Abortion Ban

Ohio Supreme Court rules ‘unborn child’ wording can remain in abortion ballot language

"The Ohio Supreme Court handed a partial victory to the state's GOP-controlled ballot board on Tuesday, ruling that the term "unborn child" can remain in the ballot language for a November vote on whether to enshrine abortion protections in the state's constitution. The ruling comes after Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights and five petitioners sued the board over ballot wording that omitted the term "fetus," which is used in the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment. The state Supreme Court rejected the petitioners' argument that the ballot's language "introduces an ethical judgment," saying that it "does not establish that the ballot board’s language constitutes improper persuasion."…
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Planned Parenthood sues to expand South Carolina abortion access under strict new ban

"...The conservative state's all-male Supreme Court last month upheld a so-called "fetal heartbeat" law commonly understood to restrict access after about six weeks of pregnancy, which is before most women know they're pregnant. However, the court's majority opinion noted that the medical definitions written by the Republican-dominated state Legislature gave unclear directions to doctors about when they can provide an abortion. In a footnote, Justice John Kittredge wrote that the court would "leave for another day" whether the language "refers to one period of time during a pregnancy or two separate periods of time." Attorneys for Planned Parenthood believe they…
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Poland’s ‘witch hunt’ of women and girls

"...Women and girls have been put under intense scrutiny for alleged abortion-related activity when they seek urgent health care. Joanna, a 32-year-old woman, told HRW that the police demanded to strip search her in April after she had a self-administered medication abortion, which is legal. Two weeks later, she called her psychiatrist for help with symptoms of severe anxiety. During the call, she disclosed her abortion to her psychiatrist, who called an ambulance and contacted the police. Police arrived at Joanna’s apartment alongside a paramedic and escorted her to two different hospitals. At the second one, she was ordered to…
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Abortion Bans Fuel a Rise in High-Risk Patients Heading to Illinois Hospitals

"When she was around 22 weeks pregnant, the patient found out that the son she was carrying didn’t have kidneys and his lungs wouldn’t develop. If he survived the birth, he would struggle to breathe and die within hours. The patient had a crushing decision to make: continue the pregnancy — which could be a risk to her health and her ability to have children in the future — or have an abortion. “I don’t think I stopped crying for an entire two weeks,” she said. “The whole world felt heavy. … It’s not something anybody should have to go…
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Women, doctors announce legal action against abortion bans in 3 states

"Women in Idaho, Oklahoma and Tennessee filed legal actions against their states over abortion bans, saying they were denied abortions despite having dangerous pregnancy complications. Four women in Idaho -- Jennifer Adkins, Jillaine St.Michel, Kayla Smith and Rebecca Vincen-Brown -- and abortion providers filed a suit against the state, Gov. Brad Little, attorney general and the state's board of medicine, claiming the state's ban has "sown confusion, fear and chaos among the medical community, resulting in grave harms to pregnant patients whose health and safety hang in the balance across the state," according to a copy of the lawsuit shared with…
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Florida Supreme Court hears arguments in challenge to 15-week abortion ban

"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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Whitmer to call for passage of the ‘Reproductive Health Act’ in Wednesday speech

"Dems want repeal of ‘dangerous and unnecessary’ laws restricting abortion care After Michigan voters resoundingly passed Proposition 3 in the November 2022 election, enshrining the right to abortion and other reproductive health care in the state constitution, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is slated on Wednesday to champion soon-to-be-introduced legislation that would repeal laws restricting Michiganders’ access to abortion. A longtime advocate of abortion rights whose reelection in November was attributed in part to voters’ support for..."
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Missouri, other abortion-ban states pour millions into pregnancy centers with little medical care

"After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Louisiana Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell looked for a way to address her state’s abysmal record on infant and maternal mortality, preterm births and low birth weight. Louisiana has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Mizell and her colleagues borrowed an idea from neighboring Mississippi: a state tax credit program that sends millions each year to nonprofit pregnancy resource centers, also called crisis pregnancy centers. They’re private anti-abortion organizations, often religiously affiliated, that typically offer free pregnancy tests, parenting classes and…
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South Carolina’s new all-male highest court reverses course on abortion, upholding strict 6-week ban

"COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s newly all-male Supreme Court reversed course on abortion Wednesday, upholding a law banning most such procedures except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The continued erosion of legal abortion access across the U.S. South comes after Republican state lawmakers replaced the lone woman on the court, Justice Kaye Hearn, who reached the state’s mandatory retirement age. The 4-1 ruling departs from the court’s own decision months earlier striking down a similar ban that the Republican-led Legislature passed in 2021. The latest ban takes effect immediately..."
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