Post “Roe,” Advocates Fear for the Future of Contraceptive Self-Determination

A climate of misinformation and fear has people feeling they are making their contraceptive choices under duress.

By Garnet Henderson , TRUTHOUT
November 27, 2022

Jacora Johnson, a 22-year-old Texas resident, is facing a difficult and potentially painful decision. They currently use the Depo-Provera shot, a type of birth control that’s administered by a medical provider every three months. In addition to being a highly effective form of contraception, it’s also gender-affirming for Johnson, who is nonbinary.

“I don’t get my menstrual cycle, which is great because that can be dysphoric for me,” they said. Johnson also enjoys having regular check-ins with a doctor. But in Texas, most abortions have been banned since September 2021, when SB 8, the law that encouraged private citizens to enforce it by suing those who “aid or abet” abortions, went into effect.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/post-roe-advocates-fear-for-the-future-of-contraceptive-self-determination/


USA – The Abortion Rate Is the Lowest It’s Ever Been—Here’s Why

The Abortion Rate Is the Lowest It’s Ever Been—Here’s Why

October 23, 2019
By Anna Borges

Staying on top of what’s going on with abortion in the United States can feel like being on a freaking roller coaster. Every new headline broadcasting an attack on abortion access leaves us scrambling to understand what it really means for people who might need abortions. Witnessing all these debates about whether or not we should have autonomy over our own bodies is also exhausting. Despite the ever-changing abortion landscape, one thing has remained constant: the steady decline of the abortion rate over the years.

Last month the Guttmacher Institute released a study showing that in 2017 there were 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. This marked an 8% decline since 2014 and a 54% decline since 1980, when the U.S. abortion rate peaked at 29.3 procedures per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. It’s the lowest abortion rate recorded since the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion nationwide.

Continued: https://www.self.com/story/low-abortion-rate


USA – The new Trump plan to defund Planned Parenthood, explained

New rules could leave low-income women without access to affordable birth control.
By Sarah Kliff
May 18, 2018

Women’s health clinics that provide abortions or refer patients for the procedure will be cut off from a key source of federal funding under new Trump administration rules expected to be released Friday.

Both the New York Times and Modern Healthcare report that the White House plans to issue new guidelines for Title X, the only federal program dedicated to paying for birth control. The new rule is expected to require a “physical as well as financial separation” between entities that receive Title X funds and those that provide abortions.

continued: https://www.vox.com/2018/5/18/17367964/trump-abortion-planned-parenthood-defund