Ruling – REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ALERTS

02 Jul

Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority strikes down 176-year-old abortion ban

MollyLatest News, United States1849, Abortion Ban, Abortion Rights, legislation, Ruling, State Supreme Court, struck down, United States, Wisconsin

“The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority struck down the state’s 176-year-old abortion ban on Wednesday, ruling 4-3 that it was superseded by newer state laws regulating the procedure, including statutes that criminalize abortions only after a fetus can survive outside the womb. The ruling came as no surprise given that liberal justices control the court. One of them went so far as to promise to uphold abortion rights during her campaign two years ago, and they blasted the ban during oral arguments in November….”

12 Apr

Strict Idaho abortion ban loosened by judge’s ruling on medical exemptions

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Ban, Idaho, judge's ruling, Lawsuit, Loosened abortion ban, Medical exemption, Ruling, United States

"An abortion in Idaho is not prohibited if pregnancy complications could cause a woman's death, even if that death “is neither imminent nor assured,” a state judge said Friday in a ruling that loosens one of the strictest abortion bans in the U.S. Four women have sued over Idaho's strict abortion bans. The women, who are represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, aren’t asking for the state’s abortion ban to be overturned. Instead, they want the judge to clarify and expand the exceptions to the strict ban so people facing serious pregnancy complications can receive abortions before they are at death’s…

22 Feb

Lawsuit filed by 17 states against abortion accommodations in the workplace can proceed

MollyLatest News, United States17 states, abortion acommodations, Lawsuit, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, proceed, Ruling, United States, Workplace abortion accommodations

"A lawsuit filed by 17 states challenging federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions may proceed, a federal appeals court ruled. The Eighth Circuit Court’s decision on Thursday reverses Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall, Jr.'s dismissal of the case in June after he found that the states lacked standing to sue. Eighth Circuit Chief Judge Steven M. Colloton, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2003, wrote in Thursday’s opinion that the states do have standing since they are subject to the federal rules. Led by Republican state attorneys general in Tennessee and Arkansas,…

03 Dec

Zimbabwe court rules against law that denies abortion to marital rape victims and girls below 18

MollyInternational, Latest NewsAbortion Care, Court, Health care, legislation, Minors, Reproductive care, Ruling, Sexual Assault, victims, zimbabwe

“A law prohibiting abortion services for women raped by their husbands and girls under the age of 18 is unconstitutional, Zimbabwe’s High Court has ruled. In his ruling handed down on Nov. 22 and made public this week, Judge Maxwell Takuva said since Zimbabwe’s laws already criminalize marital rape and sex with a minor, victims should be allowed to abort if they become pregnant….”

07 Sep

Missouri abortion-rights amendment could be axed from the ballot after ruling

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Rights, Amendment, Ballot, Healthcare, Judge, Missouri, Ruling, United States

"A Missouri judge on Friday ruled that an abortion-rights campaign did not meet legal requirements to qualify for the November ballot, potentially thwarting a yearslong effort to undo the state's near-total abortion ban. But Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh stopped short of removing the measure from the ballot. Instead, he gave the abortion-rights campaign a chance to file a last-minute appeal before Tuesday's deadline to make changes to the Missouri ballot...."

15 Aug

Foetuses can be called ‘unborn humans’ for Arizona abortion vote

MollyLatest News, United States"Unborn Humans", Arizona, Ballot, Fetus, Fetuses, Poll, Ruling, United States, Vote

"Pro-choice activists in Arizona have hit out after judges allowed the state to use what the campaigners call "biased" language ahead of a vote on abortion. The state's top court ruled on Wednesday that a foetus could be called an "unborn human being" in official public information leaflets ahead of the 5 November poll. America's bitter debate over reproductive freedoms will again be in the spotlight on that date, when Arizona and other states will vote on whether to add to their constitutions the right for a woman to have an abortion...."

02 Aug

Utah Supreme Court upholds pause on abortion ban

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Ban, Lawsuit, pause, Planned Parenthood, Ruling, State lawsuits, State Supreme Court, United States, Utah

“The Utah Supreme Court issued a ruling Thursday morning that upheld an injunction blocking enforcement of a 2020 trigger law that bans nearly all abortions across the state. The 4-1 opinion from the Utah Supreme Court — which is comprised of three women and two men — affirmed a district court’s decision to enjoin the enforcement of the ban while Planned Parenthood of Utah and the state continue to litigate the constitutionality of the law….”

