Abortion Clinics Online has announced that 2020 is its 25th anniversary of continuous service. Through its online directory and hotline, Abortion Clinics Online it directs women to reputable abortion clinics and continues to fight back against fake clinics.
The site first went live in September 1995, as GynPages.com, at a time when the internet was new. (Just 14% of US Americans had an internet connection at that time.) The National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood did not yet have websites. At its height, Abortion Clinics Online had about half of the country’s abortion clinics listed.
Some of the site’s earliest clients were sceptical, but founder and director Ann Rose knew that an online directory could make abortion more accessible while offering unprecedented confidentiality. There would be no more calling around to clinics desperately seeking help. For the first time ever, people could find a clinic from the comfort of their own homes, without even talking to another person.
SOURCE: Ms Magazine, by Giselle Hengst, 23 October 2020
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Colorado rejects upper time limit on abortions
On 3 November 2020, 59.1% of voters in the state of Colorado voted “no” to a proposition that would have restricted abortions after 22 weeks gestation except when “immediately required to save the life of a pregnant woman”.
The proposition did not include exceptions for rape or incest. It would have imposed $5,000 fines on anyone who performed an abortion procedure, and suspend the medical licence of any physician who violated the measure. It would also have forced healthcare providers to wait until the woman was dying to perform such an abortion. Nearly 99% of abortions happen before 22 weeks. Colorado remains one of only seven US states without gestational limits on abortions, where those from states with greater restrictions regularly travel for abortion care.
SOURCE: Feminist Majority Foundation, 4 November 2020