Challenges increase for immigrants accessing abortion after Roe reversal

From language to travel barriers, immigrants are left with few options.

By Amanda Su
July 17, 2022

After Texas' Senate Bill 8, which banned any abortions after the detection of embryonic cardiac activity, was allowed to go into effect last year, Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a physician at Planned Parenthood Center for Choice in Houston, said interstate travel was often the only recourse he could suggest for patients seeking to terminate their pregnancy.

But for one patient, that wasn't possible. Due to her pending immigration case, the patient could not travel more than 70 miles or would risk jeopardizing both her ability to remain in the country and the security of her two children, he said.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/challenges-increase-immigrants-accessing-abortion-roe-reversal/story?id=86404717

18.07.2022

abortion for undocumented people

Bolaños Perea

Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights

Dr. Bhavik Kumar

Dr. Kristyn Brandi

immigrants and abortion

Nancy Cárdenas Peña

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

Physicians for Reproductive Health

Planned Parenthood Center for Choice

Seri Lee

Biden braces for Supreme Court to overturn Roe after months of planning for next steps

By Kevin Liptak and Jasmine Wright, CNN
Thu June 23, 2022

President Joe Biden is bracing for a Supreme Court ruling that would strip away nationwide abortion rights in the US, potentially setting off mass protests and heaping pressure on the White House to act, according to officials, even as there remains little he can do through executive action to fully mitigate the anticipated decision.

The nearing announcement -- which is expected to come within the next two weeks as the Supreme Court concludes its term -- will punctuate months of contingency planning at the White House and lobbying efforts by abortion rights advocates, who want Biden to take immediate action.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/politics/joe-biden-abortion-supreme-court/index.html

How Racist Sex-Selective Abortion Bans in US Wrongfully Target Asian Americans

Appropriating the gender equality rhetoric, supporters of such bills portray the issue to be about women’s rights.

SAVITA PATEL
28 May 2022

Eleven states in USA have active abortion bans for reason of sex selection. Since 2009, almost half of the US state legislatures have considered bills to block sex-selective abortion.

In 2012 anti-sex-selective legislation was the second most proposed anti-abortion prohibition in the US.

Continued: https://www.thequint.com/us-nri-news/racist-sex-selective-abortion-bans-in-us-wrongfully-target-asian-americans

USA – Law schools are failing to prepare the next generation of leaders in reproductive rights and justice

As of 2019, less than one-third of law schools offered classes on these topics

Nina Henry
January 24, 2022

When I began law school with the goal of specializing in reproductive rights and justice, I knew I would be fighting an uphill battle after graduation. But I didn’t realize I would have to fight during law school, too. According to one 2019 analysis, less than one-third of law schools offered classes on reproductive rights and justice, and while that number is growing, it’s still not enough. When law schools ignore the subject, the ripple effects hurt us all.

I am lucky enough to attend New York University School of Law, which has a specific reproductive justice program, but I’ve still had to fight to be taken seriously outside of my reproductive justice class.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/law-schools-are-failing-to-prepare-the-next-generation-of-leaders-in-reproductive-rights-and-justice/

Indigenous and immigrant communities stand to be disproportionately affected by Texas’s abortion ban

For these groups, access to abortion has long been entangled in other structural and historical issues

Frances Nguyen, The Lily
September 14, 2021

Long before Texas’s Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8) went into effect on Sept. 1, making it the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, abortion rights advocates, providers and funds have been trying to interpret what the measure could actually mean for them, especially its most unprecedented provision: Private citizens, even people who live outside the state, are empowered to sue anyone they think may have “aided or abetted” someone getting an abortion after six weeks — before most people know they’re pregnant.

Many believe that, for those trying to access abortion care, anyone within their support system — from the doctor who administers the procedure to the fund that pays for their fees, and even the person who drives them to the clinic — could be liable for a civil suit for $10,000 for each abortion.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/indigenous-and-immigrant-communities-stand-to-be-disproportionately-affected-by-texass-abortion-ban/

Biden is a pro-choice Catholic. Will he expand reproductive healthcare?

BY STEPHANIE RUSSELL-KRAFT, Sojourners
DEC 10, 2020

When Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20, he will become the most prominent pro-choice Catholic in the country.

Although the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops opposes abortion and advocates for religous exceptions to birth control coverage, the majority of U.S. Catholics support access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including 56 percent of U.S. Catholics who believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Jamie Manson, president of Catholics for Choice, said she hopes these Catholics will have more of a voice under the incoming Biden-Harris administration.

Continued: https://sojo.net/articles/biden-pro-choice-catholic-will-he-expand-reproductive-health-care https://sojo.net/articles/biden-pro-choice-catholic-will-he-expand-reproductive-health-care

This Is The Perfect Reason To Have An Abortion

MIREL ZAMAN
OCTOBER 20, 2020

There’s a good chance that you support abortion rights if you clicked on this story. You may already suspect that the title of the article is purposely attention-getting and even mildly tongue-in-cheek. You understand that there is no perfect reason to have an abortion; or, rather, that every reason is the perfect reason — as long as the person making the choice was able to decide for themselves, and follow through on that decision without unwanted interference.

And yet, even within communities that ostensibly support the right to abortion, there exist pervasive and damaging stigmas against certain “types” of abortion. “We’ve found that when people share their abortion stories, they often hear: ‘Well I’m pro-choice, but — I think you waited too long.’ ‘I think you had too many.’ ‘You didn’t use birth control’,” says Renee Bracey Sherman, a reproductive justice activist, author of Saying Abortion Aloud, and executive director of We Testify.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10109376/reasons-for-abortion-stories-women

USA – The strictest abortion ban in the nation targets communities of color

Tina Vasquez
Jul 03, 2020

As pro-choice advocates in Louisiana breathe a sigh of relief after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the June Medical Services case last week, Tennessee is gearing up for a fight against one of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in the country—one that advocates say targets people of color.

Used as a bargaining chip while negotiating the state budget, the bill was passed in the early morning hours of June 19 when the Tennessee Senate made a last-minute deal with the House to pass a six-week abortion ban, which is unconstitutional because it makes it medically and logistically impossible for most people to determine that they are pregnant and arrange for abortion care.

Continued: https://www.ourprism.org/1957853

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 – It’s High Time We End Hyde If We Are Serious About Racial Justice

It's High Time We End Hyde If We Are Serious About Racial Justice [Op-Ed]
The Hyde Amendment blocks women from using federal funds such as Medicaid to end unwanted pregnancies. On this 43rd anniversary of a rule that places undue burden on women of color, we say enough is enough.

Jessica González-Rojas, Marcela Howell, Sung Yeon Choimorrow
Sep 30, 2019

Say her name: Rosie Jimenez. She was a 27-year-old Chicana, the daughter of migrant farm workers, living in McAllen, Texas, in 1977. She had a 5-year-old daughter she loved dearly. She was a student just six months shy of graduating and pursuing her dream of becoming a special education teacher. Yet, those dreams were never realized because Rosie died from an unsafe abortion she was forced to pursue because of the Hyde Amendment.

More than 40 years later, we still lack justice for Rosie’s untimely and unnecessary death. We must still contend with the stark injustice of the Hyde Amendment and similar restrictions, which deny coverage for safe abortion to people with Medicaid insurance, federal employees, military personnel, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives and federal prisoners. And political leaders still shy away from condemning the Hyde Amendment for what it is—a blatantly racist policy that essentially says women of color and women with low incomes are not worthy of making their own decisions over their bodies.

Continued: https://www.colorlines.com/articles/its-high-time-we-end-hyde-if-we-are-serious-about-racial-justice-op-ed