USA – Why Abortion Pills Are the Next Frontier in the Battle Over Reproductive Rights

BY ABIGAIL ABRAMS
APRIL 13, 2021

The Biden Administration is removing restrictions on mailing abortion pills during the COVID-19 pandemic, a reversal from the Trump Administration’s policy that marks a new phase in the national debate over abortion rights.

The move temporarily changes longstanding Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules governing mifepristone—one of two drugs used to terminate early pregnancies—that required patients to pick up the pills in-person from a medical provider. Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock sent a letter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine on Monday saying that her agency reviewed recent evidence and found that using telemedicine to provide abortion pills would not increase risks and would help patients avoid potential exposure to COVID-19.

Continued: https://time.com/5954429/fda-biden-abortion-pills/

USA – Unacceptable care: why patients manage their own abortion

As states make it more difficult to get abortion pills from providers, they may just be increasing the demand for medication abortion

eb 8, 2021

Susan Rinkunas

Almost 40 percent of abortions in the United
States each year are done with pills—but those are just the ones provided in
clinics and other medical facilities. An unknown number of people end their
pregnancies on their own with pills they bought online or from a pharmacy in
another country. This is known as self-managed abortion, or sourcing and using
the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, or misoprostol alone, to end an early
pregnancy outside of a medical setting.

Some people prefer going it alone, while others buy their own pills because
getting care in a clinic is too difficult, expensive, or risky. Interestingly,
some patients who get pills from an abortion provider and take them at home
also call that process self-managed abortion, since they are in fact, ending
their pregnancy themselves. This confusion highlights the hypocrisy of
restrictions on abortion pills, said Dr. Jamila Perritt, an abortion provider
and president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health.

https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2021/02/08/unacceptable-care-why-patients-manage-their-own-abortion/

Abortion Providers Watching Capitol Violence Say They’ve ‘Seen This Rage Before’

From fire bombings, shootings, and ceaseless harassment, anti-abortion violence has wreaked havoc on clinics for decades.

Jan 8, 2021
Caroline Reilly

Trump supporters laid siege to our nation’s capital on Wednesday, storming past
a flaccid and enabling law enforcement presence in an attempt to stage a coup.
As they were filling the halls of Congress—stealing lecterns and paintings, and
taking selfies at Nancy’s Pelosi’s desk—pundits lamented: This is not America;
this is not who we are. Some even marveled at the cooperation from law
enforcement, wondering how security could have been so lax.

Unfortunately, abortion providers are all too familiar with the sort of
violence that played out at the Capitol.

Continued: https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2021/01/08/abortion-providers-watching-capitol-violence-say-theyve-seen-this-rage-before/

How the Hyde Amendment Hearing Can Affect the Future of Abortion Rights

Reproductive rights and justice organizations weigh in on the historic House hearing.

BY CHELSEY SANCHEZ
DEC 9 2020

Over the course of more than four decades, Congress has annually renewed the Hyde Amendment, a highly controversial measure that reproductive rights activists say keeps abortion inaccessible to marginalized communities. That could all change, however, as the House Appropriations Committee held a historic, virtual hearing yesterday on the disproportionately negative impacts of the amendment.

Simply put, the Hyde Amendment broadly bars federal funding for abortion costs, meaning Medicaid recipients—who overwhelmingly come from communities of color or low-income communities—lack abortion coverage.

Continued: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a34906333/hyde-amendment-facts/

USA – Dr. Meera Shah Will Never Stop Telling Abortion Stories

BY ROXANNE FEQUIERE
SEP 8, 2020

The inaugural issue of Ms. hit newsstands in the early ’70s with bold cover lines meant to establish itself as a different kind of women’s magazine. One read, “Women Tell The Truth About Their Abortions.” Inside, 53 prominent women, including Susan Sontag, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, and Billie Jean King, had begun a petition stating they’d had abortions and demanding “a repeal of all laws that restrict our reproductive freedom.”

“I like to think that that was a precursor to the many acts that led to the Roe v. Wade decision a year later,” Ms. editor Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel said in 2011. Still, the magazine had relaunched the campaign just five years earlier, amid a new wave of threats to reproductive freedom across the United States.

