USA – The anti-abortion playbook for restricting birth control

Contraception, like IVF, poses problems for those claiming personhood begins at conception.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Mar 3, 2024

The national debate over IVF, unfolding after an Alabama court decision prompted multiple clinics in the state to halt operations, prompts a question: What might be next? Could other fertility treatments and even birth control be under threat given that Roe v. Wade is no longer the law?

If the idea that birth control could be at risk in America strikes you as hard to believe, I understand.
There’s no proposed legislation on the table to ban it, and it does seem unbelievable that contraception — which an overwhelming majority of US women, including religious and Republican women, have used and support — could one day disappear.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/24087411/anti-abortion-roe-dobbs-birth-control-contraception-ivf


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


As Supreme Court Prepares to Rule on Roe, Illinois Once Again Ground Zero for Abortion Access

Could it mean the return of the Jane Collective for a new era?

DePaul’s Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence
June 1, 2022

When Maggie Olivia found herself in a Missouri doctor’s office in the wake of a positive pregnancy test, she didn’t mirror her doctor’s enthusiasm. She remembers being in a new relationship and not in a position to financially support a child.

“I was crying … It was really upsetting.” Olivia said. “My doctor at the time was like, ‘Congratulations, mom.’ They gave me a little gift bag with prenatal vitamins …”

Continued: https://news.wttw.com/2022/06/01/supreme-court-prepares-rule-roe-illinois-once-again-ground-zero-abortion-access


Abortion pills are booming worldwide. Will their use grow in Texas?

By Samantha Schmidt  and Sammy Westfall
Sept 14, 2021

In the 1980s, women in Brazil began spreading the word about a pill used to treat ulcers. Sold over the counter, the drug carried a warning: Don’t use during pregnancy; risk of miscarriage.

It flew off the shelves. Hundreds of thousands of women, desperate for abortions in a country where the procedure was criminalized, now had an option.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/14/abortion-pills-texas/


Supreme Court refuses to block Texas law banning abortions at six weeks

Texas law banning abortions at six weeks takes effect

By Robert Barnes, Ann E. Marimow, Emily Wax-Thibodeaux and Caroline Kitchener
Sep 1, 2021

A divided Supreme Court late Wednesday refused to block one of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws, a unique Texas statute that bans the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

Because the court did not act earlier in the day, the law already had taken effect, and clinics in Texas said they had stopped providing abortions starting at six weeks after a woman’s last period.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-six-week-abortion-ban/2021/09/01/e53cf372-0a6b-11ec-a6dd-296ba7fb2dce_story.html


With Supreme Court in mind, states aim to curb abortion rights

Lawmakers are introducing new bills to restrict abortion rights.

By JUSTIN FRANZ | KAISER HEALTH NEWS
2 March 2021

When Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway introduced a bill in the Montana House two years ago that would have prohibited abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the Republican legislator knew it was unlikely to survive the veto pen of the Democratic governor.

Sure enough, then-Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed that bill and two other anti-abortion measures passed by the Republican-led state legislature. In his veto message, Bullock wrote that “for over 40 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the U.S. Constitution prohibits a state from banning abortion.”

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/supreme-court-mind-states-aim-curb-abortion-rights/story?id=76201750


USA – Protesters to Go COVID-19 Christmas Caroling at Abortion Clinics

Tis the season for when you're pro-life—but not about anyone actually alive.

Dec 17, 2020
Brooke Knisley

The temperature’s dropping, your neighbors are blowing up their inflatable Santa, and “pro-life” advocates will be heading out to more than 75 abortion facilities across the country to sing Christmas carols. Why? Because the possibility of one mythical savior baby outweighs the 17,807 deaths nationwide over the past seven days.

Most of the Pro-Life Action League’s caroling missions will be held on Saturday, including two traveling tours in the Chicago area. Illinois, one of the states hit hardest by COVID-19, has had over 1,200 deaths in the last week alone.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2020/12/17/protesters-to-go-covid-19-christmas-caroling-at-abortion-clinics/


The Inside Story Of How Arkansas Exploited COVID To Stop Abortions

The Inside Story Of How Arkansas Exploited COVID To Stop Abortions
Under pressure by anti-abortion activists ― including a board of health member ― the state health department became a weapon in the war against abortion.

By Melissa Jeltsen, HuffPost US
June 22, 2020

On the first day of April, Marsha Boss, a 68-year-old Catholic pharmacist, uploaded a photo to Facebook. Snapped on a sunny day, it showed the parking lot outside Little Rock Family Planning Services, one of two abortion clinics left in Arkansas. “We watched three cars from Texas come in, three from Tennessee and one from Alabama all coming to our great state to get an abortion,” she wrote in her post. “How sad is that?”

In private, around the same time, Boss was extending her disapproval to state health officials. Over text messages and in phone calls, she complained that the clinic was violating social distancing guidelines, performing “25 to 30” abortions a day, and warned that out-of-town patients ― many of whom were fleeing abortion bans their states put in place after coronavirus hit ― might spread the infectious disease in Arkansas. She also said she saw someone carrying coveted surgical masks into the clinic, as well as beer.

Continued: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/arkansas-coronavirus-abortion_n_5eeba27ac5b6413b964e4caa?ri18n=true


How the Anti-Abortion Movement Is Responding to Jane Roe’s “Deathbed Confession”

How the Anti-Abortion Movement Is Responding to Jane Roe’s “Deathbed Confession”

By Ruth Graham
May 22, 2020

The pro-life movement has always loved a conversion story. People who reject their former lives working for pro-choice causes are some of the most prominent voices in the movement, and the existence of abortion regret—a woman changing her mind after it’s too late—is a key legislative and rhetorical tactic. So when the real-life “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade announced two decades after that landmark Supreme Court case that she had realized abortion ought to be illegal after all, she became an instant star within the pro-life movement.

A bombshell documentary airing Friday night on FX adds a final shocking twist to Norma McCorvey’s ideologically eventful life. In AKA Jane Roe, McCorvey offers what she calls a “deathbed confession”: Actually, she was basically pro-choice all along and only became a pro-life activist for the money.

Continued: https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/05/jane-roe-norma-mccorvey-confession-anti-abortion.html


USA – Anti-Choice Activists Say Abortion Isn’t ‘Essential,’ but Clinic Protests Are

Anti-Choice Activists Say Abortion Isn’t ‘Essential,’ but Clinic Protests Are
While the rest of us stay at home, anti-choice protesters will keep performing their "vital service" outside abortion clinics during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Mar 31, 2020
Jessica Mason Pieklo

More than 200 million people in the United States have been ordered to stay at home by state and local officials desperate to slow the spread of COVID-19 in their communities.

Governors and public health officials have asked businesses not deemed “essential” to temporarily close for the same reason.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2020/03/31/anti-choice-activists-say-abortion-isnt-essential-but-clinic-protests-are/