In North Carolina, more people are training to support patients through an abortion

By Claire Donnelly
December 19, 2022

Lauren Overman has a suggested shopping list for her clients preparing to get an abortion. The list includes: a heating pad, a journal, aromatherapy oils – things that could bring them some physical or emotional comfort after the procedure. Overman is an abortion doula.

She has worked as a professional birth doula for many years. Recently, Overman also began offering advice and emotional support to people as they navigate having an abortion, which can often be lonely. She makes her services available either for free or on a sliding scale to abortion patients.

Continued: https://www.wglt.org/2022-12-19/in-north-carolina-more-people-are-training-to-support-patients-through-an-abortion

19.12.2022

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USA – Standing their ground outside the abortion clinic

April 6, 2022
Story by Rachel Crumpler

GREENSBORO — On this Saturday, two groups of people stand watch in the 20-space parking lot of a Japanese steakhouse, each staking out their own territory.

When a car pulls in, often with a woman driving, each group springs to action.

Those wearing rainbow-colored vests motion in the direction of the abortion clinic, guiding drivers to the proper place to park. Others, dressed in navy Sidewalk for Life hoodies, wave, smile and put their hands in a praying position. Some wield signs, such as one reading “God loves you and your baby. We can help.”

Continued: http://mediahub.unc.edu/standing-their-ground-outside-the-abortion-clinic/

USA – A Movement Grows Outside of East Charlotte Abortion Clinic

The 'New Feminist' defenders

Ryan Pitkin
September 24, 2020

The video begins with a 19-year-old woman relaxing in a lawn chair outside of A Preferred Women’s Health Center, an abortion clinic on Latrobe Drive in east Charlotte where tensions between anti-abortion activists and pro-choice clinic defenders have risen in recent years.

In the video, the 19-year-old clinic defender nonchalantly reads the lyrics to the song “WAP,” which stands for Wet Ass Pussy. She’s talking calmly, but just loud enough to drown out Philip “Flip” Benham, a known religious extremist who has spent nearly 20 years protesting and harassing patients at the east Charlotte clinic. While Benham is usually the loudest man on Latrobe Drive, he looks bewildered by the woman’s confident reading of Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion’s gospel. He continues to read a Bible passage aloud just feet away from her. Continued: https://qcnerve.com/new-defenders-charlotte-abortion-clinic/

Pence makes pitch to anti-abortion voters in battleground states

By Caroline Kelly, CNN
Sat September 5, 2020

(CNN) Vice President Mike Pence is making a strong pitch to a potentially crucial base of swing-state anti-abortion voters heading into the last two months of the presidential campaign.

On a visit to North Carolina this week, he attacked Democratic nominee Joe Biden on abortion and reminded people of President Donald Trump's record appointing conservative judges.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/05/politics/mike-pence-abortion-battleground-states/index.html

05.09.2020

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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

USA – As Coronavirus Rages On, So Does Anti-Abortion Harassment and Extremism

As Coronavirus Rages On, So Does Anti-Abortion Harassment and Extremism

3/25/2020
by Micaela Brinsley, Ms. Magazine

In clinics in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Kentucky, anti-choice protesters have continued to show up at clinics that provide abortion services, refusing to comply with the pressure for people to practice social distancing and shelter-in-place.

Witnesses have reported protesters gathering in front of clinic doors, walking up to patients, and even “shoving unwanted pamphlets and gift sacks into confused patients’ hands” and through car windows—blatantly ignoring public health recommendations for people to stand six feet apart from one other.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2020/03/25/as-coronavirus-rages-on-so-does-anti-abortion-harassment-and-extremism/

Safe abortion access for all who need it

Safe abortion access for all who need it
MSF and HowToUseAbortionPill.org have created an online training course

Jan 23, 2020
Doctors Without Borders

Talking about abortion is not a crime. These days, however, health care providers and humanitarian workers who receive US funding overseas risk being shut down if they do just that.

The Global Gag Rule—which President Donald Trump reinstated and expanded on January 23, 2017—prohibits doctors, nurses, and other health workers around the world from even speaking about abortion. If they do, they could lose their US government funding. Health workers are relied upon to provide thorough, evidence-based medical information, and now they’ve been silenced in the places where that information is needed the most.

Continued: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/story/safe-abortion-access-all-who-need-it

USA – Meet the Abortion Clinic Escorts Shielding Patients From Harassment

Meet the Abortion Clinic Escorts Shielding Patients From Harassment

Rose Himber Howse
Jan 22, 2020

It’s my first day as an escort at A Woman’s Choice, the lone abortion clinic in Greensboro, North Carolina. At 7 in the morning, it feels like I’ve stumbled onto a block party. At least 50 people are gathered in the parking lot, a space designed for 20 cars, and a guitarist with an amp is strumming and crooning.

Blocking the view of the actual clinic is the Greensboro Pregnancy Care Center’s mobile unit: a pink and white van that serves as the mother ship for six anti-abortion activists also wearing pink. The layout is a nightmare for patients who have to navigate a series of turnoffs that lead them past the van and through the parking lot where these protesters set up camp each morning.

Continued: https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/01/22/abortion-clinic-escorts/

What It’s Like to Get an Abortion in North Carolina

What It’s Like to Get an Abortion in North Carolina
In recent years, North Carolina has “gone to town on abortion restrictions.” This is one person's story.

by Kimberly Lawson
Dec 5 2019

In recent years, North Carolina has, as one researcher put it, “gone to town on abortion restrictions.” State lawmakers in 2013 famously reworked a bill about motorcycle safety to include several provisions intended to make it harder for abortion clinics to stay open, among other things. Although courts have overturned a number of other state restrictions—including a forced narrated ultrasound law and a previously unenforced 20-week ban—North Carolinians still face several barriers to accessing abortion care.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/8xwwgb/what-its-like-to-get-an-abortion-in-north-carolina

05.12.2019

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USA – These 5 States Are the Next Battlegrounds in the Abortion Wars

These 5 States Are the Next Battlegrounds in the Abortion Wars
Abortion rights groups are pouring tens of millions into these states to flip their legislatures in 2020.

by Carter Sherman
Oct 22 2019

When Americans think about the future of abortion, they often think of the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion nationwide in Roe v. Wade. But over the last decade, the real battle over abortion hasn’t been in Washington, D.C. — it’s played out in statehouses across the country, where legislators have passed restriction after restriction on the procedure.

Now, abortion rights activists believe they have a unique chance to wrest back those state legislatures from abortion opponents. And though Election Day 2020 is still more than a year away, they’re already preparing.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/43kpy3/these-5-states-are-the-next-battlegrounds-in-the-abortion-wars