U.S. States with strictest abortion laws offer the least support for women and families

Researchers evaluated states on access to maternal and family social services, childcare assistance and supplemental nutritional programs for families with children.

Sept. 4, 2024
By Kaitlin Sullivan

States with abortion bans are falling short in helping low-income families, experts say. New research from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago compared state abortion laws to public programs meant to help families, such as paid parental leave and state-funded nutrition programs for families with children.

“States with the most severe abortion restrictions have the least public infrastructure to support families,” said Dr. Nigel Madden, a maternal-fetal medicine physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who led the study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Public Health.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/states-strictest-abortion-laws-offer-least-support-women-families-rcna169578

04.09.2024

Commentary

Research

anti-choice contempt for women

anti-choice cruelty

anti-choice misogyny

Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

Caitlin Myers

Diana Greene Foster

Dr. Nigel Madden

Family and Medical Leave Act

USA – Anti-abortion groups warn Trump’s row back on position risks losing votes

Republican candidate’s comments seen by Democrats as hypocritical ‘sadden’ anti-abortion activists

Carter Sherman
Fri 30 Aug 2024

Over the last two weeks, Donald Trump has publicly backed away from multiple anti-abortion positions – a move that Democrats see as hypocritical and that, anti-abortion activists warn, risks alienating voters who have long stood by him.

On Thursday, Trump said that, if elected, he would make the government or insurance companies cover in vitro fertilization – a type of fertility assistance that some in the anti-abortion movement want to see curtailed. Trump also seemed to indicate that he planned to vote in favor of a ballot measure to restore abortion access in Florida, which currently bans abortion past six weeks of pregnancy. “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” Trump told NBC News in an interview.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/30/trump-ivf-anti-abortion-groups

Australian conservatives claim babies are sometimes ‘born alive’ after an abortion. What’s the truth?

Religious groups and conservative MPs want a law to supposedly protect those born alive, but experts say their claims are misleading and could threaten access to healthcare

Tory Shepherd
Tue 27 Aug 2024

Some religious groups and conservative politicians in Australia have claimed babies are being “born alive” after abortions and left to die alone.

But experts warn “born alive” campaigns are riddled with misinformation, use misleading statistics and could threaten women’s access to abortions.

So what’s really going on?

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/28/australian-conservatives-claim-babies-are-sometimes-born-alive-after-an-abortion-whats-the-truth

USA – Helping a minor travel for an abortion? Some states have made it a crime.

Last year, Idaho became the first state to outlaw ‘abortion trafficking,’ and in May, Tennessee enacted a similar law

By: Anna Claire Vollers
August 26, 2024

Helping a pregnant minor travel to get a legal abortion without parental consent is now a crime in at least two Republican-led states, prompting legal action by abortion-rights advocates and copycat legislation from conservative lawmakers in a handful of other states.

Last year, Idaho became the first state to outlaw “abortion trafficking,” which it defined as “recruiting, harboring or transporting” a pregnant minor to get an abortion or abortion medication without parental permission. In May, Tennessee enacted a similar law. And Republican lawmakers in Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma introduced abortion trafficking bills during their most recent legislative sessions, although those bills failed to advance before the sessions ended.

Continued; https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/08/26/helping-a-minor-travel-for-an-abortion-some-states-have-made-it-a-crime/

UK – Abortion clinic payout woman shocked at prayer arrest

Aug 21, 2024

A woman arrested after praying outside an abortion clinic has received a payout from police. Isabel Vaughan-Spruce from Worcestershire was accused of breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) outside the clinic in Kings Norton, Birmingham, but the charges were dropped last year.

She said her aim was to be "a peaceful and prayerful presence for women in crisis pregnancies". She received £13,000 from West Midlands Police, which said it settled her civil claim "without any admission of liability", adding the city council brought in the PSPO to deter protesters.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gze361j7xo

21.08.2024

News

Alliance Defending Freedom UK

anti-choice harassment

anti-choice misogyny

anti-choice protesters

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce

March for Life UK

Public Spaces Protection Order

reproductive coercion

Europe

United Kingdom

Anti-choice

UK – The battle for abortion buffer zones

A 2023 law banning protests around clinics remains unenforced amid dispute over 'silent prayer'

By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK
Aug 20, 2024

In the UK, protests outside clinics or hospitals that perform abortions are, theoretically, banned within a 150-metre "buffer zone". But the legislation has yet to be enforced in England and Wales, and draft guidance published by the last government controversially made allowances for silent prayer within the so-called "safe access zones".

