Revisiting New York’s Historic Abortion Law in “Deciding Vote”

Jeremy Workman and Robert Lyons’s film reconstructs the passage of a 1970 law that made the state a sanctuary for people seeking abortions, and cost a lawmaker his career.

by Linnea Feldman Emison
November 29, 2023

In April, 1970, three years before Roe v. Wade made it legal nationwide, New York passed the most expansive abortion law in the U.S. Three other states passed similar bills in the same year, but New York’s was of particular national significance because it allowed patients to get an abortion even if they weren’t residents. This made the state a hub for people from other parts of the country seeking to safely end their pregnancies. That role has become a lasting element of New York’s political identity—in anticipation of the Supreme Court overturning Roe, in 2022, it passed a suite of laws to again become a sanctuary state for those seeking abortions—but that 1970 law almost fizzled out in the state legislature.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/revisiting-new-yorks-historic-abortion-law-in-deciding-vote

30.11.2023

sanctuary state for abortion care

USA – Why an independent abortion clinic is suing Planned Parenthood

Melissa Jeltsen with photographs by Thalía Juárez
Tue 6 Jun 2023

In a sign of tensions within the abortion rights community, a Manhattan clinic alleges the reproductive health behemoth poached one of its doctors, bringing it to the ‘point of implosion’

Parkmed NYC, an independent abortion clinic on the east side of Manhattan, is located in a nondescript office building that also houses the Ecuadorian consulate. Five days a week, the clinic is flooded with patients, many of whom have traveled long distances by bus, train or plane to evade abortion bans in their home states.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/abortion-clinic-suing-planned-parenthood

06.06.2023

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USA – This ‘full spectrum’ doula helps with birth, miscarriage and abortion

April 27, 2023
Terry Gross

Since 2010, Vicki Bloom has worked with the Doula Project, a New York City-based collective that partners with clinics to support pregnant people — whether the result is childbirth or termination.

TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guest, Vicki Bloom, is a doula. Typically, doulas provide support for women during pregnancy and childbirth. But Bloom describes herself as a full-spectrum doula, working with people no matter how the pregnancy proceeds, whether it results in birth, miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion. Since 2010, she's worked with The Doula Project, a New York City-based collective that partners with clinics to support pregnant people, whether the result is childbirth or termination. The doulas are volunteers, which enables The Doula Project to fulfill its goal of providing free emotional, physical and informational support to low-income women and to marginalized communities.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172200783/this-full-spectrum-doula-helps-with-birth-miscarriage-and-abortion

27.04.2023

No Matter Where You Live, New Yorkers Can Help You Get an Abortion (And We’ll Pay for It, Too.)

By Claire Lampen, a staff writer for the Cut.
Dec 5, 2022

Nancy Davis found herself living what she called “a mother’s worst nightmare.” Around ten weeks into her pregnancy, an ultrasound detected that the fetus had acrania, meaning it was developing without a skull. Davis lives in Louisiana, and acrania doesn’t appear on the list of “medically futile” conditions that allow for an exception to the near-total abortion ban the state implemented after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Louisiana doctors, they were scared of prosecution; they were scared of being fined,” Davis says. “So I went somewhere the laws were clear and they were confident they could give me the care that I needed.”

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2022/12/new-yorkers-can-help-you-get-an-abortion.html

250 Ads for Self-Managed Abortion Pill Info Launch in NYC Subway System

4/15/2022
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

Reproductive health, rights and justice advocates have teamed up to plaster New York City subways with information about how to find abortion pills and access free legal advice about using them. From Queens to the Bronx, in Brooklyn and Manhattan—including Times Square—over 250 posters are now sharing abortion pill information in English and Spanish with the millions of people passing through subway stations and riding the trains each day.

“As politicians and courts continue their assault on abortion access, we are spreading the word that these medically safe and effective pills are available by mail in all 50 states,” said Elisa Wells, co-founder and co-director Plan C, which organized the ad campaign. “Everyone deserves access to this modern medical technology, and we provide the information that people need to take back control of their reproductive autonomy.”

