News This Week: 4/17 - 4/23
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Yesterday, a federal judge blocked Kentucky’s new, highly restrictive abortion law that would effectively eliminate abortion in the state.
- The law bans abortion after 15 weeks gestation, requires examinations before a pregnant person can receive a medication abortion, and imposes burdensome reporting requirements that the state’s two remaining abortion clinics said they could not immediately comply with.
- One clinic announced they would immediately resume providing abortion care following the injunction.
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State lawmakers have introduced more than 500 abortion restrictions this year. In response, other states – including those that border states with bans – are making plans to protect abortion access should the Supreme Court overturn Roe this year.
- In anticipation of an influx of patients from Idaho (where lawmakers passed a Texas copycat abortion ban earlier this year), Oregon lawmakers passed a bill that includes a $15 million allocation to help support patients, abortion providers, and community advocates.
- On Tuesday, Connecticut House lawmakers passed a bill that protects in-state abortion providers from out-of-state legal action and increases access to abortion in the state by expanding the types of health care workers who can provide abortions.
- In California, lawmakers advanced a bill that would allow pregnant people to sue prosecutors for erroneously charging them with a crime related to a pregnancy loss.
- A judge in Ohio once again blocked a law that would prohibit clinics from contracting with physicians who teach at public medical schools. If the law had taken effect, it would have forced two southwest Ohio clinics to close.
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The Biden administration is planning to rescind a Trump-era rule that allows medical workers to refuse to provide services that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs, including abortion, contraception, and LGBTQ+ health care.
- The rule has been blocked since November 2019, after a large coalition of states and advocacy groups challenged it in court.
- The policy change – which comes as many states across the country are moving to restrict access to reproductive and transgender health care – is expected to be officially announced by the end of the month.
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This week, a new lawsuit was filed against Texas’s citizen-enforced abortion ban.
- The lawsuit was filed by the Lawyering Project on behalf of an abortion fund and several abortion fund donors, including former Texas state senator Wendy Davis. They are asking a federal court to declare that the law is unconstitutional.
- The lawsuit takes aim at several people who have threatened to take legal action against Texas abortion funds including state lawmaker Briscoe Cain. The move comes a month after two other abortion funds filed a lawsuit against anti-abortion legal groups who threatened to enforce S.B. 8.
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Anniversary of Dr. George Tiller’s murder (May 31)
- In 2009, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed by an anti-abortion extremist while at church in Kansas.
- In recent years, violence against abortion providers has been escalating. The National Abortion Federation (NAF) issued new statistics in Dec. 2021 showing an increase in intimidation tactics, vandalism, and harassment of abortion providers. Providers reported an increase in death threats and threats of harm, rising from 92 threats in 2019 to 200 threats in 2020.
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Since the start of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, nearly 3 million Ukrainian refugees – the majority of whom are women and children – have fled to neighboring Poland, where abortion is illegal. Amongst those seeking refuge are rape survivors and pregnant refugees in urgent need of medical help, including access to emergency contraception and abortion care. Last month, 60 aid organizations – including Amnesty International – raised the alarm on this unfolding health care crisis and urged neighboring countries to provide refugees with all necessary health care services, including abortion and emergency contraception.
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