Women, doctors announce legal action against abortion bans in 3 states

The women allege they were denied abortions despite dangerous complications.

By Nadine El-Bawab
September 12, 2023

Women in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee filed legal actions against their states over abortion bans, saying they were denied abortions despite having dangerous pregnancy complications.

Four women in Idaho -- Jennifer Adkins, Jillaine St.Michel, Kayla Smith and Rebecca Vincen-Brown -- and abortion providers filed a suit against the state, Gov. Brad Little, attorney general and the state's board of medicine, claiming the state's ban has "sown confusion, fear and chaos among the medical community, resulting in grave harms to pregnant patients whose health and safety hang in the balance across the state," according to a copy of the lawsuit shared with ABC News.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/women-doctors-announce-legal-action-abortion-bans-3/story?id=103055654

Travis County judge sides with Texas women denied abortions after dangerous pregnancies

Ryan Autullo, Austin American-Statesman
Aug 4, 2023

A state judge in Travis County ruled Friday that abortions in Texas are lawful in cases of dangerous pregnancy complications, including fatal fetal diagnoses, and that doctors cannot be prosecuted for using "good faith judgment" on when to terminate a pregnancy.

The injunction from District Judge Jessica Mangrum, which the state immediately blocked Friday in filing an appeal, comes two weeks after four Texas women came to her court to give emotional testimony about not receiving an abortion, even as they suffered physically and after doctors deemed their pregnancies incompatible with life. It marked the first time women denied abortions have sued a state since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.

Continued: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2023/08/04/austin-texas-judge-lifts-abortion-ban-for-women-with-risky-pregnancies/70534072007/

8 women join suit against Texas over abortion bans, claim their lives were put in danger

The original lawsuit was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights in March.

By Nadine El-Bawab
May 22, 2023

The Center for Reproductive Rights is expected to add eight more women to a lawsuit it filed against Texas over its abortion ban, claiming their lives were put at risk due to the law. This brings the total number of plaintiffs to 15.

The suit alleged that Texas' abortion bans have denied the plaintiffs and countless other pregnant people necessary and potentially life-saving medical care because physicians in the state fear liability, according to a draft of the complaint shared with ABC News.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/8-women-join-suit-texas-abortion-bans-claim/story?id=99480988

Abortion Legal Assistance Network Launched: ‘A Strong Defense Against Bullies’

A new alliance of reproductive rights groups aims to “help those involved with abortion care navigate [a] confusing and hostile legal landscape and to provide a strong defense against bullies.”

2/22/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

Six leading reproductive rights organizations announced on Feb. 22 the formation of a new Abortion Defense Network to connect people facing legal threats related to abortion with attorneys who can provide legal advice and representation in civil and criminal proceedings.

“The overturning of Roe v. Wade has unleashed nonstop legal chaos and confusion,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Abortion providers, doctors and even family members of people seeking abortion care are unsure what they might be prosecuted for. Many states have conflicting and overlapping abortion bans that make it nearly impossible to know what is legal and what is not. People are worried they may be prosecuted even for helping someone find abortion services across state lines.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/02/22/abortion-defense-lawyer-courts-assistance/

Texas court dismisses case against doctor who violated state’s abortion ban

The law allows civil suits against anyone who performs or aids an abortion.

By Nadine El-Bawab and Mary Kekatos
December 8, 2022

A Texas court dismissed a lawsuit Thursday against a doctor accused of providing an abortion to a woman despite the state's strict ban on the procedure.

Dr. Alan Braid performed the abortion for a patient in early September 2021, just five days after S.B.8 went into effect, which bans abortion after six weeks' gestation. The patient's pregnancy was further along than six weeks.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-court-dismisses-case-doctor-violated-states-abortion/story?id=94796642

08.12.2022

Featured

News

Aaron Haas

Center for Reproductive Rights

How Overruling Roe is Already Risking Women’s Lives

Sian Norris
25 August 2022

It’s two months since the US Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion, and the horror stories are already piling up. Worse is yet to come, reports Sian Norris

It’s now two months since the US Supreme Court decided on Dobbs v Jackson’s Women’s Health Organisation – a case on abortion rights that ultimately overruled Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that allowed for nationwide access to safe and legal terminations. The Dobbs decision was written by the conservative Justice Samuel Alito, and allows for abortion laws to be made at a state, rather than federal level.

Within the first two months, nine states have implemented bans on abortion – some, like Missouri, within 24 hours. It, along with Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Dakota have outlawed abortion in all cases, including when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

Continued: https://bylinetimes.com/2022/08/25/how-overruling-roe-is-already-risking-womens-lives/

25.08.2022

Commentary

Featured

Centre for Reproductive Rights

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Oklahoma GOP governor signs one of nation’s strictest abortion bills into law

By Karen Smith and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Thu May 26, 2022

(CNN)Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed a bill into law banning abortions from the stage of "fertilization" and allowing private citizens to sue abortion providers who "knowingly" perform or induce an abortion "on a pregnant woman."

The bill, HB 4327, is among the nation's strictest on abortion and is a clear rebuke of the protections granted in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide. A coalition of abortion providers and abortion rights advocates said Wednesday evening they'd challenge the law, which takes effect immediately, in court and try to block it.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/politics/oklahoma-abortion-ban-hb-4327-signed-governor-stitt/index.html

Top Colombia court decriminalizes abortion until 24 weeks of gestation

By Julia Symmes Cobb and Luisa Fernanda Gonzalez

BOGOTA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Judges on Colombia's constitutional court voted on Monday to decriminalize abortion until 24 weeks of gestation, the court said in a statement, in a victory for abortion rights groups which sued to have the procedure removed from the penal code.

The decision adds Colombia to a list of Latin American countries which have recently liberalized abortion access, including Mexico and Ecuador.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/top-colombia-court-decriminalizes-abortion-until-24-weeks-gestation-2022-02-21/

21.02.2022

Center for Reproductive Rights

clandestine abortion

decriminalization of abortion

U.S. court sends Texas abortion law back to state, dealing blow to opponents

By Paul J. Weber, The Associated Press
January 17, 2022

Texas’ ban on most abortions is likely to stay in effect for the foreseeable future, opponents fighting the law said Monday night, after a federal appeals court ruled against sending the case back to only judge who has ever blocked the restrictions.

The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans means that legal challenges to stop the nation’s most restrictive abortion law next move to the Texas Supreme Court, which is entirely controlled by Republican justices and does not have to act immediately.

Continued: https://globalnews.ca/news/8518713/texas-abortion-state-supreme-court/

17.01.2022

Featured

News

5th Circuit Court of Appeals

Center for Reproductive Rights

2021 was pivotal year for abortion laws in America

A half century of abortion rights for American women faltered this year.

By Devin Dwyer
28 December 2021

For half a century, American women have had the right to choose to end a pregnancy at any point before a fetus is viable outside the womb. If 2021 saw that freedom start to crumble, 2022 could see it more widely wiped away.

"I think this is the time," said an anti-abortion rights activist from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who declined to share her name this fall while outside the state’s only remaining abortion clinic in Jackson.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/2021-pivotal-year-abortion-laws-america/story?id=81860784