‘We’re sick of watching women die’: In Michigan, doctors rally to protect abortion access

Olivia Goldhill
Nov. 7, 2022

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Doctors are on the frontlines of a political battle raging across the country, as abortion rights are added to the ballot in the first election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Michigan is at the heart of the struggle.

“Doctors fought hard for these rights because we’re sick of watching women die,” Melissa Bayne, an OB-GYN in Fremont, Mich., told the audience at a rally Saturday in Grand Rapids. Her voice shook as she told the stories of patients who’ve died from pregnancy complications. The risks of forcing rape victims to carry their attacker’s child are all too real, she said: “As much as I don’t want patients or you to go through this, they do and have. Every day, I see women who’ve had consent stolen from them. Every day.”

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2022/11/07/abortion-michigan-ballot-measure-proposition-3/

These states will have abortion on the ballot in November

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
September 5, 2022

Voters in a small number of states will decide in November how those states should handle the abortion issue. Abortion rights have taken on an increased significance and become a top focus in the midterm elections after the US Supreme Court's ruling this summer that there was no longer a federal constitutional right to the procedure.

In its August primary, Kansas was the first state in the nation to let voters weigh in on abortion since the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, and Kansans overwhelmingly chose to reject a state constitutional amendment that would have given state lawmakers the green light to help enact more restrictive abortion laws,

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/politics/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-ballot-measures/index.html

Michigan County Prosecutors Can Enforce Abortion Ban Under New Court Ruling

TBEN News, By The Bharat Express News
August 2, 2022

Abortion could become illegal in parts of Michigan after a panel of the state appeals court said in a decision released Monday that a judge’s order blocking enforcement of a pre-Roe v. Wade ban does not apply. applies to provincial prosecutors.

The 91-year-old abortion ban, which was blocked in May from taking effect immediately, makes it a crime for doctors to perform abortions unless the mother’s life is in danger.

Continued: https://www.thebharatexpressnews.com/michigan-county-prosecutors-can-enforce-abortion-ban-under-new-court-ruling-tben-news/

Can Michiganders obtain abortion pills in Canada? Governor seeks clarification.

Jul. 07, 2022
By Danielle Salisbury

Furthering her efforts to secure comprehensive reproductive health care for Michiganders, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is asking for clarity on the rights of residents to cross the U.S. border to obtain care or prescription medication, including abortion pills.

Current rules on importing drugs, including those that may be used for medication abortion, are complex and not well-understood by the public, Whitmer wrote in a letter to the secretaries of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/07/can-michiganders-obtain-abortion-pills-in-canada-governor-seeks-clarification.html

07.07.2022

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Customs and Border Protection

Gretchen Whitmer

Health and Human Services

Mifegymiso

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I’m an ob-gyn. Michigan isn’t ready for what will happen if Roe is overturned.

Lisa Harris
June 3, 2022

I’ve been an obstetrician-gynecologist for 24 years, caring for women giving birth, experiencing miscarriage, and deciding to have abortions. Most patients I see have experienced some or all of these events, at different times in their life.

Since abortion is so politicized and stigmatized, it’s often hard to see that it usually coexists alongside birth and miscarriage in many women’s lives, and in the medical practices of their doctors.

Continued: https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2022/06/03/abortion-opinion-not-roe-wade-obgyn/9964313002/

03.06.2022

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Gretchen Whitmer

Lisa Harris

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Navigating Loss of Abortion Services — A Large Academic Medical Center Prepares for the Overturn of Roe v. Wade

Lisa H. Harris, M.D., Ph.D.
May 11, 2022, NEJM, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2206246

The intense politicization of abortion in U.S. public discourse obscures its status as a health and health care issue. Medical centers may therefore not be doing the careful preparation needed to manage the health system–wide impact of abortion’s criminalization. What follows is a framework for preparation in a state where abortion will become illegal.

At the University of Michigan, we’ve been actively preparing for the loss of abortion care since the December oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization made explicit the Supreme Court’s eagerness to overturn Roe v. Wade. In Michigan, a 1931 law criminalizing abortion will come into effect if Roe is overturned. It’s among the strictest laws in the country, permitting abortion only to “preserve the life” of a pregnant person.

Continued: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2206246?query=NC

11.05.2022

self-managed abortion

training of abortion providers

I Got an Illegal Abortion Before Roe v. Wade

She was 15 when she got an illegal abortion in a dirty Detroit warehouse. Now, she’s terrified others will experience something similar.

By Carter Sherman
April 7, 2022

Renee Chelian still doesn’t know who performed her abortion.

In 1966, Chelian was 15 years old and living in the Detroit area when she got pregnant. She had no idea what an abortion was, until her parents asked her if she wanted one. But Chelian soon underwent one—after being blindfolded and taken to a dirty warehouse crowded with women looking for illegal abortions.

Determined to keep pregnant people from facing the kind of uncertainty and danger she did, Chelian eventually become an abortion provider herself. She now runs three abortion clinics around Detroit.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgewz/illegal-abortion-roe-v-wade-michigan

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/

Michigan Police Express Sympathy for Anti-Abortion Clinic Blockade

8/31/2020
by ABBY LAWLOR

In the early morning of Friday, Aug. 27, 12 fanatical anti-abortion extremists in Sterling Heights, Mich., formed an unyielding blockade in front of the Northland Family Planning Center—known for providing access to abortion, pregnancy tests, treatment for miscarriages, and gynecological care, among other reproductive health care services.

There are three Northland Family Planning Centers located across Michigan—and all have been under siege from anti-choice extremists throughout the summer months.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2020/08/31/anti-abortion-clinic-blockade-in-michigan-receives-sympathy-from-local-police/

Abortion Clinic Protests Are Still Happening in the Pandemic: ‘They Accost Patients Face to Face’

Abortion Clinic Protests Are Still Happening in the Pandemic: ‘They Accost Patients Face to Face’
“They don’t social distance. They block, stalk, push, shove, talk, scream. It’s business as usual out there for them.”

by Carter Sherman
May 26 2020

When Kelly Benzin arrived at the Grand Rapids, Michigan, abortion clinic where she works one recent Wednesday morning, everything seemed normal. Even in the midst of the pandemic, the Heritage Clinic for Women had been drawing about five to 15 protesters a day, she said. One was just setting up his chair as Benzin pulled in.

But around 8 a.m., when the clinic officially opened, Benzin realized that about 25 to 35 people had started to gather outside. Soon, they started to approach patients, handing out roses and trying to talk them out of getting abortions.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/889nnp/abortion-clinic-protests-are-still-happening-in-the-pandemic-they-accost-patients-face-to-face