Abortion – Abortion Clinics, Abortion Pill, Abortion Information

As incredible as the vote on the 25th May was, it is a far cry from the care people need and deserve (Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire)

A year ago today, Ireland voted by an overwhelming majority to repeal the Eighth Amendment (which imposed a near total ban on abortion) from its Constitution, paving the way for abortion services to be offered on request in early pregnancy.

The result was monumental. Not only did it enable the roll-out of services across the country in less than a year, it sent a powerful message: that the Irish public respected women and pregnant people’s rights to make decisions about their own bodies and lives.

For years, countless dedicated individuals had campaigned to change Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws. And organisations like ours had been supporting people who were forced to travel to another jurisdiction to access healthcare they should have received at home.

Those without the money or means to pay for flights to the UK. Those who often resorted to desperate and dangerous measures to no longer remain pregnant before finding out about Abortion Support Network (ASN) and the support we can offer.

We’re still getting those calls. Still helping those people. Because as incredible as the vote on the 25th May was, it is a far cry from the care people need and deserve. And it’s a very far cry from making ASN redundant.

Ireland’s new legislation leaves many behind. There is a stigmatising and non evidence-based mandatory waiting period, sparse provision in certain parts of the country, doctors interpreting the law overly cautiously for fear of criminal sanctions. And a cut-off period of less than 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The problems with the new law were stressed persistently before it came into effect. We are not a campaigning organisation but our founder Mara Clarke even wrote to the Irish Health Minister and warned him of all the people this legislation would create additional barriers for – homeless people, those without EU passports, people with disabilities, those in abusive relationships, parents. The list goes on.

Sadly, these concerns weren’t listened to and people who fall through the cracks of the new system are still being forced to travel. And they’re not the only ones.

Despite the fact that it is part of the United Kingdom, in Northern Ireland abortion is prohibited in almost all circumstances – and punishable by life imprisonment. To contextualise, the Northern Irish law is even more restrictive than the proposals we’ve seen come out of Alabama in recent weeks.

People in Northern Ireland who find themselves pregnant when they don’t want to be are forced to either travel across the Irish sea or over the Irish border (where they face the three-day waiting period, inconsistent provision and a €450 fee).

We don’t need a referendum to change this. Westminster has the power – more than that, a duty – to act and extend abortion provision to Northern Ireland without delay. The Irish Government too, has a responsibility to provide accessible and affordable abortion services to people in Northern Ireland. To paraphrase a popular hashtag, the time is long overdue for NI.

When thinking about the changes between last year and now, a few things stick out. ASN is seeing less clients from Ireland and have been able to extend services to people in Malta and Gibraltar, where abortion is also extremely restricted. That said, we are dealing with more complex cases since the referendum. People needing more support and more funding. Which is why we’re incredibly grateful to every person who donates or fundraises for us.

To end on a positive, when people reach out to us for help now, they appear less apologetic about exercising their right to basic healthcare.

The enduring stigma surrounding abortion, which made many feel like they had to excuse or apologise for their choices, seems to have eroded somewhat since last May. And that is incredibly powerful. Now when clients contact us, they simply say ‘I need an abortion. Can you help me?’ And we can. And we will. For as long as we’re needed.

Source: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/25/repealing-the-8th-amendment-was-monumental-but-some-women-still-cant-access-abortions-9689604/?fbclid=IwAR20OeSTSCE5dt0F6j96m7MxJxw8HIQgdJLcKGWGmqdePX0ct57AEY8SYrE

In a state where access hangs in the balance, a culture of stigma can make things even harder. One former pageant queen wants to change that.

m from a small town in Alabama called Guntersville, about 45 minutes south of Huntsville. People say my town has more churches than people—and all the people go to church. Growing up, my father owned his own packaging company, but on Sundays, he preached at Victory Cornerstone church, in nearby Arab, Alabama. He started preaching there a couple years after my brother died of cancer when I was nine, and he’s still doing it. But after everything that’s happened, I don’t go to that church anymore.

Guntersville has always been a conservative place where women, my mom included, played by the rules that were impressed upon them. Each decision was a family decision and you needed to consult your husband about everything. Women were taught to ask permission. I didn’t love growing up there—I never felt like I was allowed to develop my own thoughts.

When I was 17, I had a boyfriend who was a year older than me. We’d talked about getting married, but I really wanted to go to college first. Then I found out I was pregnant.

