Two years after Roe’s overturn, there are more abortions in America — but they’re harder to get

Abortion has become more diffuse, thanks to the rise of telehealth and abortion pills. Both are under fire in the courts and state legislatures.

Shefali Luthra, Health Reporter
June 24, 2024

Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the number of abortions performed in the country is up. But that’s only part of the story. In many places, they are also much harder to get or provide.

Clinicians nationwide provided more than a million abortions in 2023 – the highest in the country’s recorded history — in the first full year since Roe’s fall, according to the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute. That’s the result of a dramatic change in how people get abortions: Rather than receiving clinic-based care in their home states, people are increasingly traveling across state lines, or going online to obtain drug prescriptions. Almost 200,000 people traveled to another state for an abortion. Data from the Society of Family Planning suggests that 1 in 5 are now done through telemedicine, in which a health care professional prescribes and mails abortion pills for a patient to take at home.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2024/06/two-years-roe-overturn-abortions/

She wanted an abortion. Her only option was driving to Mexico.

An excerpt from 'Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in a Post-Roe America'

May 26, 2024
Shefali Luthra

This article, an excerpt from “Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in a Post-Roe America,” was originally published by The 19th.

Before Roe v. Wade fell, McAllen had been home to the last abortion clinic in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, and Becky, a lifelong Texan and young college student, knew the place by sight. It was where the other girls at school used to go whenever they needed help, just by city hall, next to a church, and a short drive from an H-E-B supermarket. It was easy to find. There was a mural on the outside of brightly painted women standing in a field, holding what looked like balls of light, gazing up at the sun. The words hovered above them: “dignity.” “empowerment.”

Few places were harder hit by Roe’s fall than the Rio Grande Valley, which lies south of San Antonio and abuts the state’s border with Mexico. Even before 2021, reproductive health care in the region had been difficult to come by — and abortion, while technically available, was only barely so in practice.

Continued: https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/052624_abortion_burdens/she-wanted-abortion-her-only-option-was-driving-mexico/

26.05.2024

self-managed abortion

Shefali Luthra

South Texans for Reproductive Justice

traveling to Mexico for abortion

Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in a Post-Roe America

Whole Woman’s Health

15-week abortion bans are the center of Republican debate. Experts say that cutoff is arbitrary.

Anti-abortion politicians have recently linked 15-weeks to fetal pain. That benchmark has been moving for years — and it's still not accurate.

Shefali Luthra
December 6, 2023

The Republican debate over abortion has centered around one number: 15. Backers of a 15-week federal ban tout it as a compromise measure, even in the face of recent electoral defeat.

Anti-abortion advocates hope congressional candidates will embrace this measure, and they’re pushing GOP presidential candidates to promise they would sign such a bill.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/12/15-week-abortion-bans-arbitrary-number-republican-debate/

As the US continues to pass extreme abortion bans, Latin American countries legalize access

Published March 10, 2022
Podcast: 51:56 minutes

On this edition of Your Call, we'll discuss the continued attacks on abortion and the very real possibility that Roe could be overturned in the United States. If that happens, 26 states would ban most or all abortions, including Idaho, Louisiana, Utah, and Ohio.

As extreme bans continue to pass in the US, Columbia, Argentina, and Mexico are moving forward by legalizing or decriminalizing abortion. It's taken decades of grassroots activism. We'll find out how they did it.

Guests:
Shefali Luthra, reporter for The 19th, covering health policy and gender
Giselle Carino, chief executive of Fos Feminista, an alliance of more than 135 organizations worldwide advancing sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice for women, girls, and gender diverse people through healthcare and activism

Continued: https://www.kalw.org/show/your-call/2022-03-10/as-the-us-continues-to-pass-extreme-abortion-bans-latin-american-countries-legalize-access