United States

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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Opponents of Missouri Abortion Rights Amendment Turn to Anti-Trans Messaging and Misinformation

"The billboards have popped up along both Interstates 55 and 170 around St. Louis. They’re along I-70 between Columbia and St. Charles, in central Missouri. And there’s one across from a shopping center in Cape Girardeau, along the Mississippi River in the state’s southeast corner. In fact, as the Nov. 5 election approaches, motorists can see the billboards all over Missouri. Each one spreads claims designed to undermine support for an abortion rights amendment that was placed on next month’s ballot through the state’s initiative petition process. Some billboards warn voters to “STOP Child Gender Surgery,” even though the amendment doesn’t…
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Judge blocks Florida surgeon general from threatening TV stations over abortion rights ad

"A federal judge on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order against Florida’s surgeon general, the latest development in a legal battle over a television ad supporting the state’s abortion rights ballot measure. Earlier this month, the Florida Department of Health sent cease-and-desist letters to multiple broadcast stations that had aired the ad, threatening criminal charges against stations that didn’t stop playing it...."
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‘Weird consequences’: Abortion rights measure could scramble Arizona election

“Progressives in Arizona are worried that the state’s abortion-rights ballot measure isn’t giving Democratic candidates the boost they desperately need in the final stretch of the 2024 election. Voters in the battleground suburbs of Phoenix and Tucson are increasingly telling canvassers and pollsters that they plan to vote to overturn the state’s 15-week abortion ban but also support former President Donald Trump, Senate candidate Kari Lake and other Republicans who have a history of opposing abortion rights….”
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Pueblo city council narrowly votes down anti-abortion proposal

“After a tense and at times raucous hearing, the Pueblo City Council rejected an ordinance Tuesday night to ban abortion in the city limits on a 4-3 vote, with opponents arguing it would be impractical, costly and futile to try to defend the policy against legal challenges. “I’m pro-life but it doesn’t matter how I stand on it; it’s state law,” said council member Roger Gomez.  The ordinance would have criminalized anyone who ships or receives abortion pills or abortion-related paraphernalia within the city limits, as well as providers who perform a certain type of later-stage abortion….”
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Supreme Court asked to nix abortion clinic ‘bubble zones’ for protesters

“The Supreme Court may soon consider two cases that could dismantle limits on how close protesters can be to people at abortion clinics and other health care facilities. The cases argue that "buffer zones" around clinics and "bubble zones" around the people who visit them violate the First Amendment….”
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Harris starts weeklong media blitz by hitting Trump on abortion record

“Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Trump for calling himself a "protector" of women as she slammed his stance on abortion rights during her "Call Her Daddy" podcast interview, which aired Sunday. Why it matters: Polls show that Harris has a clear lead over the Republican presidential nominee among women voters, particularly on abortion rights…”
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A new Louisiana law requires abortion meds to be locked in a cabinet, even if needed for emergency care

“Louisiana’s first-in-the-nation law listing the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances” took effect Tuesday, triggering fears among health-care providers and pharmacists that routine care may be worsened for women in the state. Beyond abortion, the medicines are used for miscarriage management and, in misoprostol’s case, to stop dangerous bleeding after childbirth, physicians say. Now, in Louisiana,misoprostol is required to be stored in a locked box like other controlled substances, which doctors fear could delay treatment in emergency situations….”
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Trump vows to veto any federal abortion ban — after previously refusing to commit

“Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would veto a federal abortion ban after previously declining to say whether he would do so. “Everyone knows I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of the their voters,” Trump wrote in an all-caps message he posted across social media platforms as his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), was pressed on the issue during the vice presidential debate….”
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Georgia judge declares state’s abortion ban unconstitutional, allowing procedure to resume beyond 6 weeks into pregnancy

“A Georgia judge has struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, declaring it unconstitutional. In a ruling issued on Monday, Judge Robert McBurney said Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or LIFE Act, infringes on a woman’s state constitutional rights….”
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Harris backs ending filibuster for abortion rights legislation

"Kamala Harris is calling for changes to Senate procedure to pass federal legislation protecting abortion rights. Harris voiced support for ending the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation in the Senate, commonly known as the filibuster, during an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that aired Tuesday...."
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As Abortion Bans Spread, so Do Virtual Appointments

According to NGO Society of Family Planning, the number of virtual-only abortion appointments has risen in the United States since the overturning of precedent Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court around two years ago. As providers needed time to gear up, appointments by clinics that do not offer in-person meetings of doctors and patients and instead sent an abortion pill via the mail began to become more common at around the one-year mark after states had been freed to pass their own abortion laws. In July of 2023, the advocacy group estimated that almost 13,700 such appointments took place, up from between 5,200…
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Judge blocks Tennessee law that bans helping a minor get an abortion without parental consent

“A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of Tennessee’s so-called “abortion trafficking law,” which subjects adults who aid minors in getting an abortion without parental permission to criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits. In a lengthy opinion, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger concluded the law is likely to be found to be an unconstitutional ban on protected speech about a procedure that, while largely banned in Tennessee, is legally available in other states….”
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