The Louisiana legislature passed a bill Wednesday that will extend the required waiting period for an abortion to 72 hours, one of the strictest in the nation. Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has said he’ll sign the bill into law.
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has signed a bill banning a common second trimester abortion method, dilation and evacuation. The bill leaves just a sliver of a loophole, allowing the procedure only to prevent “irreversible physical impairment.” Mississippi has only one abortion clinic, who are quite likely to sue…
Utah Governor Gary Herbert has signed a bill requiring that doctors administer anesthesia to people receiving abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The bill, you will be non-surprised to learn, isn’t about concern for a pregnant person’s health, but is based on the bogus notion that 20-week fetuses can feel pain.
At a time when abortion clinics are closing at the fastest rate in U.S. history, more are likely about to shut their doors. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Wednesday that Louisiana can enforce a law that could shut down three of the four remaining abortion clinics in the state.
This year, the merry social advocacy trolls at the Satanic Temple have devoted themselves to advocating for abortion rights, arguing that a 72-hour waiting period in Missouri violated their religious freedom and filing both state and federal lawsuits against it. Their most prominent Detroit member just made the fight…
Missouri State Representative Stacey Newman is deeply concerned about the state’s gun violence, and figures perhaps it might help matters to make guns a little harder to buy. Luckily, she’s got a perfect model right in front of her: Missouri’s abortion restrictions, some of the most onerous in the country.
Amy Hagstrom Miller is used to fielding frantic phone calls. She’s been working in abortion care since 1989; in 2003 she founded Whole Woman’s Health, a group of clinics in five states that provide gynecological care and abortions. In Texas, Whole Woman’s hotline is getting one particular call in particular, over and…
The Supreme Court has issued a temporary stay on HB 2, Texas’ disastrous anti-abortion law, which would have closed most clinics in the state. That means the state will be temporarily unable to enforce the law; the Supreme Court will likely hear the case next term. This is good news, for now, possibly followed next…
The Satanic Temple, God bless and keep them, is filing a federal lawsuit today against Missouri’s abortion restrictions, where one of their members, known as “Mary Doe,” recently terminated a pregnancy. The Satanic Temple is arguing that Missouri’s abortion laws, specifically its 72-hour waiting period and an…
The Supreme Court has declined to rescue a 2011 North Carolina law that would require an abortion-providing doctor to show a patient an ultrasound of the fetus and describe it in detail, including the size of organs and limbs. A federal appeals court already declared that the law was unconstitutional because it…
The Texas State Senate passed a bill Monday night that will make it near-impossible for teenagers to obtain legal abortions without parental consent. The bill dismantled the judicial bypass process, which once gave Texas teens a viable option to get an abortion when their parent or legal guardian either refused to…
The Satanic Temple has filed suit against Missouri, alleging that the state’s anti-abortion restrictions interfere with the Satanists’ religious liberty. One of TST’s Missouri members, known as “Mary Doe” in court filings, is seeking an abortion, and argued that the 72-hour waiting period required by Missouri law was…
New Mexico—my home state and the best place on earth—has always been an oasis of common sense and compassion when it comes to abortion laws. But the new GOP majority in the state legislature is working to make that a thing of the past, successfully passing two bills out of committee that would severely limit access to…
States like Texas and Missouri have been loudly crowing for years about their success in making abortion harder and harder to access. But today, let's take a moment to recognize, once again, the contributions Ohio has made to the cause: a thicket of confusing, burdensome, and sometimes contradictory laws and…
A new analysis from the Guttmacher Institute shows that U.S. states have passed 231 new abortion restrictions since the 2010 midterm elections. In what's probably just a huge coincidence, the 2010 midterms were also the ones were we elected all those Tea Party Republicans.
New research shows that the abortion rate in America is at its lowest level since the 1970's, and we have widely available, reliable birth control to thank. This data, in the face of other numbers that suggest the American birth rate is also at historic lows, suggests that women are simply exerting greater control…
Sorry to bring down your Saturday, but the New York Times has a new report on the recent surge in abortion restrictions, and it's not looking great. We've seen this happening at an unsettling pace recently, and it's scary that women aren't getting access to care that they need. So far, twenty-four states have barred…
Last Christmas Eve, a 32 year old Idaho woman took RU-486 in an attempt to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. This January, police found the fetal remains on her property and charged her with inducing her own abortion, a crime in the state. The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence, but not before everyone in town…
Indiana wins! Go Indiana! Oh wait, that's a chart of the different kinds of abortion restrictions existing in a state — from targeted restrictions on abortion providers (also known as TRAP laws) to parental consent laws to waiting periods. You can play around with the tools over at Remapping Debate, depending on which…
Yesterday an Arizona appeals court ruled that parts of a 2009 state law that imposes new abortion restrictions can go into effect. According to the judges, laws only violate women's rights when they create an "undue burden." Placing some burden on women trying to obtain a legal procedure is totally fine.
