Opinion: This law from the 1870s could imperil abortion in blue states

Opinion by Mary Ziegler
Fri January 27, 2023

Since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June, promising strategies have emerged to protect abortion rights in individual states. Some have begun to pass ballot initiatives to preserve or create state constitutional protection. Others have looked to legislatures to shield doctors and those who help people seeking abortion from potential consequences in conservative states.

These wins are hardly a silver bullet: not all states allow ballot initiatives and there are any number of states where majorities of voters seem to support abortion rights but are governed by legislators who want to ban the procedure—a result of deep partisan divides, gerrymandering and limits on access to the vote.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/27/opinions/abortion-at-risk-in-blue-states-ziegler-ctrp/index.html

27.01.2023

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Alliance Defending Freedom

USA – New lawsuits target state restrictions on abortion pills

Wed, January 25, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supporters of abortion rights filed separate lawsuits Wednesday challenging two states' abortion pill restrictions, the opening salvo in what’s expected to a be a protracted legal battle over access to the medications.

The lawsuits argue that limits on the drugs in North Carolina and West Virginia run afoul of the federal authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has approved the abortion pill as a safe and effective method for ending pregnancy.

Continued: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/lawsuits-target-state-restrictions-abortion-171454321.html

Harris rallies against GOP push to roll back abortion rights

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and SEUNG MIN KIM

Jan 21, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris railed against efforts in Washington and in Republican-led states to restrict abortion on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, invoking fundamental American values such as freedom to make the case for protecting abortion access despite the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate constitutional protections for it.

Leading the administration’s response on commemorating Roe on Sunday, Harris methodically detailed fights throughout history for certain liberties, such as civil rights and the right to vote for women, and tied that to access for abortion, which Harris called the “fundamental, constitutional, right of a woman to make decisions about her own body.”

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-biden-politics-health-florida-state-government-3050ca96e5d1fe914c1e2c1ad18a5b8f

21.01.2023

USA – Most abortion bans include exceptions. In practice, few are granted

Jan. 21, 2023
By Amy Schoenfeld Walker, The New York Times

Last summer, a Mississippi woman sought an abortion after, she said, a friend had raped her. Her state prohibits most abortions but allows them for rape victims. Yet she could not find a doctor to provide one.

In September, an Indiana woman learned that a fetal defect meant her baby would die shortly after birth, if not sooner. Her state’s abortion ban included an exception for such cases, but she was referred to Illinois or Michigan.

Continued: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/most-abortion-bans-include-exceptions-in-practice-few-are-granted/

Roe Was Never Roe After All

The landmark decision never gave women the rights that people wanted to believe it did.

By Mary Ziegler
JANUARY 21, 2023

Tomorrow will mark 50 years since Roe v. Wade was decided, but the landmark ruling did not make it to its semicentennial, having been overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last summer. Many people viewed this as the end of abortion rights in America. But that’s not what it was. Both practically and theoretically, Roe was never the guarantor of those rights that people believed it to be.

The “Roe” that has occupied the center of the abortion debate for decades bears only a passing resemblance to anything the Supreme Court said in 1973. Roe has become much more than a legal text; it’s a cultural symbol created not only by judges but by voters, politicians, and grassroots movements. And the history of America’s fixation on Roe is a story not just about the power of the Supreme Court, but about how the Court alone does not—and should not—dictate what the Constitution says.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/roe-50-anniversary-abortion-casey/672794/

21.01.2023

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Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Abortion Debate Is Rekindled in Europe After US Rollback of Roe

As the 50th anniversary of the landmark ruling approaches, the landscape has started to shift around the world.

By Caroline Alexander
January 19, 2023

After the US Supreme Court last June overturned Roe v. Wade, global health leaders and activists worried it would embolden those looking to erode abortion rights elsewhere around the world.

Less than a year later — and as the 50th anniversary of the original ruling approaches this Sunday — reinvigorated anti-abortion groups are pushing back against those who defend the right to abortion access in Europe.

Continued: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-01-19/roe-v-wade-50th-anniversary-europe-rolls-back-abortion-rights

19.01.2023

U.S. Supreme Court says it is unable to identify the person who leaked draft of abortion ruling

The court was rocked by a highly unusual leak of a draft opinion that previewed its ruling in June rolling back abortion rights.

Jan. 19, 2023
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced Thursday that after a lengthy investigation it has been unable to conclusively identify who leaked an unpublished draft of an opinion indicating the court was poised to roll back abortion rights.

In an unsigned statement, the court said that all leads had been followed up and forensic analysis had been performed but that "the team has to date been unable to identify a person responsible by a preponderance of the evidence."

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-says-unable-identify-person-leaked-draft-abortion-ruling-rcna66578

‘Hot mess’: Abortion pills at pharmacies could face legal quagmires, especially in restrictive states

By Sarah Owermohle
Jan. 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators’ green light for pharmacists to dispense abortion pills is crashing into legal questions and simmering court battles.

The Food and Drug Administration earlier this month removed a longtime restriction that only doctors could dispense mifepristone, which is approved for abortions up to 10 weeks. The move opens the door for pharmacists to supply the drugs and shores up protections for mail orders, which have become an important channel for abortion access in the wake of Roe’s overturn last summer.

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2023/01/19/abortion-pills-at-pharmacies-legal-quagmires/

Abortion was once common practice in America. A small group of doctors changed that

January 19, 2023
Rund Abdelfatah
6-Minute Listen with Transcript

The 50th anniversary of the Roe V. Wade decision is Jan. 22. NPR's podcast Throughline examines the debate about abortion, which wasn't always controversial.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
This week, it'll mark 50 years since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion a constitutionally protected right - at least for 49 years. In U.S. history, though, abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America, it was considered a fairly common practice, a private decision made by women and aided mostly by midwives. But in the mid-1800s, a small group of physicians set out to change that. Led by a zealous young doctor named Horatio Storer, they launched a campaign to make abortion illegal in every state. Here are hosts Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah from our history podcast Throughline.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/19/1149924325/abortion-was-once-common-practice-in-america-a-small-group-of-doctors-changed-th

This Trump Judge Could Effectively Ban the Abortion Pill

Matthew Kacsmaryk could revoke the FDA's approval of Mifepristone after anti-abortion groups filed a dubious lawsuit in Texas

BY TESSA STUART
JANUARY 18, 2023

THE ALLIANCE FOR Hippocratic Medicine does not have a robust online presence. Its website consists of a generic landing page that appeared in July, a month before the organization was legally incorporated in Amarillo, Texas. There’s no phone number, no email, no physical address, no board of directors listed. A single button, labeled “Learn more about AHM,” just reloads the page. According to records filed with the Texas Secretary of State, the group’s mailing address is located several states away, in Tennessee, but the decision to incorporate in Texas — in Amarillo, specifically — may prove critical in determining the fate of a lawsuit filed in November challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s 22-year approval of Mifepristone, a key component of the abortion pill.

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-judge-matthew-kacsmaryk-ban-abortion-pill-1234658423/