What underground abortions could look like if Roe v. Wade is overturned

JULIA NAFTULIN
DEC 11, 2020

Judge Amy Coney Barrett's recent confirmation into the Supreme Court could be a potential threat to abortion access and lead to even more "underground" abortions if the procedure becomes illegal in certain states, experts say.

Though underground abortions have continued in the wake of Roe v. Wade due to certain states' time-limiting abortion laws, those numbers could see a steep increase if states don't take individual responsibility to protect abortion rights, Carole Joffe, a sociologist and co-author of "Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America," told Insider.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/what-underground-abortions-could-look-like-if-roe-v-wade-is-overturned/articleshow/79683236.cms

USA – The Women the Pro-Choice Movement Left Behind

By MARY HARRIS
OCT 26, 2020

As we watch the Senate rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court this week, many people are worried about what her seating on the court will mean for Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion. But reproductive justice activist Laurie Bertram Roberts says we should have already been worried, like, 20 years ago. “I’m serious. We should have been worrying in the ’90s,” Roberts told me on Monday’s episode of What Next.

Laurie Bertram Roberts wasn’t always on this side of the issue. She was raised fundamentalist, but after suffering a miscarriage and later needing an abortion herself (one she was unable to obtain), she became a champion for reproductive rights. She’s spent much of her life straddling the poverty line as a working mother.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/pro-choice-abortion-roe-v-wade-women-left-behind.html

26.10.2020

Laurie Bertram Roberts

Mary Harris

National Organization for Women

Roe v. Wade Might Be Overturned Soon — This Is Worse Than You Think

MOLLY LONGMAN
OCTOBER 20, 2020

Angel Kai’s* heart sank when she found out she was pregnant again. The 20-year-old had delivered her second child only three months prior. She was on unpaid maternity leave from her job in Amarillo, TX, and she’d just received a $130 electricity bill in the mail that she didn’t know if she’d be able to pay. “Everything that was happening financially was just bad,” she remembers. “I couldn’t have another kid. I knew getting an abortion would be the best thing, because I couldn’t walk up the street to get a soda if I wanted one at the time. We were that tight on money.”

It turned out, though, that Angel couldn’t even afford the abortion she knew she wanted. Her health plan was offered under state-funded Medicaid, which, in Texas, only covers abortion in cases of life endangerment, rape, and incest. So, Angel Googled “abortion financial help.”

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10112297/what-happens-if-roe-v-wade-overturned-state-abortion-laws

20.10.2020

American Civil Liberties Union

American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Americans United for Life

Caitlin Knowles Myers

Catherine Glenn Foster

constitutional amendment to ban abortion

crisis pregnancy centers

Laurie Bertram Roberts

Marcela Howell

Mary Ziegler

Medicaid abortion

Mississippi Freedom Fund

National Abortion Federation

National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda

National Network of Abortion Funds

National Women’s Law Center

Noel León

Planned Parenthood Action Fund

self-managed abortion

Talcott Camp

Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers

TRAP laws

traveling for abortion

trigger laws

women's abortion stories

Women’s Health Protection Act

This is the future of abortion in a post-Roe America

The fall of Roe v. Wade won’t end abortion. Here’s what it will do.

By Anna North
Oct 12, 2020

If Roe v. Wade falls, what happens to abortion in America?

That’s the question on a lot of Americans’ minds after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with the Supreme Court on the brink of a 6-3 conservative majority. If the Senate confirms President Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, the Court will likely have the votes to overturn the landmark 1973 decision that established Americans’ right to terminate a pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/21504883/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-barrett

USA – Compassionate Strangers Made My Abortion Happen

7/22/2020
by Seema Syed

Editor’s Note: This piece has been published under an alias, as the author wishes to remain anonymous. This is the first time she has shared her story.

When I realized I needed an abortion, I didn’t realize that it would be a destination abortion. I didn’t realize how many barriers—how many people—would be in my way just so I could get the abortion I wanted, when I wanted it.

But thankfully, with the help of complete strangers, I was able to get the abortion I wanted at 30 weeks.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2020/07/22/compassionate-strangers-made-my-later-abortion-happen/

22.07.2020

New York Abortion Access Fund

women's abortion stories

USA – The Covid Crisis Reveals the Need to Abolish Abortion Restrictions

What kind of nation allows people to be prosecuted for health care?

