The GOP Plot to Bankrupt Planned Parenthood

By Susan Rinkunas
Jan 15, 2025

Despite the crucial fact that federal money cannot be used for abortions, Republicans have been trying to cut off all sources of federal funding to Planned Parenthood since 2007. The money the health care organization receives through various government programs covers birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing, and cancer screenings, but archconservatives want to shut down the country’s largest abortion provider by excluding it from these programs. Donald Trump pledged to anti-abortion groups during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns that he would “defund” the organization. It’s possible that Republicans for the first time in years have a plausible path to this longtime goal and Trump might not even need to act.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/01/gop-plot-bankrupt-planned-parenthood-abortion-trump.html


One year into new abortion limits, North Carolina patients and providers struggle to shoulder the load restrictions bring

Increased restrictions have ushered in a new landscape of care with patients navigating more logistical hurdles and travel. Abortion providers have reworked operations to comply with the new law.

July 1, 2024
By Rachel Crumpler

Katherine Farris has been an abortion provider for more than 20 years, and she says that this past year has been the hardest of her career — by a long shot.

Not her first year of practice when everything was new. Not the year she stepped into the role of chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic to supervise clinic operations across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Not the years she navigated COVID protocols to keep her staff and patients safe.

Continued: https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2024/07/01/one-year-into-nc-new-abortion-law/


Many Florida women can’t get abortions past 6 weeks. Where else can they go?

Since Florida enacted a six-week abortion ban, clinics in several other Southern and mid-Atlantic states have sprung into action

By MAKIYA SEMINERA and GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press
May 4, 2024

RALEIGH, N.C. -- When Florida enacted its six-week abortion ban last week, clinics in several other Southern and mid-Atlantic states sprang into action, knowing women would look to them for services no longer available where they live.

Health care providers in North Carolina, three states to the north, are rushing to expand availability and decrease wait times. “We are already seeing appointments,” said Katherine Farris, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “We have appointments on the books with patients who were unable to get in, in the last days of April in Florida.”

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/florida-women-abortions-past-6-weeks-109936747


A clearer picture is emerging of the impact of North Carolina’s new abortion restrictions

Reproductive health care providers say NC’s new abortion law makes it harder for patients to obtain care and for providers to offer it. Data shows a 31 percent decline in abortions one month after law took effect July 1.

by Rachel Crumpler
October 11, 2023

Patients, health care providers and clinics were thrust into a new era of reproductive health care access on July 1 when the state’s increased abortion restrictions took effect.

The new North Carolina law limits most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and requires two in-person appointments for anyone seeking an abortion. Lawmakers added an in-person requirement to receive state-mandated counseling at least 72 hours before an abortion — something that could previously occur by telephone.

Continued: https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2023/10/11/a-clearer-picture-emerging-of-the-impact-of-north-carolinas-new-law-on-abortion-care/


As South Carolina governor signs new law, abortion restrictions strain providers in U.S. South

THU, MAY 25 2023
The Associated Press

A wave of newly approved abortion restrictions in the Southeastern United States has sent providers scrambling to reconfigure their services for a region with already severely limited access.

South Carolina joined the Southern states putting stiff restrictions on the procedure Thursday when the governor signed a bill banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy, setting up an anticipated legal challenge from providers. The law goes into effect immediately.

Continued: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/25/as-south-carolina-governor-signs-new-law-abortion-restrictions-strain-providers-in-us-south.html


Anti-abortion bills fail in GOP-controlled Nebraska and South Carolina

By Chandelis Duster, CNN
Fri April 28, 2023

Measures that would have severely restricted abortion failed Thursday in Nebraska and South Carolina, which both have Republican-controlled legislatures, a reflection of the growing unease among Republicans over the political popularity of strict bans.  

In Nebraska, a “Heartbeat Act” would have banned most abortions after six weeks except in cases of rape or incest or to preserve the life of the mother once a “fetal heartbeat” was detected, but it stalled in the legislature. … On Thursday afternoon, the South Carolina state Senate failed to pass the “Human Life Protection Act,” which would have banned abortions in the state, in a 22-21 vote with five women voting against it.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/28/politics/abortion-bills-fail-nebraska-south-carolina/index.html


This conservative Christian couple in South Carolina have become outspoken advocates for abortion rights

By Elizabeth Cohen, Naomi Thomas and Nadia Kounang, CNN
Fri December 23, 2022

Jill Hartle might seem an unlikely advocate for abortion rights, but after a devastating pregnancy loss, she’s raising her voice.

A conservative Christian and former Ms. South Carolina, Jill was a Republican until last summer, when in the wake of new abortion restrictions in her state, she endured the “excruciating” experience of terminating a pregnancy with a baby who had a severe heart defect.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/23/health/south-carolina-abortion-ivy-grace-project/index.html


U.S. clinics scramble as courts, politicians battle over abortion restrictions

By Sharon Bernstein
Aug 22, 2022 (Reuters)

With West Virginia's 1849 abortion ban tied up in court and its conservative legislature stymied over details of enacting a new one, the state's only abortion clinic ought to be operating as usual.

But the chaotic legal and political environment in the two months since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the right to an abortion has driven unexpected reductions in the services that the clinic can provide, leading its doctors to end most medication abortions and eliminate surgical abortions for women who are more than 16 weeks pregnant.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-clinics-scramble-courts-politicians-battle-over-abortion-restrictions-2022-08-22/


South Carolina abortion law suspended 1 day after passage

By: Canadian Press
Feb 19, 2021

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s new law banning most abortions was suspended by a federal judge Friday on its second day in effect.

Judge Mary Geiger Lewis put a 14-day temporary restraining order on the law and will renew it until she can hold a more substantial hearing on March 9 on Planned Parenthood's request that it not be enforced until the group's lawsuit against South Carolina is resolved.
Continued: https://www.delta-optimist.com/world-news/south-carolina-abortion-law-suspended-1-day-after-passage-3442636


USA – The Last Abortion Clinic in West Virginia

The Last Abortion Clinic in West Virginia

Esther Wang
Nov 18, 2019

The Women’s Health Center in Charleston, West Virginia is an unassuming, single-story beige brick building in a shabby neighborhood, just steps from the train tracks and a crisis pregnancy center, a shuttered vape shop, and a row of small homes surrounded by chainlink fences. I visited the center, the last abortion clinic in the state, on a Wednesday in June, one of the two days each week that the clinic performs abortions. Christopher McComas, 52, stood by the entrance to the clinic’s parking lot, equipped with a cell phone that he trained at everyone who approached the clinic.

“Hey brother, can I talk to you for a second? Please, for a second? Do you think it’s going to be a boy or a girl? Does it have blue eyes, or maybe brown eyes?” McComas yelled at one couple, a tall photo of a blood-covered fetus propped up by his side. “God loves you, please don’t do this ma’am! I beg you not to do this! It could be a boy or a girl,” he continued to yell at the couple as they entered the clinic, shielded by a large umbrella held by a clinic escort. “It could have brown hair!”

Continued: https://jezebel.com/the-last-abortion-clinic-in-west-virginia-1838886688