Opposing parties answer AG in case on Guam abortion ban

John O'Connor | The Guam Daily Post
Oct 30, 2023

Parties opposed to the attorney general's attempt at reviving a decades-old abortion ban on Guam argue that the AG is essentially looking to reset the field at this stage because he failed to lay down specific arguments earlier at a lower court. Additional arguments from the opposition bring up free speech issues imposed by the ban, and comment further that recent changes in the U.S. Supreme Court's position on abortion do nothing to change the unconstitutionality of such provisions.

Guam's abortion ban is found in Public Law 20-134. The ban prohibits abortions at all stages of pregnancy with limited exceptions related to medical intervention and ectopic pregnancies. Victims of rape and incest, for example, are not exempt under the ban unless they meet those limited exceptions. The ban also contains a referendum provision, allowing voters to determine if the ban should stay, but the election date has long passed.

Continued: https://www.postguam.com/news/local/opposing-parties-answer-ag-in-case-on-guam-abortion-ban/article_77bec528-76b6-11ee-9d63-9bf2dc9a7396.html

USA – The National Right To Abortion Is Facing An Intense Threat. This Group Has Been Preparing For This Fight For Decades.

The National Right To Abortion Is Facing An Intense Threat. This Group Has Been Preparing For This Fight For Decades.
The Center for Reproductive Rights will argue in the first major Supreme Court case over abortion in the Trump era, which could gut Roe v. Wade

Ema O'Connor BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on March 1, 2020

It is no exaggeration to say that the Center for Reproductive Rights was made for this moment.

Around 30 years ago, Nancy Northup, the center’s current president, was outside an abortion clinic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, linking arms with the people around her to form a human barricade to protect patients trying to get inside. Hundreds of anti-abortion protesters faced them down, chanting, saying prayers, and attempting to block patients from entering the clinic.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/abortion-supreme-court-trump-center-reproductive-rights

Janet Benshoof: Human rights lawyer who campaigned for abortion rights in the US and across the world

Janet Benshoof: Human rights lawyer who campaigned for abortion rights in the US and across the world
She proved a formidable foe to anti-abortion activists, never cowing to threats of violence, and her vision for empowering girls and women was steadfastly internationalist in scope

Harrison Smith
Thursday 4 January 2018

Janet Benshoof was an American human rights lawyer who campaigned to expand access to contraceptives and abortions across the world. She led organisations that advocated on behalf of women from the US to Burma and Iraq.

In the American territory of Guam, she was once arrested for protesting against her country’s most restrictive abortion law.

Continued at source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/janet-benshoof-abortion-rights-us-human-rights-lawyer-america-world-pro-life-choice-anti-death-a8141321.html

04.01.2018

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obituary Janet Benshoof

USA: Janet Benshoof, lawyer who pursued abortion rights for women, dies at 70

Janet Benshoof, lawyer who pursued abortion rights for women, dies at 70

By Harrison Smith
December 19, 2017

Janet Benshoof, a human rights lawyer who campaigned to expand access to contraceptives and abortion, leading organizations that advocated on behalf of women from the mainland United States to Burma, Iraq and Guam, where she was once arrested for protesting the most restrictive abortion law in America, died Dec. 18 at her home in Manhattan. She was 70.

She was diagnosed in November with uterine serous carcinoma, an endometrial cancer, said her son David Benshoof Klein.

Continued at source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/janet-benshoof-lawyer-who-pursued-abortion-rights-for-women-dies-at-70/2017/12/19/76194422-e4d2-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html

Looking at Guam’s abortion laws

(Photo: PDN file)

A key question for us on Guam is whether our current abortion laws meet the terms and conditions set down by the U.S. Supreme Court in cases such as Roe v. Wade and the recent decision of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.

My guess is that they do, but the road to compliance has been bumpy, to say the least.

In 1978, the Guam Legislature enacted a criminal law that regulated abortions. The apparent goal was to bring Guam’s abortion laws into compliance with the Roe v. Wade decision. Tracking the Supreme Court’s trimester approach to regulating abortions, the law provided that an abortion on Guam could be performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. Between the 14th and 26th weeks, an abortion was permitted if the unborn child faced a “grave physical or mental defect,” or if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. The law also permitted an abortion at any time during the pregnancy if there was substantial risk to the mother’s health.

[continued at link]
Source: Pacific Daily News

28.08.2016