Lawmakers are racing to mimic the Texas abortion law in their own states. They say the bills will fly through.

‘Copycat bills’ are a tradition that has been a hallmark of the antiabortion movement for decades

Caroline Kitchener
October 19, 2021

Less than 48 hours after Texas’s abortion law went into effect, banning almost all abortions, West Virginia state delegate Josh Holstein was reminded of the promise that got him elected in 2020.

Holstein ran as a “100 percent pro-life” Republican alternative to the two-term Democratic incumbent. He would pursue a “heartbeat bill” that would ban abortion once cardiac activity is detected, around six weeks of pregnancy. On Sept. 2, the day after Texas became the first state to successfully implement a six-week ban without court interference, a West Virginia resident called Holstein and other state delegates to task in a private post on his Facebook page. He wanted to know: Can we do the same thing in West Virginia?

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/lawmakers-are-racing-to-mimic-the-texas-abortion-law-in-their-own-states-they-say-the-bills-will-fly-through/

What abortion access looks like in America even before the Supreme Court reconsiders Roe v. Wade

By Tierney Sneed, CNN
Sat October 9, 2021

(CNN)The blockbuster clash over Roe v. Wade now in front of the Supreme Court comes after a successful, decades-long guerrilla warfare campaign by the anti-abortion movement to attack access to the procedure around the edges.

Since the 1973 decision that enshrined a constitutional right to an abortion, activists and their partners in statehouses across the country have enacted more than 1,300 laws that have made the procedure more difficult to obtain.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/09/politics/abortion-restrictions-roe-v-wade-access-supreme-court/index.html

Texas created a blueprint for abortion restrictions. Republican-controlled states may follow suit.

How other states may follow Texas’s restrictive abortion law

By Meryl Kornfield, Caroline Anders and Audra Heinrichs - Washington
Post
September 3, 2021

Republican officials in more than a half-dozen states across the country moved
this week to replicate Texas’s restrictive abortion ban after the Supreme Court
declined to step in and stop the law from taking effect.

GOP officials in at least seven states, including Arkansas, Florida, South
Carolina and South Dakota, have suggested they may review or amend their
states’ laws to mirror Texas’s legislation, which effectively bans abortions
after six weeks. Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Ohio and more are expected to
follow, after a year abortion activists have deemed “the worst legislative year
ever for U.S. abortion rights.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/03/texas-abortion-ban-states/

Federal judge rules against several Indiana abortion laws

A federal judge has ruled that several of Indiana’s laws restricting abortion are unconstitutional, including the state’s ban on telemedicine consultations between doctors and women seeking abortions

By TOM DAVIES, Associated Press
10 August 2021

INDIANAPOLIS -- A federal judge ruled Tuesday that several of Indiana’s laws restricting abortion are unconstitutional, including the state’s ban on telemedicine consultations between doctors and women seeking abortions.

The judge’s ruling also upheld other state abortion limits that were challenged in a broad lawsuit filed by Virginia-based Whole Woman’s Health Alliance in 2018 as it fought the denial of a license to open an abortion clinic in South Bend.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/federal-judge-rules-indiana-abortion-laws-79390136

USA – Abortion is already a state issue — we should act like it

BY CHRISTEL ALLEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR, The Hill
Aug 6, 2021

I am an optimist. I spend my working hours focused on building a world in which all people have full autonomy over their bodies and their futures. A world with universal access that respects and sees all reproductive and gender-affirming services as essential health care.

But as a realist who works to ensure abortion
access, I believe contingency planning is crucial. As a pragmatist and
community organizer at heart, I know that my state organization’s work is most
impactful in the communities that we call home. This is why I am troubled when
I look back on our movement over the past 10 years and observe its hyperfocus
on federal legislation and the Supreme Court.
Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/566724-abortion-is-already-a-state-issue-we-should-act-like-it?rl=1

06.08.2021

Featured

Opinion

anti-choice restrictions

Christel Allen

Hyde Amendment

NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon

Missouri – The last clinic

There were once 30 clinics performing abortions in Missouri. Now there’s just one. It’s on the front line of a battle to defend a woman’s right to choose.

