Biden set to roll back Trump rules on abortion

BY JESSIE HELLMANN
11/13/20

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to roll back several of the Trump administration’s changes to sexual and reproductive health programs, undoing a large portion of the president’s executive actions on abortion and women’s health.

Abortion rights and women’s health care advocates anticipate the Biden administration will act swiftly to reverse a myriad of Trump-era rules including ones that allow more employers to opt out of ObamaCare’s contraception mandate and ban the use of federal family planning dollars for domestic and foreign organizations that provide or promote abortions.

Continued: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/525773-biden-set-to-roll-back-trump-rules-on-abortion

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

AMA and Planned Parenthood ask Supreme Court to block federal abortion referral rule

By Caroline Kelly
Thu October 1, 2020

(CNN)The American Medical Association, the main industry group for doctors, is asking the Supreme Court to block the Trump administration rule barring federally funded health care providers in the Title X family planning program from referring patients for abortions.

The petition filed Thursday comes as the high court faces a vacancy following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But a contentious confirmation fight looms over President Donald Trump's pick for the seat, federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett, who has expressed views and joined opinions that suggest she is receptive to further restrictions on abortion rights and would likely help further cement a conservative majority on the court.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/01/politics/supreme-court-abortion-referral-rule/index.html

20 years later, the FDA must lift restrictions on medication abortion care

BY REPS. DIANA DEGETTE (D-COLO.), BARBARA LEE (D-CALIF.), JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-ILL.) AND AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MASS.), OPINION CONTRIBUTORS
09/28/20

Over the years, there have been numerous challenges in the way the United States has approached reproductive health. We rely on our public health institutions to make decisions using the best data to get the best outcomes. Twenty years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved mifepristone, the pill for medication abortion with numerous restrictions on who could prescribe the medication, where it could be taken and where it could be dispensed.

Now, 20 years later, medication abortion care has been used by more than 4 million women and has proven to be a safe and effective option to end an early pregnancy. Mifepristone has long had the potential to transform health care access — yet, the same restrictions the FDA first placed on medication abortion needlessly remain in place to this day. This must change.

Continued: https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/518609-20-years-later-the-fda-must-lift-restrictions-on-medication

USA – Coronavirus crisis magnifies existing challenges to abortion access

Coronavirus crisis magnifies existing challenges to abortion access

May 07, 2020
Carole Joffe

In our recent book, Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America, David Cohen and I detail the considerable difficulties many people have in accessing abortion care. The relative scarcity of clinics means long travel for many; that abortion patients are disproportionately low-income women of color means hardship in paying for the procedure, particularly since the majority of states do not allow Medicaid funds to be used for abortion; the onerous waiting periods in many states often mean women have to stay overnight in a distant city, leading to the additional costs of lodging and more days of lost wages; confrontations with protestors at the clinic sites themselves can often be deeply upsetting. All these barriers have increased exponentially with the coming of COVID-19, and some new problems have been added as well.

Continued: https://womensmediacenter.com/news-features/coronavirus-crisis-magnifies-existing-challenges-to-abortion-access

Abortion during the Covid-19 Pandemic — Ensuring Access to an Essential Health Service

Abortion during the Covid-19 Pandemic — Ensuring Access to an Essential Health Service
Perspective

Michelle J. Bayefsky, B.A., Deborah Bartz, M.D., M.P.H., and Katie L. Watson, J.D.
May 7, 2020
N Engl J Med 2020; 382:e47
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2008006

Each year, nearly 1 million women choose to end a pregnancy in the United States, and about one quarter of American women will use abortion services by 45 years of age. Women’s ability to determine whether and when they have a child has profound consequences for their self-determination and for the economic, social, and political equality of women as a group. Because access to safe abortion care is time-sensitive and vitally important, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and other reproductive health professional organizations issued an unequivocal statement on March 18, 2020, that they “do not support Covid-19 responses that cancel or delay abortion procedures.”

Continued: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2008006

COVID-19 Should Not Be Used as an Excuse to Implement Abortion Bans

COVID-19 Should Not Be Used as an Excuse to Implement Abortion Bans

April 30, 2020
by Surya Swaroop

As the United States is struggling to adapt to the unprecedented influx of patients with symptoms of COVID-19, there is a strong concern that the number of medical supplies available will not be able to keep up with the demand. While this is a pressing matter that the federal government needs to address, some Republican politicians are using this issue to further their political agendas. They have deemed abortions a nonessential medical service, citing the need to conserve medical supplies as the reason abortions should be banned during this time.

The logic of this argument is flawed on every level and indicates how little these politicians regard women’s reproductive health issues.

Continued: http://dailynexus.com/2020-04-30/covid-19-should-not-be-used-as-an-excuse-to-implement-abortion-bans/

Coronavirus pandemic stirs fight over abortion rights in US

Coronavirus pandemic stirs fight over abortion rights in US
Republican leaders in eight US states are trying to ban abortions in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Janice Hopkins Tanne reports

BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1733
Published 30 April 2020
Janice Hopkins Tanne, journalist

Texas has allowed medical and surgical abortions to go ahead after a long running court fight during which abortion was repeatedly forbidden and permitted, to the frustration and dismay of doctors and patients.

On 22 March, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, signed an executive order banning non-essential medical procedures. Abortions were considered non-essential. The state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said criminal penalties and fines would be imposed on medical professionals for providing abortions and claimed that elective medical procedures used medical supplies needed by doctors and nurses dealing with covid-19.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1733

States use coronavirus to ban abortions, leaving women desperate: ‘You can’t pause a pregnancy’

States use coronavirus to ban abortions, leaving women desperate: ‘You can’t pause a pregnancy’

Eight US states have worked to try and halt abortions entirely during the pandemic as clinics report a rise in demand

Jessica Glenza
Thu 30 Apr 2020

A woman in Texas was isolating with her family. She was frightened and carried a secret: she was eight weeks pregnant.

Even under normal circumstances, obtaining an abortion in Texas is described as “mostly impossible”. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, politicians in Texas and seven other states have worked to try to halt abortions entirely. They have undertaken costly lawsuits to restrict abortion in the name of health and safety, even as doctors lined up against them.

Continued https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/30/us-states-ban-abortions-coronavirus-leave-women-desperate

USA – States That Use COVID-19 To Ban Abortion Increase Our Risks, Hardships And Fear Nationwide

States That Use COVID-19 To Ban Abortion Increase Our Risks, Hardships And Fear Nationwide

Janet Burns, Senior Contributor
April 12, 2020

For the past few weeks, lawmakers in a growing number of US states have taken it upon themselves to restrict abortion during the COVID-19 pandemic by deeming that care “nonessential,” despite medical experts’ explicit warnings not to.

As US states have rushed to define and maintain their own responses to the global viral disease outbreak, numerous state lawmakers have chosen the extra step of declaring virtually all abortion care or procedures “nonessential,” rather than letting doctors decide (along with patients) what’s essential and safe right now.

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2020/04/11/states-using-covid-19-to-ban-abortion-increase-everyones-risks-and-hardships-in-a-crisis/#35d56106aa8c