma-sd-state-wire-south-dakota-24541ed0e66b5e1e1cd8b84e7e2e3159


Many Hospitals Refuse To Provide Reproductive Care, Even In States Where Abortion Remains Legal

Emily Stewart
NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Voter approval of ballot measures protecting abortion rights in three states on Election Day was an important first step toward addressing the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Since that ruling, at least 13 states have implemented restrictions rendering access to abortion almost nonexistent. Still more states have applied extreme limits. People seeking abortion care are being forced to travel to other states, or figure out how to obtain medication abortion through the mail (which may not be their preference). Health providers are struggling to determine what pregnancy emergency care they can provide without violating newly-enacted abortion bans. Too many are unable to overcome these hurdles to get the care they need.

Continued: https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/many-hospitals-refuse-provide-reproductive-care-even-states-abortion-remains-legal


Inside the Nation’s Only Abortion Fund For Native Americans

Founded by reproductive rights activist Rae Lorenzo, Indigenous Women Rising is a safe space for Indigenous people to tell their own stories—on their terms.

BY KATE NELSON
SEP 1, 2022

At 13 weeks pregnant, Rae Lorenzo ended up in the emergency room with contractions, extreme pain, and excessive bleeding. “I didn’t fully understand my rights as a patient or the protocols of hospitals—what they’re legally obligated to do or how they can restrict care based on personal beliefs,” says Lorenzo, a 32-year-old queer New Mexico reproductive rights activist (Mescalero Apache/Laguna Pueblo/Xicana) who uses the pronouns they/them.

As the pain become more and more unbearable, it became clear to them that an abortion was necessary. But the white male ER doctor refused, telling Lorenzo: “I know what you need right now, but I can’t help you.” They were left alone to wait it out, bleeding through the hospital bed sheets and suffering without proper pain management. It took 90 minutes for a female obstetrician to step in and provide the necessary abortion care. Lorenzo calls the experience, which happened back in 2013, “dehumanizing.”

Continued: https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a41032856/indigenous-women-rising-abortion/


How Texas abortion law is undermining Native American women’s reproductive justice

"It's certainly a whole other level of mental anxiety and cruelty that's forced upon us," one activist said of the law, the most restrictive in the nation.

Sept. 4, 2021
By Erik Ortiz

For Native American women living on tribal lands, obtaining an abortion has long been a difficult and daunting process.

For Native women in Texas, that challenge has been magnified after the U.S. Supreme Court refused this week to block the state's ban on most abortions, underscoring the unique health disparities that Indigenous women have long faced and the potential threats to their health, said Charon Asetoyer, executive director of the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/how-texas-abortion-law-undermining-native-american-women-s-reproductive-n1278494


The nefarious network of state bills trying to kill ‘Roe’ once and for all

By Ray Levy Uyeda
Feb. 22, 2021

Last year, as Maggie, a 30-something Brooklynite, navigated the coronavirus pandemic, she learned that she would have to navigate another, more personal challenge at the same time: getting an abortion. For Maggie (who declined to provide her last name for privacy reasons), finding a compassionate abortion fund to help walk her through her options wasn't difficult, and she could easily pay the out-of-pocket cost for the abortion pill. Her partner of 11 years was supportive of her decision. In the end, accessing her abortion was so easy that it actually reminded her of all the ways politicians attempt to restrict abortion access — and how many other people who might need abortion care live in states where things aren't as smooth as they are in New York.

Continued: https://www.mic.com/p/the-nefarious-network-of-state-bills-trying-to-kill-roe-once-for-all-62348743


USA – Indigenous Abortion Access Shouldn’t Be Tied to Western Religious Values

Indigenous Abortion Access Shouldn’t Be Tied to Western Religious Values

By Kandace Littlefoot, Truthout
Published October 27, 2019

As a Diné woman raised by my maternal grandmother and my sisters, I know that respecting someone’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions is a value deeply rooted in our sovereign Indigenous communities. In our matrilineal society, women have always had direct autonomy over our lives and our reproductive health care decisions. Historical accounts show women and pregnant people in our society have engaged in some form of abortion over generations. I support abortion access because of my Indigenous matriarchal values and traditions — not in spite of them.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/indigenous-abortion-access-shouldnt-be-tied-to-western-religious-values/