October 27, 2020
Sarah McCammon
Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation could open the door to a world that many anti-abortion-rights activists have been envisioning for decades.
"I hope and pray that we will be in a world post-Roe v. Wade," said Carrie Murray Nellis, 41, an adoption attorney based in Georgia.
OCT. 27, 2020
By Madeleine Aggeler
With the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the legal battle over reproductive rights in the United States is likely to intensify quickly. There are currently 17 abortion-related cases one step away from the Supreme Court. And now, with a 6-3 conservative majority on the Court, the future of Roe v. Wade — the 1973 case which ruled that abortion is a constitutional right — is more uncertain than ever.
Barrett, a devout Catholic and former mentee of the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, evaded questions about abortion during her confirmation hearing. But pro-choice groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood have called her a “clear and present danger to Roe and reproductive freedom,” and “a particular insult to the legacy of Justice Ginsberg.” Indeed, Barrett was a member of an anti-abortion, “right to life” group in Indiana as recently as 2016, and in 2013, she gave two talks to anti-abortion student groups at the University of Notre Dame.
Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2020/10/what-are-trigger-laws-anti-abortion-roe-v-wade.html
Abortion rights don't hinge on whether a new Justice Amy Coney Barrett votes to overturn Roe. They're already at death's door by a thousand smaller cuts.
Ziad Munson, Opinion contributor
Oct 26, 2020
Here's a reality check for both sides of the abortion issue: The days when the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling protected widespread and easy access to abortion, along with the days when overturning Roe might dramatically reduce the number of abortions, are decades in the past.
The value of Roe today is not so much practical as it is symbolic. For the pro-choice movement, Roe has become an important public face of reproductive rights and a symbol of women's equality under the law. For the pro-life movement, Roe represents an original sin that activists have spent almost two generations working to erase.
BY CAROLINA ABUELO, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
10/25/20
In the conference room of Hospital Dos de Mayo in Lima, Peru, where I was researching cervical cancer, the medical resident droned through a list of bizarre tropical illnesses that had previously only existed in my North American textbooks. He was piecing together a case of fever and pain in the pelvis of a woman in her 20s. Then he added one more potential diagnosis: botched abortion.
That diagnosis had never occurred to me and was not part of my medical training in the United States. A few weeks later and a few miles away at our apartment in Lima, my baby sitter sat me down at the dining table to tell me that she was pregnant. Knowing that Maria’s husband had been unfaithful to her, I was not sure if congratulations were in order. As it turned out, he did not want to have this child and had encouraged her to pursue termination, even though it was illegal in Peru. He planned for her to take some black-market drugs.
Chris Ahlbach
October 24, 2020
With the vacancy on the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade currently faces the biggest threat in our lifetime. Although Roe was insufficient in securing access to abortion for many people in the US, its repeal would catapult us into an era where one of the safest and most common medical procedures known becomes illegal in many states. For decades, abortion has occupied a politicized space in American medicine, leading to this impending crisis of millions of people losing access to this health service. No matter what happens with Roe, I choose to advocate to expand access to health care, including abortion, and call on my fellow health care providers to join me in this moral work.
Continued: https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/why-im-becoming-an-abortion-provider-now/
Do Canadians need to worry about their reproductive rights?
By Corrina Allen
October 22, 2020
As if we weren’t already living through a pandemic-induced dystopian nightmare this year, Republicans south of the border are attempting to push through the confirmation of an anti-choice Supreme Court justice candidate who once served as a “handmaid” in a hierarchical male-dominated religious community and, in 2006, signed a public letter in favour of overturning “barbaric” Roe v. Wade, the legal foundation for access to reproductive healthcare rights in the U.S.
The appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s seat on the highest court in the United States would tip the scales in favour of anti-choice organizations that have been chipping away at abortion rights for decades. Already, 90% of American counties lack their own clinic and 21 states stand poised to severely limit or outright ban abortions should Roe be struck down by a reconstituted, conservative-dominated court. American women are and should be scared that their access to safe abortion could largely disappear.
Continued: https://www.flare.com/news/politics-of-abortion-in-canada/
by Jhoni Jackson
21 October
"I've had two abortions, I'm blessed, that's it," Viva Ruiz tells PAPER. "God loves us. Period. There's no apology. There's no debate."
Last week, Thank God for Abortion — a collective activism initiative, though founded by Ruiz, who is currently an artist-in-residence at Shout Your Abortion — released an eponymous anthem. It's an electro-reggaeton track that, combined with its video, leaves little unspoken, connecting the dots between various oppressions. 100% of Bandcamp proceeds will benefit the Abortion Care Network.
Continued: https://www.papermag.com/thank-god-for-abortion-song-music-video-2648432642.html
PBS, Oct 21, 2020
by Courtney Vinopal
Over her three-day confirmation hearing, Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett repeatedly declined to discuss her stance on abortion. But while there is no way to know for certain how she will rule on such cases, legal scholars say that her record, as well as a careful reading of certain answers she gave the Senate Judiciary Committee, gives clues about where the Supreme Court could be headed on issues of reproductive rights.
Barrett assured members of the committee that she would bring “no agenda” to her role if confirmed to the high court. She has also expressed anti-abortion beliefs in the past, and joined two dissents on abortion restriction cases during her time on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
KAYLA KUMARI UPADHYAYA
OCTOBER 20, 2020
Conversations about abortion have been playing out on the big screen since decades before Roe V. Wade legalized them in the United States in 1973. One of the first known movies that deals with the topic is a 1916 film called Where Are My Children? Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the early year, it was a negative portrayal of abortion.
In recent years, however, depictions of abortion in movies have become more common and somewhat more realistic. In 2020 alone, there have been nine films that depict a character obtaining an abortion, double the number of 2019, according to Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH)’s Abortion Onscreen Database. Only two of these movies showed an adverse physical outcome as a result of an abortion, and none portray an adverse psychological outcome. Two are comedies.
Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10015436/abortion-road-trip-movie-trend
STEPHANIE LONG
OCTOBER 20, 2020
In 1973, Roe v. Wade made abortion legal across the U.S., but, as is the case with many other laws and landmark decisions, its application throughout the country was anything but simple — or equal. Decades after the Supreme Court’s ruling that a person's freedom to have an abortion without excessive government limitations is constitutionally protected, various restrictions continue to pose obstacles for people seeking abortions. And, with the appointment of several new conservative judges to the Supreme Court, as well as a rise in restrictive abortion legislation being passed at the state level, the road ahead isn’t looking much clearer.
In 2019 alone, 25 new abortion laws were passed — including bans on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia, and a full abortion ban in Alabama.
Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10015405/abortion-ban-racism-black-women-effects
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