Trump signs anti-abortion policies after speaking to March for Life

Those impacted include overseas health organizations that distribute contraception and help combat HIV.

By Alice Miranda Ollstein and Carmen Paun
01/24/2025

President Donald Trump’s campaign-trail promise to leave abortion regulation to the states lasted just a few days into his presidency.

He issued executive orders on Friday that revive some anti-abortion policies from his first administration — including restrictions on federal funding for family planning and other health programs abroad that discuss abortion as an option or provide referrals for the procedure.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/24/trump-issues-executive-orders-reviving-anti-abortion-policies-00200212


New Research Finds Potential Alternative to Abortion Pill Mifepristone

The research could further complicate the polarized politics of abortion because the drug in the study is the key ingredient in a pill used for emergency contraception.

By Pam Belluck and Emily Bazelon
Jan. 23, 2025

A new study suggests a possible alternative to the abortion pill mifepristone, a drug that continues to be a target of lawsuits and legislation from abortion opponents.

But the potential substitute could further complicate the politics of reproductive health because it is also the key ingredient in a contraceptive morning-after pill.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/health/abortion-pill-ella.html


USA – Harris hoped to ride abortion to another post-Dobbs Democratic victory. It didn’t work.

The issue failed to stop Donald Trump, who on Tuesday overcame a large gender gap — and Democrats’ relentless focus on women’s reproductive health — to win back the White House.

By Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly
Nov 6, 2024

Abortion has haunted Republicans since the fall of Roe v. Wade. But the issue failed to stop former President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday overcame a large gender gap — and Democrats’ relentless focus on women’s reproductive health — to win back the White House.

With message discipline that often eluded other parts of his campaign, Trump and his allies positioned themselves as moderates on abortion, arguing the issue should be left to states, pledged to veto a national abortion ban should it reach his desk, pitched government support for in-vitro fertilization and other reproductive health services, and promised to be a champion for women. These attempts to neutralize an issue that has dogged Republicans since Roe’s fall in 2022 helped Trump notch a clear victory against Vice President Kamala Harris with an electorate angry over the economy, inflation and immigration bent on punishing the party in power.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/06/abortion-trump-2024-00187825


Abortion Rights Advocates See Harris as an Ideal Messenger

“This election will be fought and won on the issue of reproductive freedom, and Kamala Harris has been a pro-choice champion her entire career.”

JULIANNE MCSHANE, Mother Jones
July 21, 2024

On Sunday, abortion rights advocates got some rare good news. After President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection this November, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

Harris has been the administration’s strongest defender of abortion rights post-Dobbs—direct and consistent in her support. She has taken Trump to task for the fallout of overruling Roe; she has warned of Republicans’ ability to enact a nationwide abortion ban if Trump is re-elected; and she has traveled the country on what the White House called a “reproductive freedoms tour” to highlight the harms of abortion bans—which included a stop at a Minnesota Planned Parenthood, making her the first VP known to have ever visited an abortion clinic while in office.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/07/abortion-rights-advocates-see-harris-as-their-ideal-messenger-2024-kamala-harris-reporductive-rights/


Inside the $100 million plan to restore abortion rights in America

Leaders of the coalition say they want to make the procedure more accessible and affordable than ever before.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
06/24/2024

A new coalition of abortion-rights groups is marking the second anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade with a pledge to spend $100 million to restore federal protections for the procedure and make it more accessible than ever before.

In plans shared first with POLITICO, groups including Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and Reproductive Freedom for All are banding together to form Abortion Access Now — a national, 10-year campaign that will both prepare policies for the next time Democrats control the House, Senate and White House, and build support for those policies among lawmakers and the public. At a private event Monday evening in Washington, they will pitch a group of influential progressives on going on offense at a time when abortion is outlawed in a third of the country.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/24/abortion-rights-advocates-launch-100-million-campaign-00164528


Many Republicans support abortion. Are they switching parties because of it?

GOP leadership has floundered on the issue, and members have conflicting answers on party loyalty

Carter Sherman
Sat 13 Jan 2024

The first time Carol Whitmore ever had sex, she got pregnant.

It was 1973, and Whitmore was a teenager. Whitmore’s parents were in and out of trouble with the police, Whitmore said. When they told Whitmore they would help her raise the child, she thought, nope.

Instead, Whitmore got an abortion. That same year, the US supreme court legalized abortion nationwide in Roe v Wade.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/13/abortion-republican-voters-presidential-election


USA – Conservatives move to keep abortion off the 2024 ballot

“We don’t believe those rights should be subjected to majority vote.”

by ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and MEGAN MESSERLY
12/18/2023

Conservatives are testing new tactics to keep abortion off the ballot following a series of high-profile defeats.

In Arizona, Florida, Nevada and other states, several anti-abortion groups are buying TV and digital ads, knocking on doors and holding events to persuade people against signing petitions to put the issue before voters in November.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/18/first-rule-of-the-anti-abortion-playbook-dont-let-the-public-vote-on-abortion-00132049


USA – Anti-Abortion Groups Undeterred by Election Losses, Press On in Courts

Abortion opponents are seeking ways to work around voters and cancel out victories at the polls for reproductive rights.

By Rachana Pradhan , KFF HEALTHNEWS
November 23, 2023

Anti-abortion groups are firing off a warning shot for 2024: We’re not going anywhere.

Their leaders say they’re undeterred by recent election setbacks and plan to plow ahead on what they’ve done for years, including working through state legislatures, federal agencies, and federal courts to outlaw abortion. And at least one prominent anti-abortion group is calling on conservative states to make it harder for voters to enact ballot measures, a tactic Republican lawmakers attempted in Ohio before voters there enshrined the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/anti-abortion-groups-undeterred-by-election-losses-press-on-in-courts/


How Many Abortions Did the Post-Roe Bans Prevent?

The first estimate of births since Dobbs found that almost a quarter of women who would have gotten abortions carried their pregnancies to term.

By Margot Sanger-Katz and Claire Cain Miller
Nov. 22, 2023

The first data on births since Roe v. Wade was overturned shows how much abortion bans have had their intended effect: Births increased in every state with a ban, an analysis of the data shows.

By comparing birth statistics in states before and after the bans passed, researchers estimated that the laws caused around 32,000 annual births, based on the first six months of 2023, a relatively small increase that was in line with overall expectations.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/upshot/abortion-births-bans-states.html


Anti-Abortion Groups Are Coming for Birth Control—Just as Reproductive Rights Activists Warned

Dark money anti-abortion and pay-to-play groups are predictably responding to the FDA’s over-the-counter birth control pill decision with disinformation.

8/17/2023
by ANSEV DEMIRHAN

In July, the FDA approved the first over-the-counter contraceptive pill, Opill (norgestrel). Opill is expected to be available for purchase online, in pharmacies, and convenience and grocery stores, without a prescription in early 2024.

With barriers to reproductive healthcare increasing—especially for Black, Latino and poor people—and more than 19 million women in the U.S. living in “contraceptive deserts” without easy access to reproductive health clinics, Opill will be a vital tool in the fight for reproductive justice.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/08/17/anti-abortion-pro-life-over-the-counter-birth-control-women/