USA – Southerners Are Misrepresented on Abortion

A majority of voters in the Deep South disagree with their states’ extreme restrictions, highlighting the disconnect between the public and the legislators who represent them.

Chelsea Jones, Samyu Comandur
October 7, 2026

In 2022, the Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, allowing states to control their own reproductive health policies. Since then, Southern legislatures have passed rigid limits on abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. At the same time, doctors now must weigh the possibility of felony charges when administering life-saving care. In Georgia, the Maternal Mortality Review Committee reportedly found that two pregnant Black women had died for lack of appropriate care.

As Southern legislators continue to push for more restrictive measures, we investigated whether the post-Dobbs abortion bans they have already enacted are consistent with their constituents’ views. They are not. Surveys indicate that Southern voters largely do not support the abortion policies in their states. That is especially true of the five states that make up the Deep South — Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina — all of which either ban abortion outright or prohibit it beyond six weeks, making it effectively unavailable.

Continued: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/southerners-are-misrepresented-abortion

07.10.2026

19th Amendment

abortion bans

Chelsea Jones

Equal Rights Amendment

maternal deaths

maternal mortality review committee

public opposition to abortion bans

public support for abortion

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt

English-speaking, Texan and from vulnerable backgrounds: The Americans still accessing abortion thanks to Mexican feminists

Several studies put a face to the women who were denied the right to end a pregnancy after ‘Roe v. Wade’ was overturned

Roberto González
SEP 27, 2026

The year 2023 was pivotal for understanding the effects of abortion restrictions in the United States. A year earlier, in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the decision known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO), which overturned the abortion-rights protection established by a previous ruling from 1973: Roe v. Wade. Since then, thousands of American women have ended pregnancies with help from Mexican feminist collectives. Several recent studies put a face to those seeking abortions: a large share come from states such as Texas, where abortion is banned, and live in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2026-09-27/english-speaking-texan-and-from-vulnerable-backgrounds-the-americans-still-accessing-abortion-thanks-to-mexican-feminists.html

USA – ‘Abortion Was Not a Problem for Me’ — Remembering the Clergy Consultation Service

A network of brave clergy contradicts the conflation of religion with anti-abortion politics.

Cody McDevitt
August 12, 2026

In recent months, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution describing abortion as sinful; Vice President JD Vance, comparing abortion to child sacrifice, told March for Life attendees that the nation faces a choice between remaining “under God” or returning to paganism; and Pope Leo XIV told the Spanish Parliament that defending “the unborn” is a “goal of civilization.” Together, these messages reinforce a familiar impression: that religion and support for abortion rights have always stood in opposition. But history tells a more complicated story.

Long before Roe v. Wade, ministers and rabbis across the nation quietly helped women obtain abortions that were safer than the alternatives. Some challenged abortion laws that endangered women’s lives. Others saw helping women navigate unwanted pregnancies not as a rejection of their religious commitment, but as an expression of it. The history of Philadelphia’s Clergy Consultation Service offers a window into that largely forgotten chapter of American religious life.

Continued: https://religiondispatches.org/2026/08/12/abortion-was-not-problem-me-remembering-clergy-consultation-service

Beyond American Exceptionalism: What the Success of the Green Wave Can Teach U.S. Abortion Activists

As abortion rights erode across the United States, feminist organizers are looking to Argentina’s Green Wave and other global movements for lessons in solidarity, strategy and mass mobilization.

5/21/2026
by Clare Daniel and Martha Silva

The United States has long positioned itself as an enlightened exporter of democratic governance, moral correctness and technical expertise. The notion of American exceptionalism—in which the U.S. is thought to possess a distinct character born of its revolutionary history, frontier spirit and democratic structure—dates back to the 1800s and has informed approaches to international development and global governance throughout the 20th century to today.

While the idea of the U.S. as a bastion of moral superiority has always been a myth—evident, for example, in efforts to shield Jim Crow laws from scrutiny in the founding of the United Nations—the overturning of Roe v. Wade is one of the latest reminders of this fallacy, particularly as it pertains to global health and women’s rights. It is also a cautionary tale for the rest of the world about the fragility of reproductive rights.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/05/21/america-abortion-latin-america-green-wave-activism/

Two Neighbours, Two Courts, One Paradox: Abortion Rights in the US and Mexico

By Devashri Awasthi, McGill International Review
Mar 21, 2026

In September 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) unanimously declared criminalizing abortion unconstitutional. Nine months later, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade (1973). The irony is striking: Mexico—commonly perceived as conservative and overwhelmingly Catholic—expanded abortion rights through judicial reasoning, while the United States—long self-identified as a global rights leader—restricted access through partisan judicial maneuvering. Two neighbouring Christian-majority countries with politically compromised judiciaries reached diametrically opposite conclusions on closely related constitutional questions.

