Year: 2023

Feds: Alabama can’t enforce abortion travel ban

"The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said Alabama cannot use conspiracy laws to prosecute people and groups who help women leave the state to obtain abortions. The Justice Department filed a statement of its position in consolidated lawsuits against Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, arguing that such prosecutions would be unconstitutional. The lawsuits, filed by an abortion fund and former providers, seek a court ruling clarifying the state can’t use conspiracy statutes to prosecute people who help Alabama women travel elsewhere to obtain an abortion. Marshall has not prosecuted anyone for providing such assistance, but he has made statements saying that…
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Some states want to prevent people from crossing state lines for abortions

"A federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice this week said that states are going too far by trying to block people from helping others cross state lines for abortion. A ruling in Idaho and the federal government taking sides in an Alabama lawsuit are far from the final word, but they could offer clues on whether an emerging area of abortion regulation may eventfully hold up in court...."
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Ohio GOP lawmakers call to block courts from implementing new abortion amendment

"Several Ohio Republican lawmakers are proposing to strip courts of the authority to review cases related to implementing the newly passed Issue 1 abortion amendment.  In a statement released Thursday, four GOP lawmakers claimed without evidence that there was “foreign election interference” in the vote to pass Issue 1, and threatened to block the ability of courts to interpret the new constitutional amendment...."
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Justice Department Files Statement of Interest in Case on Right to Travel to Access Legal Abortions

The Justice Department filed a statement of interest today in two consolidated lawsuits seeking to protect the right to interstate travel, including the right to travel to another state to obtain an abortion that is legal in the destination state. The statement of interest explains that the Constitution protects the right to travel across state lines and engage in conduct that is lawful where it is performed and that states cannot prevent third parties from assisting others in exercising that right. The statement argues that the Alabama Attorney General’s threatened prosecutions of individuals for providing assistance to people seeking lawful…
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Abortion in America in the post-Dobbs world

"The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade sparked dramatic shifts in the abortion landscape in the United States — but even more significant changes may lie ahead, legal scholar Mary Ziegler, JD, told listeners at Learn Serve Lead 2023: The AAMC Annual Meeting on Monday, Nov. 6. Those changes cut to the core of the nature of democracy in America, said Ziegler, a professor of law at the University of California Davis and one of the world’s leading experts on reproductive rights. “If you think about what comes next after Dobbs, it’s not just a struggle about how patients relate…
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State, federal abortion rules prevent many women from accessing crucial miscarriage drug

Since losing her first pregnancy four months ago, 32-year-old Lulu has struggled to return to her body’s old rhythms. Lulu, who asked to be identified by her first name to protect her privacy, bled for six full weeks after her miscarriage and hasn’t had a normal menstrual cycle since.
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WSU researchers find 41 percent of U.S. women have no abortion access within 30-minute drive

"More people seeking abortions must travel for care because of bans or restrictions in their home states. Researchers at Washington State University found that 41.4% of American girls and women between the ages of 15 and 49 have to drive more than 30 minutes to access an abortion provider. That totals about 30.8 million women, said senior author Dawn Kopp.  The report, published in the journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found another 29.3% had no access within a 60-minute drive, and 23.6% did not have access within 90 minutes...."
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‘There is no ban’: Republicans test-drive new abortion messaging

"The ad opens with the sound of a fetal heartbeat. “Most people believe that abortion at the moment of birth is wrong, far beyond any reasonable limit. Not Virginia Democrats,” a female narrator says, just before the sound of a baby cooing and crying. “They fought to make late-term abortions the rule, not the exception.” At the end of the ad, the heartbeat flatlines...."
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Providers can sue over Arizona ban on abortion for genetic anomalies -court

"A U.S. appeals court on Monday revived a challenge to an Arizona law banning abortions from being performed solely because the fetus has a genetic abnormality. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that a group of healthcare providers can sue the state over the law because they are harmed by it, reversing a lower court ruling. The panel did not address the merits of the challenge, finding only that the providers are entitled to pursue it in court...."
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Kansas can’t enforce new law on abortion pills or make patients wait 24 hours, judge rules

"A Kansas judge on Monday put a new state law on medication abortions on hold and blocked older restrictions that for years have spelled out what providers must tell patients and forced patients to wait 24 hours to end their pregnancies. The ruling was another big victory for abortion rights advocates in Kansas, where a statewide vote in August 2022 decisively confirmed protections for abortion access under the state constitution. District Judge K. Christopher Jayaram’s order suspends some restrictions that have been in effect for years. The waiting period had been in place since 1997...."
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