Florida couple unable to get abortion will see baby die after delivery

Doctors’ interpretation of state law prevents procedure, family tells Washington Post, despite baby’s fatal illness

Maya Yang
Sat 18 Feb 2023

In a few weeks, a Florida couple will have to bid farewell to their child shortly after the baby is delivered, a gut-wrenching reality created by the US supreme court’s elimination of nationwide abortion rights last year.

Because of a new Florida law that bans abortion after 15 weeks except under certain circumstances, Deborah Dorbert has become one of many women having difficulty accessing necessary abortion procedures after the supreme court overturned the rights granted by the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/18/florida-abortion-law-couple-birth

18.02.2023

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Deborah Dorbert

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Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality law

USA – Anti-abortion pregnancy centers are deceiving patients – and getting away with it

One Florida case shows just how little authorities are doing to hold pregnancy centers accountable, even when the risks to women – and evidence – are significant

Laura C Morel for Reveal
Thu 15 Dec 2022

Patricia Henderson stood in the parking lot next to the Florida Women’s center in Jacksonville, wearing a white lab coat and greeting patients as they emerged from their cars. Their abortion appointments, she told them, were in the flat-roofed building across the road.

Once inside, Henderson handed them three pages of paperwork to fill out – questions about everything from their highest level of education to the date of their last period. State investigative documents lay out what clients say happened next: she led them to a pink-walled ultrasound room, where she would reveal their pregnancies in grainy images that, according to leading medical groups, only a licensed physician or a specially trained advanced practice nurse should interpret.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/15/us-anti-abortion-pregnancy-centers

Jewish congregations mount legal challenges to state abortion bans

BY: ARIANA FIGUEROA
AUGUST 26, 2022

Thousands of years of Jewish scripture make it clear that access to abortion care is a requirement of Jewish law and practice, according to Rabbi Karen Bogard.

“We preserve life at all costs,” she said in an interview with States Newsroom. “But there is a difference between that which is living, and that which is not yet living.”

Continued: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/08/26/jewish-congregations-mount-legal-challenges-to-state-abortion-bans/

Florida calls teen ‘too immature’ for an abortion. But forced motherhood is fine?

Jill Filipovic
hu 18 Aug 2022

A Florida court has held that a pregnant and parentless 16-year-old is not mature enough to have an abortion – but is, apparently, mature enough to raise a child after being forced into childbirth by the state.

This case illustrates the utter absurdity and deep cruelty of parental consent laws, which are in place in 21 states. While parental consent laws seem reasonable enough on their face – who wouldn’t want to know if their child was having an abortion? – they are in practice alternately duplicative or dangerous. If a parent is supportive of their child’s bodily autonomy and has raised that child into a thoughtful, mature teenager, that teenager will either feel comfortable telling their parents about an unplanned pregnancy, or will have the ability and wherewithal to make their own decision and get themselves to an abortion provider. If a parent is abusive or unsupportive of their child’s basic rights, why should the state put young people at risk by requiring that their parents be notified?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/18/florida-teen-abortion-forced-motherhood

18.08.2022

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Florida could be a critical access point for abortion, but the state’s own battle is just starting

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the state is poised to become a regional destination for abortion. But with a 15-week ban set to take effect, its own future is unsure.

Shefali Luthra
June 8, 2022

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Herman Miller never asks his patients why they come to his office, but sometimes they tell him anyway. They just need to say it out loud.

There are people who desperately wanted a child and then found out at 16 weeks pregnant that they would give birth to a baby with major health problems — at least one, he recalls, who would have been born without functioning lungs. There are those who had a plan, a partner who would raise a child with them, before they were left on their own. There are patients who drove six hours to get here, who couldn’t get here sooner because rent was due or a kid fell sick. Some just needed a few extra weeks to pull together a few hundred dollars.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2022/06/florida-abortion-law-access-point-uncertain-future/

Tracking new action on abortion legislation across the states

By Caroline Kitchener, Kevin Schaul and Daniela Santamariña
Updated April 14 (originally published March 26, 2022)

Two states this week approved bills that ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, the latest actions as Republican-led states move swiftly to restrict abortion access. Kentucky’s ban, passed by the Republican-led legislature over the Democratic governor’s veto, took effect immediately. Florida’s governor signed a ban this week that is set to take effect in July.

