Texas judge says states can revive challenge to abortion pill access nationwide The American Civil Liberties Union said the case should have been settled when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously preserved access to mifepristone. Kacsmaryk’s decision “has left the door open for extremist politicians to continue attacking medication abortion in his courtroom,” the ACLU said. … Read more
Federal judge in Texas rules 3 other states can challenge access to abortion pill mifepristone nationwide The states want the federal Food and Drug Administration to prohibit telehealth prescriptions for mifepristone and require that it be used only in the first seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current limit of 10 weeks. They also want to … Read more
The push to preserve and expand abortion access in states where it’s protected often collides with ideological and health care divides between urban and rural residents. Read more at 19th News
Smith, along with the liberals on the court, pushed back on the anti-abortion fantasy that state laws can ban virtually all abortions without having a devastating effect on women’s health. (Idaho’s legislature allowed the committee tasked with tracking and investigating pregnancy-related deaths to shutter in 2023, a year after its ban took effect.) Read more … Read more
“Upholding the parts of the law that allow Idaho to criminalize and punish people who harbor or transport — that is going to have a chilling effect,” she said in a phone interview. “It’s going to create confusion, and it’s going to create fear.” “You’ve already seen women having to get [airlifted] out of the … Read more
“Simply protecting speech doesn’t address the criminalization of essential acts of support,” she said. “It doesn’t address the broader chilling effects on speech by people who might be afraid of potential misinterpretation or prosecution.” “This idea of surveilling citizens and trying to track their movements, where they’re going, what they’re doing. These are not American … Read more
In the Dobbs decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that U.S. citizens have a “constitutional right to interstate travel,” including for abortions. But abortion opponents are nonetheless trying to prevent people from crossing state lines for care that they see as a threat to unborn life. In Alabama, for example, Attorney General Steve Marshall has said … Read more
Idaho can enforce a first-of-its-kind “abortion trafficking” law against those who harbor or transport a minor to get an abortion out-of-state without parental consent, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday. Read more at The Guardian
The plaintiffs, which include both patients and physicians, say the abortion bans go against their constitutional rights to happiness and safety. The lawsuit does not seek to allow abortions in all cases, but wants the current law to allow patients with complications, pre-existing conditions and lethal fetal diagnosis to access care. Under Idaho code, only … Read more
Women suing Idaho after they were denied abortions will tell their stories in court The lawsuit alleges that Idaho’s laws violate pregnant people’s rights to safety and equal protection, as well as physicians’ rights to practice medicine under the state constitution. It asks the court to declare that physicians in Idaho can provide abortion care … Read more
