USA – Abortion Clinic Workers Are Tired and Terrified—but We’re Still Showing Up

This is a love letter to my colleagues in Ohio and others who make abortion care possible, despite the threat of violence and the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Apr 21, 2022
Colleen Damerell, Rewire News Group

Abortion clinic workers are exhausted. We’re facing more than two years of COVID-19, understaffing and underresourcing of clinics, and the enormity of the disaster about to crash into our livelihoods.

“I am angry, sad, disappointed, afraid, depressed, anxious all the time,” said Heather, a registered nurse who both provides abortion care and works in labor and delivery.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2022/04/21/abortion-clinic-workers-are-tired-and-terrified-but-were-still-showing-up/

21.04.2022

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abortion clinic workers

Colleen Damerell

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Ohio Lawmakers Have Introduced An Abortion Ban That Goes Even Further Than The Texas Law

“It is changing a constitutional definition of when a person is recognized in the law to a fertilized egg starting at conception,” one reproductive rights advocate said.

Nicole Fallert, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on November 18, 2021

A group of Ohio lawmakers want to pass an abortion law that would be even more restrictive than the six-week ban in Texas, a move reproductive rights advocates say has already had a chilling effect among those in the state’s right-to-choose community.

Ohio House Bill 480 would make abortion at any stage of pregnancy illegal. It also includes some of the same elements as the six-week abortion ban, known as SB 8, that went into effect in Texas on Sept. 1 — namely, that it would allow virtually anyone to file lawsuits against any person who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion” for up to $10,000.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolefallert/ohio-texas-abortion-bill

‘Fetal heartbeat’ in abortion laws taps emotion, not science

Ohio maternal fetal medicine specialist Dr. Michael Cackovic says Republican-backed laws banning abortions at what they term the “first detectable fetal heartbeat" defy science

By JULIE CARR SMYTH and KIMBERLEE KRUESI, Associated Press
14 May 2021

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Dr. Michael Cackovic has treated his share of pregnant women. So when Republican lawmakers across the U.S. began passing bans on abortion at what they term “the first detectable fetal heartbeat,” he was exasperated.

That's because at the point where advanced technology can detect that first flutter, as early as six weeks, the embryo isn’t yet a fetus and it doesn’t have a heart. An embryo is termed a fetus beginning in the 11th week of pregnancy, medical experts say.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/fetal-heartbeat-abortion-laws-taps-emotion-science-77698556

‘Fetal heartbeat’ in U.S. abortion laws taps emotion, not science

Julie Carr Smyth and Kimberlee Kruesi, The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, April 28, 2021

NASHVILLE -- Dr. Michael Cackovic has treated his share of pregnant women. So when Republican lawmakers across the U.S. began passing bans on abortion at what they term "the first detectable fetal heartbeat," he was exasperated.

That's because at the point where advanced technology can detect that first flutter, as early as six weeks, the embryo isn't yet a fetus and it doesn't have a heart.

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/fetal-heartbeat-in-u-s-abortion-laws-taps-emotion-not-science-1.5405170

USA – A new, racialized assault on abortion rights is headed to the Supreme Court

Opinion by Melissa Murray
April 18, 2021

A federal appeals court last week allowed an Ohio law to take effect that bars doctors from performing abortions on women who choose to end their pregnancies because the fetus has Down syndrome. The law presents a head-on challenge to the right to abortion that could soon land at the Supreme Court — this time interlaced with sensitive questions of race and eugenics.

Such intrusive “reason bans,” which have been enacted around the country, are controversial — and almost immediately challenged — because they prohibit abortion before fetal viability. Most courts have applied the Supreme Court’s long-standing precedents to strike down such bans.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/18/new-racialized-assault-abortion-rights-is-headed-supreme-court/

Trump’s promise to overturn Roe v. Wade may still come true

The ruling means the conservative Supreme Court may be able to decide the Constitution does not protect a woman’s ability to have an abortion.

April 16, 2021
By Jessica Levinson, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

This week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an injunction against an Ohio law that makes it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion if the doctor knows or has reason to believe that a Down syndrome diagnosis, or the possibility of such a diagnosis, influenced the woman’s decision to seek an abortion.

