Molly

449 Posts
11 Sep

Telehealth medication abortion services ease access to care for underserved US communities

MollyUnited States, , , ,
"Telehealth medication abortion services help make abortion care access more convenient and accessible for underserved communities in the U.S., according to a cross-sectional study published in JAMA Network Open. “Due to limited in-clinic access throughout the country, telehealth medication abortion services, including online consultations and medications delivered directly to patients, can make abortion care more convenient and accessible,” Anna E. Fiastro, MPH, MEM, PhD, research scientist in the department of family medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues wrote. “Other areas of health care have documented disparities in telehealth access, although less is known about telehealth medication abortion services.”..."
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10 Sep

Justice Department asks Supreme Court to end abortion pill legal challenge that threatens widespread access

MollyUnited States, , , ,
"The Biden administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to maintain broad access to a commonly used medication abortion pill. The court filing from the Justice Department sets the stage for a possible final resolution to a contentious legal fight mounted by abortion rights opponents over federal approval of the drug mifepristone. The dispute lands at the Supreme Court in time for the justices to potentially take it up, hear oral arguments and issue a decision by next summer...."
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08 Sep

Florida Supreme Court hears arguments in challenge to 15-week abortion ban

MollyUnited States, , , , ,
"The Florida state Supreme Court heard arguments Friday morning in a legal challenge seeking to throw out the state's 15-week abortion ban, claiming it violates the state's constitution. The hearing was part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and other abortion providers against the state of Florida. In July 2022, a lower state court ruled that the ban violated the state's constitution and it was temporarily suspended. The law went into effect again later that same day when the state appealed the judge's decision. The state Supreme Court…
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07 Sep

New state abortion numbers show increases in some surprising places

MollyUnited States, , , , ,
"People seeking an abortion are "highly motivated" to travel if they can't get abortions where they live. That's one conclusion from a study from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group that supports reproductive rights. Another striking finding: In Illinois, there were 18,300 more abortions in the first half of this year compared to 2020. "If you're interested in where people are going, then I think the numbers tell a big part of that story because it represents a lot of people traveling," says Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist at the Guttmacher Institute. Illinois already provided a lot of abortions in…
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07 Sep

Mexico decriminalizes abortion, extending Latin American trend of widening access to procedure

MollyInternational, , , , , ,
"Mexico’s Supreme Court threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion Wednesday, ruling that national laws prohibiting the procedure are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights in a sweeping decision that extended Latin American’s trend of widening abortion access. The high court ordered that abortion be removed from the federal penal code. The ruling will require the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it...."
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17 Aug

Abortion pill ruling sets up Supreme Court showdown

MollyUnited States, , , , , , ,
"The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that access to the abortion pill, mifepristone, should be sharply curtailed, ramping up the legal threat to the most popular method of ending a pregnancy. The decision — if allowed by the Supreme Court to take effect — would roll back actions the federal government has taken since 2016 to make the pills more accessible, including rules allowing online ordering, mail delivery, and pharmacy dispensing of the drugs. It also would roll back access from the current 10 weeks of pregnancy to seven and would reimpose a requirement that only physicians can…
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15 Aug

California grads headed to HBCUs in the South prepare for college under abortion bans

MollyUnited States, , , , , , ,
"When I'laysia Vital got accepted to Texas Southern University, a historically Black university in Houston, she immediately began daydreaming about the sense of freedom that would come with living on her own, and the sense of belonging she would feel studying in a thriving Black community. Then, a nurse at her high school's health clinic in Oakland, California explained the legal landscape of her new four-year home in Texas – where abortion is now banned completely. Vital watched some TikTok videos of protestors harassing women outside clinics in other states. She realized her newfound freedoms would come at the expense of another. That's…
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14 Aug

She Wasn’t Able to Get an Abortion. Now She’s a Mom. Soon She’ll Start 7th Grade. 

MollyUnited States, , , ,
"Ashley just had a baby. She’s sitting on the couch in a relative’s apartment in Clarksdale, Miss., wearing camo-print leggings and fiddling with the plastic hospital bracelets still on her wrists. It’s August and pushing 90 degrees, which means the brown patterned curtains are drawn, the air conditioner is on high, and the room feels like a hiding place. Peanut, the baby boy she delivered two days earlier, is asleep in a car seat at her feet, dressed in a little blue outfit. Ashley is surrounded by family, but nobody is smiling. One relative silently eats lunch in the kitchen,…
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14 Aug

RFK Jr. backs 15-week federal ban on abortion, then reverses himself

MollyUnited States, , , , ,
"Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday said he would support a federal ban on abortion after the first three months of pregnancy, but his campaign later said he “misunderstood” the question. Speaking to NBC from the Iowa State Fair, Kennedy said, “I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life,” but added: “Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child.” He said he would sign a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks or…
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12 Aug

Nebraska judge allows abortion limits and restrictions on gender-affirming surgery

MollyUnited States, , , , , ,
"A Nebraska judge on Friday rejected an effort to block a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and restrictions on gender-affirming surgery. Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret sided with the state and allowed a law approved by the Nebraska Legislature earlier this year to remain in effect. The law outlaws abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. As of Oct. 1, it also will prevent people under 19 from receiving gender-affirming surgery and restricts the use of hormone treatments and puberty blockers for minors...."
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12 Aug

Texas questions rights of fetus in prison guard lawsuit despite arguing opposite on abortion

MollyUnited States, , , , ,
"In defending themselves against a lawsuit, Texas officials have argued that an “unborn child” may not have rights under the US constitution, putting them in tension with arguments made by the state’s attorney’s general’s office as well as Republican lawmakers to support restrictions to abortion...."
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11 Aug

Iowa conservatives are pessimistic about the fate of the new 6-week abortion ban

MollyUnited States, , ,
"Just weeks ago, Iowa conservatives lit up with excitement when Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a new six-week abortion ban — an event she orchestrated shortly after the state Supreme Court ruled that an earlier six-week ban would remain blocked. But much of the excitement has dimmed amid questions over whether a conservative justice, whose recusal in the first case led to that outcome, will again sit it out. Such a decision could, once more, scramble conservative efforts to keep the strict abortion law in place...."
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10 Aug

Montana voters rejected an anti-abortion measure. State GOP lawmakers passed a similar bill anyway.

MollyUnited States, , , , , , , ,
"In the months following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that gave states the power to ban abortion, voters in a half-dozen states spoke on the issue — and, in every case, chose to uphold abortion rights or reject an attempt to restrict them. Most recently, Ohio voters on Tuesday rejected a Republican-led effort to make it more difficult to change that state’s constitution, which would have set a higher bar for an abortion rights ballot initiative this fall. But the will of the electorate didn’t stop Republican lawmakers in one state, Montana, from passing a version of the anti-abortion proposal that voters…
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10 Aug

Extreme Temperatures Threaten Effectiveness of Pregnancy Tests and Birth Control

MollyInternational, United States, , , , , , , ,
"Extreme heat has already made pregnancy more dangerous. Now, it is also complicating efforts to control when and how someone becomes pregnant: Record heat waves across the country could threaten access to effective pregnancy tests, condoms and emergency contraception pills. All of these items can sustain serious damage in extreme heat, rendering them ineffective when used. And all have become critical resources for people living in states with abortion bans and who are trying to avoid pregnancy. In those states, few options exist to terminate an unintended pregnancy other than acquiring abortion pills online or traveling out of state for care.…
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