Supreme Court sends Texas abortion case to appeals court instead of to judge who previously blocked the law

By Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow
Dec 16, 2021

The Supreme Court returned the lawsuit over Texas’s restrictive abortion law to a federal appeals court Thursday, rejecting a request by abortion providers to send the case to a district judge who had previously declared the law unconstitutional.

The order came from Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, who last week wrote the majority opinion that left in place the law, which bans most abortions after six weeks. The decision granted a narrow path for providers to challenge the law’s unique enforcement structure.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-texas-abortion-case/2021/12/16/79a2e592-5e88-11ec-8665-aed48580f911_story.html

Texas poised to ban most abortions as court denies emergency motion

Law letting individuals sue those helping women access service will go into effect on 1 September unless federal court intervenes

Jessica Glenza
Mon 30 Aug 2021

Texas could become the first state in decades to ban most abortions, if a federal court allows a law called SB8 to take effect on 1 September.

A hearing was originally scheduled on Monday on whether the court should block the law. But the fifth circuit court of appeals cancelled the hearing late on Friday, and denied reproductive rights group an emergency motion on Sunday.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/30/abortion-law-federal-court-decision-texas

These Hawaii Doctors Are Fighting Guam’s Abortion Law

Abortions are legal in Guam, but women have no access to them because of a lack of local providers and rules requiring in-person consultations for the procedures.

By Eleni Avendaño
May 9, 2021

Women in Guam who want an abortion are being forced to come to Hawaii or travel elsewhere for the procedure since the island’s only abortion provider left a few years ago.

But two Hawaii physicians and the American Civil Liberties Union are trying to convince a Guam court that women in the U.S. territory should be able to get abortions using medication prescribed remotely instead of having to travel for an in-person appointment. A Guam judge denied a preliminary injunction last week and the case is now pending in District Court.

Continued: https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/05/these-hawaii-doctors-are-fighting-guams-abortion-law/

09.05.2021

Alexa Kolbi-Molinas

American Civil Liberties Union

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Dr. Reni Soon

Guam abortion law

Gynuity Health Projects

Heather Kennedy

Reproductive Freedom Project

telemedicine abortion

USA – Covid Put Remote Abortion to the Test. Supporters Say It Passed.

Medication abortion was briefly available online in some states, but a court ruling blocked it. Advocates want it back.

BY REBECCA GRANT
04.05.2021

LAST SUMMER, Cindy Adam and Lauren Dubey received the news they had hoped for, but hadn’t expected to get so soon. Their new telemedicine clinic would be able to offer remote medication abortion services, at least for the time being.

Medication abortion — which most commonly involves taking two medications, 24 to 48 hours apart, during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy — has been available in the U.S. since 2000. But, despite a growing chorus of advocates and experts who say remote access is just as safe as in-clinic care, the Food and Drug Administration requires providers to dispense mifepristone, the first of the two medications, inside the walls of a clinic, hospital, or medical office, citing the risk of complications. Most abortion providers interpreted this language to mean they could not mail mifepristone to patients’ homes, rendering fully remote abortion care impossible.

Continued: https://undark.org/2021/04/05/digital-abortion-access/

05.04.2021

Commentary

Featured

abortion access during pandemic

abortion pills by mail

ACLU

Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health

Aid Access

American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists

American Civil Liberties Union

ANSIRH

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Charlotte Lozier Institute

Choix

Covid-19 and abortion

Daniel Grossman

Elisa Wells

Elizabeth Raymond

Food and Drug Administration

Graham Chelius

Gynuity Health Projects

Hey Jane

Ibis Reproductive Health

in-person requirement

Reproductive Freedom Project

Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies

Sonia Sotomayor

TelAbortion Study

telehealth

telemedicine abortion

traveling for abortion

Democrats can now think ‘bigger and bolder’ on abortion. What can we actually expect?

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority, but Democrats just won control of the Senate

Caroline Kitchener
Jan. 7, 2021

2020 did not leave abortion rights advocates with much hope for the future of Roe v. Wade.