The court ruled 9 to 7 to reverse two lower court decisions that had blocked the 2017 law from going into effect.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/trump-s-promise-overturn-roe-v-wade-may-still-come-n1264268

USA – Every State That’s Tried to Ban Abortion Over the Coronavirus

Every State That’s Tried to Ban Abortion Over the Coronavirus

By Hannah Gold
Apr. 7, 2020

Just days into the national surge of coronavirus cases, as an increasing amount of states called for nonessential businesses to shut down, some Republican legislators began using the public health crisis as an opportunity to deny health care to patients seeking abortions. The tactic has been replicated in the past couple of weeks, with governors in several states peddling the cynical argument that temporarily banning abortion will help shore up their supply of medical gear for hospitals overwhelmed by the pandemic.

So far, lawmakers in five states — Ohio, Texas, Alabama, Iowa, and Oklahoma — have attempted to halt abortion services indefinitely. As of now, only the Texas order has taken effect, and all of these temporary bans face strong legal challenges. Last week, providers in Alabama, Iowa, Ohio, and Oklahoma filed lawsuits to prevent the orders from taking effect in their states. A similar lawsuit was filed in Texas last week as well.

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2020/04/every-state-thats-tried-to-ban-abortion-over-coronavirus.html

Federal judges in 3 U.S. states block orders limiting abortion access over COVID-19

Federal judges in 3 U.S. states block orders limiting abortion access over COVID-19

Caroline Kelly, CNN
Published Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Federal judges in Alabama, Ohio and Texas have blocked orders banning nonessential medical procedures from limiting abortion access during the coronavirus outbreak, a win for abortion rights activists as the fight over abortion rights intersects with the worsening pandemic.

"Because Alabama law imposes time limits on when women can obtain abortions, the March 27 order is likely to fully prevent some women from exercising their right to obtain an abortion," federal Judge Myron Thompson, from the Middle District of Alabama, wrote Monday. He temporarily halted the order, issued by the state's Health Department earlier this month, until April 13.

Continued: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/federal-judges-in-3-u-s-states-block-orders-limiting-abortion-access-over-covid-19-1.4875382

States Are Using the Cover of COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion and Healthcare for Women

States Are Using the Cover of COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion and Healthcare for Women
With constituents distracted by the deadly pandemic, Republican state legislatures across the country are ramping up efforts to limit access to abortion

By Alex Morris
March 30, 2020

On March 18th, as the reality of the coronavirus crisis was becoming painfully apparent to Americans, the Idaho legislature was turning its attention to healthcare concerns of another kind: making sure that women were denied access to abortion at some nebulous future date. Across the country, state legislatures had gone into recess, heeding the social distancing advice of medical professionals. Not Idaho. For at least an hour on the floor of the House, there was vigorous debate over Senate Bill 1385, a so-called “trigger law” that would immediately criminalize abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade were overturned or a constitutional amendment gave states the right to criminalize it themselves. Under the law, performing an abortion would be a felony, except in instances of officially-reported rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother. “Everyone needs to face the consequences of their own personal choices,” Representative Megan Blanksma said in her closing debate, just before the bill passed 49-18 and made its way to Governor Brad Little’s desk to be signed, which it was last Tuesday.

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/covid-19-abortion-planned-paranthood-975324/

USA – “Stay Home and Have the Baby”

“Stay Home and Have the Baby”
Texas and Ohio have ordered a stop to abortions, saying they’re not essential medical services. Other states will follow. Right-wing forces are using the pandemic as a pretext to crack down dramatically on abortion rights. We can’t let them.

03.28.2020
By Jenny Brown

Texas and Ohio have ordered a stop to abortions, saying they’re not essential medical services, while state officials in Mississippi and Maryland are edging that direction. Their coronavirus prevention program is “Stay home and have the baby.”

The states argued that equipment such as masks used for surgical abortions could be used for care of COVID-19 patients. And they claim if anything goes wrong emergency services would be needed, exaggerating the risk of a safe procedure.

Continued: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/03/coronavirus-abortions-health-care