USA – A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion.

In North Carolina, a state that had legislated its commitment to life, Ciji Graham spent her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers.

by Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana
January 14, 2026

When Ciji Graham visited a cardiologist on Nov. 14, 2023, her heart was pounding at 192 beats per minute, a rate healthy people her age usually reach during the peak of a sprint. She was having another episode of atrial fibrillation, a rapid, irregular heartbeat. The 34-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina, police officer was at risk of a stroke or heart failure.

In the past, doctors had always been able to shock Graham’s heart back into rhythm with a procedure called a cardioversion. But this time, the treatment was just out of reach. After a pregnancy test came back positive, the cardiologist didn’t offer to shock her. Graham texted her friend from the appointment: “Said she can’t cardiovert being pregnant.”

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/north-carolina-abortion-laws-ciji-graham

Polish police detain father, son over acid attacks on Warsaw abortion clinic

24.11.2025
Polskie Radio

Polish police have detained a father and his 18-year-old son suspected of hurling butyric acid at the country's only abortion clinic in Warsaw in the fourth such attack since March, the first arrests in a months-long campaign of harassment.

News website Gazeta.pl reported that on Friday, Nov. 14, butyric acid was poured for the fourth time outside the Abotak clinic on Wiejska Street, forcing a response by firefighters and a specialist clean-up crew.

Continued; https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7789/Artykul/3611825,polish-police-detain-father-son-over-acid-attacks-on-warsaw-abortion-clinic

24.11.2025

anti-choice terrorism

“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas.

ProPublica has found multiple cases of women with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions. Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old mother, was told by doctors there was no emergency before preeclampsia killed her.

by Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser, photography by Lexi Parra for ProPublica
November 19, 2025

Tierra Walker had reached her limit. In the weeks since she’d learned she was pregnant, the 37-year-old dental assistant had been wracked by unexplained seizures and mostly confined to a hospital cot. With soaring blood pressure and diabetes, she knew she was at high risk of developing preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that could end her life.

Her mind was made up on the morning of Oct. 14, 2024: For the sake of her 14-year-old son, JJ, she needed to ask her doctor for an abortion to protect her health.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-tierra-walker-preeclampsia

The Long Shadow of Dr. George Tiller: Abortion Providers Under Attack

9/17/2025
by Jodi Enda, Ms. Magazine.

Julie Burkhart’s clinic was torched.

Burkhart, like Ruth Richardson, has been working in abortion facilities for years. And, like Richardson, CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, she is no stranger to threats or violence. In 1991, Burkhart was a young clinic worker in Wichita, Kan., when abortion opponents poured into town to participate in the so-called Summer of Mercy, a six-week protest organized by Operation Rescue (slogan: “If you believe abortion is murder, then act like it’s murder!”). They conducted blockades at the city’s three abortion clinics and threw themselves in front of cars to keep drivers from entering the clinics’ parking lots.

In 2009, Burkhart’s mentor, Dr. George Tiller, was shot in the head and killed as he was ushering at his Wichita church. The murder came 16 years after Tiller, one of the few doctors in the nation who performed abortions later in pregnancy, was shot in both arms by an extremist, and 23 years after his clinic was bombed.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/09/17/george-tiller-abortion-providers-attack/

USA – Murder, Pardons and Impunity: How Antiabortion Violence Escalated Under Trump

9/16/2025
by Jodi Enda, Ms. Magazine

Her friend lay dead, shot at home by an assassin who had killed two people and wounded two more. The suspect had vanished, leaving behind his fake police car and notebooks listing several dozen potential targets who bore at least one commonality: their support of abortion rights.

One of the names scribbled on the list was her own. Threats weren’t new to Ruth Richardson. She had received them when she introduced her first bill—on gun safety—in the Minnesota House of Representatives. She had received them in her current job as CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States. This threat, though, was different. Her friend Melissa Hortman was dead.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/09/16/anti-abortion-violence-trump-melissa-hortman/

A doctor’s story shows ‘late-term’ abortion access is politically charged – but crucial

September 2, 2025
Prudence Flowers, Senior Lecturer in US History, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University

Review: Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care – Shelley Sella, MD (Random House)

In the United States, around 1% of abortions occur after 21 weeks. Yet these abortions are intensely vilified. Recall Donald Trump’s graphic and false claim that US laws allowed doctors to “rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month, on the final day”.