Their position was tenuous from the outset. After Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh was confirmed in October 2018, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. — a conservative — became the crucial swing vote on abortion cases. Conservatives strengthened their majority in October, when President Trump nominated Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace longtime women’s rights champion Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg after her death in September.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/democrats-can-now-think-bigger-and-bolder-on-abortion-what-can-we-actually-expect/

07.01.2021

American Civil Liberties Union

Amy Coney Barrett

Feminist Women’s Health Center

Georgia Life Alliance

Reproductive Freedom Project

Roe v. Wade

U.S. Supreme Court

Women’s Health Protection Act

A new film goes inside the war on civil rights, and this time ACLU lawyers are the stars

By Geoff Edgers
July 23, 2020

That night in Brooklyn, Elyse Steinberg, headed down to the courthouse and joined the crowd protesting newly inaugurated President Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban.” She watched as ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt emerged onto Cadman Plaza to announce a federal judge had granted those stranded in airports an emergency stay.

And the next morning, Steinberg, co-director of the 2016 documentary “Weiner,” headed into the office and straight to the white board.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/a-new-film-goes-inside-the-war-on-civil-rights-and-this-time-aclu-lawyers-are-the-stars/2020/07/22/d8c9cd6c-cb43-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html

23.07.2020

ACLU

American Civil Liberties Union

Reproductive Freedom Project

Scott Lloyd

The Fight film

Weiner film

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

USA – Kavanaugh drama: high stakes for rivals in abortion debate

Kavanaugh drama: high stakes for rivals in abortion debate

The Associated Press
Updated: September 26, 2018

NEW YORK — Among those riveted by the drama of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination are the rival sides in America’s abortion debate, each convinced that the nationwide right to abortion is at stake.

During his Senate confirmation hearing in early September, Kavanaugh deflected questions about whether he might favour overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established that right in all 50 states. However, anti-abortion activists and abortion-rights supporters — divided on so many matters — share a belief that Kavanaugh would be open to upholding state laws that would weaken Roe by further restricting abortion access.

Continued: https://vancouversun.com/pmn/news-pmn/kavanaugh-drama-high-stakes-for-rivals-in-abortion-debate/wcm/94fdfa23-28a4-4a45-8f19-18aa8af67696

USA: Janet Benshoof, lawyer who pursued abortion rights for women, dies at 70

Janet Benshoof, lawyer who pursued abortion rights for women, dies at 70

By Harrison Smith
December 19, 2017

Janet Benshoof, a human rights lawyer who campaigned to expand access to contraceptives and abortion, leading organizations that advocated on behalf of women from the mainland United States to Burma, Iraq and Guam, where she was once arrested for protesting the most restrictive abortion law in America, died Dec. 18 at her home in Manhattan. She was 70.

She was diagnosed in November with uterine serous carcinoma, an endometrial cancer, said her son David Benshoof Klein.

Continued at source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/janet-benshoof-lawyer-who-pursued-abortion-rights-for-women-dies-at-70/2017/12/19/76194422-e4d2-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html

USA: Immigrant Minor Held ‘Hostage’ by Texas Because She Wants Abortion Care

Immigrant Minor Held ‘Hostage’ by Texas Because She Wants Abortion Care

Oct 11, 2017
Tina Vasquez

"The government is basically trying to argue that undocumented immigrants have zero rights, including the right to abortion."

An unaccompanied immigrant minor at a Texas shelter is being prevented from accessing abortion care by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the federal agency overseeing migrant youth crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without a guardian.

Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Reproductive Freedom Project, is seeking a temporary restraining order today to allow Jane Doe to access abortion. The teen was granted a judicial bypass from a Texas judge, allowing her to receive an abortion because her parents were not willing or able to provide consent. However, the 17-year-old has had to cancel two abortion appointments because officials are both refusing her transportation to the medical facility and refusing to allow her to leave the shelter with her guardian for the purpose of obtaining an abortion. ORR is supposed to provide transportation to minors when they need to go to court or see a doctor.

Continued at source: https://rewire.news/article/2017/10/11/immigrant-minor-held-hostage-texas-wants-abortion-care/