USA – Why the rift between anti-abortion activists and Republican lawmakers is growing

Alabama supreme court’s decision causing a temporary halt in IVF care shines spotlight on problem between two groups

Ava Sasani
Sun 17 Mar 2024

There is a growing rift in the decades-old marriage between anti-abortion activists and Republican lawmakers.

The problem came into view last month, after a bombshell decision from the Alabama supreme court temporarily halted in vitro fertilization (IVF). The ruling, which described frozen embryos as “extrauterine children”, unraveled when the Republican-controlled legislature passed short-term protections for IVF providers.

Continued; https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/17/anti-abortion-activists-republican-lawmakers-ivf-alabama


Many Abortion Images Are Misleading Or Manipulative. These Photos Show The Reality.

"Most people don't know what a fetus looks like. Abortion takes place behind closed doors — for medical privacy and for safety — but I also believe something is gained by creating visuals for this process."

Pia Peterson, BuzzFeed News Photo Editor
Apr 28, 2022

Photographer Glenna Gordon has traveled the world, documenting everything from Nigerian weddings and abandoned oil tankers on the African coast to white supremacist groups and the rise of Donald Trump.

Her work in the United States has focused on the uneasy intersection between personal freedom and government oversight, including access to abortions. Traveling to clinics with a camera, Gordon realized that the graphic images that anti-abortion protesters often display were wildly misleading, and that she didn’t actually know where to go to see accurate photographs of abortions. She set out to make such images herself.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/piapeterson/photos-abortions-reality


Reproductive justice non-profit buys Alabama abortion clinic

Reproductive justice non-profit buys Alabama abortion clinic

Posted May 15
By Abbey Crain

The director of the Yellowhammer Fund, a non-profit that provides financial assistance for abortions in Alabama, said she was considering shutting down the organization amid financial worry before Alabama passed a law banning near all abortions in the state in May 2019 .

One year later, after an influx of more than $2 million in donations from across the country in the immediate aftermath of the ban and the support of 1,200 monthly financially sustaining members, the fund now owns and operates the West Alabama Women’s Center, one of three of remaining abortion clinics in the state.

Continued: https://www.al.com/news/2020/05/reproductive-justice-non-profit-buys-alabama-abortion-clinic.html


U.S. federal judge blocks Alabama’s near total-ban on abortion

U.S. federal judge blocks Alabama’s near total-ban on abortion

By KIM CHANDLER The Associated Press
Posted October 29, 2019

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Alabama‘s near-total abortion ban from taking effect next month, saying the law, part wave of new abortion restrictions by conservative states, is clearly unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued an expected preliminary injunction temporarily blocking Alabama from enforcing the law that would make performing an abortion a felony in almost all cases. The ruling came after abortion providers sued to block the law from taking effect Nov. 15. The injunction will remain in place until Thompson decides the full case.

Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/6096827/alabama-abortion-ban-blocked/


What’s Become of All the Extreme Abortion Bans From This Year?

What’s Become of All the Extreme Abortion Bans From This Year?
By Amanda Arnold
Oct 2, 2019

The first six months of the year saw relentless attacks on abortion rights on the state level. Five states passed bills banning the procedure after six weeks, before many women even realize they’re pregnant. And in May, Alabama governor Kay Ivey signed a near-full ban on the procedure. The same month, Missouri — a state with only one abortion clinic — passed an extreme eight-week ban that didn’t include any exceptions for instances of rape, incest, or human trafficking. In all, seven states have passed similarly stringent laws in 2019, and more are considering them.

But in recent months, judges in many of these states have started to issue preliminary injunctions, which allow patients to continue accessing important reproductive care while the court hears the case in full to determine whether or not the bill is constitutional. In short, these court orders — also known as temporary blocks — maintain the status quo, allowing abortion to remain legal. Most recently, on October 1, a federal judge temporarily blocked Georgia’s ban.

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2019/10/states-with-early-abortion-bans-a-comprehensive-list.html


After Abortion Ban Attempt in Alabama, a Flood of Confusion and Phone Calls

After Abortion Ban Attempt in Alabama, a Flood of Confusion and Phone Calls

August 27, 2019
by Catherine Trautwein

Pro-choice demonstrators protest outside the state capitol during the March For Reproductive Freedom in Montgomery, Alabama May 19, 2019. (Seth Herald/AFP)

Almost daily, the Reproductive Health Services clinic in Montgomery, Alabama, receives several versions of the same call: “Are y’all still doing abortions? Have they outlawed it in Alabama? Where can I go?”

The confusion is understandable. In May, Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, which aimed to outlaw abortions in all cases except when the mother’s life was at risk. The passage of the strictest anti-abortion measure in the country made national news.

Continued: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/alabama-abortion-ban-clinic/


USA – New Laws Deepen State Differences Over Abortion

New Laws Deepen State Differences Over Abortion

July 30, 2019
By: Christine Vestal

More state abortion laws were enacted this year than at any time since 1973, the year the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Roe v. Wade that women have a constitutional right to end their pregnancy.

Many of the new laws — either banning or protecting the right to abortion — came in reaction to President Donald Trump’s second nomination of a conservative justice to the high court, creating the possibility that the historic abortion rights decision could be overturned.

Continued: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/07/30/new-laws-deepen-state-differences-over-abortion


U.S. state restrictions on abortion are anti-secular

Stuart Chambers: U.S. state restrictions on abortion are anti-secular
Pro-choice supporters better be ready to stand up for secularism because anti-abortion forces have already decided that belief trumps truth.

Stuart Chambers
Updated: June 2, 2019

The U.S. is a nation that prides itself on separating church and state — that is, unless the issue is abortion. A recent rash of state restrictions on abortion procedures clearly demonstrates two fundamental truths: first, the Christian right dismisses evidence-based inquiry; second, it seeks to make religion operative within secular law.

When lobbying for abortion restrictions, anti-abortion lobbyists and politicians tend to ignore empirical studies that counter their narrative that abortion is dangerous. One myth surrounds the alleged psychological harm to women who have had abortions. The data, however, contradicts this claim.

Continued: https://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/stuart-chambers-u-s-state-restrictions-on-abortion-are-anti-secular


Saudi Arabia’s abortion laws are more forgiving than Alabama’s

Saudi Arabia’s abortion laws are more forgiving than Alabama’s

By Ephrat Livni
May 25, 2019

The United States prides itself on being the land of the free and the home of the brave, a place that protects individual liberty and prizes privacy. Yet the freedom of women in the US is increasingly being threatened by highly restrictive abortion bans, passed at the state level, which violate the US Constitution. These laws make the legal codes of many Muslim-majority societies in the Middle East and North Africa seem more free, a fact that may surprise freedom-prizing Americans.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this week (paywall) that the abortion bans just passed in Alabama and Georgia are more restrictive than prohibitions in about half of the Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East.

Continued: https://qz.com/1628427/saudi-arabias-abortion-laws-are-more-forgiving-than-alabamas/


ACLU, Planned Parenthood bring lawsuit against Alabama abortion law

ACLU, Planned Parenthood bring lawsuit against Alabama abortion law

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Fri May 24, 2019

Washington (CNN)The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Friday against Alabama's abortion law, the latest in legal challenges to state legislation that place restrictions on abortions.

Alabama's near-total ban -- the most restrictive abortion law in the country -- would punish doctors who perform the procedure with up to 99 years in prison and does not include exceptions for cases of rape and incest. Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill into law last Wednesday, but it does not take effect until November.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/politics/alabama-abortion-ban-aclu-lawsuit/index.html