US elected officials avoiding topics of abortion and gun control over fear of threats

Brennan Center survey finds tens of thousands steering clear of hot-button issues – and some considering quitting public life

Ed Pilkington
Thu 25 Jan 2024

Tens of thousands of state legislators and elected local officials are avoiding hot-button policy issues such as abortion and gun control because they are fearful of the backlash of intimidating abuse, a new report has found.

A major survey by the Brennan Center for Justice released on Thursday warned that the spate of extremist intimidation that has been seen nationally in the US, epitomized by the attack on the Capitol building on 6 January 2021, is also sweeping local and state politics. In the fallout, elected individuals are limiting their interactions with constituents and narrowing the contentious topics they are prepared to take on.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/25/us-legislators-elected-officials-abortion-gun-control

25.01.2024

Brennan Center for Justice

Abortion pill legal fight heads toward Supreme Court showdown

The Justice Department said it will seek immediate Supreme Court review to prevent a rollback of rules that eased restrictions on the drug mifepristone.

April 12, 2023
By Lawrence Hurley and Laura Jarrett

A federal appeals court decision that declined to suspend approval of the abortion pill mifepristone but kept in place restrictions that would prevent it from being sent to patients by mail has teed up a high-stakes showdown at the Supreme Court.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that the Justice Department “strongly disagrees” with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to allow the restrictions and will seek immediate Supreme Court review.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/appeals-court-partially-blocks-ruling-imperils-access-key-abortion-pil-rcna79144

12.04.2023

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US abortion pill access in doubt after Texas judge suspends approval

Ruling on mifepristone, widely used for medical abortions, sets up legal showdown as Washington state issues conflicting order

Poppy Noor and agencies
Sat 8 Apr 2023

A federal judge in Texas on Friday suspended US approval of the abortion medication mifepristone, one of the two drugs commonly used for medication abortions, in a closely watched case brought by anti-abortion activists.

But shortly after, a conflicting ruling came out of Washington state, ordering the Food and Drug Administration to refrain from taking any action that would affect the pill’s availability. The two rulings throw the future of the drug into question, increasing the chances that the supreme court will ultimately decide its fate.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/07/abortion-pill-ruling-mifepristone-trump-judge-matthew-kacsmaryk

Fears mount around ‘catastrophic’ abortion pills case as decision nears
Conservative judges likely to decide fate of Texas lawsuit seeking to ban mifepristone nationwide

By Caroline Kitchener and Perry Stein
February 5, 2023

Abortion rights advocates delivered a stark warning to the Biden administration’s top health official in a private meeting last week: It’s time to take seriously “fringe” threats that could wind up blocking abortion access across the country. Driving their anxiety is a Texas lawsuit brought by conservative groups seeking to revoke the decades-old government approval of a key abortion drug.

The suit has been widely ridiculed by legal experts as rooted in baseless and debunked arguments. But in recent weeks, abortion rights advocates and some in the Biden administration have grown increasingly concerned that the case is likely to be decided entirely by conservative judges who might be eager for a chance to restrict abortion access even in Democrat-led states, where the procedure has remained legal since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/05/abortion-pills-texas-lawsuit/

USA – There’s A Dishonest Right-Wing Furor Over Recent Arrests Of Anti-Abortion Activists

Prominent conservatives are claiming the Biden administration launched a "war on pro-lifers" after the Justice Department arrested several protesters for blocking access to abortion clinics.

By Alanna Vagianos
Oct 8, 2022

It’s been a federal crime for nearly 30 years to intimidate or interfere with any person trying to obtain or provide reproductive health care services. But two recent indictments by the Department of Justice for such violations have enraged some influential conservatives, who are now stoking a false narrative about a supposed war against the religious right.

It started with prominent anti-abortion minister Mark Houck, who late last month was arrested on federal charges that he allegedly twice assaulted a 72-year-old patient escort outside of a Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia. If proven, it would be a clear violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a 1994 law that makes it a federal crime to use force or the threat of force to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person trying to obtain or provide reproductive health care services.

Continued: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/right-wing-arrests-anti-abortion-activists_n_634082dbe4b028164534c4ee

Biden signs second executive order to protect US abortion access

The directive equips the Heath and Human Services department to expand coverage for patients seeking out of state care

Maanvi Singh
Wed 3 Aug 2022

Joe Biden signed a second executive order on Wednesday that aims to protect access to reproductive healthcare after the US supreme court struck down the constitutional right to abortion.

Most significantly, the order directs the health and human services department to consider ways to expand coverage for patients traveling out of state for reproductive healthcare. Biden’s order does not detail how this could be achieved; currently, government-subsidized Medicaid health insurance plans cover medically necessary abortions in only 16 states and do not reimburse patients who leave their state to seek an abortion.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/03/biden-executive-order-protect-abortion-access

03.08.2022

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U.S. State legislators look to Mexico for direction in fight for abortion rights

Progressive legislators are studying how activists in Mexico, whose Supreme Court ruled to decriminalize abortion last year, effectively won back certain abortion care rights.

July 24, 2022
By Adam Edelman

State legislators have turned their attention to their neighbor to the south for guidance and direction about how to navigate a newly restrictive legal landscape in the U.S. regarding abortion.

Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion last year, loosening decades of restrictive laws in the predominately Catholic nation, leading to more permissive laws in several of its states.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/state-lawmakers-look-mexico-direction-fight-abortion-rights-rcna39140

24.07.2022

State Innovation Exchange

Stephanie Stahl Hamilton

Biden administration says federal law preempts state abortion bans when emergency care is needed

By Jen Christensen, CNN
Mon July 11, 2022

In new clarifying guidance announced Monday, the Biden administration said that federal law preempts state abortion bans when emergency care is needed and that the federal government can penalize institutions or providers that fail to provide abortions as needed to treat medical emergencies.

"Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care -- including abortion care," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a news release Monday. "Today, in no uncertain terms, we are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services, and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care."

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/health/federal-abortion-law-preempts-state-law/index.html

11.07.2022

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Biden signs executive order aimed at safeguarding abortion rights

By Donald Judd and Kate Sullivan, CNN
Fri July 8, 2022

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday aimed at protecting abortion rights in response to the landmark decision by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

"I'm asking the Justice Department, that much like they did in the civil rights era, to do something, to do everything in their power to protect these women seeking to invoke their rights," Biden said at the White House, standing alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/politics/white-house-executive-order-abortion/index.html

08.07.2022

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Kamala Harris

Karine Jean-Pierre

Merrick Garland

White House Gender Policy Council

US conservatives vow harsh restrictions to curtail abortion pills

Discreet and available by mail, abortion-inducing pills could make conservative abortion bans challenging to enforce.

By Brian Osgood
1 Jul 2022

The US Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that enshrined the legal right to abortion in the United States in federal law, reversing nearly 50 years of precedent and inflaming a sharp ideological divide.

The ruling last week was the result of decades of relentless organising by conservative anti-abortion rights groups in the US, which are now setting their sights on the fight to shape the post-Roe landscape.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/1/conservatives-seek-restrictive-measures-to-penalize-abortion-pills