By US correspondent Kathryn Diss
Foreign Correspondent
Published 4 Aug 2021

Colleen McNicholas is always watching her back. The location of her family home is protected. The perimeter is guarded with security cameras and alarm systems. Her child’s identity is kept secret. As she drives to work, she checks her rear-view mirror to make sure no-one is following. She never takes the same route two days in a row.

It’s not the typical routine for a doctor travelling to their surgery. But in the conservative mid-west state of Missouri, Dr McNicholas’s line of work makes her and her family a target for extremism. She’s a doctor at the state’s last abortion clinic, the only centre still providing safe and legal abortions for a population of 1.1 million women. If the powerful anti-abortion lobby gets its way, it too could soon be shut down.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-05/missouris-last-abortion-clinic-dr-colleen-mcnicholas/100342294

Why is the South the Epicenter of Anti-Abortion Fervor?

Sarah Varney, Physician’s Weekly
Aug 2, 2021

Not so long ago, laws governing abortion in Massachusetts and Rhode Island were far more restrictive than those in the Deep South, as state legislators throughout New England regularly banned the procedure, no matter the circumstances, during the 1960s and ’70s.

Nowadays, however, the American South represents a hub of anti-abortion fervor, home to a series of laws and regulations that have eroded Roe v. Wade, as liberal states in the Northeast and elsewhere have enacted laws to codify that landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision.

Continued: https://www.physiciansweekly.com/why-is-the-south-the-epicenter-of-anti-abortion-fervor

03.08.2021

Andrew Lewis

anti-choice restrictions

barriers to abortion access

Catholic Church

Christian Coalition of America

Daniel Williams

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

history of abortion

Mary Ziegler

religion and abortion

Republican Party and abortion

Roe v. Wade

Sarah Varney

white evangelicals and abortion

Long Drives, Costly Flights, And Wearying Waits: What Abortion Requires In The South

August 2, 2021
SARAH VARNEY

Just a quick walk through the parking lot of Choices-Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, in this legendary music mecca, speaks volumes about access to abortion in the American South. Parked alongside the polished SUVs and weathered sedans with Tennessee license plates are cars from Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida and, on many days, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.

Choices is one of two abortion clinics in the Memphis metro area, with a population of 1.3 million. While that might not seem like much for women seeking a commonplace medical procedure, it represents a wealth of access compared with Mississippi, which has just one abortion clinic for the entire state of 3 million people.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/08/02/1022860226/long-drives-costly-flights-and-wearying-waits-what-abortion-requires-in-the-sout

Why Can Canadian Doctors Still Deny Access To Abortion—And Other Healthcare?

The practice of conscientious objection means doctors can refuse or deflect requests for a variety of services, including abortion—and in many provinces, they're not even obligated to provide a referral.

Tracey Lindeman
Updated July 22, 2021

Chantal had already performed all the mental gymnastics.

About eight years ago, the then-23-year-old woman from southern Alberta had accidentally become pregnant, and weighed her options. She settled on having an abortion, the best choice for her in that moment of her life. She booked an appointment with her doctor, one of only a small handful in her community, to request a referral—a requirement in Alberta then. When the time came to meet, she sat in his office and laid her cards out.

Continued: https://www.chatelaine.com/opinion/canadian-doctors-deny-access-to-abortion/

22.07.2021

Commentary

Featured

1967 Abortion Act

abolish conscientious objection

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights

anti-choice restrictions

Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada

Bernard Dickens

Canadian Medical Association

care denials

Catholic Church

College of Physicians and Surgeons

conscientious objection

conscientious objectors

dishonourable disobedience

Dr. Mei-ling Wiedmeyer

Erin O'Toole

Frederique Chabot

gender affirmation surgery

medical assistance-in-dying

Medical Students for Choice

Federal judge blocks Arkansas law banning nearly all abortions

Law, which was set to take effect on Friday, was approved by Republican-led legislature and signed by Asa Hutchinson

Maya Yang and agencies

Wed 21 Jul 2021

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a law passed in Arkansas that would ban
nearly all abortions.

The law, which was set to take effect on Friday, had been approved by
Arkansas’s Republican-led legislature and signed by the state’s Republican
governor, Asa Hutchinson.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/21/arkansas-abortion-ban-federal-judge-blocks