Texas Supreme Court heavily scrutinizes both sides in case challenging abortion bans

Bayliss Wagner, Austin American-Statesman
Nov 29, 2023

Texas' highest court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case that will decide whether medical exceptions to Texas abortion bans are written clearly enough to protect women who face serious health risks during pregnancy.

The 22 plaintiffs in the case include several women forced to wait until they were sick with sepsis, a life-threatening condition, to terminate pregnancies that premature ruptures of membrane had already rendered nonviable; two women who traversed hundreds of miles for abortions of a nonviable twin to protect their and their healthy babies' lives; and a woman forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term, then watch her baby's skin turn purple and her eyeballs bleed as she slowly suffocated to death.

Continued:  https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2023/11/29/texas-supreme-court-hears-case-challenging-texas-abortion-bans-health-risks-pregnancy-women/71727577007/


How a trial in Texas changed the story of abortion rights in America

August 9, 2023
By Sarah Varney

During the five decades that followed Roe v. Wade, lawsuit after lawsuit in states across the country chipped away at abortion rights. And again and again, the people who went to court to defend those rights were physicians who often spoke in clinical and abstract terms.

"The entirety of abortion rights history is a history of doctors appearing in court to represent their own interests and the interests of pregnant people," said Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas-Austin. But in July, in a Texas courtroom, the case for abortion was made by women themselves who had been denied abortions and sued the state to clarify the exceptions to its ban, which makes it illegal to perform an abortion unless a patient is facing death or "substantial impairment of a major bodily function."

Continued:  https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/09/1187378801/texas-abortion-law-trial-reproductive-rights


Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network rises after Roe

Amid legal and medical risks, a growing army of activists is funneling pills from Mexico into states that have banned abortion

By Caroline Kitchener
October 18, 2022

Monica had never used Reddit before. But sitting at her desk one afternoon in July — at least 10 weeks into an unwanted pregnancy in a state that had banned abortion — she didn’t know where else to turn.

“I need advice I am not prepared to have a child,” the 25-year-old wrote from her office, once everyone else had left for the day. She titled her post, “PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/


USA – Covid Put Remote Abortion to the Test. Supporters Say It Passed.

Medication abortion was briefly available online in some states, but a court ruling blocked it. Advocates want it back.

BY REBECCA GRANT
04.05.2021

LAST SUMMER, Cindy Adam and Lauren Dubey received the news they had hoped for, but hadn’t expected to get so soon. Their new telemedicine clinic would be able to offer remote medication abortion services, at least for the time being.

Medication abortion — which most commonly involves taking two medications, 24 to 48 hours apart, during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy — has been available in the U.S. since 2000. But, despite a growing chorus of advocates and experts who say remote access is just as safe as in-clinic care, the Food and Drug Administration requires providers to dispense mifepristone, the first of the two medications, inside the walls of a clinic, hospital, or medical office, citing the risk of complications. Most abortion providers interpreted this language to mean they could not mail mifepristone to patients’ homes, rendering fully remote abortion care impossible.

Continued: https://undark.org/2021/04/05/digital-abortion-access/


Trump fetal tissue ethics board urges rejection of nearly all research proposals

By Amy Goldstein
August 18, 2020

A new advisory board, created to review the ethics of proposed fetal tissue research grants, is urging the Trump administration to block government funding for nearly all of the applications — essentially seeking to ban support for most such scientific work.

The recommendation that the National Institutes of Health withhold funds
from all but one of a slate of 14 research proposals means that Health and
Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who has the final say, would need to buck
the will of a board he convened — and of social conservatives crucial to
President Trump’s political base — for the projects to get federal support.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/trump-fetal-tissue-research/2020/08/18/85902fcc-e157-11ea-8dd2-d07812bf00f7_story.html


USA – The new bill that would create a crime called “abortion murder,” explained

The new bill that would create a crime called “abortion murder,” explained
It could be the future of the anti-abortion movement.

By Anna North
Dec 5, 2019

Ohio legislators last month introduced a measure that would, if passed, become the most restrictive abortion law in the country.

The bill creates a new felony called “abortion murder,” making people who have or perform abortions subject to life in prison. It also includes a provision suggesting that doctors should attempt to reimplant an ectopic pregnancy in a patient’s uterus, a procedure medical experts say is not possible with current medical technology.

continued: https://www.vox.com/2019/12/5/20994296/ohio-abortion-murder-hb-413-reimplant-ectopic


USA – Pregnant people are being offered an unproven treatment to “reverse” abortions

Pregnant people are being offered an unproven treatment to “reverse” abortions
There’s no real evidence that it works — and no data on the side effects.

By Anna North
Nov 11, 2019

“Even if you’ve taken the abortion pill, you can still change your mind,” proclaims the website of a group called Alternatives Pregnancy Center.

The center offers what it calls “abortion pill reversal,” a treatment it claims can stop a medication abortion that’s already been started. Many organizations around the country are beginning to offer the procedure, and a growing number of states require that patients seeking abortions be told about it.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/11/11/20953337/abortion-pill-reversal-ohio-bill-law-pregnancy


A new chain of Christian pregnancy centers will provide a controversial service: Contraception

A new chain of Christian pregnancy centers will provide a controversial service: Contraception

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
November 7, 2019

AUSTIN — When a low-income woman searches for reproductive care, she often goes to a Planned Parenthood clinic, where she’s treated as a patient with an array of medical options. Or she might go to a Christian pregnancy center, where she is counseled to carry a pregnancy to term.

But some Christians now see an opening for a third way to reach women — before they become pregnant — that also enables them to compete for federal money Planned Parenthood has decided to relinquish.

continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/a-new-chain-of-christian-pregnancy-centers-will-provide-a-controversial-service-contraception/2019/11/07/7b89bd14-f458-11e9-ad8b-85e2aa00b5ce_story.html


USA – With Abortion Restrictions On The Rise, Some Women Induce Their Own

With Abortion Restrictions On The Rise, Some Women Induce Their Own

September 19, 2019
Sarah McCammon

When Arlen found out she was pregnant this year, she was still finishing college and knew she didn't want a child.

There's a clinic near her home, but Arlen faced other obstacles to getting an abortion.

"I started researching about prices, and I was like, 'Well, I don't have $500,' " said Arlen, who is in her 20s and lives in El Paso, Texas. We're not using her full name to protect her privacy.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/759761114/with-abortion-restrictions-on-the-rise-some-women-induce-their-own


This life-threatening pregnancy complication is the next frontier in the abortion debate

This life-threatening pregnancy complication is the next frontier in the abortion debate
Ectopic pregnancies can be deadly if left untreated. But abortion opponents are telling another story.

By Anna North
Sep 11, 2019

Ectopic pregnancies can be deadly.

The condition happens in about 2 percent of all pregnancies, when a fertilized egg implants somewhere outside the uterus — usually in the fallopian tube, a tiny structure connecting the uterus to the ovary. If the pregnancy continues to grow and develop, the tube can rupture, and the pregnant person can hemorrhage and die.

In most cases, the only way to treat an ectopic pregnancy is to terminate it with medication or surgery. But now, some abortion opponents are arguing that patients with ectopic pregnancies can simply be monitored until they miscarry — or even that such pregnancies can be carried to term.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2019/9/11/20859034/ectopic-pregnancy-abortion-federalist-intrauterine-ohio-surgery