Florida Supreme Court approves abortion restriction — and ballot measure that would overturn it

The court paved the way for a six-week ban passed in 2023 to take effect.
By Mel Leonor Barclay, Shefali Luthra
April 1, 2024

The Florida Supreme Court struck down its state abortion protection — paving the way for a six-week ban passed in 2023 to take effect — but will allow voters to weigh in on whether they can amend the state’s constitution to explicitly enshrine abortion rights.

The court issued two separate rulings Monday: one upholding a 15-week abortion ban passed in 2022, and another approving an abortion rights ballot measure to go before voters this November. The measure — which will need the backing of 60 percent of voters to pass, the highest threshold in the country — would amend Florida’s constitution to explicitly guarantee abortion rights in the state to the point of fetal viability, which is determined by physicians but is usually around 22 to 25 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2024/04/florida-abortion-ban-ballot-measure/

USA – About as many abortions are happening in the US monthly as before Roe was overturned, report finds

The number of monthly abortions in the U.S. is similar to what it was before the nation's top court overturned the right to abortion

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press
February 28, 2024

The number of abortions performed each month is about the same as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the nationwide right to abortion more than a year and a half ago, a new report finds.

The latest edition of the #WeCount report conducted for the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit organization that promotes research on abortion and contraception, finds that between 81,150 and 88,620 abortions took place each month from July through September of last year, the most recent period for which survey results are available. Those numbers are just slightly lower than the monthly average of about 86,800 from April through June 2022, before Roe and just after was overturned.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/abortions-happening-us-monthly-roe-overturned-report-finds-107629603

28.02.2024

Society of Family Planning

United States

USA – Ob/Gyns Face ‘Occupational Crisis’ Navigating Abortion Ban

Lara Salahi
January 25, 2024

A 14-year-old girl arrived at Angela Dempsey-Fanning's, MD, MPH, South Carolina clinic just one day after the state's anti-abortion law would have allowed her to terminate a pregnancy in instances of rape or incest.

Dempsey, an ob/gyn in Charleston, had to inform the teenager, a victim of incest, that she could not legally provide abortion care, so the girl and her mother decided to seek treatment in a different state.

Continued: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/obgyns-face-occupational-crisis-navigating-abortion-ban-2024a10001ux?form=fpf

25.01.2024

News

aiding and abetting clauses

American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Angela Dempsey-Fanning

Angela Hawkins

Deborah Nucatola

Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act

Mara Buchbinder

Society of Family Planning

Why ‘viability’ is dividing the abortion rights movement

By Associated Press AP
Jan. 16, 2024

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Reproductive rights activists in Missouri agree they want to get a ballot measure before voters this fall to roll back one of the strictest abortion bans in the country and ensure access. The sticking point is how far they should go.

The groups have been at odds over whether to include a provision that would allow the state to regulate abortions after the fetus is viable, a concession supporters of the language say will be needed to persuade voters in the conservative state.

Continued: https://ny1.com/nyc/brooklyn/ap-top-news/2024/01/16/disputes-over-viability-are-dividing-abortion-rights-groups-and-complicating-ballot-measure-efforts

Access to abortion pills has grown since Dobbs

How activists, clinicians, and businesses are getting abortion medication to all 50 states.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Dec 27, 2023

Eighteen months after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, and with a new Supreme Court challenge pending against the abortion medication mifepristone, confusion abounds about access to reproductive health care in America.

Since the June 2022 decision, abortion rates in states with restrictions have plummeted, and researchers estimated last month that the Dobbs decision led to “approximately 32,000 additional annual births resulting from bans.” Journalists profiled women who carried to term since Dobbs because they couldn’t afford to travel out of their restrictive state.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/12/27/24015092/abortion-pills-mifepristone-roe-reproductive-misoprostol

27.12.2023

Commentary

Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine

abortion pills

abortion support networks

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Elisa Wells

Expanding Medication Abortion Access

Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project

medication abortion

mifepristone

misoprostol

misoprostol only abortions

National Abortion Federation

Plan C

Red State Access

Reproductive Health Initiative for Telehealth Equity and Solutions

self-managed abortion

shield laws

Society of Family Planning

telehealth abortion

telemedicine abortion

‘Jane Roe’ is anonymous no more. The very public fight against abortion bans in 2023

By Selena Simmons-Duffin, Sarah McCammon, NPR
December 26, 2023

As 2023 comes to a close, so too does the first full year of the post-Roe era in America. Some of the year's developments were expected, like more conservative states enacting abortion restrictions. Others were surprising, like the fact that there were more abortions nationally in the year after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision than the previous one.

In the final weeks of the year, the country followed the story of Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two in Texas, as she sought to end a tragic pregnancy to ensure she could have a future one.
Here is the state of play when it comes to abortion heading into 2024.

Continued: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/npr-news/2023-12-26/jane-roe-is-anonymous-no-more-the-very-public-fight-against-abortion-bans-in-2023

26.12.2023

#WeCount

Center for Reproductive Rights

Society of Family Planning

Ushma Upadhyay

WeCount

Virginia – ‘It’s cruel’: the last southern refuge for abortion rights might soon fall

Virginia is the only southern state that hasn’t restricted abortion post-Roe. Is that about to change?

Carter Sherman in Charlottesville, Virginia
Tue 31 Oct 2023

By the time Chasity Dunans learned about her pregnancy, she had already lost the right to end it.

She had gotten her period in July, but towards the end of the month the 23-year-old mother of one started to have heartburn and wrenching stomach pains. She told herself: you’re not pregnant, you’re just sick. When the pain didn’t stop, she gave in and saw a doctor.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/31/virginia-abortion-rights-ban-south-state

A new abortion study is a stunning indictment of Dobbs’ consequences

Criminalization is ineffective because it fails to address the reasons one would consider abortion in the first place.

Oct. 26, 2023
By Mary Ziegler

A study released this week confirmed a surprising fact: The national abortion rate has risen slightly in the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The study, released by WeCount, a project of the Society of Family Planning, relied on data from more than 80% of the nation’s providers, along with historical trends and state data. The report matches earlier findings released last month by the Guttmacher Institute, which likewise found abortions had remained steady or even increased since Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health.

With abortion rates not decreasing, opponents will pursue increasingly complex and constitutionally dubious ways to shut down access in and travel to progressive states. The outcome of this ratcheting up of penalties will be just as predictable. While criminalization makes pregnancy far more dangerous, it is ineffective because it fails to address the reasons one would consider abortion in the first place.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/abortion-rates-study-dobbs-roe-republicans-rcna122324

Abortions increased in the US overall in the year post-Dobbs, but there are stark inequalities state-to-state

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN
Tue October 24, 2023

In the year following the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, the abortion landscape in the United States became more fractured than ever.

Abortions increased nationwide, according to a new report from #WeCount, a research project led by the Society of Family Planning — the average monthly change in the 12 months post-Dobbs compared to the two months pre-Dobbs adds up to about 2,200 more abortions over the course of a year.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/24/health/abortion-access-inequality-one-year-post-dobbs-wecount/index.html

25 MILLION WOMEN NOW LIVE IN STATES WITH ABORTION BANS OR TIGHTER RESTRICTIONS AFTER FALL OF ROE

Sep 18, 2023

More than one year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded a five-decade-old right to abortion, prompting a seismic shift in debates about politics, values, freedom, and fairness.

Twenty-five million women of childbearing age now live in states where the law makes abortions harder to get than they were before the ruling.

Continued: https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/newswire/25-million-women-now-live-states-abortion-bans-tighter-restrictions-fall-roe/