New England Advocates Build a Regional Model for Abortion Rights

9/26/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER

On Tuesday, Sept. 26, Massachusetts-based Reproductive Equity Now, formerly NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, announced an expansion of its work into Connecticut and New Hampshire to create a regional organization to strengthen abortion access across New England. As more states ban abortion, advocates hope this regional strategy will ensure abortion healthcare for New Englanders and patients traveling to the region for care.

“Reproductive Equity Now’s expansion reflects the urgency we face as a region in demanding, protecting, and expanding abortion access and reproductive equity for all,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now. “As 20 states have moved to restrict or ban abortion, wiping out access to care in broad regions of our country, we must focus on state-by-state work to build regional blocks for abortion access. This work will begin in New England, and we hope that this model can be replicated to advance reproductive freedom nationwide.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/26/new-england-abortion-rights-connecticut-new-hampshire-massachusetts/

The ‘Surprising Allies’ who pioneered reproductive health care access in Western Mass.

By Judy Waters
Aug 8, 2022

With the recent overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling, struggles from the pre-Roe era are not forgotten. Before 1973, Western Massachusetts played a key role.

“Surprising Allies: The Struggle Over Birth Control and Abortion in 1960s Massachusetts,” a 2019 piece from the Massachusetts Historical Journal, highlights the work of David Cline, author of “Creating Choice: A Community Responds to the Need for Abortion and Birth Control, 1961-1973.”

Continued: https://www.berkshireeagle.com/opinion/columnists/judy-waters-the-surprising-allies-who-pioneered-reproductive-health-care-access-in-western-mass/article_77387a18-1500-11ed-a46c-cf1d623e9d4f.html

USA – Pamela Lowry, who advocated for abortion rights before Roe v. Wade, dies at 77

By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff
November 23, 2021

A month before turning 21 in 1965, Pamela Lowry began working in Planned Parenthood’s Boston offices, helping women at a time when most had to leave the United States for a legal abortion, and many illegal abortions were dangerous or fatal.

Nine years later, she testified before a US Senate subcommittee and recalled the awful choices women faced before the US Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 made abortion legal across the country.

Continued: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/23/metro/pamela-lowry-who-advocated-abortion-rights-before-roe-v-wade-dies-77/

23.11.2021

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Massachusetts Senate Overrides Veto, Passes Law Expanding Abortion Access

December 29, 2020
Vanessa Romo

The Massachusetts state Senate joined the state House of Representatives Tuesday in passing legislation that enshrines abortion rights in state law and expands access to 16-year-olds. The move by the two chambers overrides Gov. Charlie Baker's veto of the measure last week.

The ROE Act, as it's called, will allow abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases with a fatal fetal anomaly and in instances when a physician deems it necessary "to preserve the patient's physical or mental health."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/29/951259506/massachusetts-senate-overrides-veto-passes-law-expanding-abortion-access

29.12.2020

USA – ‘Our doors stay open’: Brookline’s abortion clinic shootings, 25 years later

‘Our doors stay open’: Brookline’s abortion clinic shootings, 25 years later

By Abby Patkin
Posted Dec 30, 2019

In Brookline, a lot has changed since a gunman opened fire at two clinics 25 years ago. But there is still more to come.

He walked in and double-checked he was in the right place. Then John Salvi III pulled out his rifle and fired.

Continued: https://brookline.wickedlocal.com/news/20191230/our-doors-stay-open-brooklines-abortion-clinic-shootings-25-years-later

USA – These States Have More Abortion Clinics Today Than They Did a Decade Ago

These States Have More Abortion Clinics Today Than They Did a Decade Ago
Even as Republican-dominated legislatures passed laws designed to shut down clinics from coast to coast, some states saw an uptick in abortion clinics.

Dec 23, 2019
Alys Brooks

In a decade in which dozens of abortion clinics were shut down by medically unnecessary state laws, around 14 states—mostly in the Northeast and West—have seen an increase in clinics, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.

While the latest Guttmacher data is from 2017, other research, including a recent Abortion Care Network report focusing on independent clinics, indicates that clinics continue to close at an alarming rate. These closures include abortion clinics in states with Democratic-majority legislatures, like Whole Woman’s Health in Illinois, which closed in June, the same month Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed a landmark pro-choice law.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2019/12/23/these-states-have-more-abortion-clinics-today-than-they-did-a-decade-ago/

USA – Indie Abortion Clinics Can’t Be Replaced, but They’re Dying Out

Indie Abortion Clinics Can’t Be Replaced, but They’re Dying Out
Abortion clinics that aren't connected to large national organizations like Planned Parenthood provide more than half of all abortions.

by Marie Solis
Dec 23 2019

Laurent Delli-Bovi is used to operating her Brookline, Massachusetts, abortion clinic in a state of financial precarity. Women's Health Services, which has been around for almost 28 years, has been in the red for the last 13 of them.

Delli-Bovi, the clinic's medical director, said those years have mostly consisted of "robbing Peter to pay Paul": putting off paying some bills in favor of more urgent ones. The independent clinic runs on a "day-to-day" basis, its future never guaranteed.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdp4x/independent-abortion-clinics-are-closing-thanks-to-abortion-restrictions

USA – Here are the 5 things to watch for next in the abortion debate

Here are the 5 things to watch for next in the abortion debate
Most legislatures in antiabortion states are out for the summer. But bills are still being debated by lawmakers and challenged in the courts.

Caroline Kitchener
June 10, 2019

Since January, when most state legislatures convened for their first session since Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, there has been a flurry of far-right abortion legislation. Nine states have passed bills narrowing the time period in which women can legally access abortion. Alabama has effectively banned abortion altogether. (The bills have not yet taken effect, and many have already been challenged in court.)

While a handful of states stay in session year-round, most state legislatures have adjourned for the year. That means there probably won’t be much more antiabortion legislation passed in 2019.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/here-are-the-5-things-to-watch-for-next-in-the-abortion-debate/

USA – In Mass. and beyond, an effort to bolster access to abortion

In Mass. and beyond, an effort to bolster access to abortion

By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff
January 28, 2019

Reproductive rights advocates in Massachusetts and across the country are launching aggressive campaigns for the new year to bolster access to abortion services in left-leaning states, in anticipation of further restrictions in conservative ones.

The effort is part of a nationwide strategy by groups, including Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, to create safe havens for women seeking abortion services at a time when a newly conservative Supreme Court could overturn the 46-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling that made abortion legal.

Continued: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/01/27/mass-and-beyond-effort-bolster-access-abortion/xwQ6A4WVimznyGypWHkOXK/story.html

USA – Self-Induced Abortions Shouldn’t Be A Crime, Mass. Medical Society Says

Self-Induced Abortions Shouldn't Be A Crime, Mass. Medical Society Says

May 07, 2018
Chelsea Conaboy and Carey Goldberg

At its latest meeting, the Massachusetts Medical Society took a new stand: Women who attempt to end a pregnancy on their own should not be considered criminals.

Self-induced abortion is explicitly banned in seven states, and more have laws on the books that could be used to prosecute women for self-induction, according to a recent report.

Continued: http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2018/05/07/mass-medical-society-self-induced-abortion