Why the Republican offensive on abortion is escalating

Ronald Brownstein
Tue April 19, 2022

(CNN) When three red states finalized severe restrictions on abortion over consecutive days last week, they highlighted the GOP's rising militancy on the issue -- and the political and legal calculations underpinning it.

Separate actions last week in Oklahoma, Florida and Kentucky made clear the red state drive to retrench, or eliminate, access to abortion is escalating as the Republican-appointed Supreme Court majority nears a decision, expected in late June, in which it is widely anticipated to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a nationwide right to abortion.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/19/politics/abortion-laws-red-states-republicans/index.html

Kentucky Enacts Near-Total Abortion Ban

Abortion is now effectively illegal in Kentucky, with the state enacting the country’s harshest restrictions so far. We need a mass movement to fight for safe, legal, and free abortion, on demand.

Otto Fors and K.S. Mehta
April 16, 2022

On Wednesday, Kentucky lawmakers essentially banned abortion. Effective immediately, abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy are illegal, except in medical emergencies, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

While abortions before 15 weeks technically remain legal, other provisions in the legislation will make it virtually impossible for doctors to perform the procedure. For example, providers must comply with onerous and invasive reporting requirements about the pregnant person’s past pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Providers also need to maintain admitting privileges at local hospitals — an enormous barrier, given that hospitals can deny such privileges at their discretion. Providers who want to prescribe medication abortions, which account for more than half of all abortions in the state, must now also register with the state, but since Kentucky lacks this kind of registration system, they have no way of performing the procedure.

Continued: https://www.leftvoice.org/kentucky-enacts-near-total-abortion-ban/

16.04.2022

Kentucky abortion law

Kevin Stitt

Myers Abortion Facility Database

A Polish woman is on trial for helping someone get an abortion. Here’s why it matters

Justyna Wydrzyńska faces up to three years in prison for trying to help a woman end her pregnancy. She says she's a cautionary tale for people in the United States.

April 15, 2022
By Danielle Campoamor

A woman in Poland is on trial for helping another woman access abortion care — and experts say her experience could foreshadow what could become more common in the United States as more states criminalize abortion.

Justyna Wydrzyńska, 47, faces up to three years in prison for giving another woman abortion pills — oral medications that stop and help the body pass an unwanted pregnancy. The pills are classified as "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, and studies show they are safer than Viagra and Tylenol.

Continued: https://www.today.com/parents/pregnancy/polish-abortion-trial-rcna23831

Abortion access under renewed threat in Oklahoma and Missouri

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Sun April 10, 2022

(CNN)While abortion rights advocates could secure several victories in US states in the coming days, they're sounding the alarm about an Oklahoma bill that would ban nearly all abortions that's likely to be signed into law. Here are some of this week's moves in state legislatures and by state leaders you may have missed.

Oklahoma sends near-total ban on abortion to governor
Oklahoma legislators passed a bill on Tuesday that would make performing an abortion illegal in the state, except to save the life of the pregnant woman in a medical emergency.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/09/politics/state-abortion-legislation-round-up-oklahoma-missouri/index.html

USA – A roundup of controversial red-state actions restricting abortion, LGBTQ rights and more

Compiled by Jon Passantino, CNN
Wed April 6, 2022

(CNN)Republican-led states around the country have enacted a flurry of new restrictions on abortion, LGBTQ and transgender youth rights, and discussion of critical race theory.

Here's a look at some of the legislation that has passed this session, what's next for the bills and what else is under consideration. The wave of activity on the state level comes ahead of a highly anticipated ruling by the US Supreme Court expected later this year that could have major implications for abortion.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/06/politics/red-states-abortion-lgbtq-critical-race-theory/index.html

06.04.2022

Featured

News

Andy Beshear

anti-choice restrictions

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

States Are Using the Cover of COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion and Healthcare for Women

States Are Using the Cover of COVID-19 to Restrict Abortion and Healthcare for Women
With constituents distracted by the deadly pandemic, Republican state legislatures across the country are ramping up efforts to limit access to abortion

By Alex Morris
March 30, 2020

On March 18th, as the reality of the coronavirus crisis was becoming painfully apparent to Americans, the Idaho legislature was turning its attention to healthcare concerns of another kind: making sure that women were denied access to abortion at some nebulous future date. Across the country, state legislatures had gone into recess, heeding the social distancing advice of medical professionals. Not Idaho. For at least an hour on the floor of the House, there was vigorous debate over Senate Bill 1385, a so-called “trigger law” that would immediately criminalize abortion in the state if Roe v. Wade were overturned or a constitutional amendment gave states the right to criminalize it themselves. Under the law, performing an abortion would be a felony, except in instances of officially-reported rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother. “Everyone needs to face the consequences of their own personal choices,” Representative Megan Blanksma said in her closing debate, just before the bill passed 49-18 and made its way to Governor Brad Little’s desk to be signed, which it was last Tuesday.

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/covid-19-abortion-planned-paranthood-975324/