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News This Week: 6/12 - 6/18

This morning, the Iowa Supreme Court rejected its own recent precedent and overturned the constitutional right to abortion it found in the state constitution just four years ago in 2018.

• Today’s decision came in a case challenging the state’s mandatory waiting period for abortion.
• In the decision, the Court wrote, “Although we overrule PPH II [the 2018 ruling], and thus reject the proposition that there is a fundamental right to an abortion in Iowa’s Constitution subjecting abortion regulation to strict scrutiny, we do not at this time decide what constitutional standard should replace it.”

On Monday, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced a new policy aimed at expanding legal protections for abortion patients and physicians.

• The AMA called attempts to criminalize abortion a “violation of human rights.”
• The organization will seek to protect patients crossing state lines for abortion services as well as the physicians offering abortion to those patients.
• Last year, the AMA and dozens of leading medical organizations urged the Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade in the Center’s case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Abortions in the United States have increased for the first time in 30 years, according to new data released by the Guttmacher Institute this week. 

• In 2020, there were 930,160 abortions, an 8% increase from the year before. Researchers found that in 2020, fewer people were getting pregnant and a larger share of them chose abortion.
• In a separate report from Guttmacher, researchers recently found that the Supreme Court could jeopardize abortion access for 33 million women if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

California lawmakers are moving quickly to pass an amendment to the state constitution that would explicitly prohibit the state from denying or interfering with abortions or contraceptives.

• The proposed amendment passed out of two committees in a single day this week, but it still needs to pass through the legislature with a two-thirds majority before the end of the month in order to make it onto the ballot for voters in November.
• Their haste is one example of how states friendly to abortion are trying to expand and protect the right, should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade this month.

Coming Up

Supreme Court opinion days (Tuesday and Thursday)

• The U.S. Supreme Court will issue opinions on June 21 and 23 next week.
• The Court has yet to rule on the Center’s case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Black Bodies for Black Power (June 18-19)

• A coalition of reproductive justice and civil rights organizations are mobilizing for abortion rights in Washington, D.C. this Juneteenth weekend.

Florida 15-week abortion ban hearing (June 27)

• A state court judge will hear arguments and testimony from witnesses in a challenge to Florida’s 15-week abortion ban. Plaintiffs are seeking for the law to be blocked while litigation continues.
• The case was brought by the Center and partners on behalf of abortion providers in the state.

Did You Know?

Liberate Abortion has created a resource for reporters to use to guide when reporting on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision from the Supreme Court.