Florida’s abortion ban has an exception for fatal fetal anomalies. So why was this woman forced to go to Virginia?

In November, Florida voters will have a chance to codify abortion rights. It could be the only way that people with medically complex pregnancies could access the procedure in the state.

Shefali Luthra, Reproductive Health Reporter
October 15, 2024

Emily Friend decided to paint the nursery a delicate green. She had originally settled on purple — gentle and welcoming, a color she hoped would make her baby feel at home. But Friend, who lives between Arcadia and Port Charlotte, in Southwest Florida, couldn’t find room furnishings to match the hue. So she and her boyfriend decided on a delicate green that felt joyful, perfect even if it wasn’t their first choice.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2024/10/floridas-abortion-ban-fetal-anomalies/

Abortion-ban exceptions won’t provide much relief for Iowa women. Here’s why.

The bigger picture won’t change unless a reconstituted Iowa Legislature repeals this law, which offends human rights and, as measured by polls, the wishes of Iowans.

The Register's editorial, Des Moines Register
July 28, 2024

Six years of trying will pay off Monday for Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Republicans: A law that bans almost all abortions will take effect.

And “almost all” means “almost all.” Tying the abortion prohibition to the detection of cardiac activity means many girls and women won’t realize they are pregnant before it’s too late to seek care.

Continued: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2024/07/28/iowa-abortion-ban-exceptions-provide-little-relief-rape-incest-emergency/74534809007/

29.07.2024

Iowans for Health Liberty

The Six-Week Abortion Ban in Florida Is Only the Beginning

The history of these bans suggests they’re far from the anti-abortion movement’s endgame.

BY MARY ZIEGLER
MAY 01, 2024

Florida has long been a destination state for abortion-seekers in a region defined by sweeping criminal bans. And, despite being under Republican control, Florida had long been a place with one of the highest abortion rates in the nation. Yet this week, a six-week ban signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April 2023 is set to go into effect. Florida’s law will cut off access for a large number of patients, many of whom will have to travel as far as North Carolina and Virginia, where clinics have already reported long waiting periods and struggles to meet demand.

Six-week bans block a sizable share of abortions—as of 2021, nearly 60 percent of procedures in Florida occured after that point in pregnancy. But the history of six-week bans like Florida’s suggests that this will not be the stopping point for the anti-abortion movement. Six-week bans were designed to be a stopgap in the fight for fetal personhood.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/05/florida-six-week-abortion-ban-only-the-beginning.html

Florida’s 6-week abortion ban ‘catastrophic for the region,’ activist says

Women in the Southeast may have to travel as far as Virginia for care.

By Nadine El-Bawab
April 4, 2024

Despite abortion being on the November ballot in Florida, pro-abortion groups say a six-week ban going into effect next month will have devastating consequences for women in the Southeast.

…Florida, despite its 15-week limit, has been a key point of access to women across the southeastern U.S. living in states that have ceased nearly all abortion services due to bans. At least 14 states have ceased nearly all abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/floridas-6-week-abortion-ban-catastrophic-region-activist/story?id=108816318

Florida abortion providers brace for six-week ban: ‘Where are these 80,000 patients gonna go?’

In separate decision, state supreme court agrees to allow voters to decide on enshrining rights in constitution in November

Carter Sherman
Tue 2 Apr 2024

Florida, the last bastion of abortion access in the south-eastern United States, will ban abortion past six weeks of pregnancy starting next month, leaving abortion providers and their supporters in the state and across the country scrambling to deal with the fallout for patients.

On Monday, the Florida state supreme court upheld a 15-week abortion ban, a move that removed the barriers for a separate, six-week ban that takes effect on 1 May. In a separate ruling, the court also agreed to let Florida residents weigh in on the issue through a November ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution – a decision that opens a new front in an election that is already sure to be dominated by abortion politics.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/02/florida-abortion-ban-six-weeks

Florida Supreme Court approves abortion restriction — and ballot measure that would overturn it

The court paved the way for a six-week ban passed in 2023 to take effect.
By Mel Leonor Barclay, Shefali Luthra
April 1, 2024

The Florida Supreme Court struck down its state abortion protection — paving the way for a six-week ban passed in 2023 to take effect — but will allow voters to weigh in on whether they can amend the state’s constitution to explicitly enshrine abortion rights.

The court issued two separate rulings Monday: one upholding a 15-week abortion ban passed in 2022, and another approving an abortion rights ballot measure to go before voters this November. The measure — which will need the backing of 60 percent of voters to pass, the highest threshold in the country — would amend Florida’s constitution to explicitly guarantee abortion rights in the state to the point of fetal viability, which is determined by physicians but is usually around 22 to 25 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2024/04/florida-abortion-ban-ballot-measure/

Florida Supreme Court Rules on Abortion

The Court allows 6-week ban & for voters to decide in November

JESSICA VALENTI
APR 01, 2024

The Florida Supreme Court came down with two abortion rulings today, one good and one very, very bad.

The Ron DeSantis-packed Court ruled that privacy protections in the Florida constitution don’t apply to abortion—undoing decades of precedent. A response to a challenge against the state’s 15-week ban, this decision means that a newer, 6-week ban—one that DeSantis signed into law last April—will go automatically into effect within 30 days. As we know, a 6-week ban in practice is not that different from a total ban.

Continued: https://jessica.substack.com/p/breaking-florida-supreme-court-rules

Roe Is Dead. Long Live Roe?

The first state constitutional protection of reproductive rights hints at the contradictions and fears of a divided movement.

Judith Levine
March 14 2022

IF THE SUPREME COURT overturns Roe v. Wade, 26 states are “certain or likely to ban abortion,” according to the Guttmacher Institute. In December, the court heard arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, addressing Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act banning abortion after 15 weeks’ pregnancy. The law is a deliberate violation of Roe, the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion. Most observers expect the conservative majority to rule in Mississippi’s favor. In that case abortion law would revert to the states, where in vast red swaths of this nation it has been so slashed and shredded that it’s already practically confetti.

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2022/03/14/abortion-roe-wade-vermont-human-right/

Judge rules citizen enforcement of Texas abortion law unconstitutional

By Tim Reid
Dec 9, 2021

LOS ANGELES
(Reuters) - A judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that a law prohibiting abortions
after about six weeks violated the state's constitution because it allows
private citizens to sue abortion providers.

State District Court Judge David Peeples was ruling on a contentious Texas law
that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, usually after about
six weeks and when many women do not yet realize they are pregnant.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judge-rules-citizen-enforcement-texas-abortion-law-unconstitutional-2021-12-10/

09.12.2021

Featured

News

6-week ban

anti-choice vigilantes

Citizens, Not the State, Will Enforce New Abortion Law in Texas

The measure bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. And it effectively deputizes ordinary citizens to sue people involved in the process.

By Sabrina Tavernise
July 9, 2021

People across the country may soon be able to sue abortion clinics, doctors and anyone helping a woman get an abortion in Texas, under a new state law that contains a legal innovation with broad implications for the American court system.

The provision passed the State Legislature
this spring as part of a bill that bans abortion after a doctor detects a fetal
heartbeat, usually at about six weeks of pregnancy. Many states have passed
such bans, but the law in Texas is different.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/us/abortion-law-regulations-texas.html