Restore Roe, or Go Beyond It? The Question Is Fracturing the Abortion Rights Movement

“We have an opportunity here to build something better, and we’re not even talking about it.”

MADISON PAULY
SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Not long after Election Day last November, Pamela Merritt joined a call with other abortion-rights activists in Missouri to discuss a daring proposal: sidestepping the state’s ruling Republicans by directly asking voters whether to add abortion rights to their state constitution. The group hoped to capitalize on a recent trend. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, pro-choice voters had been showing up to the polls in force, rejecting anti-abortion ballot initiatives in Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana. They went even further in California, Michigan, and Vermont, passing state constitutional amendments to guarantee, among other things, the right to choose abortion.

This unbroken string of victories has energized advocates who see ballot initiatives as a key tool in the post-Roe world, especially in states controlled by Republicans. Even in Missouri, where the anti-abortion movement was so successful that only one clinic remained by 2022, national progressive organizations smell opportunity. “Right now, every single state is dealing with a pro-abortion, riled-up base that wants a Kansas,” Merritt says, referring to the special election about abortion last year that drew greater turnout than any primary in the state’s history. “There’s pressure.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/09/roe-v-wade-abortion-rights-amendment-missouri-pro-choice-ohio-arizona-planned-parenthood-viability-limits/


USA – Most states received a D or F grade on maternal mental health. It could get worse.

By Carlotta Dotto and Alex Leeds Matthews, CNN
Sat July 29, 2023

Nearly every state in the United States is neglecting access to maternal mental health care, according to a recent report, and experts fear the situation could get worse as more states severely restrict or ban abortion.

All but 10 US states received either a D or F grade on a number of key measures of maternal mental health risk policies and access to care — including access to therapists, psychiatrists or mental health treatment programs, according to a May report released by the nonprofit Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, in partnership with researchers from George Washington University. This is the group’s first report grading states on maternal mental health resources and policies.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/29/health/most-states-received-a-d-or-f-grade-on-maternal-mental-health-it-could-get-worse/index.html


USA – The next wave of abortion rights ballot measures looks different from the last

How the tactics and arguments are changing ahead of 2024.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Jul 12, 2023

Last election cycle, abortion rights won in all six states with abortion ballot measures, including in red states like Kentucky and Montana that otherwise elected Republican lawmakers.

Now, this fall and in next year’s election, national liberal groups are planning to invest more heavily in ballot measure campaigns, seeing them as vehicles both to protect access to abortion care and to amplify their broader political message that abortion bans are out of step with voters.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/policy/23784409/abortion-ballot-measure-ohio-reproductive-rights-2024


How GOP efforts to restrict trans rights take a page from the antiabortion playbook

BY ARIT JOHN
JUNE 7, 2023

WASHINGTON —  Bans on treatment. New laws threatening doctors with malpractice suits and criminal charges. Praise from lawmakers who say their legislation is meant to protect minors, even as the new policies infringe on the rights of adults.

As state legislatures wind down and the 2024 election cycle kicks off, the similarities between the fights for abortion access and transgender rights have come into stark focus. Republican lawmakers have introduced a record number of bills at the state level and in Congress that would restrict the rights of transgender people and the healthcare they receive.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-06-07/wave-of-anti-trans-laws-reminds-advocates-of-another-struggle-abortion-rights


Abortion clinics regroup, rebuild after violent attacks: ‘There’s more work to be done’

Christine Fernando, USA TODAY
March 25, 2023

As a detective led her through the charred remains of the clinic, Julie Burkhart was heartbroken. Everything was black and melted. The smell was overwhelming. Fire and smoke damage had engulfed the building from the basement to the attic.

“I knew then that we were going to have a long road ahead,” said Burkhart, president of Wellspring Health Access in Casper, Wyoming.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/25/abortion-clinics-violence-attacks-rebound-rebuilding/11484439002/


6 months after end of Roe, Illinois abortion providers treat a ‘historic high’ number of out-of-state patients

Dec 27, 2022
Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

CHICAGO — Six months after the historic fall of Roe v. Wade, Illinois abortion providers say they’re seeing an unprecedented number of out-of-state patients — and they’re traveling from more states than ever before.

Before the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to rescind federal abortion protections, Planned Parenthood of Illinois saw dozens of patients from other states every month. Now hundreds of patients are crossing state lines each month to have an abortion at one of Planned Parenthood’s 17 health centers across the state.

Continued: https://www.gmtoday.com/news/illinois/6-months-after-end-of-roe-illinois-abortion-providers-treat-a-historic-high-number-of/article_9d358896-85f8-11ed-ac24-e7f0c1a0ab27.html


Abortion providers detail mounting external difficulties, profound rewards of serving patients in post-Roe America

November 16, 2022
By Angelica Ferrara, Postdoctoral Fellow

For some patients and providers, ideologically and politically motivated restrictions on abortion have long been the status quo. But in the months since the Dobbs decision this June, the situation has become fraught with new legal and logistical uncertainties. At this year’s Jing Lyman Lecture, the Stanford community heard from those most intimately acquainted with the status of reproductive justice after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision: what has changed in the post-Roe world, and what has stayed the same?

Continued: https://gender.stanford.edu/news/abortion-providers-detail-mounting-external-difficulties-profound-rewards-serving-patients


How some providers are working around abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned

Workarounds ensure doctors aren't breaking laws, experts and advocates say.

By Mary Kekatos
Video by Jessie DiMartino
October 17, 2022

Some state officials as well as abortion providers are trying to find workarounds to help patients who want to end their pregnancies after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Since the late June ruling, at least 12 states have ended nearly all abortion services, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/providers-work-abortion-bans-roe-wade-overturned/story?id=91435808


Inside the plan to create an abortion refuge for a post-Roe era

Abortion providers in blue-state Illinois are laying the groundwork for an influx of patients from states poised to ban abortion if the Supreme Court overturns its landmark precedent

By Caroline Kitchener
March 28, 2022

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. — When the woman called Planned Parenthood to schedule her abortion, Alexandria Ball picked up the phone and explained exactly what would happen next.

Ball and her colleagues would book her bus ticket to Illinois.

They would put her up in a hotel.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/28/abortion-sanctuary-roe-v-wade/


Abortion clinics in liberal U.S. states expand, brace for more patients

By Sharon Bernstein, Reuters
Feb 8, 2022

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Abortion providers in liberal states are expanding clinics, training more staff and boosting travel assistance to prepare for an influx of patients from conservative states if the U.S. Supreme Court ends the constitutional right to the procedure.

Planned Parenthood is enlarging several clinics in California and has purchased land to build a bigger clinic in Reno, Nevada. In Illinois, abortion providers have set up a logistics center to help make medical care arrangements for women from states where abortion is expected to be restricted.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/abortion-clinics-liberal-us-states-expand-brace-more-patients-2022-02-08/