Abortion rights are on a winning streak at the ballot box. Ohio could test that.

Abortion rights have won on the ballot in red states before, but here's how Ohio's Issue 1 measure is different.

Grace Panetta
October 10, 2023

COLUMBUS, Ohio — On a cloudy recent Friday morning, thousands of protestors descended on the Ohio statehouse for the March for Life, many holding signs with sayings like, “Ohio is Pro-Life” and “Vote No on Issue 1.”  That measure, Issue 1, would guarantee a constitutional right to an abortion and other reproductive health care.

All eyes were on Ohio, said Jeanne Mancini, president of the national anti-abortion March for Life. They were at a “cultural crossroads, she said, and Ohioians would be judged on their vote on November 7.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/10/ohio-issue-1-abortion-ballot-measure-november/


USA – Pharmacies begin dispensing abortion pills

A handful of pharmacies are offering the pills 10 months after the Biden administration allowed them to do so.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and LAUREN GARDNER
Oct 6, 2023

A handful of independent pharmacies across the country have quietly begun dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone under new rules created by the Biden administration earlier this year, even as a looming Supreme Court case could reimpose restrictions or ban the drugs entirely.

Thousands of branches of major pharmacy chains are poised to join them — making the drugs more accessible to millions of people nationwide and kicking off a new phase of the legal and political battle over the most popular method of ending a pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/06/pharmacies-begin-dispensing-abortion-pills-00120397


‘We need to dream bigger’: As Roe v Wade marks 50th anniversary, advocates push further

Christine Fernando, USA TODAY
Jan 19, 2023

Each year since 1973, abortion rights activists have gathered on Jan. 22 for “Roe v. Wade Day” to celebrate the Supreme Court decision that granted a constitutional right to abortion.

But now, 50 years after the decision, Roe v. Wade Day will be different: Sunday will also mark the first anniversary of Roe since the ruling was overturned.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/01/19/roe-v-wade-50th-anniversary-abortion-access-womens-march/11030965002/


Anti-abortion groups blame GOP silence for election defeat

The divisions among anti-abortion groups and Republican leaders threaten to undercut a movement that for decades has shaped party platforms, tipped the scales in primaries, and helped steer the federal judiciary rightward.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and MEGAN MESSERLY
11/21/2022

Abortion opponents are pushing the GOP to campaign more openly and forcefully against the procedure after the party suffered a string of losses in House, Senate, state legislative and ballot initiative fights.

Less than six months after celebrating their decades-long goal of toppling Roe v. Wade and watching access to abortion nearly disappear in a quarter of the country, conservatives saw their hard-fought court victory galvanize abortion-rights supporters to outspend and outvote them in the midterms.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/21/anti-abortion-groups-election-loss-00069569


The Battle Over the Future of the Anti-Abortion Movement if the Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

BY ABIGAIL ABRAMS/WASHINGTON, D.C., TIME magazine
MARCH 25, 2022

On a cold, clear weekend in January, tens of thousands of anti-abortion activists convened in Washington for their annual gathering, the March for Life. The mood was triumphant. In the next few months, the U.S. Supreme Court is widely expected to pare back or overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established the constitutional right to abortion. Anti-abortion activists have been fighting for this moment for nearly a half century. For three days surrounding the march, they danced and prayed and tearfully embraced in the streets.

But under the surface, the weekend was fraught with tension. For decades, the well-organized, largely grassroots movement has worked to unite a diverse cross-section of American society behind their cause: white evangelicals, as well as some Catholics, Black protestants, Hispanics, and conservative Democrats. Now, with their goal finally in sight, the different factions of the movement have disparate ideas of what a post-Roe world might look like, and how the movement should channel its considerable political power toward achieving those visions.

Continued: https://time.com/6160143/anti-abortion-roe-wade-supreme-court/


F.D.A. Will Allow Abortion Pills by Mail During the Pandemic

The agency said it would stop enforcing a rule requiring women to get the first of two pills in person at a medical clinic or hospital.

By Pam Belluck
Published April 13, 2021

The Biden administration has decided to allow women to receive abortion pills by mail for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, the latest development in an issue that has increasingly taken center stage in the American abortion debate.

In a letter sent Monday to two leading organizations representing reproductive health physicians, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said that the agency would temporarily stop enforcing its requirement that the first of two drugs needed to terminate an early pregnancy be dispensed in a medical clinic.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/health/covid-abortion-pills-mailed.html


Strategies shift in U.S. abortion debate as Biden takes office

By David Crary  The Associated Press
Posted January 23, 2021

Anti-abortion leaders across America were elated a year ago when Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to appear in person at their highest-profile annual event, the March for Life held every January.

The mood is more sober now — a mix of disappointment over Trump’s defeat and hope that his legacy of judicial appointments will lead to future court victories limiting abortion rights.

Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/7595526/abortion-debate-biden-change/


Supreme Court hands down major decision reaffirming abortion rights

Supreme Court hands down major decision reaffirming
abortion rights
The case, June Medical Services v. Russo, has major
implications.

By Alexandra Svokos, ABC News Daily
29 June 2020

The Supreme Court announced a major ruling on abortion, deciding that the
Louisiana law is unconstitutional and should not stand.

The opinion was written by Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justices Ruth
Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice John Roberts
also filed an opinion concurring for the majority.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-hands-major-decision-louisiana-abortion-case/story?id=71254751


Missouri’s last abortion clinic will stay open after ruling ends contentious year-long legal battle

Missouri’s last abortion clinic will stay open after ruling ends contentious year-long legal battle

By Reis Thebault and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
May 29, 2020

Missouri has narrowly avoided a return to a time before Roe v. Wade after an independent arbiter ruled that its last operating abortion clinic can continue offering the procedure.

After a year-long legal battle that pitted allegations of grave violations against accusations of regulatory overreach, the Planned Parenthood in St. Louis won a rare victory in a state that has become increasingly hostile to abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/29/ruling-saves-missouri-abortion-clinic/


USA – These Anti-Abortion Women Say They’re the Real Feminists: ‘Feminism Includes Women Who Aren’t Born Yet’

These Anti-Abortion Women Say They're the Real Feminists: ‘Feminism Includes Women Who Aren’t Born Yet’
Many protesters at the March for Life wore a lilac beanie with a defiant slogan: “Pro-Life is Pro-Woman.”

by Carter Sherman
Jan 31 2020

WASHINGTON — When tens of thousands of people poured through the streets of Washington D.C. last week at the nation’s largest annual anti-abortion gathering, numerous protesters wore a lilac beanie with a defiant slogan: “Pro-Life is Pro-Woman.”

Many outside the American anti-abortion movement still associate it with bloody images of supposedly aborted fetuses, or with people calling women who walk into abortion clinics “baby killers.” But in recent years, many of the movement’s leaders and youngest followers have increasingly adopted the imagery and lingo of progressive social justice, focusing not only on the supposed rights of the fetus but also on the woman who carries it.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/dyg39w/these-anti-abortion-women-say-theyre-the-real-feminists-feminism-includes-women-who-arent-born-yet