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/

Setting fire to women’s health

The Trump administration would rather burn contraceptives than help women and girls in developing nations.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf
Aug 13, 2025

According to congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump, the “big, beautiful bill” is all about eliminating fiscal waste and preventing fraud. Yet the State Department is poised to burn millions of dollars—quite literally, in a French incinerator—paying $167,000 to set ablaze a $9.7 million stockpile of U.S. taxpayer-funded contraceptives.

For the past few weeks, global reporting has revealed a collection of IUDs, birth control pills, and implants—all viable for usage for several more years—stored in a warehouse in Belgium. Intended for distribution to women around the world—people living in refugee camps, war zones, and under fragile health systems—these supplies were purchased by the U.S. government before the Trump administration’s order freezing foreign aid, shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and reinstating the Global Gag Rule (a.k.a. the “Mexico City Policy,” which requires foreign non-governmental organizations to certify they will not perform or promote abortion using funding from any source. A damning trifecta, indeed.

Continued; https://contrarian.substack.com/p/setting-fire-to-womens-health

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 Forgotten—and Incredibly Important—History of the Abortion Pill

Mifepristone took longer to get approved than most drugs—but not because it was unsafe.

Nina Martin, Mother Jones
Feb 7, 2025

At his Senate confirmation hearings to head the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. surprised no one by admitting that he planned to order a new review of the safety of abortion pills. While Kennedy claimed that President Donald Trump has not taken a position—yet—on medication abortion, “he’s made it clear to me that he wants me to look at the safety issues,” Kennedy said. “And I’ll ask [agencies] to do that.”

This, of course, is exactly what anti-abortion groups have been pushing for. Since 2022, when the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, abortion opponents have been ramping up unfounded claims that mifepristone and misoprostol are dangerous. Their efforts have included a flurry of letters to the new administration, explicit directives in the far right’s Project 2025 blueprint for the second Trump term, and a barrage of ever-more-extreme lawsuits and state bills.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/abortion-pill-forgotten-history-attacks-mifepristone-ru486-anti-abortion-extremists-new-book/

07.02.2025

Commentary

abortion pills

Abortion Pills: US History and Politics

Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Feminist Majority Foundation

Food and Drug Administration

manual vacuum aspiration

Reproductive Health Technologies Project

Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies

Roussel-Uclaf

RU-486

Searle

Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Company

shield laws

telehealth abortion

telehealth clinics

telemedicine abortion

ERA and Abortion Are Key to Women’s Vote in 2024

The overturning of Roe v. Wade was a wake-up call and the Equal Rights Amendment is needed now more than ever.

KATHY SPILLAR
Oct 29, 2023

In the majority decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning the federal right to abortion, Justice Alito purported that the electoral and political process are a sufficient antidote to the Court’s stripping away of privacy rights. Women got the message, loud and clear. Despite warnings from mainstream pundits that outrage over the ruling and commitment to the cause would fade, voters indeed turned out in force in support of abortion rights – again and again, in the 2022 midterms, in judicial elections, and in ballot measure after ballot measure.

As executive editor of Ms. magazine, I have long known the centrality of abortion in U.S. politics. The inaugural issue of Ms. in 1972, for example, featured a group of influential women who signed a petition “We Have Had Abortions” — at great personal risk, as abortion was outlawed in many states at the time. This set the stage not only for Roe v. Wade a year later, but organizing strategies that are still employed today. The Washington Post reported last year that the Ms. petition “changed the course of the abortion rights movement,” as it made visible that which had been invisible — the women who had abortions and the benefits to their lives.

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/era-abortion-rights-2024

USA – The 2024 Election Will Be a Referendum on Abortion and Women’s Equality, According to New Ms. Poll

10/9/2023
by ROXY SZAL, Ms. Magazine

Abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment are strong voter turnout issues separately, but even more powerful when combined, according to a new national poll by Lake Research Partners for Ms. and the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), publisher of Ms.

