What two years without Roe looks like, in 8 charts
What two years without Roe looks like, in 8 charts
https://www.vox.com/explainers/356314/abortion-laws-roe-wade-dobbs-decision-mifepristone-supreme-court
Tag: abortion
The Stop Comstock Act Doesn’t Go Far Enough
“Why stop with repealing the parts that could be used to target abortion? The Comstock Act’s reach is much more broad than that, and every bit could do some damage in the wrong hands.”
https://reason.com/2024/06/21/the-stop-comstock-act-doesnt-go-far-enough/
The Supreme Court’s abortion pill case is only a narrow and temporary victory for abortion
“Alliance is fundamentally a case about judge-shopping, a practice that sometimes allows litigants to choose which judge will hear their lawsuit. In this case, the plaintiffs — doctors who oppose abortion and organizations representing those doctors — selected Matthew Kacsmaryk, a longtime advocate for the Christian Right who then-President Donald Trump placed on the federal bench — to be their judge.
The plaintiffs were allowed to choose their own judge because Kacsmaryk’s Texas-based court assigns all lawsuits filed in Amarillo, Texas, to him. So all that these plaintiffs had to do to get Kacsmaryk to hear their case was file their suit in his home city.
Kacsmaryk’s opinion was, well, exactly what you would expect from a judge who is determined to fight abortion no matter what the law says. His 2023 decision struck down the FDA’s decision to approve the drug mifepristone in 2000, despite a six-year statute of limitations on such claims. He relied on discredited studies that have since been retracted by their publisher. And he relied on testimony from a “doctor” who isn’t actually a physician at all.
Then his decision was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a court dominated by MAGA Republicans, which narrowed Kacsmaryk’s decision but still effectively banned the drug. It was this decision by the Fifth Circuit that a unanimous Supreme Court reversed on Thursday.”
https://www.vox.com/scotus/355175/supreme-court-mifepristone-abortion-alliiance-hippocratic-medicine-fda
The Comstock Act, the long-dead law Trump could use to ban abortion, explained
“On the one hand, Trump frequently claims credit for the Supreme Court’s decision eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion — and well he should, since the three Republicans he appointed to the Supreme Court all joined the Court’s 2022 decision permitting abortion bans. As Trump told Fox News last summer, “I did something that no one thought was possible. I got rid of Roe v. Wade.”
At the same time, Trump at least claims that he has no interest in signing new federal legislation banning abortion. When a reporter asked Trump if he would sign such a ban last month, Trump’s answer was an explicit “no.”
Behind the scenes, however, many of Trump’s closest allies tout a plan to ban abortion in all 50 states that doesn’t require any new federal legislation whatsoever.”
https://www.vox.com/abortion/351678/the-comstock-act-the-long-dead-law-trump-could-use-to-ban-abortion-explained
New Survey Finds Abortions Increased Slightly in 2023, Despite Widespread Bans
“The survey also found that the abortion rate in 2023 was slightly higher than in 2022, despite total abortion bans in more than a dozen states.”
https://reason.com/2024/05/15/new-survey-finds-abortions-increased-slightly-in-2023-despite-widespread-bans/
The astonishing radicalism of Florida’s new ban on abortion
“In spring 2022, just months before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans in Florida passed a law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, down from the previous legal threshold of 24 weeks. It took effect that summer, but advocates for reproductive rights challenged it in state court as unconstitutional.
One year later, Republicans in Florida took even more aggressive action against reproductive freedom: Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new bill to restrict abortion at six weeks of pregnancy. But the fate of that law rested on what the court would decide about the 15-week ban. If it decided that ban was legal, the six-week ban would be, too.
In early April, nearly two years after challengers first filed their lawsuit, the Florida Supreme Court finally issued its ruling: The 15-week ban is constitutional under state law, and therefore the six-week ban would take effect 30 days later, on May 1.
In practical terms, six weeks is a total ban. Many people do not even know they’re pregnant by then. Even if they are aware, Florida requires patients seeking abortions to complete two in-person doctor visits with a 24-hour waiting period in between, a challenging logistical burden to meet before 15 weeks and a nearly impossible one before six.
Not only will the six-week ban decimate abortion access for Florida residents, but it will also significantly curtail care for people across the South, who have been traveling to Florida from more restrictive states since Roe was overturned. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group, there were 8,940 more abortions in Florida in 2023 compared to 2020—a 12 percent increase that researchers attribute largely to travel from out-of-state patients. Residents of Florida’s bordering states face either a total ban (Alabama) or a six-week ban (Georgia).”
https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/4/5/23668272/florida-abortion-six-week-ballot-measure
A Cruel and Risky Abortion Ban Versus an Overreaching Interpretation of Federal Law
“Abortion bans with no health exception are horrible for women and for medical professionals. Oregon doctor Jennifer Lincoln referred to them as “not dead enough yet” rules. If a pregnant woman shows up at a doctor’s office or hospital with serious and potentially-but-not-yet life-threatening complications, doctors’ hands are tied.
Under such a paradigm, performing an abortion is illegal until it’s certain a woman’s life itself is in jeopardy. This leaves women in the terrible position of having to wait while their health worsens, knowing all the while that a (possibly much-wanted) pregnancy cannot continue and also that the longer they wait, the greater the chance of damage to their reproductive organs or other body parts. And steep penalties for performing an abortion outside of life-threatening emergencies may lead some doctors or health systems to be overly cautious from a liability perspective, further putting pregnant women’s health at risk.
Meanwhile, doctors are put in the position of having to either send women in such circumstances out of state if possible or simply watch and wait while their patient’s condition deteriorates.”
https://reason.com/2024/04/24/a-cruel-and-risky-abortion-ban-versus-an-overreaching-interpretation-of-federal-law/
Trump says abortion should be up to states. Here’s where it’s banned — and where it’s protected.
“Abortion remains legal in 26 states and D.C.
Abortion is legal for now in 3 states.
Abortion is legal earlier in pregnancy in 5 states.
Abortion is illegal in 16 states.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/09/abortion-laws-by-state-where-abortions-are-illegal-00151228
Florida and Arizona show why abortion attacks are not slowing down
“Since the beginning of April, state Supreme Courts in Florida and Arizona have both issued rulings that will effectively ban abortion care in the third and 14th most populous states.
While both states already had curtailed abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, now Florida’s Supreme Court ruling will trigger a six-week ban (before many people know they’re pregnant) beginning on May 1. And Arizona’s Supreme Court revived a near-total ban that will take effect in two weeks and carries with it a minimum two-year prison sentence for doctors who perform abortions that are not essential for saving their patient’s life.
It’s perhaps fitting that these extreme rulings would come down at the same time that former President Donald Trump attempts to wipe his hands clean of abortion policy in his 2024 presidential campaign.”
https://www.vox.com/2024/4/11/24126617/florida-arizona-abortion-rights-trump-2024
Can you guess where Americans stand on abortion?
Can you guess where Americans stand on abortion?
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/abortion-poll-quiz-2024/