Republicans Urge Supreme Court to Topple Roe, Slash Abortion Rights

By Greg Stohr
July 29, 2021

A cascade of Republicans called on the U.S. Supreme Court to roll back constitutional abortion protections, potentially by overruling the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.

In a brief filed Thursday, 228 GOP members of Congress urged the court to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy -- and overturn Roe along the way if necessary. A separate brief from 12 Republican governors asked the court to toss out its abortion-rights precedents, arguing that “the authority to regulate abortion should be returned to the states.”

Continued: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-29/republicans-urge-high-court-to-topple-roe-slash-abortion-rights

What U.S. abortion access looks like, in graphics

States are passing more abortion restrictions, which could reshape what abortion access looks like across the country.

July 25, 2021
By Chloe Atkins

The current landscape of abortion access in the United States came into focus in May after the Supreme Court decided to consider the legality of Mississippi's ban on nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Mississippi’s restriction was the first to reach the court from a wave of state laws intended to strike down Roe v. Wade, the decision that established the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.

The first major abortion case since the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett solidified a conservative majority comes as state legislatures around the country have brought a historic number of laws seeking to tighten abortion access.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/what-u-s-abortion-access-looks-graphics-n1274859

What happens if the Supreme Court throws out Roe v. Wade?

Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
Sat July 24, 2021

In some alternate universe, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg retired during the Obama presidency and Democrats were able to push through a successor to the conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

In that universe, nobody is talking about an end to nearly 50 years of nationwide access to abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/24/politics/what-matters-roe-v-wade-decision-and-breyer/index.html

24.07.2021

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Mississippi asks Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in upcoming case

By Robert Barnes
July 22, 2021

Mississippi is asking the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade in order to uphold the state’s restrictions on abortion access, and to renounce the court’s landmark holding a half-century ago that the Constitution protects a woman’s right to obtain an abortion.

The state’s bold request is in a brief filed Thursday that seeks to persuade the court it should approve a law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, far earlier than now allowed.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/mississippi-abortion-supreme-court-roe-v-wade/2021/07/22/9b30cb8a-eb23-11eb-97a0-a09d10181e36_story.html

Federal judge blocks Arkansas law banning nearly all abortions

Law, which was set to take effect on Friday, was approved by Republican-led legislature and signed by Asa Hutchinson

Maya Yang and agencies

Wed 21 Jul 2021

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a law passed in Arkansas that would ban
nearly all abortions.

The law, which was set to take effect on Friday, had been approved by
Arkansas’s Republican-led legislature and signed by the state’s Republican
governor, Asa Hutchinson.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/21/arkansas-abortion-ban-federal-judge-blocks

Even people who oppose abortion should fear Texas’s new ban

The law could give a roadmap to any state that wants to target a federal right, from gun ownership to free speech.

By Julia Kaye and Marc Hearron
July 19, 2021

This spring, the Texas legislature dropped the charade that its years-long campaign to shutter abortion clinics was ever about patient safety and simply banned abortion outright. Texas Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8) prohibits abortions beginning at approximately six weeks of pregnancy — before many people even realize they are pregnant. Our organizations, along with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and other partners, have sued to block S.B. 8 on behalf of a coalition of Texas abortion clinics, doctors, health center staff, abortion funds, practical support networks and clergy, because the law will cause profound harm to Texans and is plainly unconstitutional.

But even those opposed to abortion should be alarmed by this law, which could draw a road map for states and localities looking to dismantle constitutional rights with impunity.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/19/texas-sb8-abortion-lawsuits/

With Abortion Under Assault, Time for Pro-Choice Men to Break Their Silence

Anti-choice men are loud and clear on this issue, so it's time pro-choice men step up and make some noise.

OREN JACOBSON
July 19, 2021

My grandfather was one of the ten percent of Polish Jews to survive World War II. As a Jew, I understand in my bones the dehumanizing impact of a government controlling the most fundamental aspects of your life, and that understanding fuels my work as an advocate for reproductive freedom and justice.

Amid the ongoing, decades-long assault on abortion access in this country, with more than 500 new bills proposed across the country this year alone to further restrict, ban, and criminalize abortion, we often focus on the potential impact of these measures but not their cause. The truth is that people responsible for this grim reality are overwhelmingly anti-choice men in Congress and state legislatures, who have used their power in elected office to rob pregnant people of the ability to make their own reproductive decisions.

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/07/19/abortion-under-assault-time-pro-choice-men-break-their-silence

19.07.2021

In Texas, vigilantism replaces the rule of law

Ruth Marcus, Deputy editorial page editor
July 16, 2021

Leave it to Texas to come up with a way to violate women’s constitutional rights with a modern twist on vigilante justice.

At least eight states have passed laws that purport to prohibit abortions early in pregnancy — so-called fetal heartbeat laws that would bar abortion as early as six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant. “Purport to” is the operative phrase here, however. Because these laws are clearly unconstitutional — at least until the Supreme Court says differently — federal judges have stepped in to block them from taking effect.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/16/texas-vigilantism-replaces-rule-law/

16.07.2021

anti-choice restrictions

anti-choice vigilantes

Black Women Bear the Brunt of Criminalized Pregnancy and Motherhood. Here’s Why We Can’t Afford to Ignore It

No one should be forced to undergo the threat of arrest and incarceration because of any pregnancy outcome.

By Erika Maye
7/16/21

Pregnancy means a time of joy, full of celebrations and preparations for exciting changes. But in the United States, for Black women on a journey to parenthood, it could mean a direct pathway to incarceration.

Last year, Maya Caston was incarcerated after reporting that she gave birth to stillborn twins. Instead of receiving support and care that was desperately needed, she was arrested and indicted by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. This is a microcosm of the circumstances Black women face; from the time a Black person becomes pregnant, they are placed under a microscope. Every action she takes that is perceived as a threat to the fetus is a potential threat to her freedom. And for those suffering from addiction, the threat is even more severe, as the criminalization of Black people struggling with substance abuse is rampant. In short, the blatant disregard for Black women’s right to reproductive autonomy is a direct outcome of the battles waged over reproductive rights both before and after Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.theroot.com/black-women-bear-the-brunt-of-criminalized-pregnancy-an-1847294583

16.07.2021

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black women and abortion

criminalization of Black people

A question of faith: Biden, Catholicism and the presidency

Some bishops think America's second Catholic president should be denied the Eucharist. Are Biden's faith and job title an unworkable mix?

By Tara McKelvey, BBC White House reporter
July 13, 2021

On the matter of faith, President Joe Biden is not shy.

Each weekend that he is in town, he goes to
Mass in Washington. A motorcade takes him on Saturday evenings or Sunday
mornings to Holy Trinity, the church where President Kennedy, the only other
Catholic US president, used to attend services. He makes the sign of the cross
at public events, and his Catholicism is woven into his speeches and policies.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57825309