In the Dominican Republic, I Saw Broken U.S. Abortion Policy Firsthand

U.S. lawmakers spoke out about abortion access in the Dominican Republic. The Biden administration didn't back them.

JAN 16, 2024
GARNET HENDERSON

In early December, a delegation of U.S. state lawmakers traveled to the Dominican Republic as part of a trip organized by State Innovation Exchange and the Women’s Equality Center. I was one of a group of journalists, and the only one based full time in the United States, who tagged along.

The lawmakers on the trip were New York assembly members Karines Reyes, Amanda Septimo, and Jessica González-Rojas—the former executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice—along with North Carolina state Sen. Natalie Murdock and Arizona state Sen. Anna Hernandez.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2024/01/16/in-the-dominican-republic-i-saw-broken-u-s-abortion-policy-firsthand/

UN experts say U.S. abortion bans violate human rights

New recommendations call on the U.S. to fully decriminalize abortion

November 17, 2023

The United States is violating human rights by denying legal access to abortion—and should take immediate action to end the criminalization of abortion at the federal, state and local levels. This is the newly released conclusion of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in response to testimony from Ipas and partners in October.

“This is a reckoning for U.S. policymakers at every level of government,” said Bethany Van Kampen Saravia, Ipas senior legal and policy advisor, who attended the October hearing in Geneva. “The UN Human Rights Committee has appropriately called on the U.S. government to acknowledge the human rights crisis that is taking place within America, as states continue to ban abortion and limit access to sexual and reproductive health care.”

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/un-experts-say-u-s-abortion-bans-violate-human-rights/

Reproductive health advocates take the fight for abortion rights to the United Nations

Oct 26, 2023
By Kaitlyn Kennedy

Geneva, Switzerland - As a slew of abortion bans take effect around the US, advocates are fighting back during the 139th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

They argued that guaranteeing access to abortion falls within the scope of the US' international obligations, as bans can deprive pregnant people of their right to life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Continued: https://www.tag24.com/topic/abortion-rights/reproductive-health-advocates-take-the-fight-for-abortion-rights-to-the-united-nations-2988945

Diverse Stakeholders Implore Supreme Court to Preserve Abortion Pill Access

If the justices take up the case, they could hear oral arguments early next year and issue a decision by late June 2024, influencing fall elections.

10/19/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER

On Thursday, Oct. 12, a wide range of organizations filed 14 amicus curiae briefs supporting a Justice Department petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a Fifth Circuit decision imposing nationwide limits on access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Supporting the government’s appeal were reproductive rights organizations, medical and legal experts, patient advocacy groups, 257 members of Congress, 23 states and D.C., over 600 state legislators, state and local governments and officials, and pharmaceutical industry representatives, including GenBioPro, which makes a generic form of mifepristone.

“This legal attack on medical abortion has no basis in law or fact,” said GenBioPro CEO Evan Masingill. “Decades of science support mifepristone’s safety and efficacy. GenBioPro firmly believes that all people, regardless of income, gender, race or geography, have a right to access evidence-based healthcare and safe and effective medicines, and that includes medical abortion.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/19/supreme-court-abortion-pill-mifepristone/

Legislators in 49 states ask SCOTUS to preserve access to abortion pill

34 Colorado lawmakers sign amicus brief

BY: KELCIE MOSELEY-MORRIS
OCTOBER 13, 2023

A group of more than 600 Democratic legislators from 49 states, including 34 from Colorado, have signed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court urging the justices to overturn an appellate court decision that would roll back access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used to safely terminate early pregnancies and treat miscarriages.

The amicus brief, also called a “friend of the court” brief, was organized by State Innovation Exchange’s Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council and assembled over the past week, said Jennifer Driver, the group’s senior director of reproductive rights. Driver said State Innovation Exchange, also known as SiX, provides tools and resources for state legislators to advocate for progressive public policies after being elected to office.

Continued: https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/10/13/legislators-in-49-states-ask-scotus-to-preserve-access-to-abortion-pill/

Democratic Lawmakers Blast Abortion Pill Ruling In Scathing Letter

Nearly 600 legislators from 49 states signed the letter attacking the "dangerous" ruling by a Trump-appointed judge to revoke FDA approval of mifepristone.

By Kevin Robillard
Apr 14, 2023

Nearly 600 Democratic state legislators have signed on to a letter protesting a federal judge’s ruling revoking FDA approval of mifepristone, saying the “health and wellbeing of our constituents that we were put into office to protect is at grave risk.”

The 588 legislators [now 621] who signed come from every state except North Dakota, a sign of how the party views promoting access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs involved in medication abortion, and defending the Food and Drug Administration from political interference as a winning issue even in conservative areas.

Continued: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-lawmakers-abortion-pill-ruling-letter_n_64393cb0e4b0ac40918ac299

14.04.2023

News

FDA

Food and Drug Administration

Gretchen Whitmer

Jennifer Driver

Julie von Haefen

State Innovation Exchange

Two months after the Dobbs ruling, new abortion bans are taking hold

August 23, 2022
Sarah McCammon

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week marks two months since the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision reversed decades of precedent guaranteeing abortion rights, and the effects of the decision are continuing to unfold as abortion bans take effect around the country.

Well before the opinion was issued on June 24, more than a dozen states had so-called "trigger bans" in place – laws written to prohibit abortion as soon as Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had legalized the procedure for nearly 50 years, was overturned.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/23/1118846811/two-months-after-the-dobbs-ruling-new-abortion-bans-are-taking-hold

U.S. State legislators look to Mexico for direction in fight for abortion rights

Progressive legislators are studying how activists in Mexico, whose Supreme Court ruled to decriminalize abortion last year, effectively won back certain abortion care rights.

July 24, 2022
By Adam Edelman

State legislators have turned their attention to their neighbor to the south for guidance and direction about how to navigate a newly restrictive legal landscape in the U.S. regarding abortion.

Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion last year, loosening decades of restrictive laws in the predominately Catholic nation, leading to more permissive laws in several of its states.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/state-lawmakers-look-mexico-direction-fight-abortion-rights-rcna39140

24.07.2022

State Innovation Exchange

Stephanie Stahl Hamilton

States move to front lines in battle over abortion rights with Supreme Court decision looming

BY MELISSA QUINN
JANUARY 20, 2022 / CBS NEWS

Washington — With the Supreme Court poised to issue a decision in the coming months that could reshape the landscape for abortion care in the country, state lawmakers returning to their capitals this month are moving to the front lines in the fight over reproductive rights.

Republican-led legislatures are preparing to impose more restrictions on abortions or ban the procedure outright, while Democrat-controlled state houses are moving to enshrine the right to an abortion into state law. But the future of abortion access is less predictable in states with divided governance, where activists are pursuing a multi-pronged offensive to protect abortion rights in their states.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-rights-supreme-court-state-legislatures/

Many Abortion Clinics May Not Survive COVID-19 Unless Progressives Take Bolder Action

Many Abortion Clinics May Not Survive COVID-19 Unless Progressives Take Bolder Action

04 Jun 2020
Halley Bondy

The fury of the anti-choice movement is always in Kwajelyn Jackson’s face.

Protesters stand outside of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where she works. They harass her doctors. They destroy clinic property. They break COVID-19 social distancing rules. They hound her patients, who are mostly poor and black or Hispanic.

Continued: https://shadowproof.com/2020/06/04/many-abortion-clinics-may-not-survive-covid-19-unless-progressives-take-bolder-action/