USA – Red States Just Asked the Supreme Court to Kill Abortion Shield Laws

The long-expected constitutional showdown over states’ rights and abortion rights is here.

Nina Martin, Mother Jones
Oct 1, 2026

In what promises to be the most consequential showdown over reproductive rights since the end of Roe v. Wade, three states with near-total abortion bans asked the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to strike down blue-state laws that have enabled tens of thousands of abortions every year across state lines since 2022.

The action by Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas was a dramatic escalation in the long-running battle over so-called shield laws, which provide legal immunity to doctors, organizations, and advocates in liberal states who deliver abortion care, mostly in the form of pills, to people in states with draconian abortion laws.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/10/red-states-just-asked-the-supreme-court-to-kill-abortion-shield-laws/

Inside the Clandestine Network of Abortion-Pill Mules

“There may come a time where we are one of the only, if not the only, option for the nation.”

Rebecca Grant, Mother Jones
November+December 2026 Issue
(online Sep 30, 2026)

When Lena walks into the cafe near an airport somewhere outside the US, she looks like any other traveler grabbing a cup of coffee before a flight. She orders a drink and picks a table out of earshot of other patrons, keeping her suitcase close by her side.

In the clandestine world of underground abortion activists, Lena—not her real name—is a courier. The trips she takes abroad—we can’t say where—are supply runs to pick up generic versions of mifepristone and misoprostol, the two drugs that make up the standard medication abortion regimen. Soon, another traveler—her supplier—approaches her table, also dragging a suitcase.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/underground-abortion-activists-mifepristone-misoprostol-medical/

USA – 5 Things You Should Know About the Harmful Hyde Amendment on Its 50th Anniversary

Sep 28, 2026
National Women’s Law Center

The Hyde Amendment is one of the most harmful abortion restrictions, as it prohibits coverage of abortion care for individuals enrolled in the federal Medicaid program, except in the extremely limited cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment. The Hyde Amendment was first passed by Congress on September 30, 1976 and has been reimplemented annually, preventing pregnant people qualified for Medicaid from getting the care they need.

Over the past five decades, Congress has extended the harmful reach of the Hyde Amendment to many other federal programs that provide health care, deepening racial and economic disparities in access to health care. The Hyde Amendment has been so successful at blocking access to abortion care, that anti-abortion extremists have praised it as “one of the greatest achievements of the pro-life movement to date,” aiding in their ultimate goal: to ban abortion nationwide.

Continued: https://nwlc.org/resource/5-things-you-should-know-about-the-harmful-hyde-amendment-on-its-50th-anniversary/

28.09.2026

Commentary

EACH Act

Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act

Henry Hyde

Hyde Amendment

Medicaid funding

National Women’s Law Center

English-speaking, Texan and from vulnerable backgrounds: The Americans still accessing abortion thanks to Mexican feminists

Several studies put a face to the women who were denied the right to end a pregnancy after ‘Roe v. Wade’ was overturned

Roberto González
SEP 27, 2026

The year 2023 was pivotal for understanding the effects of abortion restrictions in the United States. A year earlier, in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the decision known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO), which overturned the abortion-rights protection established by a previous ruling from 1973: Roe v. Wade. Since then, thousands of American women have ended pregnancies with help from Mexican feminist collectives. Several recent studies put a face to those seeking abortions: a large share come from states such as Texas, where abortion is banned, and live in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2026-09-27/english-speaking-texan-and-from-vulnerable-backgrounds-the-americans-still-accessing-abortion-thanks-to-mexican-feminists.html

USA – High-risk pregnancy doctors publish new standards for care under state abortion bans

As physicians navigate unclear laws, a national group of specialists is offering a potential roadmap.

By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
September 25, 2026

As physicians continue to navigate care for patients with complex pregnancies in states with abortion bans, a group of maternal-fetal medicine specialists has developed new guidelines to help providers in those states navigate legal risks for themselves and medical challenges for their high-risk patients.

Maternal-fetal medicine specialists handle some of the most high-risk pregnancies, including patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, fetal anomalies or other complications. In states with abortion bans, those conditions can become even more dangerous for a patient if a doctor is unsure when they can terminate a pregnancy without potentially jeopardizing their medical license or facing criminal penalties that can include jail time.

Continued: https://stateline.org/2026/09/25/high-risk-pregnancy-doctors-publish-new-standards-for-care-under-state-abortion-bans/

25.09.2026

Commentary

Alliance Defending Freedom

Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Dr. David Hackney

Dr. Justin Lappen

Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung

maternal-fetal medicine specialists

Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Tierra Walker died after she couldn’t get an abortion. Her family is suing Ken Paxton.

