Abortion Rights

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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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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Telehealth medication abortion services ease access to care for underserved US communities

"Telehealth medication abortion services help make abortion care access more convenient and accessible for underserved communities in the U.S., according to a cross-sectional study published in JAMA Network Open. “Due to limited in-clinic access throughout the country, telehealth medication abortion services, including online consultations and medications delivered directly to patients, can make abortion care more convenient and accessible,” Anna E. Fiastro, MPH, MEM, PhD, research scientist in the department of family medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues wrote. “Other areas of health care have documented disparities in telehealth access, although less is known about telehealth medication abortion services.”..."
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Justice Department asks Supreme Court to end abortion pill legal challenge that threatens widespread access

"The Biden administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to maintain broad access to a commonly used medication abortion pill. The court filing from the Justice Department sets the stage for a possible final resolution to a contentious legal fight mounted by abortion rights opponents over federal approval of the drug mifepristone. The dispute lands at the Supreme Court in time for the justices to potentially take it up, hear oral arguments and issue a decision by next summer...."
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Florida abortion rights at stake as state Supreme Court takes up challenge to GOP-led restrictions

The fate of abortion rights in Florida will be at stake Friday morning when the state Supreme Court is expected to take up a challenge to a law banning the procedure in most cases after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which will determine whether an even stricter six-week ban signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis can take effect.
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New state abortion numbers show increases in some surprising places

"People seeking an abortion are "highly motivated" to travel if they can't get abortions where they live. That's one conclusion from a study from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group that supports reproductive rights. Another striking finding: In Illinois, there were 18,300 more abortions in the first half of this year compared to 2020. "If you're interested in where people are going, then I think the numbers tell a big part of that story because it represents a lot of people traveling," says Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist at the Guttmacher Institute. Illinois already provided a lot of abortions in…
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Mexico decriminalizes abortion, extending Latin American trend of widening access to procedure

"Mexico’s Supreme Court threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion Wednesday, ruling that national laws prohibiting the procedure are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights in a sweeping decision that extended Latin American’s trend of widening abortion access. The high court ordered that abortion be removed from the federal penal code. The ruling will require the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it...."
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