USA – Ted Cruz and a Bunch of GOP Senators Are Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill

They're asking the FDA to declare the pill used in about 40% of abortions an “imminent hazard to public health.”

By Carter Sherman
September 2, 2020

Sen. Ted Cruz is leading the charge on a Hail Mary plea to the Food and Drug and Administration: He wants the agency to cut off access to a pill that’s used in nearly 40% of U.S. abortions.

On Monday, the Texas Republican led a group of 20 senators in sending a letter to the commissioner of the FDA, asking the agency to take the pill mifepristone, which helps induce abortions, off the U.S. market. The senators want the pill declared an “imminent hazard to public health.”

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7kpap4/ted-cruz-and-a-bunch-of-gop-senators-are-trying-to-ban-the-abortion-pill

Texas wants to cut women’s health services while preserving an anti-abortion program

by Shannon Najmabadi and Edgar Walters, The Texas Tribune
Monday, August 31st 2020

Texas is proposing to cut nearly $3.8 million in funding from programs that offer low-income residents access to contraceptives and breast and cervical cancer screenings, while leaving intact a robustly funded program that discourages women from having abortions.

Texas health officials proposed the cuts while taking great pains to avoid belt-tightening in most other programs that offer direct services in health care. As the coronavirus pandemic ravages parts of the economy, leaving the state with a projected $4.6 billion deficit, Gov. Greg Abbott asked state agencies to cut their spending by 5% — but largely exempted programs deemed crucial to public health.

Continued: https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/texas-wants-to-cut-womens-health-services-while-preserving-an-anti-abortion-program

Texas clinics say later abortions rose after state’s temporary ban

“It’s infuriating because you can't just turn on and off health care,” a Dallas clinic's co-medical director said.

Aug. 12, 2020
By Chloe Atkins

Several Texas clinics say they saw an uptick in women seeking abortions later in their pregnancies this spring, after the state temporarily halted most abortions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of abortions were canceled after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed an executive order on March 22 banning all nonessential medical procedures, and the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, said in a statement that the ban included abortions, unless a woman’s health was at risk.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-clinics-say-later-abortions-rose-after-state-s-temporary-n1236442

She tried to get an abortion during the pandemic. Her state wouldn’t allow it

She tried to get an abortion during the
pandemic. Her state wouldn’t allow it

(Interactive) Photographs by Glenna Gordon

Story by Kyle Almond and Benazir Wehelie, CNN
June 29, 2020

In the early days of the coronavirus
pandemic, many states put a temporary ban on elective surgeries and medical
procedures deemed nonessential. For several states, that included abortion.

It didn’t take long for abortion providers to
challenge the new restrictions. In some states, several judges blocked the
bans. Others were eventually lifted by the states themselves. But for weeks,
many women were left in limbo.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/06/health/abortion-access-coronavirus-cnnphotos/

USA – The Fight to Protect Abortion Access Amid the Pandemic

The Fight to Protect Abortion Access Amid the Pandemic

Jordan Smith
June 15 2020

It wasn’t much past 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning in late April, and anti-choice protesters outside the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, were already cantankerous: There were three men with bullhorns, including one on top of a ladder; a 1,200-watt speaker pointing toward the clinic’s front door; and another protester blowing a shofar. “Welcome to the circus,” said Kim Gibson, a clinic escort who works to keep the mayhem away from patients.

Even as the coronavirus pandemic has gripped the nation (new cases are still on the rise in Mississippi), protesters disregarded Jackson’s stay-at-home order and have consistently failed to wear masks or keep appropriate social distance — not only from one another, but also from patients, whose cars they readily approach in an effort to “counsel” them and hand out anti-abortion propaganda.

Continued: https://theintercept.com/2020/06/15/coronavirus-pandemic-abortion-acces

15.06.2020

Commentary

Featured

abortion access during pandemic

abortion is essential healthcare

anti-choice abuse

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice hatred

anti-choice intimidation

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice protesters

anti-choice restrictions

anti-choice violence

Coleman Boyd

Covid-19 and abortion

Derenda Hancock

Greg Abbott

Hope Medical Group for Women

Jackson Women’s Health Organization

National Abortion Federation

Pink House Defenders

Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas

Sarah Wheat

the Pink House

trust women

Very Rev. Katherine Ragsdale

I Traveled To Texas During The Pandemic To Provide Abortion Care. Here’s What I Saw.

I Traveled To Texas During The Pandemic To Provide Abortion Care. Here’s What I Saw.
Closing clinics, banning telehealth and enforcing waiting periods is dangerous and burdensome at any time, but especially during this pandemic.

Glenna Martin, M.D., M.P.H.
May 25, 2020

As I flew out of Texas in February, I never imagined the tragedy and upheaval that would take place before I was able to return eight weeks later.