02 Aug

Mayes wins extended delay of Civil War-era abortion law ruling to mull appeal to U.S. Supreme Court

MollyLatest News, United States1864, Abortion Ban, Arizona, delay, Ruling, Supreme Court, United States

“Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has further delayed the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to revive a near-total abortion ban from 1864 — and she’s still eyeing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since the Arizona Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling that the Civil War-era law could once again be enforced earlier this year, the law was repealed by the state legislature. While reproductive rights proponents celebrated the move at the time, they also worried that the legislature’s action would simply delay the ban’s reinstatement, because laws don’t become effective until 90 days after the legislative session ends. But that fear was laid to…

24 Jul

North Dakota judge will decide whether to throw out a challenge to the state’s abortion ban

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Ban, Abortion Care, Health care, Judge, Minnesota, North Dakota, Red River Women's Clinic, Ruling, United States

"Attorneys argued Tuesday over whether a North Dakota judge should toss a lawsuit challenging the state's abortion ban, with the state saying the plaintiffs' case rests on hypotheticals, and the plaintiffs saying key issues remain to be resolved at a scheduled trial. State District Judge Bruce Romanick said he will rule as quickly as he can, but he also asked the plaintiffs' attorney what difference he would have at the court trial in August. The Red River Women's Clinic, which moved from Fargo to neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, filed the lawsuit challenging the state's now-repealed trigger ban soon after the fall…

21 Jul

Ruling keeps abortion question on ballot in South Dakota

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Rights, Ballot, lawsui, Lawsuit, Ruling, United States

"A state court judge's ruling Monday keeps an abortion-rights question on the November ballot in South Dakota. Judge John Pekas dismissed a lawsuit filed by an anti-abortion group, Life Defense Fund, that sought to have the question removed even though supporters turned in more than enough valid signatures to put it on the ballot...."

28 Jun

Abortion bans still leave a ‘gray area’ for doctors after Idaho Supreme Court case

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Ban, Abortion Care, Gray area, Health care, Idaho, Ruling, Supreme Court, United States

"The Supreme Court’s abortion ruling on Thursday is a narrow one that applies only to Idaho and sends a case back down to the appeals court. Confusion among doctors in states that have strict abortion bans remains widespread. The case concerns the kinds of situations in which emergency room doctors could end a pregnancy. Under Idaho law, it is a felony to provide nearly all abortions, unless the life of the mother is at risk. But what if a pregnancy threatens her health? For now, those abortions can happen in Idaho emergency rooms...."

18 Jun

Abortion Pill Access Is Still Under Threat After SCOTUS Ruling, Legal Experts Warn

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Pill, Abortion pill access, mifepristone, Ruling, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, United States

"....Last week’s ruling was widely expected, legal experts say. “Anybody that values reproductive freedom and the scientific integrity of the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] can breathe a sigh of relief,” says Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. But “it would be foolish to declare victory” for abortion rights, he says. The ruling was a narrow legal technicality that didn’t go into the case’s actual merits. It’s quite possible, Gostin says, that the Court could make future rulings that restrict access to medication abortion and usurp the FDA’s broader authority to regulate drug safety...."

20 May

Ohio voters approved reproductive rights. Will the state’s near-ban on abortion stand?

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion, Abortion Ban, Constitution, Judge, Ohio, Reproductive rights, Ruling, United States, Voting

"A county judge could rule as early as Monday on Ohio's law banning virtually all abortions, a decision that will take into consideration the decision by voters to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution. The 2019 law under consideration by Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins bans most abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women are aware...."

10 Apr

Arizona Supreme Court rules a near-total abortion ban from 1864 is enforceable

MollyLatest News, United States1864, Abortion Ban, Arizona, civil war-era, codified, Hearing, legislation, Ruling, State Supreme Court, United States

"The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban still on the books in the state is enforceable, a bombshell decision that adds the state to the growing lists of places where abortion care is effectively banned. The ruling allows an 1864 law in Arizona to stand that made abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs one or helps a woman obtain one. The law — which was codified in 1901, and again in 1913 — outlaws abortion from the moment of conception but includes an exception to save the woman’s…

07 Feb

U.S. publisher retracts studies cited by Texas judge in suspending abortion pill’s approval

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Pill, Citation, Federal approval, Medical Abortion, mifeproistone, Ruling, Supreme Court, Texas, United States

"A U.S. scientific publisher has retracted two studies, largely due to their methodology, that a Texas judge cited last year in his ruling suspending federal approval of the abortion pill mifepristone in response to a lawsuit by anti-abortion doctors and medical associations. The retraction Monday by Sage Publications came less than two months before the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal by President Joe Biden's administration in that case. Mifepristone, the first in a two-pill regimen for medication abortion, remains available while the appeal is pending...."