Abortion rights leaders set focus on access, medication — and the long fight ahead

The presidents of Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America both say that they’re alarmed at attempts to decrease access to medication abortion and that they see young people as key to their ability to change policy in the long term.

Grace Panetta, Political reporter
January 23, 2023

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Two of the most prominent leaders in the abortion rights movement told The 19th they’re preparing to tackle future abortion bans and restrictions at the state level, efforts to undermine medication abortion and abortion access deserts as the United States enters its first full year without Roe v. Wade.

Lawmakers, officials and leading abortion rights advocates gathered in Tallahassee for a speech by Vice President Kamala Harris and an accompanying rally hosted by Planned Parenthood on Sunday. They were marking the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe decision that established a federal right to abortion — one that was struck down last June. Advocates said the speech’s location in Florida’s capital drew attention to Republican lawmakers’ plans to pass additional abortion restrictions in their 2023 legislative session.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/01/abortion-leaders-focus-medication-access-policy/

Post-Roe v. Wade Fears Realized As Trump Judge Approves Contraception Suit

BY EWAN PALMER
12/17/22

Abortion rights groups have raised concerns that a Donald Trump-nominated federal judge approving an anti-contraception lawsuit is proof the GOP will go further restricting the procedure post Roe v. Wade.

Matthew Kacsmaryk, a judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, recently issued an opinion on the case of Deanda v. Becerra, a lawsuit filed by a Christian father hoping to block the Title X federal program.

Continued: https://www.newsweek.com/roe-wade-abortion-contraception-trump-judge-1767714

USA – “This is the beginning of a very long arc”: The midterms prove abortion can galvanize voters

Voters overwhelmingly supported women’s reproductive freedom on Tuesday, both electing pro-abortion-rights lawmakers and voting in favor of abortion rights—even in red and purple states—on ballot initiatives. “When voters have a chance to decide on this issue, they choose to protect their rights,” one activist said.

BY ABIGAIL TRACY
NOVEMBER 9, 2022

For weeks, pundits and prognosticators questioned whether the fall of Roe v. Wade would actually be a key voting motivator this election cycle. Democratic consultant James Carville’s famed 1992 adage, “It’s the economy, stupid,” rang loud as the narrative grew that gas prices and inflation would overshadow the importance of protecting women’s reproductive rights. Then Josh Shapiro beat Republican Doug Mastriano, who had indicated, without hesitation, that he would sign whatever antiabortion law was put in front of him. Kentucky voters blocked a constitutional amendment that would have denied any abortion rights. Vermont enshrined abortion protections into its state constitution, while Michigan did the same. And California voters went one step further, also writing access to contraceptives into law. Democrats vastly surpassed expectations on Election Day.

As the results rolled in throughout the night, one thing became crystal clear: Abortion was on the ballot.

Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/11/abortion-midterms-democrats-2022

‘We’re sick of watching women die’: In Michigan, doctors rally to protect abortion access

Olivia Goldhill
Nov. 7, 2022

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Doctors are on the frontlines of a political battle raging across the country, as abortion rights are added to the ballot in the first election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Michigan is at the heart of the struggle.

“Doctors fought hard for these rights because we’re sick of watching women die,” Melissa Bayne, an OB-GYN in Fremont, Mich., told the audience at a rally Saturday in Grand Rapids. Her voice shook as she told the stories of patients who’ve died from pregnancy complications. The risks of forcing rape victims to carry their attacker’s child are all too real, she said: “As much as I don’t want patients or you to go through this, they do and have. Every day, I see women who’ve had consent stolen from them. Every day.”

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2022/11/07/abortion-michigan-ballot-measure-proposition-3/

States move to protect abortion from prosecutions elsewhere

The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark abortion ruling overturning Roe v. Wade is prompting efforts in liberal states to protect providers and patients who have traveled for a legal procedure

By Jennifer Mcdermott, Geoff Mulvihill and Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press
July 06, 2022

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Democratic governors in states where abortion will remain legal are looking for ways to protect any patients who travel there for the procedure — along with the providers who help them — from being prosecuted by their home states.

