Month: January 2024

ACLU warns Supreme Court that lower court abortion pill decisions relied on “patently unreliable witnesses”

"The American Civil Liberties Union is warning the Supreme Court that lower court decisions in a closely watched battle over a widely used abortion pill relied on "patently unreliable witnesses" and "ideologically tainted junk science." In a friend-of-the-court brief the ACLU filed with the Center for Reproductive Rights and The Lawyering Project, the groups argued the lower courts that have ruled in the case involving the drug mifepristone supplanted the Food and Drug Administration's scientific judgment with unproven assertions from anti-abortion rights medical associations and doctors about the alleged harms of medication abortion...."
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New York City Leads Coalition of Cities Urging Supreme Court to Safeguard Access to Medication Abortion

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Corporation Counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix today announced that the City of New York is co-leading a coalition of six localities from across the country in filing another amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to protect access to mifepristone — a medication that millions of Americans use each year for medication abortions and miscarriage management. In December 2023, the Supreme Court granted the Biden administration’s request to review an opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the case Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration…
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Pennsylvania high court revives a case challenging Medicaid limits for abortions

"Pennsylvania's Supreme Court said Monday that a lower court must hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a decades-old state law that limits the use of Medicaid dollars to cover the cost of abortions, a major victory for Planned Parenthood and the abortion clinic operators who sued. The decision also elicited hope that the state Supreme Court may one day find a right to abortion in Pennsylvania's constitution after the U.S. Supreme Court ended nearly a half-century of federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade...."
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Republican legislatures in some states are trying to keep abortion off the ballot

 Legislative efforts in Missouri and Mississippi are attempting to prevent voters from having a say over abortion rights, building on anti-abortion strategies seen in other states, including last year in Ohio. Democrats and abortion rights advocates say the efforts are evidence that Republican lawmakers and abortion opponents are trying to undercut democratic processes meant to give voters a direct role in forming state laws.
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Lina Hidalgo criticizes Texas’ abortion ban after study estimates thousands of rape-related pregnancies

"One of the Houston area's top elected officials criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other state leaders after a recent study published in a peer-reviewed medical journal estimated that more than 26,000 Texas women became pregnant by rape after abortion was banned in the state, which offers no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined rape-related pregnancies in the 14 U.S. states that have implemented total abortion bans since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973. Texas was estimated to…
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In states with abortion bans, rape exceptions ‘fail to provide reasonable access’ to survivors, researchers say

"Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and removed federal protections on abortion rights in 2022, over a dozen states have enacted total bans on abortion. Now, new research suggests only a small fraction of people who become pregnant through rape are able to obtain a legal abortion in those states, including those with exceptions in place for such scenarios. After analyzing multiple datasets, researchers estimated that between July 2022 and January 2024, nearly 65,000 people became pregnant through rape in the 14 states that have total abortion bans, according to a research letter published this week in the journal JAMA…
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Opinion: Help us put abortion rights in the Colorado Constitution

Colorado long been a trailblazer in individual liberties, can guarantee the right to abortion in the state Constitution While Colorado has long been a trailblazer in championing individual liberties, the absence of a constitutional guarantee for the right to abortion leaves a critical gap in our commitment to securing rights. In 2024, we must protect the full range of reproductive health care in Colorado by putting abortion rights into the Colorado Constitution.
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North Dakota judge denies request to temporarily block part of abortion law for doctors

"A North Dakota judge on Tuesday denied a temporary block on a part of the state's revised abortion laws so that doctors can perform the procedure to save a patient's life or health. State District Judge Bruce Romanick said the request for a preliminary injunction "is not appropriate and the Plaintiffs have presented no authority for the Court to grant the specific relief requested." The request asked the judge to bar the state from enforcing the law against physicians who use their "good-faith medical judgment" to perform an abortion because of complications that could pose "a risk of infection, hemorrhage,…
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Maine Democrats who expanded abortion access now want to enshrine it in the state constitution

 "Maine Gov. Janet Mills and other leading Democrats are pressing to end future legislative debate over abortions by amending the state constitution to enshrine the right to reproductive health care, just six months after lawmakers expanded access to abortions. Maine is seeking to join four other states that have amended their constitutions to protect the right to abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022...."
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Wisconsin GOP introduces bill to ban abortions after 14 weeks of pregnancy

"Republicans who control the Wisconsin Assembly introduced a bill Friday that would call for a binding statewide referendum on whether abortion should be banned after 14 weeks of pregnancy. The GOP has scheduled a public hearing on the bill for Monday afternoon at the state Capitol. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is almost certain to veto the measure. However, the proposal could still galvanize the conservative base after Democrats parlayed anger over the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn its landmark 1972 Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide, into big election wins across the country...."
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In Washington state, pharmacists are poised to start prescribing abortion drugs

"Over the past several months, a handful of community pharmacies in states where abortion remains legal have begun to take advantage of a new rule that allows them to fill prescriptions for the abortion pill mifepristone. Prior to the rule change, which was finalized last January by the Food and Drug Administration, pregnant people had to get the drug directly from their doctor or by mail if using telemedicine, depending on the laws in their state. Reproductive health experts have said relaxing that requirement could help ease the growing burden on abortion clinics in states where abortion is legal. And perhaps nowhere is the potential for…
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Abortion rights advocates launch ‘Vote Yes’ campaign as Maryland ahead of vote on new amendment

"Abortion rights supporters Monday kicked off their campaign to "Vote Yes" on November's ballot referendum to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state's constitution. "We can't take anything for granted when it comes to reproductive health care," Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones said Monday. "We don't just need to win. We need to send a message."..."
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Vice President Harris will emphasize abortion rights during a visit to Wisconsin

Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Wisconsin on Monday to emphasize abortion rights ahead of the presidential election. Recent polls in the state indicate most people support abortion rights.
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