US states’ abortion bans are killing women — and states like Texas want to hide the truth
Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision two and a half years ago, many US states’ abortion bans have restricted pregnant women’s access to emergency medical care, including if they have had a miscarriage as well as if they have had an abortion.
This article continues: “And as the predictable harms — up to and including death — come to light, some states are acting as if they want to hide [the harms] from the public.”
The article goes on to report the death of a woman who in June 2023 lost so much blood from miscarrying at 11 weeks that she needed two transfusions. The hospital delayed (refused to) evacuate her uterus with a D&C and only gave her a drug to try and stop the bleeding. It didn’t work and she died of haemorrhage three hours later. Her death could have been avoided, however, according to a dozen doctors’ reports to the journal ProPublica.
“…from 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased by 56%, compared with 11% nationwide. But rather than investigate, the state is essentially admitting that the bodies are piling up faster than the state can address them. Its solution is not to dedicate more time and effort — like, perhaps, increasing the size of the 23-member committee — but to simply brush these women’s lives under the rug and skip ahead to those [deaths] that took place in 2024.”
MSNBC also reports that Propublica found two deaths of women in the US state of Georgia, which also could have been prevented. When the commissioner of the Georgia Public Health Department learned that these deaths (considered confidential information) had been reported publicly and was unable to find out who had told Propublica, he sacked the whole committee of 32 people. MSNBC says: “Clearly the leaks to the media were more important than investigating the two women’s deaths.”
Meanwhile, the politicians who passed the anti-abortion laws are trying to blame the doctors. And Louisiana is trying to pass a law to make it more difficult to dispense medications to treat post-partum haemorrhage because they are also used for abortions.
SOURCE: MSNBC, by Susan Rinkunas, 3 December 2024.
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California lawmakers unveil new abortion protections ahead of January 2025
California lawmakers unveiled two new pieces of legislation to protect abortion access in the state ahead of next January.
The first of the two bills seeks to protect Californians’ access to abortion, particularly medication abortion. Under the bill, manufacturers and distributors of abortion medications, as well as authorized health care providers and others, would be protected from any civil, criminal, or professional liability when “transporting, distributing or administering” medication abortion in the state, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The bill would also shield Californians from legal or professional consequences if the incoming Trump administration tries to ban the mailing and distribution of abortion medication like mifepristone. The second would allow the Attorney General to fine local governments in California for blocking or otherwise obstructing abortion providers from opening.
“I want to make it unequivocally clear: California will remain a safe haven for reproductive rights and access to abortion care, no matter who is in the White House,” Bonta wrote in a statement.
SOURCE: The Hill, by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech, 3 December 2024.
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Illinois Planned Parenthood teams with Hey Jane to expand abortion access
Planned Parenthood of Illinois is joining up with Hey Jane, a telehealth provider, to increase abortion services in the state, officials announced. The New York-headquartered Hey Jane, founded in 2021, offers virtual counseling and access to abortion medication.
SOURCE: Daily Herald, by Marni Pyke, 2 December 2024.
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Nebraska abortion providers, advocates argue exceptions ineffective, confusing
Nebraska voters have cemented the state’s abortion restrictions into the state constitution by passing Initiative 434, a measure that upholds a 12-week abortion ban with exceptions for rape, incest and maternal health. However, providers and advocates argue that these exceptions are so ineffective and burdened by bureaucratic hurdles that they are rarely used, leaving patients without meaningful access to care.
The law, established under 2023’s Legislative Bill 574, bans abortions after 12 weeks, except in cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother’s life. Providers and advocates, including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, said the threat of penalties for providers and the difficulty of disclosing trauma for survivors diminish the effectiveness of these exceptions.
SOURCE: Daily Nebraskan, by Grace Lewis, 3 December 2024.
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Idaho gets to enforce 2 out of 3 parts of dystopian ‘Abortion Trafficking’ Law
The 2023 law, which was previously blocked, criminalizes “recruiting, harboring, or transporting” a minor with the intention of helping them get an abortion without parental permission.
In 2023, Idaho became the first state in the nation to enact a so-called “abortion trafficking” law, which defines trafficking as acts of “recruiting, harboring, or transporting” a minor with the intention of helping them get an abortion without parental permission. By the end of the year, an Idaho court had temporarily blocked the law.
But on 30 November 2024, a federal circuit court issued a permanent ruling: Idaho can enforce part of the law — specifically, the part that threatens adults who “harbor” or “transport” a minor across state lines for abortion with two to five years in prison — even if they went to a state where abortion is legal. However, the ruling strikes down the portion of the law that criminalizes acts of “recruiting” minors, finding that the law’s nebulous definition of “recruitment” violates free speech rights.
SOURCE: Jezebel, by Kylie Cheung, 3 December 2024.
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Opinion: How Democrats could use the lame duck to save medication abortions
Before Democrats lose the White House and the Senate, they should push through legislation to repeal the Comstock Act, which could be used to prevent legal medically induced abortions everywhere in the United States. Given the success of ballot initiatives that protect the right to abortion, even in conservative states in last week’s election, the politics could be right to repeal that 1873 law. The Comstock Act was adopted to prohibit the interstate shipment of obscene materials. The law also outlawed the shipment of anything meant to prevent conception or end pregnancy.
SOURCE: LA Times. by Erwin Chemerinsky, Miles Mogulescu, 4 December 2024.
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What it really means to get an abortion after ‘fetal viability’
Kate Dineen was about 33 weeks pregnant with her second child when an ultrasound revealed that her baby had suffered a catastrophic stroke in utero and would likely either die before birth or have a short and painful life.
“This was a deeply wanted pregnancy. Everything had been progressing smoothly,” Dineen, now 41, says. “I was just shocked by the diagnosis first, and heartbroken by the diagnosis, and also certain that I wanted to try and obtain a termination so that I could protect my son from pain and suffering. I knew in that moment that I wanted to make the decision.”
SOURCE: Time, by Chantelle Lee, 4 December 2024
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Election Day has passed but in some states, legislatures are working to undermine the results
Voters in some parts of the country are discovering that having their say at the ballot box is not necessarily the final word, even though this year’s election was over a month ago. Lawmakers in several states have already initiated or indicated plans to alter or nullify certain results:
- Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are moving to undercut the authority of the incoming Democratic governor.
- Republicans in Missouri are taking initial steps to reverse voter-approved abortion protections, and
- Democrats in Massachusetts are watering down an attempt by voters to hold the Legislature more accountable.
SOURCE: ABC News, by Gary Fields, Associated Press, 6 December 2024.