A covert network of activists is preparing for the end of Roe

What will the future of abortion in America look like?

By Jessica Bruder
APRIL 4, 2022

One bright afternoon in early January, on a beach in Southern California, a young woman spread what looked like a very strange picnic across an orange polka-dot towel: A mason jar. A rubber stopper with two holes. A syringe without a needle. A coil of aquarium tubing and a one-way valve. A plastic speculum. Several individually wrapped sterile cannulas—thin tubes designed to be inserted into the body—which resembled long soda straws. And, finally, a three-dimensional scale model of the female reproductive system.

The two of us were sitting on the sand. The woman, whom I’ll call Ellie, had suggested that we meet at the beach; she had recently recovered from COVID-19, and proposed the open-air setting for my safety. She also didn’t want to risk revealing where she lives—and asked me to withhold her name—because of concerns about harassment or violence from anti-abortion extremists.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/roe-v-wade-overturn-abortion-rights/629366/

04.04.2022

American Medical Association

Army of Three

Autonomous Pelvic Care

Carol Downer

Choix

Clergy Consultation Service

Danika Severino Wynn

Del-Em device

dilatation and curettage

DIY abortion

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Laurie Bertram Roberts

Letitia James

Lorraine Rothman

lunch-hour abortion

manual vacuum aspiration

Mountain Access Brigade

Plan C

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

self-managed abortion

Self-managed Abortion Safe and Supported

telemedicine abortion

The End of Roe v. Wade

traveling for abortion

trigger laws

undue burden standard

Abortion Rights Activists Fight Back With Mutual Aid and Direct Action in 2022

BY Michelle Farber, Truthout
January 5, 2022

It is difficult not to feel an overwhelming sense of defeat and fear for the year ahead in reproductive health and abortion rights as the Supreme Court deliberates on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health case. Brought against Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which runs the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, this case could reshape abortion law countrywide. Among the many restrictions being challenged, the one abortion advocates are watching the closest is a 15-week ban. If upheld, this 15-week restriction would represent the first pre-viability abortion ban upheld by the Supreme Court. The landmark Roe v. Wade case set the precedent that states could not outlaw abortion prior to the viability line, which currently sits around 23 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. Should the court uphold this ban, dozens of states would be in position to unleash similar, or possibly even more restrictive laws.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/abortion-rights-activists-fight-back-with-mutual-aid-and-direct-action-in-2022/

05.01.2022

Commentary

Featured

15-week abortion ban

abortion clinic defense

abortion funds

Abortion Rights Preservation Act

Amelia Bonow

Anne Rumberger

Benita Ulisano

Chicago for Abortion Rights

Clinic Vest Project

Democratic Socialists of America

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Everett Clinic Defense

Feminists for Life

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act

Hayley Archer

Illinois Choice Action Team

Jackson Women’s Health Organization

Naral Pro-Choice America

National Organization for Women

New York City For Abortion Rights

USA – Self-managed abortion could be the future — but it’s very hard to talk about

Especially in conservative states, advocates can’t talk openly about abortion methods that exist outside of the formal health-care system

Caroline Kitchener, The Lily
December 20, 2021

Two hours before the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the case that could make abortion illegal across much of the country, four women gathered on the court’s steps to propose another path forward. With a mifepristone pill in one hand and a loudspeaker in the other, Amelia Bonow started to chant.

“Abortion pills are in our hands and we won’t stop,” yelled the co-founder of the abortion rights organization Shout Your Abortion.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/self-managed-abortion-could-be-the-future-but-its-very-hard-to-talk-about/

From Abortion Bans to Anti-Trans Laws, a Christian Legal Army is Waging War on America

Democracy Now!
Dec 3, 2021
Video: 19 mins – with transcript

As the Supreme Court looks poised to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban and possibly overturn Roe v. Wade we speak to The Nation’s Amy Littlefield about her investigation into the Christian legal army behind the Mississippi law as well as anti-trans laws across the country. She also critiques the mainstream pro-choice movement’s failure to center the poor and people of color. “There is a change coming within the movement because of its reckoning with these past missteps including, frankly, the failure to adequately protect Black women and to stand up for the safety of the people whose rights were eroded first,” says Littlefield.

Continued: https://www.democracynow.org/2021/12/3/thinking_beyond_roe_amy_littlefield_abortion

USA – More activists who have had abortions are saying so out loud. Here’s why

November 2, 2021
Danielle Kurtzleben

In 1992, an estimated half a million people gathered on the National Mall for a rally for abortion rights.

