News This Week: 4/25 - 5/1
|
|
A Tennessee law forcing patients to wait at least 48 hours to have an abortion after receiving state-mandated counseling is back in effect due to a circuit court ruling last Friday
- Patients at the time of the ruling were forced to leave health centers and come back at least two days later to receive care, significantly increasing the cost and travel time for some patients.
- The law had been blocked since last year by a lower court ruling.
- The case, which was filed by the Center and Planned Parenthood, will now be heard on the merits by the full Sixth Circuit. A date for the hearing has not yet been set.
|
|
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed four extreme anti-abortion bills into law this week, making good on his promise to sign every piece of anti-abortion legislation that comes to his desk.
- The laws would: ban abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy and subject abortion providers who violate this law to murder charges; severely restrict which medical professionals are able to provide abortions in the state; classify the provision of abortion as “unprofessional conduct” for physicians and revoke their medical license if they provide abortion care, unless the pregnant person’s life is in danger; and create a “trigger ban”–meaning abortion would become completely illegal in the state if Roe v. Wade were overturned.
- The laws are scheduled to take effect later this year, as early as November 1.
|
|
Multiple abortion restrictions were also signed into law in Montana and Arizona this week.
- In Montana, Gov. Gianforte signed three anti-abortion bills that would ban abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy; restrict access to medication abortion; and require abortion providers to offer patients an ultrasound of their pregnancy.
- In Arizona, Gov. Ducey signed a “reason ban” into law that prohibits abortion based on the pregnant person’s reason for seeking the abortion, including a Down syndrome diagnosis. The law also includes a “personhood” provision for fetuses and bans mail delivery for medication abortion.
|
|
SCOTUS to decide whether to hear a case challenging Roe v. Wade (TODAY)
With the state’s petition still pending, the U.S. Supreme Court will meet for the twelfth time today to discuss whether to hear the Center’s case challenging an unconstitutional 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi. Court watchers have been waiting for months to see if this could be the first major abortion case to be heard since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
|
|
Appeals Court to hear North Carolina 20-week abortion ban (May 6)
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in a case challenging North Carolina’s law that bans abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in medical emergencies. The law was struck down in 2019 by a federal district court. The challenge was brought by the Center, Planned Parenthood, and the ACLU.
|
|
|
This week, Judge Martha Koome was nominated as the new Chief Justice of the Kenyan Supreme Court, making her the first female leader of the Court.
|
|
|
|
