Spanish govt proposes wider abortion rights, menstrual leave

The Spanish government has approved a draft bill that widens abortion rights for teenagers and may make Spain the first country in Europe entitling workers to paid menstrual leave

By The Associated Press
17 May 2022

MADRID -- The Spanish government approved a draft bill Tuesday that widens abortion rights for teenagers and may make Spain the first country in Europe entitling workers to paid menstrual leave.

The measures are part of a package of proposals that will be sent to the Spanish parliament for debate. The package includes an extension of abortion rights, scrapping the requirement for 16- and 17-year-olds to obtain parental consent before terminating a pregnancy.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/spanish-govt-proposes-wider-abortion-rights-menstrual-leave-84774876

17.05.2022

Support for abortion rights hits new high as midterm outlook is grim for Democrats

63% oppose overturning Roe v. Wade and Democratic enthusiasm ticks up in a new NBC News poll, but Biden's job approval rating falls to 39% amid economic worries.

May 15, 2022
By Mark Murray

WASHINGTON — Support for abortion rights has reached a record high, and nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, according to a new national NBC News poll conducted after the leak of a draft opinion that would strike down the constitutional right to abortion.

What’s more, the survey finds abortion climbing up the list of issues that Americans believe are the most important, and that Democratic interest in the upcoming midterms has increased since earlier this year.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/support-abortion-rights-hits-new-high-midterm-outlook-stays-mostly-unc-rcna28869

Senate blocks bill to codify right to abortion

Women’s Health Protection Act failed as expected, but Democrats say the move is about mobilizing voters, not passing legislation

By Mike DeBonis and Rachel Roubein , Washington Post
May 11, 2022

The Senate on Wednesday did not advance legislation that would write a constitutional right to abortion into federal law — a symbolic gesture that Democrats cast as a first step in a larger strategy to mobilize Americans around reproductive rights as the Supreme Court considers overturning Roe v. Wade and related decisions.

Wednesday’s vote was 51 to 49 and well short
of the 60 votes necessary under Senate rules. It was largely a reprise of a
failed February vote staged by Senate Democratic leaders, but the issue has new
resonance after last week’s leak of a draft opinion from Justice Samuel A.
Alito Jr. suggesting that the high court is poised to overturn Roe and curtail
guaranteed nationwide access to abortions.

Continued, Unblocked: https://wapo.st/3suVKwC https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/11/abortion-senate-vote/

11.05.2022

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Roe v. Wade

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The Supreme Court abortion leak has already transformed politics all over America

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Tue May 10, 2022

(CNN)In just a week, the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion that could overturn Roe v. Wade has transformed US politics.

Every major politician with power in the country, and those striving for it, are facing sudden, profound and sometimes treacherous questions over abortion ahead of the Supreme Court's final ruling, which could differ from the draft. Some also sense huge political opportunities.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/10/politics/supreme-court-abortion-politics-mcconnell/index.html

10.05.2022

Canada – Overturning Roe v. Wade just the beginning of Trump’s legacy, warns Heyman

Canadian Parliamentarians who have dedicated their careers to fighting for women's rights were left 'terrified' and 'horrified' by the news that Roe v. Wade will most likely be overturned in the U.S., but hope it spurs more action on improving access to abortion in Canada.

By CHELSEA NASH AND SAMANTHA WRIGHT ALLEN , Hill Times
MAY 8, 2022

In the wake of what appears to be the undoing of the right to choose to have an abortion in the United States, former American ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman, who served under Democrat president Barack Obama, says he’s worries this is just the beginning.

“I think that if we think it’s just Roe v. Wade, then I think we’re mistaken. I think that there is a fairly significant movement afoot to reorient the court, reorient government, reorient how we behave domestically and internationally. And clearly, I think it’s a continued threat to democracy,” Heyman told The Hill Times in an interview last week.

Continued: https://www.hilltimes.com/2022/05/08/overturning-roe-v-wade-just-the-beginning-of-trumps-legacy-warns-heyman/360413

A 49-year crusade: Inside the movement to overturn Roe v. Wade

Antiabortion activists and their Republican allies are on the cusp of reaching a goal they have sought for decades in tossing out the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion.

By Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey, Caroline Kitchener and Rachel Roubein, Washington Post
May 7, 2022

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell still remembers the shock he felt when Donald Trump won the 2016 election. He also recalls what happened next.

“The first thing that came to my mind was the Supreme Court,” McConnell said in an interview this past week, remembering his reaction that night as he watched results from a basement office at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He soon called Donald McGahn, campaign counsel to the president-elect, who was slated to become the top White House lawyer.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/07/abortion-movement-roe-wade/

The abortion provider that Republicans are struggling to stop

But Silicon Valley could.

By Rachel M. Cohen
May 7, 2022

In 2018, more than two decades after Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts first became an activist to deliver abortion pills around the world, she turned to the United States. For years she had dedicated her life to working in countries where the procedure was illegal, and was firm in her refusal to avoid the US, where safe, legalized access was still available. “I think this is a problem the US has to solve itself,” she explained in 2014.

But following the election of President Donald Trump, the desperate requests she received from Americans went up, and the cost barriers in the US were glaring.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/23056530/aid-access-abortion-roe-wade-pills-mifepristone

Oklahoma approves two laws that could immediately end all in-state abortion access

Gov. Kevin Stitt has indicated that he plans to sign both bills, which would end abortion services at clinics in the state and add to a growing abortion desert.

Shefali Luthra, Health Reporter
April 28, 2022

Oklahoma’s legislature has passed two Texas-inspired laws that would allow civil lawsuits against anyone who might “aid or abet” any abortion. Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, has indicated he plans to sign both bills, which would take effect immediately.

One bill, House Bill 4327, would outlaw virtually all abortions, with an exception if the pregnant person’s life were in immediate danger; pregnancy resulting from rape or incest is only an exception if it has been reported to law enforcement. After amendments were added to it, HB 4327 will go back to the House, which has already passed a version of the bill. The other bill, Senate Bill 1503, would create penalties for abortions done after six weeks of pregnancy.

https://19thnews.org/2022/04/oklahoma-abortion-bans-texas-style/

Dems grow alarmed by lack of fear over Roe’s future

Democrats argue that the party needs to act more aggressively ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling expected this summer on a challenge to Roe v. Wade.

by LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ and ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
04/26/2022

For decades, Democrats insisted that Republicans would invite a major voter backlash if they took aggressive action to curtail abortion rights. Now, as a growing number of GOP-led states do just that, passing a slew of bills curtailing abortion with no exemptions for rape and incest, they fear that voters are uninformed or misinformed about the stakes. And they are sounding the alarm that more is needed to engage voters and warn them that the current slate of laws is just the beginning.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/26/dems-roe-wade-future-00027932

What happens to women’s rights when democracy backslides

48 minute podcast
April 26, 2022
Meg Dalton, Jonathan Chang, Meghna Chakrabarti

From Nazi Germany to Mussolini's Italy, fascist regimes shared an early target: Women.

"The fascists passed laws criminalizing abortion both for doctors performing, for people providing information for women seeking," professor Anne Wingenter says.

Continued: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/04/26/women-fascists-democracy-backslides-abortion-rights