How Innovators Are Emotionally Supporting Abortion Seekers in a Post-Roe World

With laws constantly changing and often unclear, being able to reach abortion seekers on an emotional level is a critical touchpoint in the new digital landscape of access.

James Estrada, Common Dreams
Jul 10, 2025

In the three years since the Dobbs decision resulted in abortion bans in 42 states across the U.S, the ecosystem of abortion access in America has shifted and stretched to meet the ever-changing moment. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Planned Parenthood vs. Medina has paved the way for even more states to further target abortion providers by enabling states to withhold state funding to clinics that provide sexual health services from sexually transmitted infection tests to cervical cancer screenings simply because they also offer abortion care.

With laws constantly changing and often unclear in the eyes on abortion seekers, being able to reach abortion seekers on an emotional level is a critical touchpoint in the new digital landscape of access. Innovators have stepped up to meet the demand for emotional support, helping individuals feel heard and get informed throughout the abortion process as laws change and stigma abounds. They’re pairing abortion seekers with counselors, peers, and educators as the digital entry point to care, meeting and supporting the actual and immediate needs, whether they are anxious, confused about where to find care, or feeling stigmatized.

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/support-abortion-seekers

Texas Overhauls Anti-Abortion Program That Spent Tens of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars With Little Oversight

After a ProPublica and CBS News investigation revealed that Texas’ funding pipeline for anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers is riddled with waste, nonprofits in the program must now provide a detailed accounting of their expenses.

by Cassandra Jaramillo and Jeremy Kohler
July 10, 2025

Texas health officials are overhauling a program designed to steer people away from abortion following a ProPublica and CBS News investigation that found that the state had funneled tens of millions of taxpayer dollars into the effort while providing little oversight of the spending.

The money has been flowing to a network of nonprofit organizations that are part of Thriving Texas Families, a state program that supports parenting and adoption as alternatives to abortion and provides counseling, material assistance and other services. Most of the groups operate as crisis pregnancy centers, or pregnancy resource centers, which often resemble medical clinics but are frequently criticized for offering little or no actual health care and misleading women about their options.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-overhauls-anti-abortion-crisis-pregnancy-centers-funding

USA – Is the ‘tech bro-ification’ of abortion here?

Repro workers and tech experts reveal startling gaps between the promises offered by abortion technologies and the realities facing abortion-seekers and support workers

by Nicole Froio and Jade Jasmine Hurley
June 11th, 2025

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion tech has emerged as a potential solution for an increasingly prohibitive reproductive rights landscape…

This exclusive Prism investigation delves into the role of tech in reproductive health care, finding gaps in how abortion workers are served by tech initiatives, a clash between funding abortion tech and industry layoffs, and tension in how best to address the changing legal landscape for abortion. Interviews with a dozen reproductive health workers, tech specialists, abortion fund staff, and reproductive rights advocates further revealed a lack of investment in backend tools for abortion support workers navigating a progressively underfunded field.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2025/06/11/abortion-tech-repro-workers/

11.06.2025

Commentary

abortion and tech

abortion and technology

abortion apps

abortion chatbot

Abortion Freedom Fund

Abortion Policy API

Aid Access

Amy Merrill

automated abortion finder

Carolina Abortion Fund

Cathy Torres

Cecile Richards

Charley app

crisis pregnancy centers

If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice

National Network of Abortion Funds

self-managed abortion

USA – Lawmakers Are Trying to Hold Crisis Pregnancy Centers to Account

Post-Dobbs, the GOP has given them millions in taxpayer dollars.

Laura C. Morel, Mother Jones
April 10, 2025

Last month, during an Indiana state legislative hearing, Republican Sen. Jeff Raatz from Richmond, a small city in the eastern part of the state, discussed a resolution he filed declaring that the state’s General Assembly “strongly supports pregnancy care centers in their unique, positive contributions to the individual lives of women, men, and babies—both born and unborn,” the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported. “We have hospitals in rural Indiana that have no OB-GYNs,” Raatz said during the session. “Why not have an innocent individual stand alongside someone and help them make decisions and connect them with resources?” Abortion is banned in Indiana with limited exceptions.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/lawmakers-are-trying-to-hold-crisis-pregnancy-centers-to-account/

Interview with a Midwife: In Romania, Abortion Care Access is Slipping Away

“Anytime a woman comes for health services there are huge barriers.”

Song Ah Lee, Heather Barr
April 7, 2025

Romania has a deeply disturbing history of interfering with women’s reproductive rights. Behind the Iron Curtain, abortion as well as birth control was deeply restricted from 1966 until the government fell – with the USSR – in 1989. During this time, roughly 10,000 women and girls died after they were forced to resort to unsafe abortion; some experts believe the real figure is much higher.