I was really shocked, because I was on the Pill—I’d had severe endometriosis for years, and the Pill helped me manage it. At first, when I was late, I didn’t even consider that I could be pregnant, since I’d always been irregular. But then I started feeling queasy, like I was going to pass out at any minute. I thought, On the off-chance I am pregnant, it’s better to know. So I took a ring from my mom’s jewelry box and wore it to the drugstore to buy a pregnancy test. I didn’t want the lady at checkout thinking I was unmarried and having sex. When the test came up positive, I threw up.

Jenna as a child with her parents and two older siblings.

COURTESY JENNA KING-SHEPHERD

Almost immediately, I had terrible morning sickness and panicked delusions. You know when you scrape your leg and you can almost feel your heartbeat in the cut? I was having mental pictures where every time I looked at my stomach I’d see a heartbeat there. I felt like there was something in me that I need to get out. I couldn’t even look in the mirror without having a panic attack.

My boyfriend didn’t even believe I was pregnant at first. He wanted me to get another test and then drive to his house and take it in front of him. I did, but I was enraged. I thought, This is not someone I should be with right now, let alone for the rest of my life. When the test came up positive again, I stormed out to my car. I knew that having a baby was not what I needed to do. I needed to go to college. I needed to get out of this relationship.

Competing in a pageant.

COURTESY JENNA KING-SHEPHERD

I called my older sister, who said, “I’ll drop everything and come down there.” Years ago, when she came out as gay, my parents were not ok with it, and they still aren’t. It was through that experience that I learned, My parents are right about a lot of things, but maybe they’re not right about everything. I saw firsthand how not allowing people to live their truth can destroy people and families and communities. My dad basically cut my sister out of his life over her sexuality.

But she is like a second mother to me, and having her support made me feel brave. So after I got off the phone with her, I called the abortion clinic in Birmingham, about an hour and a half away. They told me I’d have to make two trips down there: One for “counseling,” and one for the actual procedure.

Next I called my parents. Not telling them wasn’t really an option; I was so dependent on them. I figured I’d just tell them and get it over with and we’d never talk about it again and everything would be okay.

But I’ll never forget what my dad said when I told him. He said, “One of my kids had cancer and died and I hate that. One of my kids is gay and I hate that. And my other kid is pregnant and having an abortion and I’m ashamed and I hate that.” Here I was, this golden child who competed in pageants and got good grades and had only ever wanted to make my dad proud, letting him down. Still, I never wavered in my decision. I knew that this was hands down the only choice for me at that point in my life.

When my sister arrived, she gave me a robe that had been given to her by my dad’s secretary at his church—the first person she came out to. The woman had told her to put it on whenever she felt alone or depressed. Now my sister gave it to me and said, “This is your body, Jenna, and your life.” It felt good to have someone tell me that, even though I already knew it in my gut.

Not long after my abortion, I went off to college. For years, I was just living my life trying to erase the shame I felt. My dad is all about trophies. He loves a trophy. So I wanted to be a trophy daughter. I studied sports broadcasting, hoping to be on ESPN like Erin Andrews. I placed in the top five twice in the Miss Alabama pageant. I dated a football player. I married a football player. He went on to the NFL, signing with the Minnesota Vikings. My husband and I started a charity that gives football tickets to sick kids. I was leading this really charmed life, but I still felt this emptiness. Like, Who am I? It was like I was harboring this huge secret and nobody really knew who I was. I didn’t know who I was. When you live your life like that, it’s so hard to form authentic connections to other people. I was afraid to let people in because I didn’t think they’d like what they saw. I hadn’t even told my husband about my abortion.

Jenna and her husband right after the birth of their son, Barron.

COURTESY JENNA KING-SHEPHERD

In 2016, when I was pregnant with my son, I moved back to Guntersville so he could be near both sets of grandparents and I could take on a bigger role at my dad’s company. My husband was between teams and I just wanted to give birth somewhere familiar. I still seemed like this happy girl with a perfect life, but inside I was really struggling. I’d flex on Instagram all the time. Here’s me and my nice car, here are pictures of me in pageants, here’s this body I’m starving myself to have, here’s this vacation I’m taking with my family, even though they don’t allow any of us to be who we really are. Looking back, I’m ashamed that so much of what I put out there barely scratched the surface of who I was.