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2022/04/15/self-managed-abortion-pill-ads-nyc-subway-plan-c-medication-abortion/

Sonic Youth Fight Texas Abortion Ban With Vintage Concerts

Band opens its vaults to raise money for grassroots abortion funds, releasing concerts from 1995 and 2006 and new T-shirts

By SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON
November 5, 2021

It’s been a decade since Sonic Youth played their final show, but they’re not letting a little thing like that stop them from standing up for abortion rights in Texas. The influential New York band announced today that they are releasing two vintage concerts via Bandcamp to raise funds for grassroots groups fighting back against Texas’ draconian abortion ban, S.B. 8.

“In times like these it feels good to be able to take some action instead of being totally frustrated by the system,” Kim Gordon says in an exclusive statement to RS. “This Texas law is pure old-west-style vigilante, cowboy DIY mentality that goes against the constitution. We will only overcome this if we’re an engine coming out against this regressive and inhumane law, by coming together. I hope this brings awareness and encourages other people to join the fight by donating.”

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sonic-youth-texas-abortion-ban-1251212/

USA – Clinics Close, but Abortion Continues

Even as abortion is restricted, telemedicine allows some women to end unwanted pregnancies using legal medications.

By Jane E. Brody
May 31, 2021

Abortion is once again a prominent source of controversy, restrictive legislation and, for many, great distress. A little background may help put this in perspective.

Fifty years ago last fall, after New York State adopted the most lenient abortion law in the country, many out-of-state women with unwanted pregnancies sought help from New York doctors.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/well/live/abortion-legal-medication.html

USA – COVID-19: An Opportunistic Attack on Reproductive Health

By: Alyssa Fisher
Aug 23, 2020

Entering her 50th year at Choices Women’s Medical Center, founder Merle Hoffman has witnessed a lot. Imagine launching a reproductive health center providing abortions two years before Roe v. Wade legalized it in 1973.

But it’s the COVID-19 pandemic, she says, that has been “one of the most, most challenging times that we’ve faced, I’ve faced.”

Continued: https://womensenews.org/2020/08/covid-19-an-opportunistic-attack-on-reproductive-health/

Abortion Clinics Are Staying Open During The Coronavirus Outbreak. Here’s Why.

Abortion Clinics Are Staying Open During The Coronavirus Outbreak. Here’s Why.
One Planned Parenthood affiliate said it's actually seeing an uptick in patients showing up for appointments as people grow concerned about their health insurance and access in the future.

Ema O'Connor, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on March 20, 2020

Planned Parenthood wants people to know that its doors are still open, even as the coronavirus epidemic sweeps the nation.

“Our doors will stay open because sexual and reproductive health care is extremely important, and we have to ensure access to it,” Meera Shah, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood in the New York City suburbs of Long Island, Westchester, and Rockland, one of the hardest-hit regions in the country, told BuzzFeed News Thursday over the phone. “Pregnancy-related care, especially abortion care, is essential and life-affirming, especially now when there is so much insecurity around jobs and food and paychecks and childcare.”

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/coronavirus-abortion-clinics-open-planned-parenthood

20.03.2020

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My Abortion Before Roe v. Wade

My Abortion Before Roe v. Wade

March 8, 2020
Elizabeth Stone

Roe v. Wade is in peril. New restrictions on abortion exist in a dozen states. Providers are threatened with jail. And this week, the Supreme Court heard yet another attack on abortion rights with the Louisiana case June Medical Services v. Gee. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the ruling may leave the state’s 1 million women of reproductive age with only one legal abortion provider. And many other states stand ready to follow suit. This rush into the past has flung me back to a terrifying time in my own life half a century ago, one I never expected women today would have to face.

In late December 1965, I was 19 and in Brooklyn, home from college for the holiday break. I was also pregnant. I knew exactly how pregnant I was because I’d spent Thanksgiving with my boyfriend, Mark, who was in graduate school in Indiana.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/before-roe-v-wade/607609/