I travel monthly from Seattle to Texas to help provide abortion care. But at the end of March — as the coronavirus pandemic was ramping up —Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order halting such care, deeming it nonessential — an order reinforced by the state’s attorney general.

Continued: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/abortion-access-texas-covid-19-coronavirus_n_5ec7dcbdc5b67d1308b9c96e

Texas – Inside the Plan to End Legal Abortion

Inside the Plan to End Legal Abortion

Esther Wang
May 22, 2020

Whiteface is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it blip in Texas’s oil patch 50 minutes west of Lubbock that only a few hundred people call home, so tiny that describing it as a small town would be a stretch. But on a rainy evening in mid-March, several dozen of its residents along with people from neighboring towns crammed into a worn-down community center on the town’s main strip for a meeting of Whiteface’s elected officials, an unusually large audience for their regular council meeting.

“I know y’all aren’t here to listen to our business,” joked one of the council members. And it was true. That night, the council would be voting on an anti-abortion ordinance that, if passed, would make Whiteface the latest so-called “sanctuary city for the unborn” in the state. With its approval, Whiteface would join a dozen other Texas towns that in recent months had declared abortion to be murder and announced that abortions (and in some towns, even emergency contraception like Plan B) were “unlawful” within the town’s limits; some of the ordinances, too, designated a list of the state’s leading abortion providers and advocacy groups as “criminal entities.” The crowd in the sparsely decorated community center, crammed into rows of red and yellow plastic chairs, had amassed to show their support for the ordinance, and to urge the Whiteface council to officially designate the town a self-proclaimed “sanctuary city for the unborn.”

Continued: https://theslot.jezebel.com/inside-the-plan-to-end-legal-abortion-1843155358

USA – ‘I see a danger in returning to a pre-Roe world:’ Abortion advocates view coronavirus-era restrictions as a dark sign of what could come

'I see a danger in returning to a pre-Roe world:' Abortion advocates view coronavirus-era restrictions as a dark sign of what could come

Kayla Epstein
May 15, 2020

In non-pandemic times, obtaining an abortion already presented serious legal and logistical challenges for millions of women. For patients who live in certain states, getting care means enduring state-imposed waiting periods, submitting to unnecessary ultrasounds, or rushing to receive care before an arbitrary legal deadline. For patients who already have children, care must be arranged. Those without a car need a ride, especially if the nearest clinic is hours away. Some need flights to more accommodating states. And many, many need funds.

But women seeking abortions since the coronavirus outbreak began faced a new challenge — states' attempts to temporarily limit or ban abortion outright by deeming them "non-essential" procedures, under the pretext of preserving medical supplies for COVID-19 treatment. These restrictions collided with the travel and social distancing restrictions put in place to limit the spread of the virus, leading to an even more precarious situation for abortion care than the one already in place.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-arkansas-abortion-bans-coronavirus-advocates-fear-lack-of-access-2020-5

15.05.2020

Commentary

Featured

abortion access during pandemic

abortion funds

abortion is essential healthcare

American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology

American Civil Liberties Union

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

anti-choice restrictions

Bridget Schilling

Brigid Alliance

Clinical Access Support Network

coronavirus

Covid-19 and abortion

National Abortion Federation

New Orleans Abortion Fund

Odile Schalit

personal protective equipment

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

pre-Roe laws

Roe v. Wade

traveling for abortion

Very Rev. Katherine Ragsdale

COVID-19 Should Not Be Used as an Excuse to Implement Abortion Bans

COVID-19 Should Not Be Used as an Excuse to Implement Abortion Bans

April 30, 2020
by Surya Swaroop

As the United States is struggling to adapt to the unprecedented influx of patients with symptoms of COVID-19, there is a strong concern that the number of medical supplies available will not be able to keep up with the demand. While this is a pressing matter that the federal government needs to address, some Republican politicians are using this issue to further their political agendas. They have deemed abortions a nonessential medical service, citing the need to conserve medical supplies as the reason abortions should be banned during this time.

The logic of this argument is flawed on every level and indicates how little these politicians regard women’s reproductive health issues.

Continued: http://dailynexus.com/2020-04-30/covid-19-should-not-be-used-as-an-excuse-to-implement-abortion-bans/

Coronavirus pandemic stirs fight over abortion rights in US

Coronavirus pandemic stirs fight over abortion rights in US
Republican leaders in eight US states are trying to ban abortions in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Janice Hopkins Tanne reports

BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1733
Published 30 April 2020
Janice Hopkins Tanne, journalist

Texas has allowed medical and surgical abortions to go ahead after a long running court fight during which abortion was repeatedly forbidden and permitted, to the frustration and dismay of doctors and patients.

On 22 March, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, signed an executive order banning non-essential medical procedures. Abortions were considered non-essential. The state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said criminal penalties and fines would be imposed on medical professionals for providing abortions and claimed that elective medical procedures used medical supplies needed by doctors and nurses dealing with covid-19.

Continued: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1733