Now, the Home Office is considering reviewing the guidance, reported The Daily Telegraph. Ministers will also review a provision which allows for "consensual" communication with those entering or leaving the premises, which protesters have "interpreted" as permission to hand out leaflets or talk to patients. Abortion rights activists and healthcare providers hope the review will result in both activities being banned as part of Labour's commitment to finally enforce the buffer zones.

Continued: https://theweek.com/health/the-battle-for-abortion-buffer-zones

UK – Buffer zones outside abortion clinics should protect women so why are women still being harassed?

Women are still waiting for the implementation of a new law to stop abortion clinic harassment, despite it being passed more than a year ago.

Sunday 18 August 2024
Olivia Petter

On 3 May last year, things were finally looking up for reproductive rights campaigners. After years of relentless pressure from abortion healthcare providers, the government had signed “buffer zones” into law, subsequently making it an offence to influence, obstruct, or harass those seeking terminations within 150 metres of a clinic.

“We were so relieved,” says Nichola Dowell, the clinical services matron at one such clinic, MSI in Camden, London. For years, she has witnessed the distressing impact that anti-abortion campaigners have on patients. “Abortion should be treated as healthcare, and everyone should be able to access it free from harassment.”

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/abortion-buffer-zones-delay-2024-b2596299.html

What It’s Like to Be an Abortion Clinic Escort In the Post-Roe Era

By Jasmine Knox
August 14, 2024

“A Whole New World” from Aladdin was blasting in the background while a stocky, middle-aged man in a tight t-shirt and cargo shorts yelled “C’mon baby girl! You know you don’t want to do this!” and warned me that I would face divine judgment for my decision. A volunteer grabbed a rainbow umbrella and shielded us from the man’s gaze.

I was there to interview Betty of Stand With Abortion Now, or SWAN, outside of Orlando’s Women’s Center, an independent clinic providing abortion services as well as crucial OBGYN care, including mammograms and cancer screenings. I wanted to speak with her about the work that abortion clinic escorts do amid constant fluctuation in abortion access laws and in the face of sometimes violent harassment from anti-abortion activists.

Continued: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-its-like-to-be-an-abortion-clinic-escort-in-the-post-roe-era

14.08.2024

Commentary

Abortion Access Missouri

abortion clinic escorts

clinic escorts

National Abortion Federation

Orlando Women's Center

Stand With Abortion Now

The GOP war on abortion has only led to higher abortion rates

More than two years after Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, reports show, abortions are becoming more common.

Aug. 14, 2024
By Andrea Grimes

“My goal, and the goal of many of those joining me here today, is to make abortion at any stage a thing of the past.” That line, spoken nearly 12 years ago by Texas’ then-Gov. Rick Perry while he was stumping outside a Houston-area anti-abortion pregnancy center, has been on my mind a lot over the past few days, thanks to new evidence showing more people are having abortions today than before Donald Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

...anti-abortion politics and policies are about punishment, predominantly for perceived noncompliance with Christian, patriarchal sexual customs. Rhetoric around eliminating abortion, more recently couched by anti-abortion propagandists as making abortion “unthinkable,” is a smokescreen. It’s intended to divert attention away from the deeply misogynist, oppressive heart of anti-abortion thinking and policymaking, which are primarily concerned with writing the subjugation of pregnant people into law.

Continued: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rising-abortion-rates-post-roe-policies-rcna166577

14.08.2024

anti-choice punishment

patriarchal authoritarianism

USA – Dozens of pregnant women being turned away from ERs despite federal law

More than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms have been turned away or negligently treated since 2022

By AMANDA SEITZ, Associated Press
August 12, 2024

Bleeding and in pain, Kyleigh Thurman didn’t know her doomed pregnancy could kill her.
Emergency room doctors at Ascension Seton Williamson in Texas handed her a pamphlet on miscarriage and told her to “let nature take its course” before discharging her without treatment for her ectopic pregnancy.

Bleeding and in pain, Kyleigh Thurman didn’t know her doomed pregnancy could kill her.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dozens-pregnant-women-bleeding-labor-turned-ers-despite-112773677