The Democratic governors of Colorado and North Carolina on Wednesday issued executive orders to protect abortion providers and patients from extradition to states that have banned the practice.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/states-move-protect-abortion-prosecutions-86331568

06.07.2022

Featured

News

Alexis McGill Johnson

Senate blocks bill to codify right to abortion

Women’s Health Protection Act failed as expected, but Democrats say the move is about mobilizing voters, not passing legislation

By Mike DeBonis and Rachel Roubein , Washington Post
May 11, 2022

The Senate on Wednesday did not advance legislation that would write a constitutional right to abortion into federal law — a symbolic gesture that Democrats cast as a first step in a larger strategy to mobilize Americans around reproductive rights as the Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade and related decisions.

Wednesday’s vote was 51 to 49 and well short
of the 60 votes necessary under Senate rules. It was largely a reprise of a
failed February vote staged by Senate Democratic leaders, but the issue has new
resonance after last week’s leak of a draft opinion from Justice Samuel A.
Alito Jr. suggesting that the high court is poised to overturn Roe and curtail
guaranteed nationwide access to abortions.

Continued, Unblocked: https://wapo.st/3suVKwC https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/11/abortion-senate-vote/

11.05.2022

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Alexis McGill Johnson

Chuck Schumer

Joe Manchin

Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Roe v. Wade

Women’s Health Protection Act

With Roe endangered, Democrats divide on saying the word ‘abortion’

By Caroline Kitchener
April 2, 2022

After Texas passed its restrictive abortion law last fall, Democrats started talking more about abortion than they had in decades.

House Democrats coalesced around a bill to turn into law the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing most abortions, Roe v. Wade, voicing their support for the landmark precedent in tweets and public statements. A few days later, three congresswomen shared their abortion stories on the House floor. And when he delivered his State of the Union address in March, President Biden became the first Democratic president since Roe to use that platform to call for action on abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/02/abortion-rhetoric-roe/

Texas clinics’ lawsuit over abortion ban ‘effectively over’

Texas abortion providers say their best hope of stopping the nation’s most restrictive abortion law is all but over

By PAUL J. WEBER and JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press
11 March 2022

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Supreme Court on Friday dealt essentially a final blow to abortion clinics’ best hopes of stopping a restrictive law that has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state since September and will now fully stay in place for the foreseeable future.

The ruling by the all-Republican court was not unexpected, but it slammed the door on what little path forward the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed Texas clinics after having twice declined to stop a ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/texas-clinics-lose-court-strict-abortion-law-83390700

Black Women Activists Warn Democrats After Abortion Failure: ‘Don’t Count on Our Votes’

Reproductive rights advocates of color wrote a scathing letter to Congress after it failed to end a federal ban on abortion coverage.

By Kylie Cheung
March 10, 2022

For the time being, reproductive rights advocates’ long-time dream of ending the Hyde Amendment, a half-century-old budget rider that prohibits federal funding of most abortions, is dead in Congress, despite President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to get rid of it.

Since Hyde disproportionately affects pregnant people of color, and particularly Black and Indigenous people, Black reproductive justice advocates have responded to the failure with a resounding warning to Democratic members: “Defend Black women’s rights or don’t count on our votes.”

Continued: https://jezebel.com/black-women-activists-warn-democrats-after-abortion-fai-1848635664

A grave warning’: six months of Texas abortion ban sow fear and anguish

The state’s near-total ban has had ‘devastating’ effects, providers say, and offers a glimpse of the future if Roe v Wade is overturned

Mary Tuma
Thu 3 Mar 2022

The most restrictive abortion law in the US has inflicted “devastating” consequences in Texas since it was introduced six months ago, according to healthcare providers and pro-choice groups.

Senate Bill 8 (SB 8) bars the procedure once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, typically at six weeks of pregnancy or earlier, with no exception for rape or incest. As most people are not aware they are pregnant this early on, the unprecedented law amounts to a near-total ban.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/03/texas-abortion-ban-six-months-grave-warning