Abortion Rights

‘A long time coming’: New medication abortion program launches on Cape and Islands

"Starting today, people in rural parts of Massachusetts have more options when seeking abortions. Although Massachusetts is among the states with the least restrictive abortion policies, advocates say there are still some regions of the state, especially the Cape and Islands, where it can be hard for people to access services, in some cases having to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest clinic, often at a high financial cost. But through a new medication abortion program, Health Imperatives, which operates clinics in Brockton, Plymouth, Wareham, New Bedford, Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, is making abortion care available in areas of…
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After fall of Roe, emboldened religious conservatives lobby to restrict abortion in Africa

"Efforts to legalize and make abortions safer in Africa were shaken when the U.S. Supreme Court ended the national right to an abortion a year ago. Within days, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio declared that his government would decriminalize abortion “at a time when sexual and reproductive health rights for women are being either overturned or threatened.”..."
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One Year After Roe’s Fall, Here’s Where Abortion Access Stands In The D.C. Region

"In Virginia, now the southernmost state without a post-Roe ban, the future of abortion access remains a contentious debate — and one expected to heat up in this fall’s off-off year election where abortion is expected to be a top line issue. ... D.C. lawmakers, like those in Maryland, acted to protect the many out-of-state travelers they anticipated would flock to the D.C. area in a post-Roe landscape...."
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New Mexico sets up abortion hotline after a surge of women arrive from Texas, other states

"New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham says her administration has set up a new telephone hotline for women seeking access to abortion clinics plus transportation and other assistance. The hotline is already live but is still being built out, according to Lujan Grisham. The number is 833-767-3776. It will be staffed by registered nurses with the state Department of Health and paid for using existing resources...."
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Maltese lawmakers vote to legalize abortion, but only where there is a grave risk to the mother

"Maltese lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation to ease the strictest abortion laws in the European Union, but pro-choice campaigners had withdrawn their support, saying last-minute changes make the legislation “vague, unworkable and even dangerous.” The original bill allowing women access to abortion if a pregnant woman's life or health is in danger was hailed as a step in the right direction for Malta, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation. It was introduced last fall after an American tourist who miscarried had to be airlifted off the Mediterranean island nation to be treated...."
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Maine lawmakers are a single vote from approval of bill to allow later abortions

"The Maine House voted Tuesday night to enact a bill to expand access to abortions, putting the proposal one final vote away from going to the governor for her signature. The Senate, which supported the bill in an initial vote Tuesday, must cast a final vote on the legislation that’d give the state one of the least restrictive abortion laws in the country. The House vote, 73-69, capped an emotional day that included demonstrators against the bill holding signs, singing hymns and chanting “kill the bill!” in the State House hallways...."
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North Carolina lawmakers send governor last-minute changes to state’s recently passed abortion law

"The North Carolina General Assembly on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that includes some last-minute changes to the state’s recently passed abortion law. The Republican-controlled legislature sent the bill to the Democratic governor’s desk, just a day before a federal judge is set to hear a motion seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the abortion law from taking effect. The new law, which bans most abortions after 12 weeks, is set to go into effect on July 1...."
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North Carolina was an abortion haven. With its new 12-week ban, the protection will vanish.

"So if North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban takes effect July 1, the region will lose one of its last remaining access points for people seeking an abortion. While the law’s 12-week limitation will cut off access for people seeking abortions in the second trimester, clinicians are perhaps most worried about its other provisions: namely, a stipulation that people make two in-person visits to a clinic for an abortion, separated by 72 hours. More than a new time limit on abortion, they said, that provision will make it impossible for most people traveling from out of state to access care in…
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Arguments Over South Carolina Abortion Ban Returns to Newly All-Male State Supreme Court

"The right to an abortion in South Carolina is back before the state's highest court as Republicans try to restore a ban that was overturned earlier this year — this time in front of the only state Supreme Court in the nation made up entirely of men. Tuesday's oral arguments will mark the second time since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal protections last summer that lawyers for the state and providers will present their arguments to the state Supreme Court. A 3-2 majority in January tossed a similar law that banned abortion once cardiac activity is detected, or at about six weeks and before…
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Arizona governor signs executive order to protect abortion rights

"Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced an executive order on Friday that protects abortion rights within the state one year after the Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization decision. Abortion is generally legal before 15 weeks in Arizona under a law passed by former Governor Doug Ducey. According to the announcement, the order “centralizes” all abortion-related prosecutions under the attorney general. Additionally, the order directs state agencies not to assist in investigations relating to reproductive health care that would be legal in Arizona. The order also states that Arizona will decline extradition requests from other states seeking to prosecute abortion services. Lastly, the order establishes the Governor’s…
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New research describes troubling abortion infodemic

"Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision which guaranteed the right to access abortion services. Immediately following this decision, there was an outpouring of misinformation about abortion on social media. Misinformation about abortion, including health consequences of abortion for the mother; how to perform potentially dangerous, at-home abortions; the idea that the fetus experiences pain during an abortion; that abortion is never used to save the life of the mother; and other false claims have proliferated in the wake of the court's decision...."
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In Guam, a US territory, the last doctor who performed abortions left in 2018. The closest option is an 8-hour flight to Hawaii.

As patients in the continental US travel across state lines for abortion care, pregnant people living on Guam have to travel across the ocean. Abortion remains legal in Guam — the US territory in the Western Pacific that sits 1,600 miles south of Japan — up to 13 weeks of gestation, but that doesn't mean it's accessible, The New York Times reported.
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Protests planned across US to mark one year since loss of abortion rights

"Reproductive rights advocates are planning demonstrations across the US to mark the first anniversary of the supreme court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a move that overturned the landmark ruling established by Roe v Wade that protected the right to abortion...."
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