Make No Mistake: Leaders Are Using COVID-19 to Block Abortion Access
‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ star Sidney Flanigan has a message for politicians sneaking in anti-abortion policy under the guise of public safety.
By Sidney Flanigan
Apr 27, 2020
As I sit home in lockdown in Buffalo, New York, I’m following the news like everybody else. I’m watching with alarm and anger as a number of conservative leaders in states like Texas, Ohio, Alabama, Oklahoma are using the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to halt access to safe, legal abortions. Under the pretense of public health, politicians are issuing executive orders that classify abortion as an elective procedure that isn’t time sensitive. What they’re really doing is preventing access to reproductive care.
Planned Parenthood and other partner groups, including the ACLU and Center for Reproductive Rights, have filed lawsuits in seven states challenging the bans, but it’s impossible to know how this will all play out. For now, at least some access remains available in every state, but a divided three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has taken that access away twice.
Continued: https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a32242919/abortion-access-covid-19-sidney-flanigan/