Michelle Obama makes more than one fiery abortion pitch for Kamala Harris in Michigan
In her first appearance on the campaign trail alongside Vice-President Kamala Harris, former First Lady Michelle Obama urged Americans to cast their votes to protect the country from the “dangers of Donald Trump”. In a fiery speech in Michigan — a key battleground state — she said the election was “too close” for her liking. At times she used graphic language to describe how much women could be harmed if Trump further rolls back access to reproductive health care.
She also delivered an urgent and explicit plea to men at another rally for Kamala Harris in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to consider the risks to women’s health when deciding whom to vote for. Obama warned men that giving Donald Trump a second term could lead to further rollbacks of women’s ability to access abortions and other types of reproductive care. She asked men to think of their wives, daughters, girlfriends and nieces, who she said could face legal jeopardy for seeking an abortion or could suffer miscarriages without one. She cautioned that men share the burden of the “devastating consequences” that can sometimes come from unwanted pregnancies.
SOURCES: BBC News, by Bernd Debusmann Jr, 26 October 2024 ; Politico, by Lisa Kashinsky and Megan Messerly, 26 October 2024
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The state of Ohio passed a measure protecting abortion rights. then the money ran out
Frontline groups that shouldered the post-Dobbs burden are barely able to keep their doors open
Every Monday morning, the staff of the Abortion Fund of Ohio’s intake line starts fresh, answering calls, following up on voicemails, and doling out cash to people who can’t afford to go to their abortion appointments. The team of three field as many financial requests as they can until the money allotted for the week runs out. Lately, that’s been by Tuesday. Sometimes they can stretch the funds until Wednesday.
The Ohio Fund, one of the largest abortion funds in the United States, didn’t always operate this way. When I first spoke with the fund in August 2023, they didn’t even have monthly caps on the amount of money they gave callers. Back then, even though the wave of “rage donations” that followed the end of Roe v. Wade had receded, there was still enough money to pay for patients’ medical costs, travel, and child care.
SOURCE: Mother Jones, by Sarah Szilagy, 27 October 2024
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Inside some of America’s abortion clinics, doctors carry guns in the waistband of their scrubs
Doctors working in abortion clinics, particularly those bordering states with abortion bans, are carrying firearms and taking constant security precautions to ensure that they and their patients remain safe.
In Bristol, Virginia, Dr Aaron Campbell holds his gun as he accelerates towards the abortion clinic where he works. Anti-abortion protesters who camp outside recognize him, although he uses different rental cars to try and confuse them. As his tyres squeal around the corner, they surge towards the vehicle. “The killer has arrived!” one shouts.
SOURCE: The Independent, by Bel Trew, 26 October 2024
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Kamala Harris says her first priority as president is to “stop this pain” resulting from abortion bans
The Beyoncé song “Freedom” has become Kamala Harris’ anthem – and it was a message the vice president took on the campaign trail, as CBS News travelled with her over two days for a behind-the-scenes look during the final stretch of the 2024 election. Asked by CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell why she chose to campaign that night in Texas (a reliably red state), Harris replied, “Texas is ground zero on this most extraordinary issue, which is that we are fighting for a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.”
SOURCE: CBS News, by David Morgan, 27 October 2024
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‘We just have to keep fighting’: a shocking new film on the danger of US abortion laws
In the documentary “Zurawski v. Texas”, produced by Hilary Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence, women whose lives have been brutally upended have their say.
In August 2022, Amanda and Josh Zurawski were 18 weeks into a much-wanted pregnancy with their first child when her waters broke early. The complication ended her chances of delivering a healthy baby and imperilled her health – but doctors in Austin, Texas, where the couple live, said they could not end her pregnancy under Texas law, because they could still detect fetal cardiac activity
The documentary, directed by Texas-bred film-makers Abbie Perrault and Maisie Crow, captures with journalistic clarity the chaos, uncertainty and unnecessary pain and suffering that ensues when a state bans abortion – what happens in court, in hospitals, and in the private aftermath. It is one particular slice of post-Roe America – life-saving or simply dignifying healthcare denied, because of legal uncertainty, to women who wanted to be pregnant in the first place.
SOURCE: The Guardian, by Adrian Horton. 27 October 2024.
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What it means to build beyond ‘Roe’
In Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, he wrote that “Abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.” But according to Renee Bracey Sherman, a reproductive justice activist and founder of We Testify, and Regina Mahone, a journalist and senior editor at The Nation, that’s not true.
For as long as people have been getting pregnant, Sherman and Mahone say, they’ve been having abortions. In their new book Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve, they dedicate an entire chapter to the delightful history of herbal abortions—in ancient Egypt, the Greek and Roman Empires, Imperial China, African nations, indigenous tribes across Latin America, and pretty much anywhere or in any time period you can think of, including the colonial United States. Thomas Jefferson and his daughter wrote letters about her decision to help her cousin procure one; Benjamin Franklin details homemade abortion methods in one of his books.
SOURCE: Jezebel, by Kylie Cheung. 25 October 2024
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The science behind third-trimester abortions
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, many states have curtailed access to abortion and 13 states have a total abortion ban. Leading up to the US election in November, Science Friday is covering top science issues that are on the ballot. For voters, those top issues include abortion. In this election season, in particular, there’s been a focus on abortions in the third trimester of pregnancy. Some of the political rhetoric is inflammatory and false. But even among politicians who support abortion rights, there’s a tendency to deflect attention away from abortions later in pregnancy.
Though third trimester abortions are rare, they make up only about 1% of abortions in the United States but are often the most stigmatized. They are legal in only a small number of states, and just a fraction of providers perform them.
To better understand the real science behind abortions later in pregnancy, guest host Sophie Bushwick talks with Dr. Katrina Kimport, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco; and Dr Cara Heuser, a maternal and fetal medicine physician, who specializes in high risk pregnancy and complex abortion care, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Go to the website to read the transcript of their conversation or listen to the video:
SOURCE: ScienceFriday, 25 October 2024.
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Many US state abortion bans include exceptions for rape. How often are they granted?
After the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in 2022, many states that banned the procedure did so with the promise that it would still be legal in some circumstances, including in the event of rape. One study estimates that over 64,000 pregnancies have occurred due to rape in the years since the ruling in states where abortion is banned.
But many people on the front lines of this issue say getting an abortion in these states after an assault is difficult or — in some cases — impossible.
SOURCE: National Public Radio, by Katia Riddle, Julie Luchetta, 26 October 2024
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Stories igniting a movement
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, people have come forward to share how abortion bans have affected their lives. On this website, on the first page, you can click to go to a map of all the US states, where every state has at least one story to share, and in some cases, as many as five stories.
SOURCE: Abortion in America