Then, last year, I saw that Alabama was voting on an amendment that would recognize “the right to life” of unborn children. I got chills. I was just so fed up with having to fake it and I decided right then and there that I would stop. One of the big supporters of the bill was the Lieutenant Governor, who is from my town and is friends with my father. Another supporter was a state senator from my district. I took them both out to lunch individually and told them that I’d had an abortion and that I was personally against the amendment. They were shocked. Neither really knew what to say.

After that, I felt something shift inside of me. It was like, “Okay—you’re an advocate now.” So I kept going. I talked to women in my dad’s office, where I was a sales representative. I talked to my parents about it for the first time in a long time and they were extremely uncomfortable. I tried to host a “Vote No” part at my house and lots of people RSVP’d that they were coming. Then on the day of the party, everyone cancelled at the last minute except for literally one person. My friends all said they didn’t want people to see their cars at my house now that I was telling people I had an abortion. Or that they didn’t want their husbands to find out they were supporting the “Vote No” movement.

At the Georgia State Capitol for Pink Out the Halls, an event hosted by Planned Parenthood.

COURTESY JENNA KING-SHEPHERD

When I learned that the amendment had passed, I just got so mad. These laws speak to the full invasion of a woman’s body. They give the government control of women. When you have politicians talking about the death penalty for women who have abortions but not any kind of punishment for the man who impregnated the woman, that just shows how backwards we are.

I decided that I wanted to dedicate my life to fighting for reproductive rights—especially in Alabama, which is ground zero for this kind of work. I started studying for the LSAT. I went even more public with my story by speaking with a local news reporter that some activists at Planned Parenthood had connected me with. I knew that when the article came out, people would say I’m a murderer who should’ve kept her legs closed, and they did. Friends and family and perfect strangers commented on Facebook that I was a monster and a terrible human being and that I should’ve used protection. I wanted to write back that I had used protection.

My jaw really hit the floor when my aunt, who wasn’t able to have her own children, told me I had robbed her of ten years of raising a precious baby and that she couldn’t forgive me. Then my life insurance agent “accidentally” bcc’d me on an email with a link to the article that he sent out to a ton of people in my hometown, saying I was an evil and immoral woman. I replied asking if he would like to discuss the issue with me directly. He wrote back that he must have been hacked.

People from my dad’s church started posting the article all over Facebook, writing things like, “This is disgusting.” Or they’d call me up and say, “You’re a murderer.” The associate pastor at my dad’s church posted a lot of really hateful things. When I reached out to him and said, “You can’t possibly think this is right,” he told me that everyone missed seeing me at church and wanted me to come back.

PATRICK KOLTS/ACLU

A lot of people wouldn’t talk to me directly. They just wanted to talk about me—I was a hot piece of gossip. It was weird to know I was being talked about wherever I went and that I was basically the villain of the town. But I tried to let it roll of my back. One good thing to come of this is that for the first time in my life, I no longer care what other people think.

When my dad found out about the article, he texted me and said, “I can’t believe you did that, you’re a loser and a joke. Another terrible decision on your part. STUPID! Everyone is going to talk about me.” Reading his text, all I could think was that he was acting like a two-year old. And I knew, because I had a two-year old.

When we finally spoke, I said, “Dad, do you really think what I did was wrong, having an abortion?” And he said, “Well, you were having panic attacks, so it was probably the right choice for you.” In other words, my abortion was okay until other people knew about it.

At the same time, there were a lot of women, including women in my own family, who reached out to tell me, “I had an abortion too, and no one knows.” Or “I took my best friend to have an abortion and no one knows.” Or “My daughter had an abortion and no one knows—and it was the right thing to do.”

My husband was also super-supportive. By the time I spoke out, I’d already told him about the abortion in couples counseling, and he was surprised, but totally behind the decision I made and also my decision to start talking about it.

But this has definitely impacted a lot of my other relationships. Now I only surround myself with people who are uplifting and not critical. I kinda love being exposed because people know what they’re going to get with me and I no longer have to pretend. I feel like I can finally exhale for the first time in ten years.

In Birmingham, Alabama for the ACLU’s March for Reproductive Freedom in May 2019.

PATRICK KOLTS/ACLU

What I hope is that through telling my story, other women will be inspired to tell theirs, because I think that’s how we’re going to make change happen. Real change is change that happens in people’s hearts and minds. Among women in my state, I am actually really lucky—I was able to access an abortion when I needed one, and I was able to pay for it. That’s why I now feel obligated to use my privilege to bust through stigma and speak out about this issue in a way that a lot of other women tell me they wish they could.