Continued: https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a33953430/dr-meera-shah-youre-the-only-one-ive-told-interview/

The coronavirus is wiping out a crucial lifeline for abortion services in the US, and many patients may lose access entir

The coronavirus is wiping out a crucial lifeline for abortion services in the US, and many patients may lose access entirely

Rebecca Grant
Apr 16, 2020

Dr. Anuj Khattar was supposed to fly to Oklahoma City on Sunday, March 29 for his monthly stint working at Trust Women, a reproductive health clinic. Khattar, a family medicine practitioner, lives in Seattle and travels a few days each month to provide abortion care.

Washington was one of the first states hit hard by the coronavirus, and Khattar wrestled over whether it was safe to travel under the circumstances. Ultimately, he decided going was the right thing to do.

Continued: https://www.insider.com/coronavirus-abortion-access-limits-travel-2020-4

Your Questions About Reproductive Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Answered

Your Questions About Reproductive Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Answered
"The effect [of the COVID-19 outbreak] on people accessing abortion care is considerable, especially in those states that have limited access."

Mar 17, 2020
Rewire.News Staff

With some U.S. cities on lockdown and businesses and schools shutting their doors, the COVID-19 virus is dramatically changing everyday life for people across the country, including those seeking reproductive health services.

In the face of potential quarantining, monthslong lockdowns, and social distancing, there’s no question that people will have anxiety over potential interruptions to their abortion care and other reproductive health care.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2020/03/17/your-questions-about-reproductive-health-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-answered/

USA – Abortion Access Is Under Threat As Coronavirus Spreads

Abortion Access Is Under Threat As Coronavirus Spreads
In many states, abortion clinics are holding on by a thread. The pandemic might put them under.

By Melissa Jeltsen, HuffPost US
03/17/2020

Last week, Joe Nelson, a physician who provides abortions in Texas, felt a tickle in his throat. Then he started coughing. His temperature soared. On Monday, at his doctor’s office, he tested negative for the flu. Unable to obtain a coronavirus test there, he is now self-quarantining for 14 days.

In a phone call with HuffPost as he left the doctor’s office, Nelson said he was mostly worried about how his unplanned absence might affect women’s ability to get abortions in the state.

Continued: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/abortion-access-coronavirus_n_5e70f423c5b60fb69ddee6e9?ri18n=true

USA – Abortion Is Safer Than Getting Your Wisdom Teeth Out

Abortion Is Safer Than Getting Your Wisdom Teeth Out

By Amanda Arnold
Mar 10, 2020

Last week, the Supreme Court began to hear an abortion case that could effectively gut Roe v. Wade. The case, June v. Russo, centers on a Louisiana law that forces abortion providers to obtain “admitting privileges” at hospitals within 30 miles. This measure is ostensibly meant to protect patient safety; in effect, though, it could leave the state — in which 10,000 women a year seek abortion care — with just one doctor at one clinic.

Legislation like this is intentionally crafted to erode access to vital reproductive health care. The Supreme Court struck down a law with a nearly identical provision in Texas four years ago because it constituted such a substantial obstacle to abortion access. But rather than presenting such restrictions as what they are — unconstitutional, anti-choice legislation advanced by abortion opponents as part of a concerted attack on the right to choose — conservatives insist they’re precautionary measures, meant to safeguard women.

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/abortion-is-safer-than-getting-your-wisdom-teeth-out.html

USA – The Abortion Doctor and His Accuser

The Abortion Doctor and His Accuser
What does it mean to take women’s claims of sexual assault seriously?

By Katha Pollitt
March 2, 2029

Until March 25, 2019, Dr. Willie Parker was a highly respected and much-loved abortion provider in Alabama, the celebrated author of a best-selling book, Life’s Work, in which he defended abortion from a Christian perspective, and a frequent, charismatic speaker and honoree at pro-choice conferences and events. An imposing middle-aged black man who grew up poor in Alabama, he was the movement’s rock star. That all changed overnight, when Candice Russell, a 35-year-old Latina volunteer in Dallas, posted an article on Medium, “To All the Women Whose Names I Don’t Know, About the Pain We Share, the Secrets We Keep, and the Silence That Shouldn’t Have Been Asked For.”

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/willie-parker-abortion-me-too/