July 2024 – REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ALERTS

31 Jul

Woman sues Kansas hospital over alleged denial of emergency abortion

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Care, emergency abortion, Healthcare, Hospital, Kansas, Lawsuit, Missouri, United Sates

“A Missouri woman is suing a Kansas hospital where she says she was denied an emergency abortion after she went into premature labor at 18 weeks of pregnancy, alleging she was denied emergency health-stabilizing care. The lawsuit comes a year after a government investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that hospitals in Missouri and Kansas violated federal law when they refused to provide Mylissa Farmer with abortion care…”

30 Jul

Rhetoric versus reality: Addressing common misconceptions about abortion

AlanLatest NewsAbortion Ban, Abortion Care, Healthcare, United States

Setting the record straight on eight reproductive health-related areas that are rife with disinformation, from ‘partial-birth abortion’ to ‘heartbeat’ bills. Reproductive rights has taken center stage in the first post-Roe presidential election that presently features a longtime advocate for reproductive rights in possible Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, opposite former Republican President Donald Trump, whose three appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices helped overturn federal abortion rights. Although Trump’s former health staffers have co-authored the Heritage Foundation’s conservative anti-abortion policy blueprint for a future Republican administration, called Project 2025, Trump, his outspoken anti-abortion running mate Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, and many GOP candidates have attempted…

29 Jul

Exclusive: Inside the Supreme Court’s negotiations and compromise on Idaho’s abortion ban

AlanLatest NewsAbortion Ban, Healthcare, SCOTUS, United States

The Supreme Court began the year poised to build on its 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and to deliver a new blow to abortion access. In January, the court took the extraordinary step of letting Idaho enforce its ban on abortion with an exception only to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, despite an ongoing challenge from the Biden administration arguing that it intruded on federal protections for emergency room care.

28 Jul

Data privacy after Dobbs: Is period tracking safe?

BarbraLatest NewsData Privacy, Healthcare, Menstruation, Post-Dobbs, United States

After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 and abortion was banned in the state of Tennessee, Dr. Danielle Kelvas quit using an app that tracked her menstrual cycle. “It frightened me … I actually got frightened because it tracked me for like, a week,” Kelvas said of the Oura Ring feature Cycle Insights. “And I thought, where’s this information going?”

27 Jul

Judge strikes down a North Carolina abortion restriction but upholds another

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion, Abortion Pills, Abortion Restriction, federal judge, mifepristone, North Carolina, Restriction, United States

"A federal judge ruled Friday that a provision in North Carolina's abortion laws requiring doctors to document the location of a pregnancy before prescribing abortion pills should be blocked permanently, affirming that it was too vague to be enforced reasonably. The implementation of that requirement was already halted last year by U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles until a lawsuit challenging portions of the abortion law enacted by the Republican-dominated General Assembly in 2023 was litigated further. Eagles now says a permanent injunction would be issued at some point...."

26 Jul

I started reporting on the dearth of reproductive health care. Then I had my own emergency.

BarbraLatest NewsHealthcare, Reproductive rights, Texas

Tick. Tick. Tick. The clock in my OB-GYN’s office was taunting me. Tick. Tick. Tick. Any moment, I thought, this could kill me.

25 Jul

Anti-abortion group argues that Indiana health department’s abortion records must be public

BarbraLatest NewsAbortion Ban, Abortion data, Healthcare, IDOH, Indiana, Privacy, Reproductive rights, United States

In defense of its lawsuit against the state health department, a South Bend-based anti-abortion group doubled down in new court filings that related medical records do not compromise patient privacy and should be made available to the public. The ongoing lawsuit was filed in May by “Voices for Life,” which seeks to regain access to Terminated Pregnancy Reports (TPRs) that are no longer being released by the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH). The state health department is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, however, maintaining that TPRs qualify as medical records and are exempt from disclosure under Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act, also known…

24 Jul

North Dakota judge will decide whether to throw out a challenge to the state’s abortion ban

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Ban, Abortion Care, Health care, Judge, Minnesota, North Dakota, Red River Women's Clinic, Ruling, United States

"Attorneys argued Tuesday over whether a North Dakota judge should toss a lawsuit challenging the state's abortion ban, with the state saying the plaintiffs' case rests on hypotheticals, and the plaintiffs saying key issues remain to be resolved at a scheduled trial. State District Judge Bruce Romanick said he will rule as quickly as he can, but he also asked the plaintiffs' attorney what difference he would have at the court trial in August. The Red River Women's Clinic, which moved from Fargo to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, filed the lawsuit challenging the state's now-repealed trigger ban soon after the fall…

24 Jul

Democrats Hope Harris’ Bluntness on Abortion Will Translate to 2024 Wins in Congress and White House

PatLatest NewsAbortion Rights, Healthcare, legislation, Reproductive rights, United States

President Joe Biden might not often use the word “abortion” when he talks about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but Vice President Kamala Harris sure does. She's also toured a Minnesota Planned Parenthood clinic where the procedure is performed and routinely links the fall of Roe to the larger issue of rising maternal mortality nationwide.

24 Jul

Women living with HIV continue to face violations of their sexual and reproductive rights—including coercion into sterilization

PatLatest NewsHIV, International, Reproductive Coercion, Reproductive rights

Women living with HIV including women from key populations continue to suffer widespread reproductive coercion, mistreatment, and neglect when seeking reproductive health services and rights around the world, a new report by the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW) has revealed today. The report was launched at a joint ICW/UNAIDS event at the 25th International AIDS Conference taking place in Munich, Germany.

23 Jul

Here’s where Kamala Harris stands on various health care issues as she campaigns for presidency

PatLatest NewsHealthcare, Reproductive rights, United States

Harris has expressed many of the same views as Biden on health care issues, including access to abortion and lowering prescription drug prices, both while campaigning against Biden for their party's presidential nomination during the last general election and as Biden's vice president.

23 Jul

Cook to divest reproductive business to private equity company

BarbraLatest NewsART, International, IVF, reproductive technology

The sale includes Cook’s in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and assisted reproductive technology (ART) products, along with a Pennsylvania manufacturing site, Cook Vandergrift. After the deal closes, Astrog plans to combine the Cook ART portfolio with Hamilton Thorne, which also has an ART portfolio of its own.

22 Jul

Opinion: Abortion restrictions, inadequate investments undermine women’s health outcomes

BarbraLatest News, OpinionAbortion Ban, Abortion Rights, Healthcare, North Carolina, United States, Women's Health

COMMENTARY: LISTEN

22 Jul

Harris, who is Biden’s voice on abortion rights, is likely to raise the volume

PatLatest NewsAbortion Rights, Harris, Healthcare, United States

Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, he leaned on the outspoken former prosecutor and senator he selected as his vice president, Kamala Harris, to be the White House’s voice of unflinching support for reproductive health rights.

21 Jul

Check your VPN, abortion seekers. New ‘Vagina Privacy Network’ aims to keep data safe

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Care, Abortion Rights, Digital privacy, Onine safety, Privacy, United States, VPN

"Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights and data privacy advocates teamed up to launch a new kind of VPN: The Vagina Privacy Network. The campaign offers a how-to guide on protecting digital privacy for people worried their data could be used against them after they've had an abortion, particularly those in one of the 14 states that ban the procedure. The seven tips range from using encrypted messaging apps to communicating on burner phones, which campaign creator MSI Reproductive Choices has been handing out at reproductive rights marches nationwide, according to Whitney Chinogwenya, the…