While a lot of the bills this year look similar to bills we’ve seen before, the stakes are completely different. In recent years, the most restrictive bans were blocked by the courts, ruled unconstitutional because they violated Supreme Court precedent established in Roe v. Wade, which has protected the constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2022/abortion-rights-protections-restrictions-tracker/

Abortions after 15 weeks are one signature away from being banned in Florida

March 4, 2022
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Abortions after 15 weeks would be banned in Florida under a bill Republican senators sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis late on Thursday, capping a bitter debate in the statehouse as a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision may limit abortion rights in America.

DeSantis, a Republican, has previously signaled his support for the proposal and is expected to sign it into law.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/04/1084440962/florida-republicans-send-15-week-abortion-ban-to-governor

04.03.2022

Lawmakers are racing to mimic the Texas abortion law in their own states. They say the bills will fly through.

‘Copycat bills’ are a tradition that has been a hallmark of the antiabortion movement for decades

Caroline Kitchener
October 19, 2021

Less than 48 hours after Texas’s abortion law went into effect, banning almost all abortions, West Virginia state delegate Josh Holstein was reminded of the promise that got him elected in 2020.

Holstein ran as a “100 percent pro-life” Republican alternative to the two-term Democratic incumbent. He would pursue a “heartbeat bill” that would ban abortion once cardiac activity is detected, around six weeks of pregnancy. On Sept. 2, the day after Texas became the first state to successfully implement a six-week ban without court interference, a West Virginia resident called Holstein and other state delegates to task in a private post on his Facebook page. He wanted to know: Can we do the same thing in West Virginia?

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/lawmakers-are-racing-to-mimic-the-texas-abortion-law-in-their-own-states-they-say-the-bills-will-fly-through/

Florida becomes 1st state to try to mirror Texas fetal ‘heartbeat’ abortion law

Bill would ban abortion after 6 to 8 weeks and allow people to sue doctors who perform them

Thomson Reuters
Posted: Sep 22, 2021

A Florida Republican lawmaker has filed a bill that would ban abortions after six to eight weeks and allow members of the community to sue doctors for terminating pregnancies in what may be the first effort to mirror a similar new law in Texas.

The bill by state Rep. Webster Barnaby would ban abortions after regular cardiac contractions are detected in an embryo, known as a fetal heartbeat even though the heart has not yet developed, about six to eight weeks into pregnancy. That is before many women know they are pregnant.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/abortion-law-florida-texas-1.6186255

What It’s Like to Get an Abortion in Florida

What It’s Like to Get an Abortion in Florida
Florida already makes minors to tell a parent if they're having an abortion. Now lawmakers want to require the parent to come to the clinic with them. Here's one 17-year-old's story.

by Paige Alexandria
Feb 6, 2020

Republican lawmakers in Florida tried and failed to pass a bill in 2019 that would have banned abortion at six weeks. In fact, in the last six years, lawmakers in the state have made more than 50 attempts to limit abortion access, including a ban on a common second-trimester procedure and imposing a 24-hour waiting period for all abortions.

Another bill proposed recently would change the state’s parental involvement law for minors from requiring notification to mandating parental consent. Over half of U.S. states have parental involvement laws. Currently, a minor’s legal guardian or parent must be notified 48 hours before the abortion. But SB 404 would require a parent or guardian to accompany the young person to the clinic on the day of the abortion and provide a government-issued ID along with notarized, written consent. It isn’t the first time lawmakers have tried to pass a law like this, and it’s already been proven that parental involvement laws delay care—which is exactly the intent.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/z3b3w9/florida-abortion-laws-how-to-get-an-abortion-in-florida