USA – An emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
April 12, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Kristan Hawkins, president of the national anti-abortion group Students for Life, tours college campuses, she has grown accustomed to counterprotests from abortion rights activists.

But more recently, fellow abortion opponents, who call themselves abortion abolitionists, are showing up to her booths with signs, often screaming “baby killer” at her while she speaks with students. Hawkins has had to send alerts to donors asking them to help pay for increased security.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-abolitionists-trump-roe-criminal-homicide-d6d5c7a05419fe9ded04271cb517b001

Louisiana mother pleads not guilty following abortion pill indictment

By: Lorena O'Neil
March 11, 2025

A mother from Port Allen caught up in a landmark abortion pills case pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony criminal charges for allegedly providing her minor daughter with medication to end her pregnancy.

The woman was indicted Jan. 31 for allegedly giving her teen daughter pills she had obtained through the mail. Dr. Margaret Carpenter, the New York physician who allegedly prescribed and sent the pills to Louisiana, was also indicted on felony changes. It’s the first criminal case of its kind in the country since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Continued: https://lailluminator.com/2025/03/11/abortion-pill-10/

USA – How promises of a ‘post-Roe future’ have fallen short

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN
Sun September 22, 2024

Weeks after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a then-little-known Republican congressman from Louisiana introduced a short bill that proposed amending the Social Security Act to ensure child support payments be made for an “unborn child.”

“The Unborn Child Support Act” has gone nowhere. But the congressman has. He’s Mike Johnson, now the speaker of the House. More than two years after the Dobbs decision and nearly a year into a job that gives him control over which legislation get debated and voted on, Johnson hasn’t touched the bill or any of its provisions.

Continued: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/22/politics/abortion-dobbs-promises-republicans/index.html

Afraid to Seek Care Amid Georgia’s Abortion Ban, She Stayed at Home and Died

Candi Miller’s family said she didn't visit a doctor “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions.” Maternal health experts deemed her death preventable and blamed Georgia’s abortion ban.

by Kavitha Surana
Sept. 18, 2024

Candi Miller’s health was so fragile, doctors warned having another baby could kill her.

“They said it was going to be more painful and her body may not be able to withstand it,” her sister, Turiya Tomlin-Randall, told ProPublica.

But when the mother of three realized she had unintentionally gotten pregnant in the fall of 2022, Georgia’s new abortion ban gave her no choice. Although it made exceptions for acute, life-threatening emergencies, it didn’t account for chronic conditions, even those known to present lethal risks later in pregnancy.

Continued; https://www.propublica.org/article/candi-miller-abortion-ban-death-georgia

The GOP war on abortion has only led to higher abortion rates

More than two years after Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, reports show, abortions are becoming more common.

Aug. 14, 2024
By Andrea Grimes

“My goal, and the goal of many of those joining me here today, is to make abortion at any stage a thing of the past.” That line, spoken nearly 12 years ago by Texas’ then-Gov. Rick Perry while he was stumping outside a Houston-area anti-abortion pregnancy center, has been on my mind a lot over the past few days, thanks to new evidence showing more people are having abortions today than before Donald Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

...anti-abortion politics and policies are about punishment, predominantly for perceived noncompliance with Christian, patriarchal sexual customs. Rhetoric around eliminating abortion, more recently couched by anti-abortion propagandists as making abortion “unthinkable,” is a smokescreen. It’s intended to divert attention away from the deeply misogynist, oppressive heart of anti-abortion thinking and policymaking, which are primarily concerned with writing the subjugation of pregnant people into law.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rising-abortion-rates-post-roe-policies-rcna166577

14.08.2024

anti-choice punishment

patriarchal authoritarianism

An Alabama woman was imprisoned for ‘endangering’ her fetus. She gave birth in a jail shower

Exclusive: Ashley Caswell, one of a growing number of jailed pregnant women in Etowah county, is suing officials after she was denied care

Sam Levin in Los Angeles
Fri 13 Oct 2023

In March 2021, sheriffs in Etowah county, Alabama, arrested Ashley Caswell on accusations that she’d tested positive for methamphetamine while pregnant and was “endangering” her fetus.

