All Eyes on Texas: Republicans and Business Leaders Decry Court Ruling Denying Kate Cox’s Abortion

With abortion banned in nearly two dozen states, stories like Kate Cox’s are going to keep happening. And voters, business leaders and even fellow Republicans aren’t turning a blind eye.

12/16/2023
by KATHY SPILLAR, Ms. Magazine

A case out of Texas demonstrates the shocking cruelty and extraordinary lengths to which anti-abortion ideologues will go to deny women access to critical healthcare. The state’s Supreme Court intervened last week and denied an emergency request for an abortion by a woman named Kate Cox. Cox was experiencing fetal abnormalities that made her pregnancy unviable and potentially dangerous. The ruling, which forced Cox to leave the state in order to legally terminate the pregnancy, attracted the ire of even some Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

A fundamental part of the conservative rhetoric used to justify draconian abortion bans is the premise that abortion “hurts women.” But as studies and these real-life cases continue to prove, the opposite is actually true: abortion bans hurt women and endanger their lives—and what’s more, abortion actually helps women.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/12/16/republicans-business-texas-supreme-court-abortion/

House approves legislation to protect abortion access across US

Vote was largely symbolic as two bills stand all but no chance of overcoming Republican opposition in the evenly-divided Senate

Lauren Gambino, Chris Stein in Washington and Adam Gabbatt in New York
Fri 15 Jul 2022

The House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation that would protect abortion access nationwide, the first action by Democrats in Congress to respond to the supreme court decision in late June overturning Roe v Wade.

The vote was largely symbolic – the bills stand all but no chance of overcoming Republican opposition in the evenly divided Senate, where 60 votes are needed to move legislation forward.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/15/house-abortion-vote-approved

15.07.2022

Women’s Health Protection Act

United States

Law

Politics

USA – Why the Senate is taking a doomed vote on abortion rights

Democrats want to show voters they tried on abortion rights.

By Li Zhouli@vox.com
Feb 28, 2022

The Senate on Monday will take its first vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill aimed at codifying the right to an abortion.

Democrats hope to use the vote to show support for abortion rights as they come under attack in numerous states, and as they face a challenge in the Supreme Court. The vote, however, is widely expected to fail: Republicans are broadly opposed to the legislation and will likely filibuster it. Once filibustered, the bill would need 60 votes to advance, support it doesn’t currently have in a 50-50 Senate.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2022/2/28/22946299/womens-health-protection-act-senate-vote-abortion-rights

It’s time to say it: The conservatives on the Supreme Court lied to us all

By Paul Waldman, Columnist
Dec 3, 2021

They lied.

Yes, I’m talking about the conservative justices on the Supreme Court, and the abortion rights those justices have now made clear they will eviscerate.

They weren’t just evasive, or vague, or deceptive. They lied. They lied to Congress and to the country, claiming they either had no opinions at all about abortion, or that their beliefs were simply irrelevant to how they would rule. They would be wise and pure, unsullied by crass policy preferences, offering impeccably objective readings of the Constitution.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/03/supreme-court-conservatives-lied/

03.12.2021

Amy Coney Barrett

Brett Kavanaugh

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

Clarence Thomas

confirmation hearings

Laura Ingraham

Neil Gorsuch

overturning precedent

USA: How Brett Kavanaugh tried to sidestep abortion and Trump financial docs cases

By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer
Wed July 29, 2020

(CNN)Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh urged his colleagues in a series of private memos this spring to consider avoiding decisions in major disputes over abortion and Democratic subpoenas for President Donald Trump's financial records, according to multiple sources familiar with the inner workings of the court.

In the abortion controversy, Kavanaugh wanted the justices to sidestep any ruling on the merits of a Louisiana law that could have closed abortion clinics in the state, CNN has learned. The case marked the first time in four years the justices were taking up the heated subject. Kavanaugh's plan would have ensured the law -- a credentialing mandate for doctors who perform abortions -- would not go into immediate effect but also ensured that the justices would not have to put their own views on the line.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/politics/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-abortion-trump-documents/index.html

29.07.2020

Commentary

Featured

Brett Kavanaugh

Chief Justice John Roberts

Donald Trump

June Medical Services v. Russo

USA – Brett Kavanaugh shows true colours in supreme court abortion dissent

Brett Kavanaugh shows true colours in supreme court abortion dissent
The supreme court blocked a Louisiana Trap law but Trump’s controversial pick showed Roe v Wade is not safe in his hands

Arwa Mahdawi
Sat 9 Feb 2019

There are about 4.6 million people in Louisiana. Guess how many abortion clinics there are? Three. There are just three. Which I suppose is actually quite a lot when you consider that a number of American states have only one.

