USA – The Best Way to Protect Abortion Rights Right Now Is to End a Racist, Classist Federal Budget Amendment

But will Biden do it?

MARCH 31, 2021
BECCA ANDREWS

Abortion advocates are finally on the offensive. Having barely made it through the last four years with Roe intact, the groups battling to protect the right to abortion can now, in theory, help set the agenda for their pro-choice president. And they are putting much of their energy into a single demand: End the ban on using federal funds for abortion care.

That ban, known as the Hyde Amendment, was passed by Congress in 1976 as an amendment to the federal budget. Thanks to Hyde, Medicaid health insurance can’t cover abortions—except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment—forcing low-income women to pay for abortions out of pocket. The amendment was the first major blow to abortion rights after Roe because it essentially cut off access to those who had always struggled to get care before the procedure was legalized.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/abortion-hyde-amendment-medicaid-biden-pro-choice/

USA – Coronavirus Is Endangering Abortion Access. Telemedicine Could Solve it.

Coronavirus Is Endangering Abortion Access. Telemedicine Could Solve it.
Almost 40% of abortions take place in the privacy of one's home. Why must pregnant women to go to the clinic at all?

By Melissa Jeltsen, HuffPost US
03/20/20

Imagine you take a cruise in late February. When you get back to the U.S., you start to self-quarantine out of concern that you were exposed to coronavirus on the ship. Then you find out you are pregnant. You do not want to be. What do you do?

If you were in Canada, you could get a doctor to prescribe you what is colloquially known as the “abortion pill,” which you could pick up from your local pharmacy. Using medication abortion, women end their pregnancies by taking a combination of two drugs, usually spaced 24 hours apart, which essentially cause a miscarriage.

Continued: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/medication-abortion-telemedicine_n_5e74ec23c5b6eab779472982?ri18n=true

USA – Sex-selective abortions: Reproductive rights are being pitted against gender equality

Sex-selective abortions: Reproductive rights are being pitted against gender equality
Critics say the bans are "anti-abortion ruses" rooted in an effort to racially profile Asian American and Pacific Islander women.

Oct. 27, 2019
By Safia Samee Ali

When Dr. Colleen McNicholas treats a woman seeking an abortion in Missouri, she must, under penalty of law, ask a series of uncomfortable questions probing why the woman wants the procedure, including if it’s because of the fetus's gender.

That question, which she said patients find “absurd” and “completely inappropriate,” is a requirement that was left intact by a Missouri federal judge who halted several other restrictive measures, such as a ban on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy, signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, in May in an effort to block abortion access.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sex-selective-abortions-reproductive-rights-are-being-pitted-against-gender-n1067886

USA – The states with the most online requests for abortion medications

The states with the most online requests for abortion medications

By Jen Christensen, CNN
Thu October 17, 2019

(CNN) Women who live in states with strict and punitive abortion laws account for the majority of requests made to a website that supplies abortion medications, a new study has found.

The website, Women on Web (WoW), has been run by an international non-profit since 2006 and provides abortion medications -- under doctor supervision -- to women who have submitted medical paperwork prior to 10 weeks of gestation.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/17/health/abortion-medication-requests-study/index.html

USA – With Abortion Restrictions On The Rise, Some Women Induce Their Own

With Abortion Restrictions On The Rise, Some Women Induce Their Own

September 19, 2019
Sarah McCammon

When Arlen found out she was pregnant this year, she was still finishing college and knew she didn't want a child.

There's a clinic near her home, but Arlen faced other obstacles to getting an abortion.

"I started researching about prices, and I was like, 'Well, I don't have $500,' " said Arlen, who is in her 20s and lives in El Paso, Texas. We're not using her full name to protect her privacy.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/759761114/with-abortion-restrictions-on-the-rise-some-women-induce-their-own

U.S. Abortion Rate Continues to Decline, Reaching Historic Low in 2017

U.S. Abortion Rate Continues to Decline, Reaching Historic Low in 2017
Regional and State Disparities in Abortion Access Have Widened

September 18, 2019
News Release, Guttmacher Institute

The U.S. abortion rate dropped to 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 in 2017, the lowest rate recorded since abortion was legalized in 1973 and an 8% decline from 2014, according to a new Guttmacher report by Rachel Jones, Elizabeth Witwer and Jenna Jerman. The number of abortions also declined to 862,320 in 2017, 7% fewer than in 2014. Birthrates declined in almost all states during this period, indicating that fewer people became pregnant, not that more individuals chose or were made to give birth rather than have an abortion.

The Guttmacher Institute’s 18th census of all known abortion-providing facilities in the United States identified 808 clinic facilities providing abortions in 2017, a 2% increase from 2014. However, during that time, longstanding regional and state disparities in abortion access grew even more pronounced: The number of clinics increased in the Northeast (by 16%) and the West (by 4%) and actually decreased in the Midwest (by 6%) and the South (by 9%). In 2017, 89% of U.S. counties did not have a clinic that provided abortion services, and 38% of women of reproductive age lived in these counties.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2019/us-abortion-rate-continues-decline-reaching-historic-low-2017

18.09.2019

decline in abortion rates

Some US women are taking reproductive matters into their own hands: They’re ordering abortion pills by mail

Some US women are taking reproductive matters into their own hands: They're ordering abortion pills by mail

USA TODAY
June 25, 2019

In Aid Access' first year of operation, 21,000 U.S. women reached out to the online organization launched in March 2018 that offers abortion pills internationally. Requests came from all over the country ⁠– especially states where abortion is tightly restricted.

After a string of states passed bans or limits in recent weeks, pushing the abortion debate in the USA to a fever pitch, abortion rights advocates said those numbers could climb.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/25/abortion-by-mail-foothold-limit-ban-states-access/1512470001/