Texas abortion funds likely safe from prosecution, federal judge rules

by Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune
February 24, 2023

A federal judge issued a favorable ruling for Texas abortion funds, indicating they likely cannot be criminally charged for helping people travel out of state to terminate their pregnancies.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman temporarily blocked prosecutors in eight counties from pursuing charges against anyone who helps someone get an abortion outside of Texas. But his ruling indicated he believes the laws he has enjoined them from enforcing may not actually be in effect at all.

Continued: https://sanantonioreport.org/texas-abortion-funds-prosecution-paxton/

24.02.2023

EXPLAINER: Undoing of Roe quickly shifts abortion in states

By Geoff Mulvihill, The Associated Press
Tue., Dec. 20, 2022

Anti-abortion groups hoped and strategized for decades for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that was delivered in June, ending a court-protected right to abortion after nearly 50 years. The fallout was immediate and far-reaching — and it’s not over yet.

The midyear ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established the right to abortion, shaped the national political agenda for the rest of the year and put abortion access in flux. The shifts are expected to keep coming as lawmakers, voters and judges weigh in.

Continued: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2022/12/20/explainer-undoing-of-roe-quickly-shifts-abortion-in-states.html

One-third of American women have lost abortion rights since Roe v. Wade overturned

Shelley Connor
Aug 29, 2022

Nearly a third of American women, around 21 million, lost access to abortion immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This week, trigger laws in five states have deprived even more of the right as trigger laws in states like Idaho and Texas went into effect. Thirty-six percent of American women will lose abortion rights should courts lift injunctions blocking anti-abortion legislation in other states.

On Thursday, legislation outlawing most abortions went into effect in Texas, Idaho and Tennessee. A stipulation in Idaho’s law, which would have made it illegal for doctors to perform abortions to preserve the mother’s health, was blocked by a federal judge. In Texas, abortion providers now face felony charges and can be sentenced to life in prison.

Continued: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/08/29/ickq-a29.html

29.08.2022

Sandra Cardona Alanís

traveling for abortion

New near-total abortions bans are taking effect in four states this week

Eleven states have outlawed abortion in almost all instances. The change will contribute to growing regional abortion deserts.

Shefali Luthra, Health Reporter
August 25, 2022

Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas will begin enforcing near-total abortion bans Thursday, and a ban in a fifth state — North Dakota — was blocked by a judge the day before it was set to go into effect Friday. So as of this week, 11 states will have outlawed abortion in almost all instances.

Abortions were legal in three of those states before this week, though they were difficult to obtain. After Roe v. Wade was overturned June 24, ending the federal right to an abortion, Idaho and Tennessee began enforcing six-week bans. Oklahoma and Texas have already begun enforcing laws banning abortions, but the laws taking effect Thursday add new legal punishments for people who provide the service.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2022/08/five-abortion-bans-texas-oklahoma-idaho-tennessee-north-dakota/

25.08.2022

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News

Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health

near-total abortion ban

Two months after the Dobbs ruling, new abortion bans are taking hold

August 23, 2022
Sarah McCammon

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week marks two months since the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision reversed decades of precedent guaranteeing abortion rights, and the effects of the decision are continuing to unfold as abortion bans take effect around the country.

Well before the opinion was issued on June 24, more than a dozen states had so-called "trigger bans" in place – laws written to prohibit abortion as soon as Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had legalized the procedure for nearly 50 years, was overturned.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/23/1118846811/two-months-after-the-dobbs-ruling-new-abortion-bans-are-taking-hold

Hundreds of Americans a week are seeking abortion help from Mexico – and most of them want a safe hand-off of abortion drugs at the border

Isabella Zavarise and Azmi Haroun
Aug 21, 2022

Over the last decade, Mexico's movement to access abortion has notched several victories in the halls of justice. But north of the border, the landscape of abortion availability continues to move in the opposite direction.

Fifteen years ago, abortion was a crime in Mexico. In 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court challenged the ruling, stating that abortion would no longer be criminalized. In states like Mexico City and Oaxaca, abortion is legal. Now, Mexican advocates told Insider that Americans are crossing the border for support that is difficult to find – or illegal – in some US states.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.com/hundreds-of-americans-a-week-are-seeking-abortion-help-from-mexico-2022-8

5 Abortion Providers on How Bans Are Putting People's Lives in Danger
“All of a sudden, we have to say, ‘I would do this in a heartbeat if I could—but I can’t.’”

By Reina Sultan
August 5, 2022

Abortion is now banned in 10 states, severely limited in another four, and threatened in about half of the country, in total. In states where exceptions may be made in cases of rape or incest, or for the sake of a patient’s life or well-being, guidelines are vague about what kind of abortion or abortion-adjacent care is still legal. This has left providers to decipher the unclear exception rules—and contend with the potential for prosecution, should they guess wrong. Abortion funds and practical support organizations have mobilized to provide resources to abortion seekers however they can. But, of course, they’re unable to offer many of the crucial in-person abortion services that so many patients continue to seek.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3addmv/abortion-providers-on-bans-after-roe-overturned-interview

05.08.2022

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

USA – Who and what is behind abortion ban trigger law bills? Two groups laid the groundwork

July 8, 2022
Ximena Bustillo

For two decades, abortion rights opponents have drafted so-called model legislation and lobbied to get the measures to restrict and ban abortions passed in statehouses across the country in preparation for the eventual fall of Roe v. Wade.

The model legislation and concerted political pressure from national organizations that oppose abortion rights resulted in key terms being cemented into laws, the limitation of abortion access and the influence behind the trigger laws that will go into effect in 13 states this summer as a result of the Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Roe.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110299496/trigger-laws-13-states-two-groups-laid-groundwork

08.07.2022

Commentary

Featured

Americans United for Life

National Right to Life Committee

Pain Capable Unborn Child Act

USA – Inside the Extreme Effort to Punish Women for Abortion

Abortion “abolitionists” are the outer edge of the anti-abortion movement. They’re looking to gain followers after the decision to overturn Roe, unsettling mainstream anti-abortion groups.

By Elizabeth Dias
July 1, 2022

Hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week, a man with a wiry, squared-off beard and a metal cross around his neck celebrated with his team at a Brazilian steakhouse. He pulled out his phone to livestream to his followers.

“We have delivered a huge blow to the enemy and to this industry,” the man, Jeff Durbin, said. But, he explained, “our work has just really begun.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/us/abortion-abolitionists.html

Tracking where abortion laws stand in every state

In more than half the states, abortion is now banned or under serious threat

Andrew Witherspoon and Alvin Chang
Tue 28 Jun 2022

The US supreme court ruled that abortion is not protected under the constitution, which means states now have the power to regulate the procedure as they see fit.

Abortion bans invalidated by Roe v Wade have suddenly been resurrected. States hostile to abortion are now putting into force “trigger laws”, designed to ban abortion if federal protections were overturned. And inevitably conservative state legislatures and governors will pass additional restrictions in the coming weeks and months. In about 60% of states, abortion is now banned, soon-to-be banned or under serious threat.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2022/jun/28/tracking-where-abortion-laws-stand-in-every-state

28.06.2022