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Women with serious pregnancy complications sue over state abortion bans
Women and physicians in Idaho and Tennessee have sued their home states after they say they were denied abortion care despite being diagnosed with serious, life-threatening medical conditions while pregnant. The lawsuits are led by the Center for Reproductive Rights, an advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., which also helped a patient in Oklahoma file […]
Anti-abortion ‘abolitionists’ take slavery rhetoric to the next level
The first time Tina Marshall heard anti-abortion protesters call themselves “abolitionists,’” she said she burst out laughing. Marshall, a Black woman who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, was counter protesting at an abortion clinic when a mostly white group — save one Black woman — surrounded her and told her they were abolitionists. “I rolled […]
Male anti-abortion religious leaders mull murder charges for pregnant people at national event
An all-male panel of anti-abortion religious leaders from around the country met Friday night to discuss the strategies that should be used to end abortion in every state at any stage of pregnancy, without exceptions for rape and incest, and with criminal punishment for the pregnant person in line with existing criminal penalties for murder, […]
FDA approves first over-the-counter oral contraceptive
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it has approved the country’s first daily birth control pill that can be used without a prescription, a move that reproductive health advocates celebrated after more than 20 years of advocating for an over-the-counter option. The contraceptive, called Opill, is a progestin-only oral pill that could soon […]
Advocacy groups file lawsuit against Idaho’s ‘abortion trafficking’ law
Several advocacy organizations and a civil rights attorney filed a lawsuit against Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office Tuesday alleging a law that criminalizes the act of transporting minors across state lines to obtain an abortion violates constitutionally protected rights and is too vague to be enforceable. The federal lawsuit asks the Idaho District Court […]
Study shows sharp increases in maternal deaths over two decades
A study from the University of Washington released Monday shows maternal mortality rates more than doubled in some states between 1999 and 2019, with sharp increases for some racial and ethnic groups. Researchers touted it as the first study to provide such maternal mortality calculations for every state. Previous reports have not included rates for […]
Echoing history, reliance upon travel rises for abortion care post-Dobbs
Editors’ Note: This report is part of a special States Newsroom series on abortion access one year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion. When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision one year ago, people of childbearing age in states across the country suddenly faced what seemed like […]
Appeals court judges embrace anti-abortion speculation
America’s major medical institutions and drug policy scholars have roundly denounced as “pseudoscience” many of the claims brought by anti-abortion groups in a high-profile federal lawsuit asking the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its 23-year-old approval of mifepristone, one half of a two-drug regimen that has become the most common form of pregnancy termination […]
Post-Roe abortion bans force pregnant people with life-threatening complications to travel
Jennifer Adkins’ first pregnancy was near-perfect. She sailed through her appointments and screenings with no complications, ticking every box and making lists of all the right questions to ask her medical professionals. By the time her unmedicated labor was over and the nurses placed her newborn son on her chest, Adkins felt like a superhero. […]
Some could use support after abortion. But quality care can be hard to find.
Alex D. turned 23 on the day the U.S. Supreme Court released the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. She was visiting the Omaha Zoo in Nebraska on vacation, riding the chairlift over the rhino exhibit when she saw the news alert on her phone. She was also eight weeks pregnant and needed an abortion. […]
In Washington, FDA lawsuit is part of larger strategy to preserve abortion access
As the nation grapples with continuing changes in court rulings affecting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a drug used in abortion care, Washington state’s competing lawsuit and other offensive and defensive moves related to abortion are working exactly as officials and advocates say they intended. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office filed […]
Viable male birth control options could be on the horizon
Heather Vahdat has been advocating for male contraceptive options for nearly a decade, but she is the first to say it is a lonely space to occupy in the health science field. Vahdat is the executive director of the Male Contraceptive Initiative, based in Durham, North Carolina, which has been working with a single donor […]