Taken together, these rulings pose a clear comparative puzzle. Holding religion constant and treating politics as the product rather than the cause, analyzing this outcome centres on judicial interpretation, social movements, and international human rights uptake as the channels through which the bounds of the decision were set.

Continued: https://www.mironline.ca/two-neighbours-two-courts-one-paradox-abortion-rights-in-the-us-and-mexico/

‘Lone Star Three’: How Three UT Austin Students Paved the Way for Birth Control Access in 1960s Texas

In the years before Roe v. Wade, three UT Austin students built a quiet network helping women access birth control and abortion care in Texas.

March 5, 2026
by Livia Follet and Ava Slocum

In 1969, Victoria Foe, Judy Smith and Barbara Hines were students at the University of Texas in Austin, when Smith invited Foe and Hines to attend women’s liberation meetings at her house. What began as late-night conversations quickly grew into a campus Birth Control Information Center … and eventually an underground network helping women access abortion at a time when the procedure was illegal in Texas.

Their activism would eventually extend far beyond their university campus, planting the seeds for Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that would legalize abortion in the U.S. Not until 1965 did the Supreme Court recognize a constitutional right for married couples to use birth control; in 1972, it extended that right to unmarried people as well.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/03/05/lone-star-three-documentary-roe-v-wade-texas-abortion-birth-control-victoria-foe-judy-smith-barbara-hines/

Trump administration to block foreign aid from those promoting abortion, DEI and gender identity

By MATTHEW LEE and ALI SWENSON
January 22, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is expanding its ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

An administration official said Thursday that the State Department would release final rules that expand the scope of the “Mexico City” policy that has already severely reduced assistance to international organizations that provide abortion-related care. The policy was first established under President Ronald Reagan, rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and reinstated in Trump’s first term.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/trump-foreign-aid-dei-gender-ideology-afbc10132dae462c368bab91671747eb

Abortion Access Can’t Depend on Rage Donations

Post-Dobbs abortion access has been propped up by donor outrage and heroic work—but that fragile system is already leaving people behind.

1/21/2026
by David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe

Now, almost three and a half years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the numbers are clear that abortion in the United States has, to the shock of most, continued to rise. But we also have data showing that a small but not trivial number of people are continuing their pregnancies to birth due to abortion bans. To us, what this shows is clear: that overturning Roe has prompted ingenuity, persistence and resistance among providers and patients, but is also leaving many people behind. Ultimately, this is no way to deliver healthcare.

As long-time students of the abortion issue in America, we were not surprised when the Supreme Court, in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case in 2022, overturned Roe, putting the legality of abortion in the hands of individual states.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2026/01/21/abortion-roe-v-wade-dobbs-donations-clinic/

Anti-life: How U.S. abortion bans actually affect mothers and babies

Svetlana Bozrova
18 January 2026

In early December 2025, a law came into force in Texas banning the sale of medication abortion drugs to residents. Since the summer of 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to set their own reproductive legislation, Texas has become one of the country’s leaders when it comes to restrictions on abortion rights. As of today, the procedure is partially or fully banned in 14 states, leading to a rise in maternal and infant mortality. Experience from elsewhere in the world shows that criminalizing abortion does not increase birth rates, but it does create risks to women’s health and lives, making it harder for them to obtain legal medical care and forcing them to terminate pregnancies underground.

CONTENT:

A fundamental shift

Maternal mortality after abortion restrictions

Social inequality: who suffers most

Ideology versus statistics

Experience from elsewhere

Continued: https://theins.ru/en/society/288559

It Is Sacred Work’: Abortion Clinics Are Stepping Up After the Fall of Roe

Organizations across the country are ensuring people continue to have access to reproductive care.

by Eleanor J. Bader
November 25, 2025

In the first 100 days after the June 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, sixty-six health clinics in fifteen states stopped providing surgical abortions, and fourteen states enacted near-total bans on the procedure.

But then something unexpected happened. By 2024, twenty-one new facilities had opened in states where abortion was not completely banned, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Moreover, KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) reports that by 2023, 226 virtual providers—including online pharmacies, feminist health centers, and help lines—had set up shop to counsel people seeking abortion services and provide abortion medication through the mail.

Continued: https://progressive.org/latest/it-is-sacred-work-abortion-clinics-are-stepping-up-after-the-fall-of-roe-bader-20251125/