States across the country have been using a series of laws and court rulings in the past decade to criminalize how women react to pregnancy loss. Legal experts say the fear and suspicion following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that allowed states to ban abortion may be making things … Read more
Recent legal fights in Ohio provide a glimpse of how even sweeping abortion protections don’t automatically undo the effects of restrictions, and could lead to new ones. Last year, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment enshrining the right to an abortion. But pro-abortion-rights advocates in the state are still fighting to throw out the state’s … Read more
The majority of cases did not require prosecutors to find evidence that the fetus was harmed Read more at Salon
More than 200 of the 210 recorded prosecutions involve allegations of substance use during pregnancy. In almost 200 of the cases, prosecutors charged people using statutes that criminalize child abuse, neglect, or endangerment – charges that treat an embryo or fetus as a person, complete with rights and protections that may compete with that of … Read more
In a post-Dobbs world — and in an era of so-called fetal personhood, the conservative ideology that grants legal rights to infants not yet born — that risk becomes more real every day. States like Mississippi and South Carolina are already using “chemical endangerment” laws to prosecute women criminally for prenatal drug use. In Oklahoma … Read more
This near-total abortion ban pushed through by far-right local politicians will only exacerbate Louisiana’s dire maternal mortality crisis, which has seen low-income Black Lousianians suffer a disproportionately high rate of preventable deaths. In effect, this ban has ushered the War on Drugs into the realm of abortion care, sentencing pregnant people—particularly Black pregnant people—to profound, … Read more
“Coast-to-coast abortion desert”: Experts slam media for claiming GOP “softened” abortion platform As for increasing access to birth control: No one, least of all a member of a GOP platform committee, actually thinks the Republican Party will do anything to promote the use of condoms or other forms of contraception. The Heritage Foundation, the hard-right … Read more
Terrified you might be losing your pregnancy, you rush to the emergency room — only to be told that no one there will care for you, because they’re worried they could be accused of participating in an abortion. The staff tells you to drive to another hospital, but that will take hours, by which time, … Read more
Harris and Biden both blame Trump on abortion. How they do it is very different. In a Time Magazine cover story that ran Tuesday, however, Trump indicated that if elected president he wouldn’t get in the way of states’ monitoring women’s pregnancies and wouldn’t commit to vetoing a federal abortion restriction. Harris seized on the … Read more
Trump: It’s up to states to monitor pregnancies, prosecute abortions Former President Trump in a new interview suggested states with restrictive abortion bans might monitor women’s pregnancies and should be left to decide whether to prosecute women for having the procedure. Read more at The Hill Trump on political violence in 2024: ‘If we don’t … Read more