Today, on paper at least, abortion in Romania is legal until the 14th week of pregnancy and in certain other cases. But in reality, it’s shockingly and increasingly hard for women to access health care services to end unwanted pregnancies. While government officials pay lip service to protecting women’s rights, behind the scenes they are often doing whatever they can to make abortion inaccessible, including partnering with “crisis pregnancy centers” that pressure women and girls to continue pregnancies, often through deceptive and other abusive means. A new Human Rights Watch report, “It’s Happening Even Without You Noticing”, documents this alarming trend. Human Rights Watch’s former researcher Song Ah speaks with Romanian midwife and activist Irina Mateescu about her work to defend the sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/04/07/interview-midwife-romania-abortion-care-access-slipping-away

New York Times’ Shameful Reporting on Planned Parenthood Bolsters Right-Wing Attacks on Reproductive Healthcare Access

Why is the New York Times publishing scurrilous accusations against Planned Parenthood while ignoring the $1.7 billion unregulated antiabortion pregnancy center industry that endangers the lives of American women and girls?

PUBLISHED 2/21/2025
by Carrie N. Baker and Jenifer McKenna

The New York Times published a 3,000-word investigative report recently, claiming to have found “scores of allegations” against Planned Parenthood for misconduct, medical malpractice, mismanagement and labor violations. Released within a month of Trump’s inauguration and published on the front page of the Sunday print edition above the fold, the article appears timed to provide ammunition for the ongoing right-wing attacks on reproductive rights.

The New York Times has piled onto Trump’s executive orders obliterating reproductive rights for many Americans and his pardons of antiabortion terrorists who invaded and blocked reproductive health clinics, Republicans’ baseless lawsuits meant to bankrupt Planned Parenthood, and escalating political attacks from all three branches of the federal government aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/02/21/new-york-times-planned-parenthood/

USA – Study of Crisis Pregnancy Centers Reveals Misleading and Dangerous Claims

A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides the first national assessment of crisis pregnancy centers and their operations

December 02, 2024
Mika Ono

A new study from scientists at the University of California San Diego introduces a powerful new approach to understanding the operation of crisis pregnancy centers, non-profit organizations dedicated to an anti-abortion agenda. The study published in JAMA Internal Medicine provides the first account of the practices of crisis pregnancy centers (CPC) operating in the United States.

"While our study shows crisis pregnancy centers provide valuable community services, like parenting classes, there is a clear need for consumer safety measures to prevent the promotion and use of their questionable medical services," said John W. Ayers, Ph.D., who is deputy director of informatics at the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, in addition to scientist at UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute, co-creator of ChoiceWatch.org and study coauthor.

Continued: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/study-of-crisis-pregnancy-centers-reveals-misleading-and-dangerous-claims

Kamala Harris Put Abortion at the Center of the Election. What Her California Record Shows

Kristen Hwang, CalMatters
Aug 24, 2024

At a fundraiser in San Francisco last week, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke bluntly about the future of reproductive rights: California is not immune to a national abortion ban, she said.

“The stakes are high,” Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said to a cheering crowd at the Fairmont Hotel that included Gov. Gavin Newsom and other high-profile Democrats. She continued the theme this week at the Democratic National Convention, where delegates have stressed their fears that reproductive rights could be curtailed nationwide.

Continued: https://www.kqed.org/news/12001799/kamala-harris-put-abortion-at-the-center-of-the-election-what-her-california-record-shows

USA: Abortion bans and restrictions cause extensive harm, violate human rights

August 5, 2024
Amnesty International

By denying and restricting access to abortion to millions of people since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 with the Dobbs decision, the United States is failing to comply with its international human rights obligations and standards to ensure pregnant people have access to abortion, according to a new report published by Amnesty International today.

The report, Abortion in the USA: The Human Rights Crisis in the Aftermath of Dobbs, shares stories from individuals across the country who have been harmed by restrictive laws and practices in their states, putting a human face on the multitude of the ways in which people are harmed when denied the human right to abortion.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/08/usa-abortion-bans-restrictions-cause-extensive-harm-violate-human-rights/

Anti-abortion centers raked in $1.4bn in year Roe fell, including federal money

Exclusive: memo shows anti-abortion pregnancy centers received at least $344m in government money in 2022

Carter Sherman
Wed 14 Feb 2024

Anti-abortion facilities raked in at least $1.4bn in revenue in the 2022 fiscal year, the year Roe v Wade fell – a staggering haul that includes at least $344m in government money, according to a memo analyzing the centers’ tax documents that was compiled by a pro-abortion rights group and shared exclusively with the Guardian.

These facilities, frequently known as anti-abortion pregnancy centers or crisis pregnancy centers, aim to convince people to keep their pregnancies. But in the aftermath of Roe’s demise, the anti-abortion movement has framed anti-abortion pregnancy centers as a key source of aid for desperate women who have lost the legal right to end their pregnancies and been left with little choice but to give birth.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/14/anti-abortion-centers-funding