For two decades, Dr Shelley Sella provided abortion care in the US into the third trimester of pregnancy: that is, after 26 weeks gestation. Her new book Beyond Limits offers an intimate account of health care and politics, written from the front lines of America’s abortion wars.

In Australia, abortion after 20 weeks gestation is also statistically rare – and most Australians agree that people need abortions after 20 weeks for a variety of medical and social reasons. However, in the last year or so, the focus on later abortions seems to be intensifying here, along with misinformation.

Continued; https://theconversation.com/a-doctors-story-shows-late-term-abortion-access-is-politically-charged-but-crucial-263920

02.09.2025

anti-choice lies

anti-choice terrorism

third-trimester abortion

Tony Abbott

USA – Amid Rise in Anti-Abortion Activism, Clinic Protections Are More Needed Than Ever

How abortion clinic staff and volunteers are working to protect patients as the anti-abortion movement mobilizes against providers.

by Eleanor J. Bader
July 23, 2025

Fifteen years ago, when Eileen learned that anti-abortion protesters were jeering at people entering Equality Health Center in Concord, New Hampshire, she decided to take action to ensure patients’ security in her city.

Eileen, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy, has been a clinic escort ever since, walking patients into the building, listening to their stories, and doing what she can to distract them from anti-choice taunts. “I can’t abide injustice or inequality,” she tells The Progressive. “Escorting is highly emotional work, but I feel privileged to be able to help. As escorts, we put our bodies on the line and make a real difference.”

Continued: https://progressive.org/latest/anti-abortion-activism-clinic-protections/

23.07.2025

Commentary

Alliance Defending Freedom

anti-choice cruelty

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice hatred

anti-choice intimidation

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice protesters

anti-choice terrorism

anti-choice violence

Center for Medical Progress

Choices Women’s Medical Center

clinic escorts

crisis pregnancy centers

duVergne Gaines

Eleanor Bader

FACE Act

Feminist Majority Foundation

Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act

National Abortion Federation

National Clinic Access Project

Progressive Anti-Abortion uprising

The Minnesota Shooting Wasn’t Random—It Was a Predictable Resurgence of Violence

Abortion providers and pro-abortion lawmakers have long been under threat. It’s time we act like it .

July 9, 2025
by Tiffany L. Green and Jamie Morgan

Minnesota experienced an act of devastating political violence last month: Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed in their home. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette are recovering from life-saving surgeries after shielding their adult daughter from the gunman.

While we do not yet understand the full extent of the gunman’s motives, it is undeniable that protesting abortion and intimidating people who support access to it was one of them. Authorities report the suspect carried a list of over 70 targets, including elected officials who support abortion rights, abortion providers and pro-choice advocates.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/09/minnesota-shooting-hortman-anti-abortion-violence-doctors-providers/

USA – Three Years Later: No Fewer Abortions, But a Lot More Harm

The Medical Impact of Dobbs

Jessica Valenti
Jun 24, 2025

It’s been three years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, splitting the country into two Americas—one where abortion is still legal, and another a worsening reproductive police state.

…To give you all a bird’s-eye view of what America looks like under abortion bans, I’ve outlined three areas of impact: Medical, Legal, and Cultural. I’m sharing an analysis of the Medical Impact today, Legal tomorrow, and Cultural on Thursday. At the end of the week, I’ll share a link that contains all three sections.

Continued: https://jessica.substack.com/p/three-years-later-no-fewer-abortions

USA – The Resilient Provider Who’s Survived Arson, Death Threats and Supreme Court Rulings

Before Julie Burkhart could even open Wyoming’s only full-service abortion clinic, an extremist tried to burn it down. That hasn’t stopped her. Neither has the Dobbs ruling.

June 20, 2025
By Colleen DeBaise

I figured Julie Burkhart – an abortion care provider whose Wyoming clinic was torched a few years ago – would be tough as nails. What I didn’t expect, as we spoke over Zoom recently, was that I’d be complimenting Burkhart on her actual nails. Turns out, her daughter got married recently, and “I got these done for the wedding,” Burkhart told me, twisting both hands in front of the camera to show off her ballet-slipper manicure.

That Burkhart, named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025 list, can enjoy moments of lightness speaks to the resilience she’s honed amid a career marred by violence, death threats and vicious harassment. A longtime fighter for women’s reproductive freedom, she has been called a hero by abortion-rights supporters and “Julie Darkheart” (and much worse) by detractors.

Continued: https://thestoryexchange.org/abortion-provider-julie-burkhart/