United States

New rules protect pregnant workers, but red states sue over abortion provisions

Natasha Jackson was four months pregnant when she told her supervisor she was expecting. It was 2008, and Jackson was an account executive at a rental furniture store in Charleston, South Carolina — the only female employee there. “I actually hid my pregnancy as long as I could because I was scared about what could happen,” she said. When her doctor recommended that she not lift more than 25 pounds, her employer wouldn’t let her move temporarily to a role where she didn’t need to lift furniture, even though those roles were available, she said. She was forced to go…
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Despite pressure, Amarillo City Council punts on abortion travel ban petition

"The Amarillo City Council on Tuesday declined to immediately approve a voter-approved petition that demands the Texas Panhandle city adopt a so-called abortion travel ban, once again slowing a movement that has swept through similar conservative cities and counties. The council now has less than a month to decide whether to accept, amend, or reject the petition supported by anti-abortion activists. If the council ultimately rejects the petition or heavily amends it, supporters are expected to ask voters to have the final say in November...."
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How Delaware aims to strengthen women’s reproductive rights with these bills

"The Delaware Senate will weigh a series of bills aimed at protecting fertility treatment, abortion access and overall reproductive rights in the First State as the legislative body enters its final month of session.  House Bill 374, sponsored by House Rep. Kendra Johnson and Rep. Nicole Poore, will codify legal protections for fertility treatment providers, protecting Delawareans’ access to in-vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies...."
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Louisiana votes to make abortion pills controlled substances

"Louisiana has become the first state to pass a law that designates abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances. Once Gov. Jeff Landry signs the bill into law, as he is expected to do, possession of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol without a prescription would be a crime punishable with possible fines and jail time. Louisiana already has a near-total abortion ban, so the medications, which are also used for miscarriages and ulcers, are only available in that state under limited circumstances...."
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New rules are in the works about abortion bans in Texas. Almost nobody’s happy.

The stakes are high for doctors in Texas when it comes to abortion. https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/2024-05-25/new-rules-are-in-the-works-about-abortion-bans-in-texas-almost-nobodys-happyWith three overlapping laws, Texas bans nearly all abortions and has some of the strictest penalties for doctors in the country, including thousands of dollars in fines, the loss of a medical license and even life in prison.
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Republicans try to soften stance on abortion as ‘abolitionists’ go farther

"As some Republicans try to moderate their messaging on abortion over concerns about voter backlash this November, some activists are trying to go much further. Outside a fertility clinic in Charlotte, N.C., last month, dozens of protestors lined both sides of the street, as some shouted toward the closed front door. "How many children are in the freezer here? How many?" one man yelled, interspersing his speech with Bible verses...."
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Ohio voters approved reproductive rights. Will the state’s near-ban on abortion stand?

 "A county judge could rule as early as Monday on Ohio's law banning virtually all abortions, a decision that will take into consideration the decision by voters to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution. The 2019 law under consideration by Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins bans most abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women are aware...."
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The number of births continues to fall, despite abortion bans

Births continued a historic slide in all but two states last year, making it clear that a brief post-pandemic uptick in the nation’s birth numbers was all about planned pregnancies that had been delayed temporarily by COVID-19. https://northdakotamonitor.com/2024/05/18/the-number-of-births-continues-to-fall-despite-abortion-bans/Only Tennessee and North Dakota had small increases in births from 2022 to 2023, according to a Stateline analysis of provisional federal data on births. In California, births dropped by 5%, or nearly 20,000, for the year. And as is the case in most other states, there will be repercussions now and later for schools and the workforce, said Hans Johnson, a senior fellow…
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How Oregon’s new Planned Parenthood leaders are working to meet increasing need for reproductive health services

"Oregon’s two Planned Parenthood affiliates both welcomed new CEOs recently. Dr. Sara Kennedy will oversee Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, which operates clinics in Vancouver, Washington, the Portland metro area, Salem, Bend and Ontario. Amy Handler will oversee Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, which has clinics in the Eugene-Springfield area, Grants Pass and Medford. They’re taking over at a time when nearly half of U.S. states, including Idaho, have passed laws restricting access to abortion and other reproductive health services after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022..."
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Louisiana may reclassify drugs used in abortion as controlled dangerous substances

"Louisiana lawmakers are considering adding two drugs commonly used in pregnancy and reproductive health care to the state's list of controlled dangerous substances, in a move that has alarmed doctors in the state. Mifepristone and misoprostol have many clinical uses, but one FDA-approved use is to take the pills to induce an abortion up to ten weeks gestation...."
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After Roe, the network of people who help others get abortions see themselves as ‘the underground’

Waiting in a long post office line with the latest shipment of “abortion aftercare kits,” Kimra Luna got a text. A woman who’d taken abortion pills three weeks earlier was worried about bleeding — and disclosing the cause to a doctor.
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