Last week, the governor of Alabama signed a bill that will make performing any abortion a felony. In Georgia, since a 20-week ban was signed into law in 2012, the maternal mortality rate has doubled. If the legislators in my state actually looked at the facts, they would see that the laws they’re using to get re-elected or to make a statement impact people’s lives in real and terrible ways. They particularly impact poor women and women of color.

I want to help start a conversation about this. I want to say, “Here I am. I am Jenna, and I had an abortion. And guess what? A lot of other women have abortions too.”

Source: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a27572832/i-had-abortion-in-alabama/?fbclid=IwAR3B46P3c0lve0skb8vy1v6gKHQMvQLLt-qGPROVjv-tOQoaNzAJPaIbpio

The Women’s Health Protection Act would reaffirm every woman’s right to an abortion, no matter where she lives.

One clinic discovered nails sprinkled in its parking lot, according to a new report on violence against abortion providers.

“This is not a drill,” one expert said.

Vermont’s Republican governor told Rewire.News he would not stand in the way of protecting abortion rights amid the looming threat to Roe v. Wade.

Advocates celebrated, called for Scott’s support, and planned to participate in a nationwide #stopthebans rally Tuesday evening to condemn the legislative assaults on abortion access in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, and other states where near-total abortion bans have been signed into law.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images

As Republican-controlled state legislatures across the United States pass near-total abortion bans, Vermont Democrats are looking to establish the country’s most comprehensive abortion rights protections.

The pro-choice effort in Vermont is two-pronged: a constitutional amendment via Proposition 5 to guarantee personal reproductive liberty, and bill H 57, which codifies the right to an abortion and prohibits public entities from interfering with a person’s right to choose.

Vermont’s Democratic-majority house and senate have passed both measures this session, and H 57 will soon head to the governor’s desk, where he can either sign it, allow it to become law by taking no action, or veto it. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) does not plan to veto H 57, his spokesperson told Rewire.News.

Proposition 5 is a more longterm endeavor: It requires another pair of votes in the legislature during the next biennial session before it can appear on the ballot as a public referendum in November 2022. If passed by voters, it would protect access to reproductive health care in the event that Roe v. Wade and any state abortion laws are overturned.

“For those values and those rights to be protected definitively, they must be enshrined in our state constitution. The time is now,” Rep. Ann Pugh (D-South Burlington) said on the house floor when reporting Proposition 5. “While the right to reproductive autonomy and particularly abortion care remains for the time being a fundamental right at the national level, it has been and is under serious attack. In this turbulent time, clarity is called for.”

H 57 would give Vermonters unrestricted access to abortion care even if conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court strike down Roe v. Wade. It would be one of the most comprehensive abortion rights laws in the country.

The bill recognizes “the fundamental right of every individual to choose or refuse contraception or sterilization,” and “the fundamental right of every individual who becomes pregnant to choose to carry a pregnancy to term, to give birth to a child, or to have an abortion.” The legislation aims to “safeguard the existing rights to access reproductive health services in Vermont by ensuring those rights are not denied, restricted, or infringed by a governmental entity.”

Scott dodged questions in 2016 about whether he’d support abortion restrictions, but last week he said he believes government should stay out of the decision. While confirming he would not veto the bill, Scott acknowledged the messages he’s received from abortion rights opponents who feel the bill goes too far, NBC Channel 5 reported.

There are 147,165 women of reproductive age in Vermont, according to 2017 Census estimates. In 2014, around 1,400 abortions were provided in Vermont; the state’s abortion rate increased by three percent between 2011 and 2014, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Many in the liberal Northeast state, like Elizabeth Deutsch, 49, hope Scott will sign the bill.

“Women’s health is health care,” said Deutsch, a nurse. “This is not about a philosophical decision, this is not a religious decision. This is a health-care choice and women should not have government interference in their health care. It is not up to anybody else or their religious belief to litigate what women can do with their bodies.”

No one is trying to regulate Viagra, vasectomies, or prostate when it comes to men’s health, Deutsch said. Unlike men complaining about the cost of pregnancy and abortion care when discussing universal health care, “we don’t hear women jumping up and down saying we don’t want to cover men’s prostate exams or their prostate cancer,” she said. “This is dangerous.”

State Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (D-Chittenden) said she hopes Scott will sign the abortion rights legislation into law.

“It is critical to establish fundamental rights to contraception, sterilization, pregnancy to birth and to abortion. These rights are basics to the human condition—in particular for women who comprise 51 percent of the population,” Lyons said in an email. “Any change to Roe v. Wade could eliminate women’s rights in many ways. Having legislation in place that articulates the past nearly 50 years of practice will protect Vermont values.”

“Governor Scott has stated publicly, as well as in our 2018 candidate survey, that he supports a woman’s right to choose and that he will always firmly defend the rights of all women. We appreciate his support of reproductive rights and we expect he will sign H 57 into law,” Lucy Leriche, vice president of public policy at Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund, said in a statement.

Other states with Democratic legislative majorities have moved to safeguard abortion rights amid the looming threat to Roe. In New York, Democrats passed a law in January repealing criminal abortion statutes, permitting abortion after 24 weeks when the pregnant person’s health is at risk or when the fetus is not viable, and allowing nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants to provide abortions. It also amended an archaic law that would have endangered abortion rights if Roe were overturned. In New Mexico, a group of conservative Democrats joined Republicans in March to end an effort to repeal a pre-Roe abortion ban.

Vermont legislators have not passed any laws restricting access to abortion since Roe was decided in 1973, Lyon noted.

“The ignorance reflected in other states suggest a cultural bias against women—the aging men and women conspiring to eliminate reproductive liberty have no clue about what it means to be a woman—to be part of a diverse society of humans. H 57 will protect rights to abortion while the constitutional amendment [Proposition 5] is put in place,” Lyons said.

“H 57 would neither enhance nor restrict current access to abortion in Vermont. The goal of this law is to preserve the status-quo and prevent government interference between a patient and her healthcare practitioner and to allow healthcare practitioners to provide the highest quality, evidence-based, compassionate care that aligns with a patient’s goals,” according to the Vermont Medical Society.

The governor’s decision to let the law go into effect—or even sign it himself—could put Scott at odds with Republicans in states advancing a bevy of anti-choice legislation, including total and near-total abortion bans widely unpopular among the public.

Advocates gathered at the state house Tuesday evening to call for Scott’s support and to participate in a nationwide #stopthebans rally to condemn the legislative assaults on abortion access in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, and other states where near-total abortion bans have been signed into law.

“With increased threats to abortion care at the national level, Vermonters want to protect people’s health and ensure that abortion care remains safe and legal here in Vermont,” ACLU of Vermont Policy Director Chloé White said in an email. “H 57 and the constitutional amendment are simply an affirmation of Vermonters’ long-held values.”

Deutsch, who has been a vocal supporter of the reforms in Vermont, described it as a civil rights issue.

“I am fighting this fight because I am a nurse, because I believe everyone has the right to their own health care choices, and because I believe that my daughter and my step-daughters are entitled to the best health care they can have,” she said. “It’s not up to anybody else to make decisions about their health care.”

Source: https://rewire.news/article/2019/05/22/how-one-state-has-become-a-model-for-protecting-abortion-rights-from-supreme-court-conservatives/

Pro and anti-abortion rights activists on future of Alabama abortion bill

The Alabama state Senate passed the most restrictive abortion bill in the nation, sending it to the governor’s desk and setting off a wave of panic among abortion rights supporters.

The bill would make it a crime to provide an abortion at any gestational stage of pregnancy without exemptions for rape or incest.

Alabama Rep. Terri Collins, the Republican who sponsored the bill, told ABC News earlier this month she hopes it gets challenged should it be signed into law, so it could eventually make it to the Supreme Court to challenge the right to abortion nationwide.

The panic from many abortion rights supporters stems from concern that the Alabama bill could mean the end of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion a nationally protected constitutional right.

But to legal experts at the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU, the Alabama bill bringing on the overturning of Roe doesn’t seem like much of a distinct possibility, at least for the near future.

“We are very confident that the courts are going to block this law from ever taking effect,” Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, told ABC News.

Should Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, sign the bill into law, the ACLU plans to sue, Kolbi-Molinas said.

“That litigation could end up at the Supreme Court,” Elisabeth Smith, chief counsel of state policy and advocacy for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told ABC News. “But, what we know is that for four and a half decades with different justices on the court, the Supreme Court has always confirmed and reconfirmed that women have the right to abortion,”

Without a doubt, women are terrified and watching really closely.

