Abortion Bans – REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ALERTS

24 Oct

Medical exceptions to abortion bans often exclude mental health conditions

MollyUnited StatesAbortion Bans, Abortion Care, Healthcare, Medical exceptions, Mental health, Mental illness, United States

"More than a dozen states now have near-total abortion bans following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, with limited medical exceptions meant to protect the patient’s health or life. But among those states, only Alabama explicitly includes “serious mental illness” as an allowable exception. Meanwhile, 10 states with near-total abortion bans (Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming) explicitly exclude mental health conditions as legal exceptions, according to an analysis from KFF, a health policy research organization...."

27 Jul

Maternal Deaths Are Expected to Rise Under Abortion Bans, but the Increase May Be Hard to Measure

MollyUnited StatesAbortion Bans, Abortion Care, abortion service travel, Healthcare, Illinois, Maternal Death, Missouri, Nonviable Pregnancy, Travel for Care, United States

"Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, doctors have warned that limiting abortion care will make pregnancy more dangerous in a country that already has the highest maternal mortality rate among industrialized nations. The case of Mylissa Farmer, a Missouri woman, is one example. Last August, her water broke less than 18 weeks into her pregnancy, when her fetus was not viable. She was at risk for developing a life-threatening infection if she continued the pregnancy. Yet during three separate visits to emergency rooms, she was denied abortion care because her fetus still had a heartbeat. Doctors specifically cited the state’s…

20 Jul

Blue-state doctors launch abortion pill pipeline into states with bans

MollyUnited StatesAbortion Bans, Abortion Care, Abortion Pills, Aid Access, Healthcare, Shipping, State Laws, United States

"...Previously, Aid Access allowed only Europe-based doctors to prescribe abortion pills to women in states where abortion is restricted and then shipped those pills internationally, leaving patients to wait weeks. The telemedicine shield laws, enacted over the past year in New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Vermont and Colorado, explicitly protect abortion providers who mail pills to restricted states from inside their borders...."

16 Jul

An illegal abortion killed my great-great-grandmother. A century later, what’s changed?

MollyOpinion, United StatesAbortion Bans, Abortion Care, Abortion Rights, Arizona, Healthcare, Illegal Abortion, Opinion Piece, United States

"In 1921, my great-great-grandmother Anna died because abortions were illegal. She got pregnant — with her 11th child — when she was 40 years old, a full-time homemaker, married to a produce peddler in New York City.... I’m 16 years old, a junior in high school, looking to the not-so-distant future in which I’ll be attending college far from home. What if I were to get pregnant against my will? What if I were to get pregnant in my teens, without the means of raising a child? My story is different. I am frightened by what might happen to me...."