Caswell, who was two months pregnant at the time, became one of a growing number of women imprisoned in the county in the name of protecting their “unborn children”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/13/alabama-pregnant-woman-jail-lawsuit

USA – Domestic Abusers Are Using Abortion Bans to Control Their Victims

After Roe v. Wade fell, the National Domestic Violence Hotline saw a 99-percent increase in callers reporting that people were trying to control their reproductive choices.

By Carter Sherman
July 13, 2023

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, people warned abortion bans would become another tool for people to abuse their partners. A year later, early data indicates those warnings were right.

In the year before Roe fell, roughly 1,230 people told the National Domestic Violence Hotline that they had endured some kind of what anti-domestic abuse activists call “reproductive coercion,” including being denied an abortion or being forced into one. In the year since it was overturned, 2,442 people said the same. That’s a 99-percent increase.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy3yny/abortion-bans-domestic-abusers

Punishment for Abortion in Nigeria

By Wildest_Imagination (self media writer)
July 8, 2023

Abortion is a highly controversial and sensitive topic that sparks debates and discussions worldwide. Nigeria, like many countries, has strict laws regarding abortion, considering it a criminal offense except in cases where the life of the mother is at risk. This article aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the punishment for abortion in Nigeria, exploring the legal framework, societal implications, and challenges faced by women seeking reproductive healthcare services. By shedding light on this subject, we hope to promote informed discussions and increase awareness of women's reproductive rights and healthcare needs.

The Legal Framework
The laws governing abortion in Nigeria are primarily derived from the Penal Code applicable in the northern states and the Criminal Code applicable in the southern states. These laws classify abortion as a criminal act, except when performed to save the life of the pregnant woman. In accordance with the Penal Code, anyone who causes an abortion, whether by providing the procedure or assisting in any way, is subject to imprisonment. The Criminal Code imposes similar penalties, effectively making abortion a punishable offense under Nigerian law.

Continued: https://ng.opera.news/ng/en/politics/62d27ff7c300f32a909aeecea6ae4bab

08.07.2023

Commentary

abortion law in Nigeria

anti-choice punishment

A 10-year-old Ohio rape victim got an abortion. Now her doctor is being punished.

Reprimanding Caitlin Bernard for speaking out could have far-reaching chilling effects.

By Nicole Narea
May 26, 2023

The case of a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim who sought an abortion in Indiana just after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year became a major flashpoint in the political debate. On Thursday, her doctor was reprimanded and fined for discussing the case — and physicians worry that it will have a chilling effect on any kind of patient advocacy that conflicts with the political agenda of state lawmakers.

The Indiana medical board found that Caitlin Bernard, an OB-GYN, violated patient privacy laws in publicly disclosing that she had performed the abortion without the consent of the patient or their parents, even though she never named the patient and only provided a general outline of the case, as doctors typically do when performing health advocacy. She will be fined $3,000 and issued a letter of reprimand, but will be allowed to keep her medical license.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2023/5/26/23738974/indiana-abortion-doctor-caitlin-bernard-ohio

USA – The Long History of the Anti-Abortion Movement’s Links to White Supremacists

The Long History of the Anti-Abortion Movement’s Links to White Supremacists
Racism and xenophobia have been woven into the anti-abortion movement for decades, despite the careful curation of its public image.

By Alex DiBranco
Feb 3, 2020

The anti-abortion movement in the United States has long been complicit with white supremacy. In recent decades, the movement mainstream has been careful to protect its public image by distancing itself from overt white nationalists in its ranks. Last year, anti-abortion leader Kristen Hatten was ousted from her position as vice president of the anti-choice group New Wave Feminists after identifying as an “ethnonationalist” and sharing white supremacist alt-right content. In 2018, when neo-Nazis from the Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) sought to join the local March for Life rally organized by Tennessee Right to Life, the anti-abortion organization rejected TWP’s involvement. (The organization’s statement, however, engaged in the same false equivalency between left and right that Trump used in the wake of fatal white supremacist violence at Charlottesville. “Our organization’s march has a single agenda to support the rights of mothers and the unborn, and we don’t agree with the violent agenda of white supremacists or Antifa,” the group wrote on its Facebook page.)

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/anti-abortion-white-supremacy/

03.02.2020