In three cases dealing with abortion that have come to the Supreme Court facing three different combinations of justices, the court has “consistently confirmed that women have the right to have an abortion prior to viability,” according to Smith.

This includes Roe v. Wade in 1973 that codified abortion as a constitutionally protected right, as well as 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which struck down a spousal consent requirement and introduced the concept that a law must not impose an “undue burden” on a person seeking an abortion. The “undue burden” test was reaffirmed in 2016’s Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which struck down a Texas law requiring abortions be performed at ambulatory surgical centers with hospital admitting privileges.

While “viability” — the point at which a fetus can survive outside a uterus — is a murky concept, it is generally agreed to occur at 24 weeks of gestation. Laws banning abortion at less than 20 weeks have consistently been struck down by courts as unconstitutional. In 2016, the Supreme Court declined to review a lower court’s ruling that a so-called “heartbeat” abortion ban was unconstitutional, essentially upholding that decision.

Mickey Welsh/Advertiser via USA Today Network, FILE

Though some abortion rights experts may not be concerned about the Alabama bill — although they caution it is in the early stages for speculation — advocates note the context of the Alabama bill, and the recent language around abortion, is important.

“We’re definitely seeing a new wave of extreme bans on abortion,” Amanda Thayer, deputy national communications director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told ABC News.

The Alabama bill puts that wave in the spotlight, which Thayer says is emboldened by President Donald Trump’s judicial appointments.

“The Republican Party and Trump have gone off the rails, and this is now coming into really acute focus for people across the country to see,” she said. “Without a doubt, women are terrified and watching really closely.”

For it to be sensationalized in this way, it really isn’t about abortion, it’s about equality and the status of women.

The bills restricting abortion are “getting more and more extreme,” according to Thayer, which she said is “part of the strategy of trying to move the goal post of what may seem reasonable.”

The increasing extremity of not just the bills, but the language surrounding them, concerns Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, an organization of women’s health care clinics that won the 2016 Supreme Court case.

“Our tolerance for really violent and hateful language is increasing,” Hagstrom Miller told ABC News, referencing President Donald Trump’s language around abortion, including using the term “executing,” among other issues. She worries that an increase in violent language, paired with more extreme legislation around abortion, could be linked to real-world violence for clinics and providers.

“For it to be sensationalized in this way, it really isn’t about abortion, it’s about equality and the status of women,” Hagstrom Miller said.

Many reproductive rights advocates also point out that abortion access has already been severely curtailed for many women. Though outright bans may be struck down by courts, other types of laws — such as waiting periods, hospital admitting privileges requirements and bans on specific forms of procedures — render abortion inaccessible in many parts of the country.

“While this attack we are seeing right now is unprecedented,” Kolbi-Molinas added, “it is also important to remember that for many people, abortion has already been pushed out of reach.”

And while it would take some time for the Alabama abortion ban to potentially make it to the Supreme Court, should it be signed, other restrictive laws are already in the pipeline. This includes bans on the dilation and evacuation abortion procedure, which is a de facto second trimester ban, and a law requiring abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges.

The admitting privileges law, which was passed in Louisiana, mirrors one passed in Texas that the Supreme Court struck down in 2016. In February, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Fifth Circuit’s decision that would have allowed it to stand.

The Louisiana law is being litigated in June Medical Services v. Gee. In April, the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents June Medical Services, asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, and they’ll make that decision early this summer. Should the Supreme Court take it up, it would be an opportunity to affirm or reject their own precedent.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/abortion-advocates-react-alabama-ban-increasingly-hostile-atmosphere/story?id=63050393

Pro-choice men should have the guts to campaign against the rolling back of laws that benefit both sexes

No woman can be free who does not control her own body. That’s been the pro-choice mantra down the ages, no less true now than it ever was, and from it flows the equally fierce conviction that men should keep their noses out of reproductive rights. If it isn’t your womb, your life, on the line here, then what right do you have to interfere in a grown adult’s decision? No wonder that powerful image of the 25 male politicians who collectively approved Alabama’s cruel new ban on terminations beyond six weeks, struck such a chord. The sight of old men desperately clawing back their lost power over women’s lives still triggers a deep, visceral fear. Six weeks! That’s barely a missed period, a time when many women won’t even have realised they’re pregnant.

