United States

‘Huge surge’ in U.S. abortion pill demand after Trump’s election win

"Within hours of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Americans began looking to stockpile reproductive health medications, including emergency contraception and abortion pills, amid widespread fears that his administration could restrict access to these essential resources. The abortion pill mifepristone — sold as Mifegymiso in Canada and Mifeprex in the U.S. — has been flying off the shelves, with online retailers reporting a surge in demand as people take proactive steps to safeguard their reproductive autonomy, explained Elisa Wells, co-founder of Plan C, a U.S. public health initiative that helps facilitate medication abortion. “Prior to the election results coming out, earlier this month, we had 4,500 visitors per…
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New Brunswick to allow medicare to pay for surgical abortions outside hospitals

"Surgical abortions administered outside hospitals in New Brunswick will now be fully funded by medicare, Premier Susan Holt announced Thursday, reversing a controversial rule from 1984 that limited the procedure’s availability across the province. Before the change, the government would only cover the cost of the surgical procedures if they were performed in one of three hospitals. Holt, whose Liberals came to power in an election last month, said her government’s decision is an important first step to improve abortion access. “We believe that abortion is health care, and that everyone deserves access to the care that they need, when…
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Abortion-rights ballot measures pass in 7 states, fail in 3 others

"Constitutional amendments to protect or expand abortion rights passed in seven of the 10 states where they appeared on the ballot Tuesday, NBC News projects. Voters in Arizona and Missouri approved ballot initiatives that will effectively protect abortion rights until fetal viability and undo existing abortion laws on the books. But voters in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota rejected proposed amendments that would have done the same — becoming the first pro-abortion-rights ballot measures to fail since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Meanwhile, voters in Maryland, Montana, Nevada and New York (where abortion is already legal through fetal viability) and in Colorado (where there are…
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Texas OB-GYNs urge lawmakers to change abortion laws after reports on pregnant women’s deaths

“A group of 111 OB-GYNs in Texas released a letter to elected state leaders Sunday urging them to change abortion laws they say have prevented them from providing lifesaving care to pregnant women. The doctors pointed to recent reporting by ProPublica on two Texas pregnant women who died after medical staff delayed emergency care….”
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Birth control on the ballot as abortion bans increase barriers to family planning

"Millions of Americans will be able to vote on November ballots whether to protect access to contraception.  In states where tensions have long boiled over reproductive rights, family planning experts say women face mounting barriers to getting birth control. The fear, confusion and anxiety over abortion has extended to their ability to prevent a pregnancy...." 
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Why the American abortion debate is affecting access in Kenya

“Abortion is a closely watched issue in this year's election, and not just in the U.S. As president, Trump cut funding for international groups that offer and counsel on abortion services. With support from The Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Neha Wadekar reports from Kenya where advocates are watching for who wins. A warning, this story contains accounts of sexual and gender-based violence….”
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Anti-abortion campaigner Joanna Howe banned from parts of South Australia’s parliament over alleged ‘threatening’ tactics

“Anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe has been banned from parts of South Australia's upper house, with parliament told she allegedly insulted, intimidated and threatened MPs on the night of a vote about late-term abortion law. Dr Howe has hit back at the ban, calling it a "total abuse of power" which she would "strongly contest going forward"….”
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Faced with obstacles to abortion, military women have built their own support system

“Air Force Staff Sgt. Octavia James has helped fellow airmen navigate the difficult choices faced by women in the military when they are contemplating an abortion. People usually seek James out when they don’t feel comfortable going to a commanding officer. She has invited airmen to stay in her apartment in Norfolk, Va., while they recover from an abortion. She recalls once having to help a friend out of the shower because her sedation was slow to wear off….”
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Iowa’s six week abortion ban has been in effect three months

“Planned Parenthood officials say they do not yet know on how many Iowans have sought abortions out of state after Iowa’s ban on most abortions after the sixth week of a pregnancy took effect July 29. “Quite a few of my patients in Minnesota and Nebraska are from Iowa,” Dr. Sarah Traxler, medical director of Planned Parenthood of North Central States, said during an online news conference. “We do anticipate partner organizations that really focus on the data of abortion care will be releasing data soon so that we can actually measure the impact of this ban in Iowa.”…”
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Abortion rights advocates rally South Florida voters to say “yes” to Amendment 4 just days before 2024 election

“Florida voters could put the right to get an abortion in the state's constitution on Nov. 5. If Amendment 4 passes, it would limit the state's authority to restrict abortion. With less than 10 days before the 2024 election, supporters of the amendment rallied people to get to the polls….”
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Missouri is voting on abortion rights. Here’s everything to know about Amendment 3

“After two years of legal battles, signature gathering and fierce debates, Missouri is about to make a decision on the future of abortion rights and access in the state when it votes on Amendment 3. Missouri is one of 10 states voting on abortion rights in November 2024. About half of those could overturn current bans or restrictions, including Missouri, South Dakota, Florida, Nebraska and Arizona….”
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Women in states with bans are getting abortions at similar rates as under Roe, report says

“Women living in states with abortion bans obtained the procedure in the second half of 2023 at about the same rate as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report released Tuesday. Women did so by traveling out of state or by having prescription abortion pills mailed to them, according to the #WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access. They increasingly used telehealth, the report found, as medical providers in states with laws intended to protection them from prosecution in other states used online appointments to prescribe abortion pills….”
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Infants died at higher rates after abortion bans in the US, research shows

“In the year and a half following the Supreme Court Dobbs decision that revoked the federal right to an abortion, hundreds more infants died than expected in the United States, new research shows. The vast majority of those infants had congenital anomalies, or birth defects. Earlier research found that infant mortality spiked in Texas after a 6-week abortion ban took effect in 2021, and experts say the new data suggests that the impacts of the bans and restrictions enacted by some states post-Dobbs have been large enough to affect broader trends….”
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Experts explain how abortion ban exceptions for rape and incest are inaccessible in practice

"“When I was 5, I began getting sexually abused by my stepfather, and he got me pregnant when I was 12,” Hadley Duvall says in a new campaign ad released by Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday. Duvall, a rape survivor turned reproductive rights advocate, has been featured in several high-profile campaign ads and spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. She has recounted the harrowing pattern of abuse that resulted in her pregnancy as a child in Kentucky, and the options she had about what to do with that pregnancy...."
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