Texas doctor who violated state’s abortion ban is sued, launching test of constitutionality

by Ann E. Marimow
Sept 20, 2021

A lawsuit that could test the constitutionality of the nation’s most restrictive abortion ban was filed in Texas on Monday against a doctor who admitted to performing an abortion considered illegal under the new law.

The details of the civil suit against Alan Braid, a physician in San Antonio, are as unusual as the law itself, which empowers private citizens to enforce the ban on abortion once cardiac activity has been detected — often as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-doctor-sued/2021/09/20/f5ab5c56-1a1c-11ec-bcb8-0cb135811007_story.html

Supreme Court to hear restrictive Mississippi abortion law on December 1

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter
Mon September 20, 2021

Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court will hear a case concerning a Mississippi abortion law on December 1, the court announced on Monday, teeing up one of the most substantial cases of the term in which the justices are being asked to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Mississippi case -- the most important set of abortion-related oral arguments the court has heard since 1992 -- comes as states across the country, emboldened by the conservative majority and the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the high court, are increasingly passing restrictive abortion-related regulations, hoping to curb the constitutional right first established in 1973 in Roe and reaffirmed in 1992 when the court handed down Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/politics/supreme-court-mississippi-abortion-law/index.html

A Texas Doctor Says He Defied The Abortion Law, Risking Lawsuits

September 19, 2021
SHARON PRUITT-YOUNG

Texas outlawed abortions past the six-week mark in a law that went into effect on Sept. 1. Dr. Alan Braid, a Texas physician, says he performed one anyway just a few days later.

In an opinion piece for The Washington Post on Saturday, Braid, who's
been practicing for more than 40 years, explained his decision as a matter of
"duty of care." The new law, known as S.B. 8, not only makes performing
an abortion after about six weeks illegal, but makes it so that anyone who aids
anyone else in getting one — by performing the procedure or even by giving them
a ride to the clinic where they have the procedure done — runs the risk of
being sued for at least $10,000.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/19/1038717122/a-texas-doctor-says-he-defied-the-abortion-law-risking-lawsuits

How to Order an Abortion Online

Here’s how Texas women are getting around the most extreme abortion ban in the nation

By TESSA STUART
September 16, 2021

In the 21st century, you can order an abortion online. “It can be done without ever leaving your home,” says Elisa Wells, co-director of the organization Plan C, which provides information and instructions about how to self-manage an abortion. “You go online. You have either a virtual consultation or an e-visit — that’s just done by filling in a form and chatting with the provider. And then they mail the pills to your home…No need to take time off from work. No need to encounter protesters.” And no need, if you live in the state of Texas, to expose anyone to the threat of a lawsuit under the state’s medieval new abortion ban.

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/how-to-order-abortion-pill-online-texas-sb8-1224437/

‘No one wants to get sued’: Some abortion providers have stopped working in Texas

Nearly half of the doctors at one of the state’s biggest providers stopped working after Texas’ new law went into effect. The law has created a chilling effect for some abortion care services.

Jennifer Gerson
September 15, 2021

On August 31, there were 17 abortion providers serving at the four locations of the Whole Woman’s Health clinics in Texas. On September 1 — the day that the nation’s most restrictive active abortion law went into effect, there were just eight.

Senate Bill 8 not only bans the procedure past six weeks of pregnancy, but allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” abortion care past that point. Clinics have told The 19th they are fully complying with the new law. It is why Whole Woman’s Health in Fort Worth raced to perform as many abortions as possible before SB 8 went into effect, battling against the clock. It’s why, in mid-August, Planned Parenthoods across the state stopped taking appointments related to the procedure if it would be performed past six weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2021/09/abortion-providers-texas-stopped-working-under-threat-sued/

USA – Abortion Has Never Been Just About Abortion

Sept. 15, 2021
By Thomas B. Edsall

As recently as 1984, abortion was not a deeply partisan issue.

“The difference in support for the pro-choice position was a mere six percentage points,” Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University, told me by email. “40 percent of Democratic identifiers were pro-life, while 39 percent were pro-choice. Among Republican identifiers, 33 percent were pro-choice, 45 percent were pro-life and 22 percent were in the middle.”

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/opinion/abortion-evangelicals-conservatives.html

Mississippi abortion law would open door to extensive bans, providers tell Supreme Court

By Robert Barnes, Washington Post
September 13, 2021

Abortion providers told the Supreme Court on Monday that approving a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks would “scuttle a half-century of precedent and invite states to ban abortion entirely.”

They said in their brief that Mississippi’s request that the court overturn its 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade was based on the state’s hope that a “changed composition” of the court would reject years of legal precedent.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-abortion-mississippi-roe-v-wade/2021/09/13/81fd59e8-14aa-11ec-b976-f4a43b740aeb_story.html

Across Latin America, abortion restrictions are being loosened

BY PATRICK J. MCDONNELL, KATE LINTHICUM
SEP. 12, 2021

MEXICO CITY — A historic ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court last week is the latest in a series of victories for abortion rights advocates in Latin America, a largely Roman Catholic region that has long had some of the world’s most restrictive laws against the procedure.

The vast majority of women in the region still lack access to legal abortions, but restrictions have now been lifted or relaxed over the last 15 years in at least half a dozen countries.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-09-12/across-latin-america-abortion-restrictions-are-being-loosened

Biden Administration Sues Over Barbaric Texas Abortion Law That Would Force a 12-Year-Old to Have her Rapist’s Child

The Justice Department argues that the law is “clearly” unconstitutional and sets a dangerous, chilling precedent.

BY BESS LEVIN
SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

One week after the Supreme Court’s arch conservatives gave the green light to a monstrous Texas law that bans abortion at six weeks with no rape or incest exceptions, and two days after Texas governor Greg Abbott boldly claimed that the “Texas Heartbeat Act” isn’t as vile as it seems because people are effectively given a luxurious two weeks or so after getting pregnant to decide what to do, the Biden administration has sued the Lone Star state, saying the law is unconstitutional and sets an absolutely horrifying precedent. Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/09/justice-department-texas-abortion-lawsuit

Texans seeking abortions have options — but they’re very limited

The state now has the nation’s most restrictive abortion law

Caroline Anders
September 5, 2021

A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to stop a restrictive Texas abortion law from taking effect, allowing the state to prohibit medical providers from ending a pregnancy after detecting an embryo’s cardiac activity.

In effect, the law bans Texans from getting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.

https://www.thelily.com/texans-seeking-abortions-have-options-but-theyre-very-limited/