USA – As abortion rights are further decimated, reproductive health funding remains ‘shackled’ by restrictions

During a critical election year, sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations risk losing funding to engage in partisan politics

by Rebecca. L. Root
July 2nd, 2024

In the months before and following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that struck down the constitutional right to abortion, nonprofits that had long worked to advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights found themselves fighting anti-abortion legislation at unprecedented levels.

Since 2022, the legal advocacy organization the Center for Reproductive Rights has filed lawsuits in multiple states on behalf of women who were denied medically necessary abortion care. In 2022, several organizations, including The Afiya Center and the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity, filed a federal class action lawsuit in Texas to protect the ability to help people access abortion out of state. In 2023, the state of Texas and an anonymous plaintiff sued Planned Parenthood over allegations that the organization’s affiliates defrauded the state’s Medicaid system. Also last year, Planned Parenthood Great Northwest filed a federal lawsuit against Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office following a legal opinion issued in March 2023 that said medical professionals in Idaho could be subject to criminal penalties if they referred patients across state lines for abortion care.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2024/07/02/reproductive-health-funding-shackled/

Post-Roe abortion bans force pregnant people with life-threatening complications to travel

Idaho woman traveled to Oregon to terminate pregnancy with fatal fetal anomalies

BY: KELCIE MOSELEY-MORRIS
MAY 9, 2023

Jennifer Adkins’ first pregnancy was near-perfect. She sailed through her appointments and screenings with no complications, ticking every box and making lists of all the right questions to ask her medical professionals. By the time her unmedicated labor was over and the nurses placed her newborn son on her chest, Adkins felt like a superhero.

So when she discovered she was pregnant again the day after Valentine’s Day, she was ready for another home run.

Continued: https://georgiarecorder.com/2023/05/09/post-roe-abortion-bans-force-pregnant-people-with-life-threatening-complications-to-travel/

USA – Here’s what abortion foes have been up to in the year after Dobbs draft leak

Anti-abortion activists have flooded state legislatures with proposals to criminalize pregnancy termination or to add burdensome regulations

BY: SOFIA RESNICK
MAY 3, 2023

Anti-abortion leaders could not stop paraphrasing Winston Churchill last June after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a victory that took 50 years to realize.

“While we celebrate the momentous ruling in Dobbs, we must remember that overturning Roe was not the beginning of the end, but it was the end of the beginning,” said Kristen Waggoner, CEO of the leading anti-abortion law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, on a webcast days after the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Continued: https://www.penncapital-star.com/civil-rights-social-justice/heres-what-abortion-foes-have-been-up-to-in-the-year-after-dobbs-draft-leak/

Meet Republicans’ New Boogeyman: So-Called ‘Abortion Trafficking’

Restrictions on abortion travel are simply meant to stop people from red states from crossing into blue states to access care safely and legally.

By Kylie Cheung
Apr 3, 2023

For years now, Kiki Council, an attorney in Colorado, has helped minors obtain judicial bypass to get abortion care. Council, who works as legal counsel for pro bono initiatives at the Lawyering Project, has often supported teens traveling out-of-state for the health service without parental consent.

“The minors who can’t tell their parents about their choice are in very precarious, vulnerable positions at home,” Council told Jezebel. “They’re experiencing emotional, verbal, or physical abuse. They’re living with parents or guardians who are extremely religious, or have extreme views that make them feel like they can’t safely share that choice with them.”

Continued: https://jezebel.com/meet-republicans-new-boogeyman-so-called-abortion-tr-1850293302