USA – How abortion rights advocates won every ballot measure this year

Pro-choice coalitions prevailed in red, blue, and purple states.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Nov 11, 2022

Americans voiced their preference for abortion rights on Tuesday, casting votes in support of reproductive freedom everywhere they appeared on the ballot: Kentucky, Michigan, Vermont, Montana, and California.

Counting a pivotal ballot measure Kansas voters weighed in on in August, reproductive rights have been on the ballot in six states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. Each time, abortion rights supporters have won.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23451074/abortion-ballot-measure-midterms-kentucky-montana-michigan

11.11.2022

Commentary

Featured

Ethan Winter

Families United for Freedom

Hillary-Anne Crosby

Jodi Hicks

Nicole Wells Stallworth

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California

Frontline abortion workers in the US west are fatigued. Midterm results may make things worse

While Colorado remains a precarious sanctuary in the midwest, the west coast states have rallied to protect abortion rights

Claire Wang in Los Angeles
Fri 4 Nov 2022

States across the western US have seen a surge in women traveling for days and spending thousands of dollars to access abortion care in the five months since the supreme court overtuned Roe v Wade.

Providers and advocates are coping with the influx through a patchwork of groups providing financial and practical assistance to patients from the south, midwest and south-west, where more than a dozen states have banned or restricted abortion access.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/03/abortion-workers-fatigue-midterm-us-west

California – Newsom signs abortion protections into law

As other states restrict or ban abortions, the California laws aim to improve access and protect patients and clinicians. They will also expand services to accommodate an expected influx from other states

BY KRISTEN HWANG
SEPTEMBER 27, 2022

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of 12 bills Tuesday, establishing some of the strongest abortion protections in the nation — a direct reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal abortion guarantees earlier this year.

Collectively, the new laws aim to improve access and protect patients and clinicians by strengthening privacy safeguards, ensuring providers and patients cannot be sued or prosecuted and funding procedures and travel costs for low-income individuals. They also seek to shore up the state’s network of abortion clinics as more patients from states where abortion is now severely limited or banned seek procedures in California.

Continued: https://calmatters.org/health/2022/09/california-abortion-bills/

Planned Parenthood maps strategy to protect abortion rights

Planned Parenthood leaders from across the country are meeting in California to discuss how to defend abortion rights

By SOPHIE AUSTIN and ADAM BEAM, Associated Press
September 9, 2022

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Planned Parenthood leaders from 24 states gathered in California's capital Friday to begin work on a nationwide strategy to protect and strengthen access to abortion, a counteroffensive aimed at pushing back against restrictions that have emerged in more than half of the country after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Their goal is to emulate the success liberals have had in California, where state lawmakers passed some of the most robust abortion protections in the country this year, culminating in a statewide election this fall that would make abortion a constitutional right in the nation's most populous state.

continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/abortion-leaders-gather-california-talk-strategy-89614443

These states will have abortion on the ballot in November

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
September 5, 2022

Voters in a small number of states will decide in November how those states should handle the abortion issue. Abortion rights have taken on an increased significance and become a top focus in the midterm elections after the US Supreme Court's ruling this summer that there was no longer a federal constitutional right to the procedure.

In its August primary, Kansas was the first state in the nation to let voters weigh in on abortion since the high court overturned Roe v. Wade, and Kansans overwhelmingly chose to reject a state constitutional amendment that would have given state lawmakers the green light to help enact more restrictive abortion laws,

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/politics/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-ballot-measures/index.html

“We just won’t comply”: Inside California’s push to be the ultimate abortion haven state

Gov. Gavin Newsom has implemented strict privacy measures for patients and increased California’s budget for services. But as California strives to be a sanctuary for abortion seekers from around the country, providers are still struggling to serve those in state.

BY ABIGAIL TRACY
AUGUST 5, 2022

As a growing number of states across the country continue to ravage reproductive rights after the fall of Roe v. Wade, advocates and policymakers in California are sending a message. “We’re becoming not just a haven state sort of in theory, although that’s important,” Jodi Hicks, the CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said. “But also we’re becoming a state that won’t comply with other states. We just won’t comply.”

California has long held some of the strongest protections for abortion access in the country. But last October, when the Supreme Court first chose not to halt Texas S.B. 8, which bans abortions at six weeks without exception—months before they unraveled federal abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—the check engine light came on. The impact was immediate as patients from Texas began traveling to California seeking care. And suddenly, Hicks explained, providers were faced with a series of new legal questions regarding their care. Reproductive rights advocates went into overdrive.

Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/08/inside-californias-push-to-be-the-ultimate-abortion-haven-state

California could become an abortion ‘sanctuary’ if other states ban the procedure

Dozens of U.S. states could ban abortion depending on a Supreme Court ruling next year

The Associated Press
Posted: Dec 08, 2021

With more than two dozen states poised to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court gives them the OK next year, California clinics and their allies in the state Legislature on Wednesday revealed a plan to make the state a "sanctuary" for those seeking reproductive care, including possibly paying for travel, lodging and procedures for people from other states.

The California Future of Abortion Council, made up of more than 40 abortion providers and advocacy groups, released a list of 45 recommendations for the state to consider if the high court overturns Roe v. Wade — the 48-year-old decision that forbids states from outlawing abortion.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/california-abortion-sanctuary-1.6278196