By Renee Bracey Sherman
July 15, 2020

Washington, D.C.—Last November, I drove more than 12 hours for an abortion. It wasn’t mine (I had mine in 2005); I picked up a young woman in rural Pennsylvania whom I’ll call Raquel. She needed a ride to a clinic in Maryland to get some pills that she would take back at her home to have a medication abortion. As we drove to the clinic, I told Raquel about what to expect during the appointment; after I finished I paused and said, “As much as I love getting to know you on this drive, did you know you could safely do this at home but the government won’t let you?” She was surprised. Like many people, she knew about limitations on abortion but didn’t know that very safe and basic methods are being restricted because of outdated FDA regulations on how they can be dispensed. The drive bonded us—we still keep in touch, and she approved the inclusion of her story here—but it was an unnecessary exercise, one that antiabortion politicians created to make yet another constitutional right as inaccessible as possible. The cruelty of the barricades along the journey is the point.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/coronavirus-abortion/

USA – ‘I see a danger in returning to a pre-Roe world:’ Abortion advocates view coronavirus-era restrictions as a dark sign of what could come

'I see a danger in returning to a pre-Roe world:' Abortion advocates view coronavirus-era restrictions as a dark sign of what could come

Kayla Epstein
May 15, 2020

In non-pandemic times, obtaining an abortion already presented serious legal and logistical challenges for millions of women. For patients who live in certain states, getting care means enduring state-imposed waiting periods, submitting to unnecessary ultrasounds, or rushing to receive care before an arbitrary legal deadline. For patients who already have children, care must be arranged. Those without a car need a ride, especially if the nearest clinic is hours away. Some need flights to more accommodating states. And many, many need funds.

But women seeking abortions since the coronavirus outbreak began faced a new challenge — states' attempts to temporarily limit or ban abortion outright by deeming them "non-essential" procedures, under the pretext of preserving medical supplies for COVID-19 treatment. These restrictions collided with the travel and social distancing restrictions put in place to limit the spread of the virus, leading to an even more precarious situation for abortion care than the one already in place.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-arkansas-abortion-bans-coronavirus-advocates-fear-lack-of-access-2020-5

15.05.2020

Commentary

Featured

abortion access during pandemic

abortion funds

abortion is essential healthcare

American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology

American Civil Liberties Union

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anti-choice restrictions

Bridget Schilling

Brigid Alliance

Clinical Access Support Network

coronavirus

Covid-19 and abortion

National Abortion Federation

New Orleans Abortion Fund

Odile Schalit

personal protective equipment

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast

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pre-Roe laws

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Very Rev. Katherine Ragsdale

USA – Abortion funds see an increase in calls during the coronavirus pandemic

Abortion funds see an increase in calls during the coronavirus pandemic
The increase in need comes as unemployment reaches new highs.

By Alexandra Svokos
15 May 2020

As the novel coronavirus continues to impact most aspects of American life, including health care, abortion funds across the country are reporting that calls for assistance have increased.

Abortion funds provide money and other forms of assistance to patients seeking abortions, including to help cover the cost of the procedure itself as well as associated costs like transportation, child care and hotel stays as getting an abortion for many U.S. patients involves traveling long distances to clinics and multi-day processes due to state laws.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/abortion-funds-increase-calls-coronavirus-pandemic/story?id=70703745

USA – Paying for an Abortion Was Already Hard. The COVID-19 Economic Downturn Has Made It Even Harder.

Paying for an Abortion Was Already Hard. The COVID-19 Economic Downturn Has Made It Even Harder.
With anti-abortion state officials using COVID-19 to stop legal abortion and millions losing their jobs, abortion funds are seeing a crush of requests.

Mar 27, 2020
Paige Alexandria

For people seeking abortion care, the COVID-19 pandemic has made an already difficult situation harder.

In recent weeks, millions have lost their job, and parents are struggling to afford necessary childcare as schools across the United States have closed until further notice. People are faced with abortion costs that, for most, were difficult to afford in the first place. To make matters worse, states like Texas and Oklahoma have classified abortion care as “nonessential” in their COVID-19 response.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2020/03/27/paying-for-an-abortion-was-already-hard-the-covid-19-economic-downturn-has-made-it-even-harder/

USA – Abortion Foes Use the Pandemic as an Excuse

Abortion Foes Use the Pandemic as an Excuse
Officials hope to achieve their goal of effectively banning the procedure.

March 26, 2020
Katha Pollitt

Who would have thought COVID-19 would give anti-abortion forces the quick victory they could not win in the courts, in the legislative process, or through the deployment of screaming protesters outside clinics? Claiming abortion is a nonessential service that can be postponed so that the clinics’ medical resources can be used to fight the coronavirus, officials in Texas, Ohio, and Louisiana have moved to severely restrict or cut off abortion services completely; the governor of Mississippi announced his intention this week to do the same. Opponents of women’s reproductive rights hope to achieve, with the stroke of a pen, their dream of making states abortion-free.

For patients at these clinics, the situation is terrifying. “We have patients crying on the phone and staff crying with them,” Kathaleen Pittman, the director of Hope Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, told me. “This is hard. So hard.” The clinic is open but has postponed all of its appointments. “We’re looking at all our options,” Pittman said.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/abortion-opponents-take-advantage-crisis/608758/