USA – Abortion rights groups seek ballot measures in 9 more states in 2024

Despite an unbroken winning streak since Roe v. Wade was overturned, some of the efforts to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions face substantial challenges.

Nov. 22, 2023
By Adam Edelman

Seeking to extend their unbroken winning streak, abortion rights supporters are already deeply entrenched in efforts in at least nine states to put the issue on the ballot in 2024. Groups have begun collecting signatures to let voters in these states decide on similar initiatives.

The latest victory for the movement was in Ohio, where voters enshrined abortion rights in the constitution of the Republican-leaning state.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/abortion-rights-groups-seek-ballot-measures-9-states-2024-rcna125177

USA – Abortion Wins Elections for Democrats. What Should Advocates Demand in Return?

How can this popularity translate into political power for a movement that is not accustomed to making bold demands of its political leaders?

AMY LITTLEFIELD
Nov 20, 2023

If abortion were a 2024 presidential candidate, it would wipe the floor with Donald Trump. On November 7, abortion helped Democrats take back the Virginia House, keep the Kentucky governorship, and secure a Pennsylvania Supreme Court seat. In Ohio, 57 percent of voters approved enshrining abortion access in the state Constitution; it was the seventh time abortion has faced a direct vote since Dobbs and the seventh time it’s won.

Abortion wins. Abortion rights activists have known this. Voters have often chosen to defend abortion when they get a direct vote, including in red states. What’s changed is that Democrats have finally started treating abortion like an issue they can win on—and in the wake of Dobbs, they’re doing just that.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/abortion-democrats-elections/

‘Disproven and unsupportable’: Kansas judge blocks junk science abortion restrictions

The ruling called the long-standing “Women’s Right to Know Act” an attempt to discourage abortion seekers

BY: RACHEL MIPRO
OCTOBER 30, 2023

TOPEKA — A Kansas judge on Monday blocked a combination of long-standing and newly implemented abortion restrictions in the state in what abortion providers described as a “hard-fought” win against “ethically unjustifiable” misinformation.

Johnson County District Judge Krishnan Christopher Jayaram ruled against several abortion requirements set out in the “Women’s Right to Know Act,” patchwork legislation enacted over the past two decades that uses medically inaccurate information to dictate abortion restrictions.

Continued: https://kansasreflector.com/2023/10/30/disproven-and-unsupportable-kansas-judge-blocks-junk-science-abortion-restrictions/

How Religious Hospitals Block Access to Reproductive Care—Even in ‘Safe Haven’ States

10/5/2023
by REBECCA GIBRON

Most of us do not want a stranger’s ideology controlling our futures. If you live in a “blue” or “abortion haven” state, you may feel protected from abortion bans, but the truth is, your healthcare may be limited by the religious interests directing your local hospital.

Growing up in a religiously conservative family and now living in Idaho, I know how it feels to be hemmed in by someone else’s dogma. As CEO of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country covering three “abortion haven” states and three states with extremist-backed abortion bans, I have a unique vantage point: I see the stark differences between them and troubling similarities threatening patients’ access to healthcare.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/05/religious-hospitals-abortion/

USA – Billboards Throughout South and Midwest Advertise Abortion Access: ‘Pregnant? You Still Have a Choice’

9/27/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

For years, right-wing evangelicals have posted billboards along highways and in towns across the U.S. trumpeting their religious views and their anti-abortion beliefs. Now, post-Dobbs, abortion rights supporters are fighting back with their own roadside billboards and mobile digital LED advertising trucks.

Shout Your Abortion recently posted six abortion rights billboards along interstate 55 through five states that have banned abortion—from Memphis, Tenn., to Carbondale, Ill. The billboards include messages like, “God’s Plan Includes Abortion” and “Abortion is Okay: You Know What’s Best for You.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/27/abortion-billboards/

27.09.2023

pro-choice billboards

ProgressNow New Mexico

USA – Lawsuit: Woman died after not being treated properly following abortion

By David Wilson, Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 22, 2023

A 24-year-old woman died last year of complications from septic abortion which, according to a wrongful death lawsuit, could have been prevented if she received the proper care.

On Sept. 22, 2022, Alyona Dixon visited a Planned Parenthood location and was given medication to terminate her pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/lawsuit-woman-died-after-not-being-treated-properly-following-abortion-2908866/

22.09.2023

Alyona Dixon

care denial

Desert View Regional Medical Center

St. Rose Dominican Blue Diamond hospital

The abortion bot will see you now

A team of abortion advocates is launching an automated abortion finder. Here’s what you need to know.

By Tatum Hunter
September 15, 2023

For abortion seekers, deciding whom to trust is important. Now there’s an online chatbot that purports to help.

Starting this week, an abortion bot called Charley from the team behind major abortion organizations including IneedanA and Plan C is rolling out across the United States — even in states with abortion bans — to help people find accessible health care. Users answer a series of questions such as the date of their last period, their Zip code and the type of procedure they’re looking for. Along the way, the bot points them toward vetted clinics, telehealth providers or support resources.

But the bot is launching into a complicated landscape for both abortion and health-care technology.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/15/abortion-chatbot/

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/

11.09.2023

Commentary

Abortion Action Missouri

ACLU of Missouri

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Arizona for Abortion Access

ballot initiatives on abortion

Medical Students for Choice

Paitent Forward

Pamela Merritt

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona

Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri

Reproductive Health Act of 2019

USA – ‘Conscience’ bills let medical providers opt out of providing a wide range of care

Carly Graf, KFF Health News
July 31, 2023

A new Montana law will provide sweeping legal protections to health care practitioners who refuse to prescribe marijuana or participate in procedures and treatments such as abortion, medically assisted death, gender-affirming care, or others that run afoul of their ethical, moral, or religious beliefs or principles.

The law, which goes into effect in October, will gut patients’ ability to take legal action if they believe they didn’t receive proper care due to a conscientious objection by a provider or an institution, such as a hospital.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/31/conscience-bills-healthcare-providers-not-give-medical-care/70470186007/

Blue-state doctors launch abortion pill pipeline into states with bans

by Caroline Kitchener, The Washington Post
July 23, 2023

The doctor starts each day with a list of addresses and a label maker.

Sitting in her basement in New York's Hudson Valley, next to her grown children's old bunk beds, she reviews the list of towns and cities she'll be mailing to that day: Baton Rouge, Tucson, Houston.

A month ago, a phone call was the only thing the doctor could offer to women in states with abortion bans who faced unexpected pregnancies. Hamstrung by the laws, she could only coach them through the process of taking abortion pills they received from overseas suppliers.

Continued: https://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2023/jul/23/blue-state-doctors-launch-abortion-pill-pipeline/