USA – The New Faces of Abortion Rights

Democrats used to talk about abortion in abstract terms. Now Harris campaign volunteers are getting specific and changing the debate.

By Peter Slevin
August 9, 2024

The crowd that greeted Kamala Harris in a high-school gym outside Milwaukee last month was delighted to the point of delirium. People roared when she said that, as a former prosecutor, she knows “Donald Trump’s type.” They cheered again when she spoke up for affordable child care and an assault-weapons ban. But when she said, “We trust women to make decisions about their own body,” the response was so loud that it nearly drowned out the end of the sentence. She shouted above the din, “And not have their government tell them what to do.”

… To make that emotional connection with voters, Meghan Mohr has helped more than a dozen women to talk about their abortions on the campaign trail. The women, called abortion storytellers, have introduced Harris at events, and they are training others to give their own testimonies in the hope of highlighting the stakes in November.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-new-faces-of-abortion-rights

“I Was So Naive”: The Painful Stories Behind Abortion Restrictions

A couple trying to conceive, an ultrasound technician, and a gay pastor share their experiences with abortion in post-Roe America.

BY ABIGAIL TRACY
NOVEMBER 30, 2023

As Anya Cook sat at the hairdresser, she thought she might die. The night before, her water had broken. But being only about 16 weeks along in her pregnancy—six weeks before a fetus can potentially survive on its own outside the uterus—she’d known something was wrong; her husband, Derick Cook, had rushed her to the emergency room at the Broward Health hospital in Coral Springs, Florida. After a wait of more than 45 minutes in the emergency room—amniotic fluid still seeping from Anya’s body—a doctor had informed her that she would lose the child, but, given Florida’s strict abortion ban, there was nothing they could do. She’d been sent away with antibiotics and told she would have to wait to have her miscarriage alone.

She went to get her hair done the next day. “One thing my grandmother always said, ‘You make yourself look presentable so when they catch you dead, you’re already ready,’” she tells me. It was never the plan to deliver her baby in the bathroom of a hair salon. Anya recalls with vivid detail the sound of her fetus hitting the bowl of the toilet as blood poured out of her, dripping down her legs. After hours of surgery, Anya lost roughly half the blood in her body. The doctors asked Derick whether they should prioritize saving Anya’s life or her uterus. “That was very confusing,” he says. “I just went with the best answer: Save my wife and her uterus.” Since then, Anya has had to undergo a string of surgeries as a result of the complications she suffered.

Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/11/painful-stories-behind-abortion-restrictions-post-roe

How Republican Courts Could Sabotage the Ohio Abortion Vote and Future Ballot Measures

BY MARY ZIEGLER
NOV 09, 2023

After Ohio voted to enshrine reproductive care access in the state’s constitution on Tuesday, abortion rights supporters are now a perfect 7-for-7 in ballot initiative fights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. Ohio has Republicans in control of all three branches of government, but the state’s voters still managed to approve a ballot initiative on reproductive rights. Meanwhile, abortion helped propel state lawmakers in Virginia to control of both chambers of the state Legislature—and fueled the reelection of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in Kentucky. Memes and tweets have circulated saying that if abortion were on the ballot in 2024 instead of Joe Biden, the race would be a done deal.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/11/republican-ohio-abortion-vote-florida-desantis.html

What it’s like for doctors in Wisconsin to follow an 1849 abortion law in 2023

Obstetricians describe patients who cannot comprehend having to carry nonviable pregnancies. And only one pharmacist in town will fill prescriptions for abortion pills.

July 22, 2023
By Sarah Varney

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The three women sitting around a table at a busy lunch spot share a grim camaraderie. It’s been more than a year since an 1849 law came back into force to criminalize abortion in Wisconsin. Now these two OB-GYNs and a certified midwife find their medical training, skill, and acumen constrained by state politics.

“We didn’t even know germs caused disease back then,” said Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an obstetrician-gynecologist who lives in Green Bay.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/s-doctors-wisconsin-follow-1849-abortion-law-2023-rcna95433

USA – Abortion was a 50/50 issue. Now, it’s Republican quicksand.

Six in 10 voters support legal abortion in most cases. Just over a third want it to be entirely or mostly illegal.

By STEVEN SHEPARD
April 8, 2023

Conservatives are finding out the hard way that abortion isn’t a 50-50 issue anymore.

Janet Protasiewicz’s 11-point blowout victory this week for a state Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin was just the latest example of voters who support abortion rights outnumbering — and outvoting — their opponents. There was little polling in Tuesday’s race, but in a 2022 midterm exit poll of the state, a combined 63 percent of Wisconsin voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while only 34 percent thought it should be illegal in all or most cases.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/08/republican-party-abortion-trap-00091088

08.04.2023

The GOP’s Abortion Problem Is Only Getting Worse

The party has been losing elections ever since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade—and there’s no end in sight.

Alex Shephard
April 6, 2023

Three years ago, Joe Biden won Wisconsin by just 20,000 votes—less than two-thirds of a percentage point. On Tuesday, Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the state’s Supreme Court by 11 points, tipping the balance of control from a conservative majority to a liberal tilt.

Protasiewicz’s victory was a staggering accomplishment in an off-year election in a purple state. It also wasn’t particularly surprising. It’s the latest sign that, 10 months after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, Democratic voters across the country are still energized to protect reproductive rights. Just as significantly, it’s also a clear indication that voters are fundamentally rejecting the Republican Party’s abortion extremism in the aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—and that the GOP simply has no answer when it comes to abortion policy.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/171685/gops-abortion-problem-getting-worse

06.04.2023

Liberal judge’s victory in Wisconsin Supreme Court race marks political shift in key swing state

By Gregory Krieg, CNN
Wed April 5, 2023

The victory of a liberal judge in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election marks a significant political realignment toward the left in a crucial swing state, potentially closing the door on an era of Republican dominance with issues such as abortion rights at stake.

With liberals now poised to effectively control the seven-judge court, Democrats are newly optimistic about saving abortion access in the state, establishing a firewall against any Republican challenges to the 2024 elections and potentially redoing GOP-drawn state legislative and congressional maps. That combination of issues proved a potent force in a race that attracted massive turnout and spending.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/05/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-liberal-victory-abortion/index.html

05.04.2023

Naral Pro-Choice America

Sarah Dohl

Tony Evers

Wisconsin Supreme Court

USA – The right to abortion will be secured before the end of the decade

Elaine Kamarck
Wednesday, April 5, 2023

When the right to choose an abortion is on the ballot, it wins. And it will keep winning for the rest of the decade until the right to abortion is secured state by state in all but the deepest red states and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision is rendered moot.

The latest evidence? On Tuesday, the liberal Milwaukee circuit court judge, Janet Protasiewicz, scored a solid victory over the conservative candidate Daniel Kelly in a race whose outcome would determine the majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and pave the way for overturning the 1849 law outlawing abortion.

Continued; https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2023/04/05/the-right-to-abortion-will-be-secured-before-the-end-of-the-decade/

05.04.2023