The speakers made many of the same arguments that abortion-rights advocates have made for decades, arguing that government shouldn't limit people's ability to make decisions about their own bodies.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/11/02/1050653918/more-activists-who-have-had-abortions-are-saying-so-out-loud-heres-why

Abortion on the border: The institutionalization of stigma and shame

Victoria Rossi/El Paso Matters and Veronica Martinez/La Verdad
Sep. 17, 2021

The heartbeat gave Ana nightmares for years. She stared at the sonogram of her fetus as a woman at El Paso’s Hill Top Women’s Reproductive Clinic, who wore scrubs but had not introduced herself, described the image on the TV screen before them.

Earlier, the woman had explained that Texas state law required this narration. If Ana wanted her abortion, the woman said, she was not allowed to look away.

Continued: https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2021/09/17/texas-abortion-border-institutionalization-stigma-and-shame/5684120001/

You Can Be Religious and Believe in Abortion

by Jhoni Jackson
21 October

"I've had two abortions, I'm blessed, that's it," Viva Ruiz tells PAPER. "God loves us. Period. There's no apology. There's no debate."

Last week, Thank God for Abortion — a collective activism initiative, though founded by Ruiz, who is currently an artist-in-residence at Shout Your Abortion — released an eponymous anthem. It's an electro-reggaeton track that, combined with its video, leaves little unspoken, connecting the dots between various oppressions. 100% of Bandcamp proceeds will benefit the Abortion Care Network.

Continued: https://www.papermag.com/thank-god-for-abortion-song-music-video-2648432642.html

USA – 39 Abortion Stories Show Just How Important Abortion Access Is

39 Abortion Stories Show Just How Important Abortion Access Is
There's one story for each of the 39 Senators who asked the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v Wade.

By Danielle Campoamor
January 9, 2020

On January 2, 39 GOP Senators signed an AMICUS brief urging the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that secured the legal right to abortion. In the brief, these senators, along with 168 Republican members of the House, asked the sitting Supreme Court Justices to revisit and overturn Roe v Wade when they consider a case based on a Louisiana law that could severely limit access to abortion in the state.

For each of these 39 Senators, most of whom are cis men who will never know what it’s like to be pregnant when you do not want to be, I wanted to talk to 39 people who do know that feeling.

Continued: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/abortion-stories

09.01.2020

women's abortion stories

North America

United States

Human Rights

USA – The Last Decade Was Disastrous For Abortion Rights. Advocates Are Trying To Figure Out What’s Next.

The Last Decade Was Disastrous For Abortion Rights. Advocates Are Trying To Figure Out What’s Next.
This year, the battle over abortion rights reached a fever pitch. That’s what this entire decade was building toward.

Ema O'Connor BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on December 17, 2019

As the decade draws to a close, the national right to abortion is in the most vulnerable place it’s been in decades.

Since 2010, hundreds of laws restricting abortion access have been enacted all over the country, making the procedure less attainable and forcing abortion clinics to close. The US has gone from having around 1,720 facilities that perform abortions in 2011 to 1,587 in 2017 (the last year reproductive rights group Guttmacher Institute surveyed). As of this year, there are six states with only one abortion clinic left. Twenty-five abortion bans were signed into law in 2019 alone, leading to nationwide protests. Though all, so far, have been blocked by the courts, a major fight over abortion rights at the Supreme Court is yet to come.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/abortion-rights-decade-bans-trump-kavanaugh-planned

17.12.2019

Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health

Affordable Care Act

Alexis McGill Johnson

All Above All

Americans United for Life

anti-choice legislation

anti-choice restrictions

Brett Kavanaugh

Cecile Richards

Center for Reproductive Rights

Naral Pro-Choice America

National Right to Life Commission

PerryUndem

Planned Parenthood

pro-choice legislation

Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers

undue burden standard

vaginal ultrasound

Wendy Davis

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt

USA – 12 Men Share Their Abortion Stories

12 Men Share Their Abortion Stories

Even as male lawmakers dominate the debate around women’s reproductive health at the highest levels—and a spate of restrictive bans are passed across the country—public conversations about the very real experiences men have had with abortion remain rare. As access is further limited and with a likely Supreme Court decision on the horizon, here, in a special collaboration between Glamour and GQ, 12 men share how the procedure has impacted their life.

By Rebecca Nelson
October 21, 2019

Last May, when the Alabama state senate voted to effectively outlaw all abortions, every one of the 25 lawmakers who voted for the bill was a man. Similarly, in Georgia, male legislators who voted for the fetal heartbeat bill, which banned abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy, far outnumbered the female yea votes. And in Louisiana, a man wrote the state’s version of a heartbeat bill while the governor, another man, signed it into law.

Continued: https://www.glamour.com/story/men-abortion-stories

21.10.2019