On Thursday Louisiana narrowly avoided becoming a new member of the one-clinic club. The US supreme court voted 5-4 to block a Louisiana law that would have dramatically reduced access to legal abortions in the state. Opponents of the law said it would have meant only one doctor would have been eligible to perform abortions in the entire state.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/09/brett-kavanaugh-shows-true-colours-in-supreme-court-abortion-dissent

USA – Abortion Debate Reignited as Divisive Issue for 2020 Campaigns

Abortion Debate Reignited as Divisive Issue for 2020 Campaigns

By Anna Edgerton and Sahil Kapur
February 9, 2019

The acrimonious debate over abortion that’s divided the country for generations is being reignited for the 2020 election with the Supreme Court’s tilt to the right and Democratic-led states moving to lift some restrictions on the procedure.

New York has eased some restrictions on late-term abortions, and lawmakers in Virginia have proposed to do so. That has given anti-abortion advocates fresh arguments and targets. Both sides in the debate, at the same time, expect the Supreme Court with two conservative justices appointed by President Donald Trump to narrow abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-09/abortion-debate-reignited-as-divisive-issue-for-2020-campaigns

USA – How Abortion Rights Will Die a Death by 1,000 Cuts

How Abortion Rights Will Die a Death by 1,000 Cuts
Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court would mean the demise of not just abortion rights but also a century of progressive reforms.

By Serena Mayeri
Aug. 30, 2018

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s voluminous record, his opinion of the Supreme Court’s landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade, and his views on legal precedent have deservedly been scrutinized in the lead-up to his confirmation hearings next week. But the Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, more than Roe, holds the key to understanding the stakes of Judge Kavanaugh’s potential confirmation.

It is Casey that now protects women’s access to reproductive health care in states whose restrictions on health care providers and patients threaten to close clinics or ban abortions outright. And the political lesson conservatives learned from Casey all but guarantees that a vote for Judge Kavanaugh is a vote not only to endanger abortion rights but to turn back the clock on a century of progressive reforms.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/opinion/brett-kavanaugh-abortion-rights-roe-casey.html

USA – When It Comes to Abortion Rights, Civil Disobedience Could Be the Only Option

When It Comes to Abortion Rights, Civil Disobedience Could Be the Only Option
Non-violent protest should be on the table ahead of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing.

Erin Matson
Aug 16, 2018

In this op-ed, Erin Matson, co-founder and co-director of Reproaction, explains why civil disobedience should be on the table when it comes to preserving abortion rights.

For abortion opponents, Brett Kavanaugh is — to borrow the parlance of baseball — somewhat of a closing pitcher. While there have been other justices who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and end the federal constitutional right to abortion, Kavanaugh’s decisions on reproductive rights have anti-abortion groups strongly supporting his nomination. For that reason, many have noted that he could be the one to shut it all down. Nominated to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who had been a swing vote in favor of protecting abortion, Kavanaugh would turn the court into an enduring five-vote majority — an all-male majority — opposed to abortion rights. Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that made outright abortion bans unconstitutional, the threat to maintaining that decision in the United States has never been this pronounced. Congress can’t be counted on to save us, as we’ve seen legislators fail us before, letting laws critical to our health lapse. As the nomination hearings begin, we need to keep that in mind. That’s why strategic, non-violent civil disobedience needs to be on the table.

Continued: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/when-it-comes-to-abortion-rights-civil-disobedience-could-be-the-only-option

USA – A leader in the fight to protect Roe v. Wade lays out the plan to stop Brett Kavanaugh

A leader in the fight to protect Roe v. Wade lays out the plan to stop Brett Kavanaugh
NARAL president Ilyse Hogue explains the strategy for protecting abortion rights in the Supreme Court and in the states.

By Emily Stewart
Jul 29, 2018

Even before Supreme Court Justice’s Anthony Kennedy’s retirement and President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to replace him, abortion rights advocates were already concerned about the erosion of those rights in America. The prospect of Kavanaugh on the bench — and his and the president’s past positioning on abortion — have raised the alarm over reproductive rights in the United States and the future of Roe v. Wade to a new level.

Activists are ready for battle.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/29/17625884/brett-kavanaugh-abortion-naral-ilyse-hogue