“We just won’t comply”: Inside California’s push to be the ultimate abortion haven state

Gov. Gavin Newsom has implemented strict privacy measures for patients and increased California’s budget for services. But as California strives to be a sanctuary for abortion seekers from around the country, providers are still struggling to serve those in state.

BY ABIGAIL TRACY
AUGUST 5, 2022

As a growing number of states across the country continue to ravage reproductive rights after the fall of Roe v. Wade, advocates and policymakers in California are sending a message. “We’re becoming not just a haven state sort of in theory, although that’s important,” Jodi Hicks, the CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said. “But also we’re becoming a state that won’t comply with other states. We just won’t comply.”

California has long held some of the strongest protections for abortion access in the country. But last October, when the Supreme Court first chose not to halt Texas S.B. 8, which bans abortions at six weeks without exception—months before they unraveled federal abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—the check engine light came on. The impact was immediate as patients from Texas began traveling to California seeking care. And suddenly, Hicks explained, providers were faced with a series of new legal questions regarding their care. Reproductive rights advocates went into overdrive.

Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/08/inside-californias-push-to-be-the-ultimate-abortion-haven-state

Pregnant patients without access to abortion face a ‘death sentence,’ U.S. House panel told

BY: ARIANA FIGUEROA
JULY 14, 2022

WASHINGTON — Witnesses told a U.S. House committee on Wednesday that pregnant patients who can’t obtain abortions will face higher mortality rates if they are forced to carry their pregnancies to term.

“It is essentially a death sentence,” Michele Bratcher Goodwin, the chancellor’s professor of law at the University of California, told lawmakers.

Continued: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/07/14/pregnant-patients-without-access-to-abortion-face-a-death-sentence-u-s-house-panel-told/

14.07.2022

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Jackie Speier

Mallory McMorrow

maternal mortality

Michele Bratcher Goodwin

House passes bill to create statutory right to abortion as a battle over Texas law heats up

By Felicia Sonmez and Ann E. Marimow
Sept 24, 2021

The House on Friday passed legislation that would create a statutory right for health-care professionals to provide abortions, amid an intensifying legal battle over a Texas law that is the most restrictive in the nation. H.R. 3755, the Women’s Health Protection Act, was approved by the House 218 to 211 but faces tough odds in the evenly divided Senate.

The measure states that health-care providers have a statutory right to provide, and patients have a right to receive, abortion services without any number of limitations that states and opponents of the procedure have sought to impose. The measure would essentially codify Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right to abortion before viability, usually around 22 to 24 weeks.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/abortion-house-texas-supreme-court/2021/09/24/d5e731be-1ca2-11ec-a99a-5fea2b2da34b_story.html

Strickland Introduces Legislation To Protect Reproductive Health Rights Worldwide By Repealing the Harmful Helms Amendment

MARCH 11, 2021
BY CONGRESSWOMAN MARILYN STRICKLAND

In commemoration of International Women’s Day and during Women’s History Month, Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) introduced the Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act with Representatives Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Norma Torres (D-CA) and over 140 original cosponsors.

This historic legislation would repeal the Helms Amendment, which attacks reproductive rights by banning the use of U.S. foreign assistance funds on abortion services overseas. Repealing the Helms Amendment is a critical step toward achieving reproductive and economic freedom and equity for millions worldwide. The Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act is supported and endorsed by a diverse coalition of more than 170 organizations.

Continued: https://thesubtimes.com/2021/03/11/strickland-introduces-legislation-to-protect-reproductive-health-rights-worldwide-by-repealing-the-harmful-helms-amendment/

USA – It’s past time to be rid of the legacy of Jesse Helms

by Anu Kumar and Serra Sippel
08/07/20

You’ve likely never heard of the Helms Amendment, or perhaps not until now that Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), along with Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), Barbara Lee(D-Texas), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.), have introduced legislation to repeal it. But our guess is you’ve heard of the late North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms.

In 1973, Helms, an outspoken opponent of civil rights — really, he opposed rights for anyone not white, male, heterosexual, American and Christian — introduced the Helms Amendment. The policy prohibits any U.S. foreign assistance funds from being used for “the performance of abortion as a method of family planning.” As written, the Helms Amendment allows for the provision of abortion information and counseling in cases of rape, incest and if a woman’s life is in danger. But in effect, it has been interpreted as a total ban on abortion-related services and information in developing countries.

Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/international/511037-its-past-time-to-be-rid-of-the-legacy-of-jesse-helms

Thousands Of Women Across The US Marched To Protest Abortion Bans

Thousands Of Women Across The US Marched To Protest Abortion Bans
"Should be at school but instead I'm busy protesting this SHIT."

Tasneem Nashrulla, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Last updated on May 21, 2019

Thousands of people across the US Tuesday marched as part of the #StopTheBans protest against the recent wave of anti-abortion legislation that has cropped up in several states.

More than 500 #StopTheBans demonstrations were set to take place at statehouses, town squares, and courthouses across multiple states, as well as in Puerto Rico and Ottawa, Canada.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/stop-the-abortion-bans-protests

USA – The First Time Women Shouted Their Abortions

The First Time Women Shouted Their Abortions
Fifty years ago, a group of women stood up in a church and talked about ending their pregnancies. The way they did so still shapes how we discuss the topic today.

By Nona Willis Aronowitz
March 23, 2019

You couldn’t just casually threaten suicide — you had to sound like you meant it, the woman onstage recalled. “You have to go and bring a razor, or whatever: ‘If you don’t tell me I’m going to have an abortion right now, I’m going to go out and jump off the Verrazzano Bridge.’”

The woman was speaking in 1969. Legalized abortion nationwide was still four years away; in New York, so-called therapeutic abortions were legal — but only if a doctor judged you mentally unfit to have a child. And so, the woman explained, she ended up seeing two psychiatrists who, to her relief, deemed her suicide threats real enough to be granted the procedure. The crowd clapped and roared at the absurdity of it all, until the woman explained that after her abortion, she was stuck in the maternity ward to recover — right next to crying babies. The crowd wasn’t laughing anymore.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/opinion/sunday/abortion-speakout-anniversary.html