True, America’s pro-life movement has plenty of prominent women in it, and in the UK it’s a female leader of the pro-life Democratic Unionist party who (thanks to her sensitive role propping up the British government’s parliamentary majority) represents one of the biggest stumbling blocks to rolling out abortion rights in Northern Ireland. But such nuances get forgotten in the face of men doggedly arguing on Twitter that forcing victims of incest to continue their pregnancies would at least preserve the criminal evidence, or refusing to let their cluelessness about female biology get in the way of a terrible opinion.

Yet the argument that men should all shut up and leave this to women is a risky one, unless we seek a world where virulently pro-life men still feel no shame about barging in while pro-choice men hang back for fear of saying the wrong thing. I admire any woman with the courage to say publicly, as the actor Jameela Jamil did this week, that she had an abortion when contraception failed her and “I don’t feel AT ALL ashamed.”

But there’s something uncomfortable about watching women, and only women, feel driven to bare their souls in defence of reproductive and contraceptive rights that have liberated both sexes and which both should be raising hell to defend.

We rarely read or hear about them, but there must be millions of men whose lives were changed for the better by not becoming fathers when they weren’t ready. There will be men who owe their glittering careers and happy families now to the fact that 20 years ago they didn’t have to drop out of university when their student girlfriend got pregnant, or weren’t forced to marry someone they didn’t love. And there will also be men who didn’t have to raise a child in circumstances where they genuinely couldn’t have coped, and whose other children are infinitely better off for it; men who haven’t had to watch their partner struggle through the horror of a pregnancy where everyone knows the child is unlikely to survive, who know how it feels to hold their partner’s hand in the clinic but don’t feel it’s quite their place to talk about it.

If one in three women has terminated a pregnancy, then men with every reason not to take abortion rights for granted, as well as older men who shudder to remember the days before it was legal, must statistically speaking be everywhere; walking down the street, sharing your office, representing you in parliament. The next leader of the Conservative party could very well be Boris Johnson, a man once sacked for trying to hide the fact that his mistress had had an abortion. So who is to say there aren’t men in high public office across America furiously keeping their heads down as the abortion row rages, crossing their fingers that the non-disclosure agreement holds? Yet for every man frantically trying to save his marriage by pressuring his lover to get rid of a baby, there will be couples taking painful decisions together about a much-wanted pregnancy when the tests show something nobody wanted to see.

It’s a hard truth to acknowledge, given it risks creating a dangerous chink in the argument through which pro-lifers can so easily slide. But for all that abortion should first and foremost be a woman’s choice, it doesn’t only affect women’s lives, and it shouldn’t just be women who are forced to fight do the heavy lifting in fightingfor it. There are, of course, perfectly good reasons for men to stay quiet about their personal experiences. For a man to talk openly about a partner’s abortion can feel pushy and self-centred, and practically speaking risks outing a woman who might not want her reproductive history exposed to all. During the impassioned debate ahead of Ireland’s referendum last year on repealing the ban, many Irish men initially hung back for fear of intruding. Male MPs similarly often defer to female ones in trying to change the law.

But the idea that the only way of galvanising change is by making a public song and dance about yourself may be one of the great curses of modern activism.

Pro-choice men worried about stealing women’s thunder can relax, because they are absolutely welcome to donate to pro-choice charities, sign petitions, lobby their political representatives, and vote for politicians and parties committed to defending reproductive rights. They can stuff envelopes, make tea, go on marches – or look after the kids while their partners do – and cheer from the sidelines to their heart’s content, much as the wives of male activists have done for generations. And where they represent us, they can have the guts to legislate for what they know perfectly well to be the realities of life. No woman can be free who does not control her own body. But we are not the only ones liberated by acknowledging it.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/18/women-abortion-rights-pro-choice-campaign?fbclid=IwAR31uB6taDDDDDE5OVHDJA3NEUIIbWumJ4ytNjHtTd8rRvRfxYBydd5_eaE

Less than 24 hours after Alabama lawmakers voted to ban almost all abortions, Planned Parenthood’s Southeast call center was inundated with hundreds of calls from women in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. Each and every one is asking a similar question: If Gov. Kay Ivey signs the bill into law today as her Republican colleagues expect, what does that mean for my reproductive health care?