The case argues that Texas’ near-total abortion ban violates the state and U.S. constitutions. It is the first lawsuit over a death linked to an abortion ban.

Shefali Luthra
September 16, 2026

The family of a woman who died after she could not get an abortion in Texas is suing doctors and state officials including Attorney General Ken Paxton. It is the first lawsuit over a death linked to an abortion ban.

“It’s horrible that she’s gone and she was taken from us this way. It’s horrible that she’s not here anymore,” said LaTanya Walker, Tierra Walker’s aunt and the lead plaintiff in the case, in a press conference Wednesday. She added: “I want justice for her. I want it to not happen to anyone else. It needs to stop.”

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2026/09/texas-abortion-lawsuit-ken-paxton-tierra-walker/

16.09.2026

News

Amplify Legal

Center for Reproductive Rights

Ken Paxton

Latanya Walker

Molly Duane

Stephen Brint Carlton

Abortion care and counseling are core to the practice of maternal-fetal medicine, says new guidance

by Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Sept 15, 2026

Maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists (MFMs) should use their expertise to improve maternal safety by maximizing patient access to the full range of reproductive health care under current state abortion restrictions, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM). Providing abortion care and counseling is central to MFM clinical practice and cannot be separated from high-risk pregnancy care, according to SMFM.

"SMFM Special Statement: Considerations for management of high-risk pregnancies when abortion care is restricted," published in Pregnancy, addresses actions that MFMs and institutions can take to build consensus and create systems and processes that ensure patients receive optimal, evidence-based reproductive health care, including abortion care, particularly in states where abortion is restricted.

Continued: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-abortion-core-maternal-fetal-medicine.html

15.09.2026

Commentary

Justin R. Lappen

SMFM

Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Society of Family Planning

USA – Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States With Abortion Bans.

by Andrea Suozzo and Agnel Philip
September 9, 2026

The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent years, a ProPublica analysis found. The mounting deaths in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data have drawn little scrutiny or response.

Such deaths typically occur in the first trimester, after a pregnancy fails to properly implant in the uterus and begins to develop elsewhere, most commonly inside a fallopian tube. The embryo grows until it causes the organ to rupture, triggering catastrophic bleeding.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/ectopic-pregnancy-deaths-doubled-analysis

Dobbs’s Near-Total Destruction of Abortion Rights Across the South

Anti-abortion lawmakers are forcing women to travel hundreds of miles to obtain health care.

Laura O'Connor
September 8, 2026

Thousands of patients across the Southeastern United States are now being forced to travel more than 250 miles to access abortion care in North Carolina, according to a study recently published by The Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, completed by Dr. Kelsey Loeliger and her colleagues, quantified the South’s increasingly desperate abortion landscape, documenting the out-of-state abortion cases in North Carolina in the first year since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

Anti-choice lawmakers throughout the Southeast have made abortion care inaccessible for tens of thousands of women, and now North Carolina—despite having its own anti-abortion policies—has become something of an “abortion refugee” state, with over 10,000 more people traveling from out of state to seek abortion care in the first year since Roe was overturned. Moreover, the study found that abortion bans disproportionately impact Black patients, adding to a growing body of research that underlines the racial underpinning of anti-abortion policymaking.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/214851/south-dobbs-reproductive-health-landscape

Olivia Rodrigo’s festival uniting women behind nonprofits promoting their well-being

Rodrigo has made a name channeling the rage and dissatisfaction of modern romance into chart-topping songs that are equal parts Taylor Swift and Alanis Morissette.

By James Pollard | The Associated Press
August 30, 2026

Evoking the same do-it-yourself pop-rock feminism of her '90s musical influences, Olivia Rodrigo raised $20 million for women's well-being with a benefit show that activated her young audience.

Daisy Chain Fields united a women-led lineup boasting queer pop star Chappell Roan, breakout rapper Doechii and riot grrrl pioneers Bikini Kill behind issues of women's health, workplace protections and legal rights. Ahead of Saturday's festival in Irvine, California, Rodrigo announced the show had already raised enough to make a $10 million donation to 10 nonprofit partners including Planned Parenthood, National Women's Law Center and Black Mamas Matter Alliance.

Continued: https://www.nbcboston.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/olivia-rodrigo-festival-unites-women-girls-behind-nonprofits-promoting-well-being/4006120/