Abortion Rights

Abortion debate creates ‘new era’ for state supreme court races in 2024, with big spending expected

CHICAGO (AP) — The 2024 elections will be dominated by the presidential contest and the battle for control of Congress, but another series of races is shaping up to be just as consequential. Crucial battles over abortion, gerrymandering, voting rights and other issues will take center stage in next year’s elections for state supreme court seats — 80 of them in 33 states.
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From gender-affirming care bans to minimum wage increases, these new laws take effect January 1

Several states saw a polarizing legislative session last year as lawmakers tackled high-profile measures, some of which take effect this year. While many Democratic- and Republican-led states passed measures to ease the effects of inflation as the economy remains a top concern for voters ahead of the 2024 election, states were split along party lines on marquee issues such as abortion rights and gender-affirming care for minors.
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‘Jane Roe’ is anonymous no more. The very public fight against abortion bans in 2023

As 2023 comes to a close, so too does the first full year of the post-Roe era in America. Some of the year's developments were expected, like more conservative states enacting abortion restrictions. Others were surprising, like the fact that there were more abortions nationally in the year after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision than the previous one.
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How abortion rights fared in 2023 is a mixed bag

The absence of a constitutional guarantee to the right to an abortion has led to a deeply inconsistent landscape of reproductive policy across the map. This year, voters in many states resoundingly elected officials who stood for abortion rights over those who vowed to enact restrictions. Yet, state lawmakers elsewhere implemented draconian abortion bans that would have been unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade, and we saw officials go to great lengths to prosecute, intimidate and shame individuals under those laws.
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Wisconsin is not out of the woods on abortion 

"Wisconsinites breathed a sigh of relief this month when Dane County Judge Diane Schlipper ruled that our 1849 “abortion ban” doesn’t actually apply to consensual abortions. On the strength of that ruling, Planned Parenthood has begun offering abortion services again at clinics in Madison, Milwaukee, and Sheboygan for the first time since the 2022 Dobbs decision ending federally protected abortion rights. But the battle over abortion rights isn’t over. Sheboygan District Attorney Joel Urmanski is appealing Schlipper’s ruling, pushing for a full felony abortion ban. Urmanski previously promised to prosecute anyone involved in providing an abortion under the 1849 law...."
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Advocates propose amending Montana Constitution to guarantee abortion rights

 "If advocates are successful, Montana voters may have a chance next year to decide whether access to abortion should be specifically protected in the state constitution. A proposed constitutional amendment, backed by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, would add language to the Montana Constitution, establishing “a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion.”..."
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Jakeya Johnson Secures Future Reproductive Care Access

(BOWIE, Md.) – Jakeya Johnson, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, graduates from Bowie State with a master’s degree in public administration this week and is already on a fast track establishing herself as change agent, social justice advocate and someone who is making a difference in the world.  Johnson was given an assignment in one of her graduate courses that required developing a policy solution for a public problem. Since she is a major proponent of reproductive rights and freedom, that issue became the topic of her research project and much more. Increasing reproductive health care services on Bowie State’s campus…
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Fear and confusion over abortion access persists as SCOTUS takes its first post-Dobbs case

This year will end on a major cliffhanger for abortion access. Last November, anti-abortion activists via a powerful conservative Christian law firm asked a federal court to effectively ban or widely restrict the abortion drug mifepristone. Finally on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take the case, making Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration the high court’s first abortion-related case since overturning the federal right to an abortion in June 2022.
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Report: Minnesota sees spike in out-of-state patients seeking abortions

"The number of people crossing state lines to Minnesota to get an abortion spiked after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, new data show. The number of out-of-state patients jumped from 9% in 2020 to 30% in 2023 over the same time period, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Nationwide, one in five patients are traveling out of state for an abortion...."
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Proposed abortion law sparks debate

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Some Missouri lawmakers are renewing a call for the state to take an anti-abortion step that goes further than prominent anti-abortion groups want to go and that has not gained much traction in any state so far: a law that would allow homicide charges against women who obtain abortions.
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Dane co. judge’s ruling on consensual abortions sparks statewide debate

"It may look like a win for abortion rights activists today, but the debate isn’t over. Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper reaffirmed her July decision permitting consensual abortions. However, Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski says he plans to appeal. In the State of Wisconsin, abortion is legal up to 21 weeks and six days. If you are under the age of 17, you must of parental consent. When Healthfirst has a pregnant person come in and they are unsure if they want to keep the baby, they want to give that person options...."
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