Republicans push wave of bills that would bring homicide charges for abortion

The bills have been introduced in states such as Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Some explicitly target medication abortion and self-managed abortion; some look to remove provisions in the law which previously protected pregnant people from criminalization; and others look to establish the fetus as a person from the point of conception. Read … Read more

Virginia – embryos as chattel

Virginia judge uses 19th-century slavery law to rule frozen embryos are property Frozen human embryos can legally be considered property, or “chattel”, a Virginia judge has ruled, basing his decision in part on a 19th-century law governing the treatment of enslaved people. Read more at The Guardian Judge Uses A Slavery Law To Rule Frozen … Read more

Friends sued in Texas for allegedly helping woman obtain abortion pills

Three in Texas sued for wrongful death after allegedly helping woman obtain abortion pills Three women in Texas have been sued for wrongful death over allegations that they helped a friend obtain abortion pills to receive an abortion, the first case of its kind since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June. Read … Read more

Girls in Texas could get birth control at federal clinics — until a dad sued

In his opinion, Kacsmaryk agreed, writing that “the use of contraception (just like abortion) violates traditional tenets of many faiths, including the Christian faith plaintiff practices.” Moreover, Kacsmaryk, who is a Christian, said the existence of federal clinics operating in Texas, where state law otherwise requires parental permission for teenage girls to receive contraception, posed … Read more

South Carolina woman arrested for allegedly using pills to end pregnancy

South Carolina is one of just three states, alongside Nevada and Oklahoma, that explicitly criminalizes self-managed abortion. The state was also the first to bring charges on behalf of a fetus successfully against a pregnant pesourson. In 1997, Cornelia Whitner was found guilty for criminal child neglect, after taking crack cocaine during the third trimester … Read more

To safeguard healthy twin in utero, she had to ‘escape’ Texas for abortion procedure

There, she had another ultrasound. Baby A looked fine, but the scan of Baby B was “heartbreaking,” she says. There were more concerning signs: an incomplete abdominal wall, indications of heart abnormalities, and the cystic hygromas had grown larger. The doctor had trouble getting the tissue sample for the diagnostic test. After multiple attempts, Miller … Read more

These Texas DAs refused to prosecute abortion. Republican lawmakers want them stopped

The newest battle centers on criminal district attorneys in Texas’ big cities, who are mostly Democrats. Some of these chief prosecutors have told their communities they will use their inherent discretion and not zealously pursue criminal cases against women who seek abortions or families who obtain gender-affirming health care for their children. (Several later said … Read more