In a press call Wednesday morning, Staci Fox, CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates, stressed that abortion is currently still legal in all 50 states. Now that the Alabama bill has been signed into law, it will take six months to go into effect. Similarly, the “fetal heartbeat” bill that the governor of Georgia signed into law earlier this month won’t go into effect until 2020, reports The New York Times. And both are likely to face immediate legal challenges that would temporarily stop them from going into effect.

“It’s important that we continue this cadence of reminding patients in states, especially here in Alabama and here in Georgia, that abortion is still safe, and legal, and accessible—and we are fighting every step of the way to make sure that stays true,” says Fox.

Accessibility, however, is a relative term. As of 2014, 93 percent of counties in Alabama do not have an abortion clinic. The state already requires mandatory counseling, followed by a 48-hour waiting period, for women seeking an abortion. And worse, if the law takes effect, women living in Alabama will have to travel to neighboring states, like Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, or Mississippi to obtain an abortion. Each of these states requires a waiting period ranging from 24 to 48 hours, meaning Alabama women will need several days to travel, wait, have the procedure, and, if necessary, recover—an unrealistic option for most considering the cost of travel and amount of time off from work. Some may try to order abortion pills, but self-managed abortions have brought legal consequences. Working to close existing accessibility gaps is the Yellowhammer Fund, which provides transportation to and from Alabama’s three abortions clinics. The organization will have more ground to cover should a near-ban on abortion take effect. (A protracted court battle is likely to occur.)

You can advocate for abortion rights now without leaving your home state. (This Twitter thread provides suggestions based on your geographical location.) Start by circulating a message championing reproductive rights throughout social media, and to any acquaintances, relatives, or friends you may have in Alabama and Georgia. You can also sign a petition from Planned Parenthood Southeast urging Gov. Ivey to veto HB 314. Once you’ve made calls, sent texts, and drafted tweets, here’s what to do next.

What you can do uphold the reproductive rights of people affected by the proposed Alabama abortion ban

1. Donate, donate, donate

National Network of Abortion Funds: Apart from legislation that seeks to stand between women and abortion, financial and logistical hurdles also present a real problem. Donations to NNAF, a network of reproductive justice organizations, help provide support including childcare, transportation, translation, and more to lessen the burden on women receiving the health care they deserve.

Planned Parenthood: One in five women in America have visited Planned Parenthood for their health care needs, including obtaining legal abortions. The organization’s action fund is dedicated to promoting reproductive health throughout the U.S.

National Abortion Federation: Donations to NAF go directly towards educating people about their reproductive options, ensuring high quality care for women everywhere, and keeping abortion clinics across the nation open for business.

The Yellowhammer Fund: As previously mentioned, transportation and lodging are just a couple of barriers that keep women in Alabama from receiving abortions. The Yellowhammer Fund seeks to remedy that.

Donate locally within your state: As HuffPost points out, there may be a number of clinics within your state that could use your contribution. You can also donate directly to the Alabama Women’s Center, or other abortion providers in states like Georgia and Ohio that are particularly at risk.

2. Offer up your support to organizations that help elect pro-abortion rights candidates

Of course, the long game in ensuring women have proper access to reproductive health is all about who we elect into power. That’s why supporting places like Emerge America, Emily’s List, Run for Something—all of which are on a mission to elect candidates who support abortion rights—is so critical. Many of them are looking for volunteers and donations, so help in the way that best suits you.

3. Get involved in activist groups

Groups like Supermajority, the American Civil Liberties Union, NARAL, and the Guttmacher Instituteunleash the power of activism throughout the community. For example, Supermajority offers trainings to teach group leaders how to organize, as well as an online database where you can sort the stances of candidates and elected officials on hot button issues.

4. Become part of a volunteer clinic escort program

“Volunteer clinic escorts are an extremely important volunteer position,” Planned Parenthood writes on its website. “They help get patients to the door of our clinic with as little harassment from protesters and picketers as possible.” You can apply online to become a clinic escort today, or check to see if another local clinic in your area is in need of this type of assistance.

If you’d like to discuss your reproductive health care options, call Planned Parenthood at 1-800-230-7526 or text “PPNOW” to 774636. 

This story was originally published on May 15, 2019; it has been updated to reflect that the bill was signed into law by Gov. Ivey (R-AL) on May 16.

Source: https://www.wellandgood.com/good-advice/alabama-abortion-ban/