The Terrifying Global Reach of the American Anti-Abortion Movement

Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the United States. They’ve been busy imposing their will on other countries, too—with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women.

Jodi Enda
March 18, 2024

Because Editar Ochieng knew the three young men, she didn’t think twice when they beckoned her into a house in an isolated area near the Nairobi River. One was like a brother; the other two were her neighbors in the sprawling Kenyan slum of Kibera.

Ochieng did not know the woman who performed her abortion. She and a friend scoured Nairobi until they found her, an untrained practitioner who worked in the secrecy of her home and charged a fraction of what a medical professional would. Mostly, what Ochieng remembers is the agony when this stranger inserted something into her vagina and “pierced” her womb. “It was really very painful. Really, really, really painful,” she told me. Afterward, Ochieng said, she cut up her mattress to use in place of sanitary pads, which she could not afford. She was 16 years old.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/179485/american-anti-abortion-movement-terrifying-global-reach


The Supreme Court dismantled Roe. States are restoring it one by one.

Support for abortion cuts across party lines, performing significantly better at the ballot box than Biden and other Democrats.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN, MEGAN MESSERLY and JESSICA PIPER
11/09/2023

Justice Samuel Alito challenged voters to decide the future of abortion when he wrote the U.S. Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade last year. “We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond,” he noted as he threw out half a century of precedent.

Now, 17 months later, the court has an answer: Americans want to preserve or restore Roe-like protections.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/09/abortion-rights-elections-red-states-00126225


Confuse and mislead: US anti-abortion groups’ strategy to soften extreme bans

Critics decry ‘vague language and misinformation’ as Susan B Anthony claims US does not have true ‘bans’ since exceptions exist

Ava Sasani
Thu 13 Jul 2023

In the year since the US supreme court ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion, the anti-abortion movement is still struggling to define a cohesive vision of post-Roe America.

Now they are employing a new strategy: use confusing or misleading language to repackage and soften the more extreme types of abortion restrictions.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/13/anti-abortion-language-restrictions-bans-roe-v-wade


This doctor says bans won’t stop her from getting abortion pills to women in the U.S.

BY LAURA KINGSTAFF
APRIL 3, 2023

AMSTERDAM —  It was nearly three decades ago, as a young medical trainee in West Africa, that Rebecca Gomperts witnessed scenes that would set in motion her life’s work. Gruesome hemorrhages, perforated wombs, bloodied young women gasping out their lives: all the aftermath of botched illegal abortions.

“The methods — oh, how invasive they were,” the 57-year-old Dutch activist-physician said, shaking her head at the memory of stricken women staggering or being carried into the hospital. “Sticks. Bleach.”

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-04-03/dutch-doctor-telemedicine-group-abortion-pill-struggle


USA – The new front in the right’s war on abortion

Abortion pills are at the heart of the fight over abortion access in a post-Roe world.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Jan 9, 2023

The Biden administration helped expand access to medication abortion last week, with the US Food and Drug Administration finalizing a rule to make the pills more readily available in pharmacies. But this effort to help patients get pills to end a pregnancy could be dwarfed by a major push to restrict access to the medication from anti-abortion leaders and their Republican allies.

As lawmakers head back to state legislatures this month, many for the first time since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, Republicans face new pressure to restrict access to the combination of abortion-inducing drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, used typically within the first 10 to 12 weeks of a pregnancy. Medication abortion has become the most common method for ending pregnancies in the United States, partly due to its safety record, its lower cost, diminished access to in-person care, and greater opportunities for privacy.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/1/9/23540562/abortion-pills-medication-dobbs-roe-mifepristone


This year was devastating for women’s rights. 2023 may not be better.

Now is not the time to take your eyes off the erosion of these fundamental rights.

Dec. 31, 2022
By Marisa Kabas, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

The year 2022 was, in a word, devastating for women. It was the year we lost fundamental rights; it was the year we lost bodily autonomy; it was the year we became inferior in the eyes of the government; it was the year we slid backwards.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn nearly 50 years of legal precedent and no longer consider abortion a constitutional right sent women’s rights into a tailspin. Suddenly it was up to individual states to decide on the legality of this safe medical procedure, and with that came the possibility for legislators and judges alike to look at all manor of reproductive health care in a new light. Now it seems nothing is off the table.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/texas-abortion-rights-get-even-worse-2023-rcna63721


USA – Desperate abortion foes resort to new tactics while pregnant people find ways to thwart them

BY ROBIN ABCARIAN, COLUMNIST
DEC. 18, 2022

Illegal abortion is back, and — dare I say? — it’s better than ever. Did our ultraconservative Supreme Court, so out of step with 21st century America, really think that overturning nearly 50 years of legal precedent would end elective abortion in America?

Sure, sure, they returned the issue to the states, the reddest of which immediately banned the procedure, even when a pregnancy results from rape or incest or the fetus has medical issues incompatible with life.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-12-18/illegal-abortion-pills-ban-medication-abortion


Abortion-rights groups prepare for more battles following 2022 victories

By Sara Burnett, Associated Press
Dec 1, 2022

CHICAGO (AP) — Emboldened by the results of November’s midterms, abortion rights supporters say they are preparing for even bigger fights in state legislatures and pivotal elections to come, including 2024 races for Congress and president.

Victories for abortion rights ballot measures and candidates who support abortion provided a roadmap for how to win future campaigns, Democrats and leaders of several organizations say. Mobilization efforts brought together women of different races, ages and ideologies who disagreed with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this summer to eliminate the constitutional right to abortion, forming more diverse and larger coalitions.

Continued: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/abortion-rights-groups-prepare-for-more-battles-following-2022-victories


USA – What we know (and don’t know) about how abortion affected the midterms

November 25, 2022
Danielle Kurtzleben

Ahead of the midterms, pollsters and strategists and — yes, journalists — were obsessed with voters' top issues. In poll after poll, including polling at NPR, voters reported inflation to be the most important issue. Despite this, a lot of people do not vote with a single issue top-of-mind, and that makes it hard to know how much abortion swayed the midterms.

This year's midterms were certainly unusual — when the president's approval is below 50 percent (as President Biden's is), their party loses 43 House seats in midterm elections, on average. This year, Democratic losses may be in the single digits. As a result, less than six months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, both sides are working to figure out how big a part abortion played in the midterms.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/25/1139040227/abortion-midterm-elections-2022-republicans-democrats-roe-dobbs


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