USA – Our comprehensive guide for protecting your access to birth control, medication abortion, and emergency contraception before Donald Trump takes office

Dec 16, 2024
Cameron Oakes, Rewire News

After Donald Trump was re-elected to a second term as president of the United States, the alarm over reproductive health-care access that began after the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade came to a head. Clinicians, prescribers, and pharmacies reported a surge in purchases and requests for abortion pills, emergency contraception, and birth control.

… To better understand how the reproductive health-care landscape could change under the Trump administration, RNG spoke to half a dozen experts about what they’re anticipating and how people can prepare before January 20.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2024/12/16/how-to-protect-your-reproductive-health-during-trumps-second-presidency/

16.12.2024

Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act

After Dobbs decision, more women are managing their own abortions

The increase comes as the average number of abortions per month in the U.S. is also rising, according to new research.

Aug. 11, 2024
By Lauren Dunn

Kaniya was right in the middle of spring finals at college last year when she found out she was pregnant.

“I didn’t have the resources to support a child,” said Kaniya, who asked to use only her first name to protect her privacy. “I wasn’t making enough money financially. I was working multiple jobs. I didn’t have the capacity to care for a child.”

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/self-managed-abortion-journey-post-dobbs-restrictions-rcna165791

Supreme Court decision allows pregnant people in Idaho to access emergency abortion care — for now

By Jen Christensen, CNN
Thu June 27, 2024

Pregnant people in Idaho should be able to access abortion in a medical emergency in Idaho, at least for now.

The Supreme Court formally dismissed an appeal over Idaho’s strict abortion ban on Thursday, blocking enforcement of the state’s law where it conflicts with federal law. With Thursday’s decision, the state would not be allowed to deny an emergency abortion to a pregnant person whose health is in danger, at least while the case makes its way through the courts.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/health/emtala-emergency-care-scotus/index.html

USA – Patients are being denied emergency abortions. Courts can only do so much.

Doctors say they fear that following their medical judgment could cost them their license or land them in jail.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and MEGAN MESSERLY
04/23/2024

Every state abortion ban has an exception to save a mother’s life. But what qualifies as a life-threatening medical emergency in Texas may not be enough for a doctor in Idaho, and even hospitals within the same state can look at an identical case and reach different conclusions.

The legal and medical murkiness has physicians around the country begging state officials to clarify when they can terminate pregnancies without risking legal peril. And as they await guidance from states, stories of pregnant patients turned away from hospitals in medical emergencies or forced to wait until their vitals crash have become emblematic of the confusion unleashed when the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision ended the federal right to an abortion in 2022.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/23/doctors-abortion-medical-exemptions-00153317

USA – Inside the Internal Debates of a Hospital Abortion Committee

In states that banned abortion, doctors are forced to wrestle with tough decisions about high-risk pregnancy care. “I don’t want to have a patient die and be responsible for it,” one Tennessee doctor said.

by Kavitha Surana
Feb. 26, 2024

Sitting at her computer one day in late December, Dr. Sarah Osmundson mustered her best argument to approve an abortion for a suffering patient.

The woman was 14 weeks pregnant when she learned her fetus was developing without a skull. This increased the likelihood of a severe buildup of amniotic fluid, which could cause her uterus to rupture and possibly kill her. Osmundson, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who helps patients navigate high-risk pregnancies, knew that outcome was uncommon, but she had seen it happen.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-doctor-decisions-hospital-committee

‘How sick is sick enough?’ Abortion bans leave providers, patients questioning when care is OK

Saturday, September 2, 2023
By Elise Catrion Gregg | News21

AUSTIN, Texas — Amanda and Josh Zurawski sit in the house they bought last year, the dream home they intended to share with their future daughter.

They’ve told their story too many times now, but they brace themselves to tell it once more — from a room just above the backyard where they will one day plant a tree in memory of the baby who never made it home.
It will be a willow, in honor of the name they chose for their little girl.

Continued: https://nondoc.com/2023/09/02/how-sick-is-sick-enough-abortion-bans-leave-providers-patients-questioning-when-care-is-ok/

Abortion access could continue to change in year 2 after the overturn of Roe v. Wade

July 3, 2023
Selena Simmons-Duffin

From the moment the Supreme Court decision overturning the right to an abortion was leaked last spring, researchers and pundits began to predict the consequences.

A year later, data is beginning to bring the real-life effects into focus. Over a dozen states have near total abortion bans, with several more state bans in the works. At least 26 clinics have closed. In Texas, nearly 10,000 more babies were born in the state since its 2021 "heartbeat bill" took effect.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/03/1185849391/abortion-access-could-continue-to-change-in-year-2-after-the-overturn-of-roe-v-w

66 clinics stopped providing abortions in the 100 days since Roe fell

October 6, 2022
Selena Simmons-Duffin

In the 100 days since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, 66 clinics in the U.S. stopped providing abortion. That's according to a new analysis published Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute, assessing abortion access in the 15 states that have banned or severely restricted access to abortion.

"Prior to Roe being overturned, these 15 states had 79 clinics that provided abortion care," says Rachel Jones, a principal research scientist at Guttmacher. "We found that 100 days later, this was down to 13."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/06/1127105378/66-clinics-stopped-providing-abortions-in-the-100-days-since-roe-fell

06.10.2022

White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access

‘Abortion absolutely is health care,’ U.S. House panel told as GOP pursues nationwide ban

By John L. Micek
September 29, 2022

A nationwide abortion ban would widen disparities in health care and drive up the maternal mortality rate, particularly among Black women, physicians and advocates told a U.S. House panel on Thursday.

“Women’s progress has always been inextricably linked with the ability to control our own bodies,” Jocelyn Frye, the president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, told members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform during a three-hour-plus hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Continued: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2022/09/29/abortion-absolutely-is-health-care-u-s-house-panel-told-as-gop-pursues-nationwide-ban/

’I need an abortion’: The text that gets pills sent in secret

Leire Ventas, BBC News Mundo, Los Angeles
Aug 25, 2022

Anna*, 23, knew that she could not have another child. She also knew that she wouldn't get an abortion in Texas, where she lives, as the state has one of the strictest abortion laws in the United States.

So the mother of a four-month-old turned to social media to search for solutions. She found a number online, and sent a desperate text on WhatsApp: "I need an abortion".

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61874921