In particular, candidates talking about abortion and the ERA together is a powerful combination to mobilize Democrats and Independents (especially Independent women), younger women, voters who support abortion rights, college-educated women, Latinas and Black voters, and voters ages 30-39.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/10/09/2024-election-women-voters-equal-rights-amendment-abortion/

09.10.2023

News

Eleanor Smeal

Equal Rights Amendment

Feminist Majority Foundation

Lake Research Partners

USA – We Need Courageous Leaders Who Stand Up to Anti-Abortion Extremists

Anti-abortion violence has increased significantly since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Our political leaders must not cower.

9/2/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER

While headlines focus on politicians’ efforts to ban abortion at the state and national levels, anti-abortion forces are also working at the local level to erode abortion access—even in deep blue states such as Massachusetts. In addition to pumping massive funds into anti-abortion fake clinics in blue states, they are also working to block municipal protections for abortion healthcare by using threats and legal intimidation.

Recently, in the progressive Western Massachusetts city of Easthampton, both the mayor and city council president—both Democrats that claim to support abortion rights—voted against an ordinance to protect access to reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care. The ordinance was supported by over 20 reproductive and trans rights groups in the community, who were perplexed and frustrated by their actions.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/02/anti-abortion-massachusetts/

Abortion clinics regroup, rebuild after violent attacks: ‘There’s more work to be done’

Christine Fernando, USA TODAY
March 25, 2023

As a detective led her through the charred remains of the clinic, Julie Burkhart was heartbroken. Everything was black and melted. The smell was overwhelming. Fire and smoke damage had engulfed the building from the basement to the attic.

“I knew then that we were going to have a long road ahead,” said Burkhart, president of Wellspring Health Access in Casper, Wyoming.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/25/abortion-clinics-violence-attacks-rebound-rebuilding/11484439002/

25.03.2023

anti-choice terrorism

anti-choice violence

Dr. Colleen McNicholas

Dr. David Gunn

Dr. George Tiller

Feminist Majority Foundation

National Abortion Federation

Patti Pace-Halpin

Planned Parenthood of Illinois

Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri

pro-life killings

pro-life violence

Trust Women clinic

Trust Women Foundation

Wellspring Health Access

In the ’90s, a new breed of rock stars organized for abortion rights. Could that happen today?

BY SUZY EXPOSITO, STAFF WRITER
JULY 11, 2022

This past June, across the Atlantic, over 200,000 fans descended upon the pastoral English village of Pilton, Somerset, for this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Yet for many in attendance, particularly for U.S. citizens, the weekend’s music was overshadowed by some breaking news: On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to reverse Roe vs. Wade, the crucial 1973 ruling that the right to an abortion was protected by the Constitution.

The move allowed lawmakers in over a dozen states to swiftly advance policies that would criminalize those who perform and seek out abortions.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-07-11/rock-for-choice-abortion-rights-l7-nirvana-hole-bikini-kill-pearl-jam

USA – Abortion Clinics Don’t Want Demonstrators Around, Even If They’re Pro-Choice

Abortion Clinics Don't Want Demonstrators Around, Even If They're Pro-Choice
Inside the fight taking place at U.S. clinics.

by Rebecca Grant
Jul 9 2019

As an abortion rights advocate in a state trying to ban abortion, Helmi Henkin isn't usually in the position of turning away support.

Henkin chairs of the clinic escort program for West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, one of the three abortion clinics left in Alabama, and formerly lead communications for The Yellowhammer Fund, the only statewide abortion fund. In May, an anti-abortion protester tried to run over a WAWC escort in the parking lot with an SUV. One week later, Governor Kay Ivey signed an extreme abortion ban into law and, since then, Alabama has been in the national spotlight as a harbinger of what’s to come. Henkin has found that since the law’s signing, pro-choice advocates across the country feel an urgency to do something about it. Some send money, while others want to protect abortion clinics in a more physical way.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xzjjk/what-is-abortion-clinic-defense

09.07.2019