The arrest appears to be the first time a health care provider in Texas has been criminally charged under the state’s abortion ban, which went into effect in 2022. Read more at NBC News
If passed and signed into law, the measure would introduce civil liabilities for distributors of abortion pills and create a civil liability for “the wrongful death of an unborn child” as a result of taking the medications — and empower the “biological father of the unborn child” to file those civil lawsuits. It would also … Read more
Now, experts worry that a victory for Alabama could serve as a green light for other states’ efforts to attack people who want to end their pregnancies but live in states that ban abortion. Read more at The Guardian
Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and analyzed the outcomes before and after the ban. Read more at ProPublica
The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, ProPublica found. The surge in this life-threatening condition, caused by infection, was most pronounced for patients whose fetus may still have had a heartbeat when they arrived at the hospital. Read more at ProPublica … Read more
Under President Joe Biden, the Justice Department said it did not believe Comstock prohibited mailing these pills. But abortion opponents have been pressing the Trump administration to change that policy. The Supreme Court’s most conservative members, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, have also expressed openness to that legal interpretation. That approach, too, could spark … Read more
Judge Bryan Gantt orders doctor to stop prescribing and sending pills to state, setting up challenge to ‘shield laws’ Read more at The Guardian
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
Texas Republicans pre-filed several bills to target pills. One would make it a “deceptive trade practice” to send pills via mail without a prescription from an in-state doctor after an in-person exam. Similar to a measure in Louisiana that doctors warn will delay life-saving care, another would reclassify abortion drugs as dangerous “controlled substances”. Yet … Read more
Abortion bans don’t just kill women. They kill babies. This is evident in the data, which shows a dramatic rise in the state’s infant mortality after Texas banned abortion. As the Washington Post documented last week, it’s also happening in a viscerally disturbing way, as the number of newborns found abandoned to die has spiked, … Read more
