• Skip to main content

Search

Just another WordPress site

Anti abortion law

Think Christianity Is Anti-Abortion? Think Again

June 27, 2022 by www.chron.com Leave a Comment

Click here to read the full article.

Among God’s faithful, a unified and triumphant cry rises up from the land. As the godly take their place in the pews, Bibles in hand, hearts in throats, there is bountiful rejoicing. Roe is defeated. Goodness has prevailed. The people of God have won for Him a great victory.

That narrative largely aligns with what Americans have been led to believe. It also happens to be false, the product of an effort by conservative white evangelicals to convince us all that an anti-abortion stance is synonymous with godliness, that Christians are united in their opposition to this sinful scourge on the nation.

More from Rolling Stone
  • Supreme Court Grants Victory to Reintroduction of Prayer in Public Schools
  • Jodie Sweetin Vows to ‘Continue Fighting’ After Cops Shoved Her at Abortion Rights Protest
  • Sony Music, Live Nation, Netflix, More Offer Staff Travel Reimbursement for Abortions

The reality is that for as long as it has been a wedge issue in America, there has been a compelling Christian argument for abortion care, and Christian leaders who have worked to both advocate for it and help secure it for women inside and outside the flock. In 1967, more than five years before Roe, a group of pastors founded the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, a network of Christian-faith leaders committed to helping women get both legal and illegal abortions from licensed professionals. By the time Roe passed, as many as half a million women had obtained a safe abortion thanks to the CCS, whose members claimed to be compelled by “higher laws and moral obligations transcending legal codes.” They used the Bible’s authority to argue for abortion care as not just a basic human right but a moral Christian imperative.

Then, of course, Roe was decided, eventually galvanizing an anti-abortion minority that had been building its own grassroots coalition for the past few decades and that could be drawn into the GOP on this issue alone. With the law on their side — and their hackles raised by the unsavory and baldly political tactics of their more conservative brethren — many pro-abortion-rights Protestants retreated. “As I was coming along in ministry they taught me not to be explicitly ‘Christian’ when I spoke out in the public square, because they didn’t want to, quote, ‘be like the Christian Right,’” says the Rev. Jennifer Butler, founder of Faith in Public Life. “They were embarrassed the Christian Right used their voice in the way that it did.”

What resulted was that more mainline Protestantism seemed to recuse itself from the abortion conversation, ceding the appearance of moral authority to the conservative minority. Yet according to a Pew survey published this past May, a majority of not just religious people but of Christians, specifically, support a woman’s right to abortion care in some, if not all, cases. Twenty percent of Black Protestants say abortion should be legal without exception; a full 77 percent of white evangelicals think it should be legal at least sometimes. Fifty-nine percent of Christians in the United States did not want Roe overturned . And as evidence for the notion that some people who malign the abortions of others may be far more lenient when facing the prospect of their own unwanted pregnancy, a 2014 Relationships in America survey found that while conservative women were much more likely to oppose abortion, they were only slightly less likely to have had one.

In fact, for many Christians, and especially in the lead-up to Friday’s landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, speaking up in support of abortion access has become increasingly important — not in spite of their faith, but because of it. “It’s not just that many Christians aren’t out celebrating today; it’s that many Christians across the country are out protesting,” says Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, author of Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity, who spoke to me on Friday after returning from a protest in front of the Supreme Court , where he’d been joined by other faith leaders. “There’s a consistent outrage from Christians about the decision, in addition to the much more widely-known and talked about praise for the decision. People have fought for reproductive justice because of their Christian faith throughout history, and that will continue now.”

And it will continue because for many Christians, fighting for bodily autonomy is actually biblical, an extension of the belief that we are made in the image of God, that our bodies are holy, and that the government should not intervene in that holiness. It’s biblical because it grants people the free will that God has endowed them with, because it supports the sanctity and dignity of life across the spectrum and the call to live life abundantly. And, crucially, it’s biblical because reproductive justice aligns with the teachings of Jesus. “I see Jesus as one who continually meets folks who are at the margins of society and listens to them and amplifies their voices and welcomes them where they have not received welcome in a really long time, if ever,” says the Rev. Lauren Jones Mayfield, the chairperson of Planned Parenthood’s national Clergy Advocacy Board. “When we are on the side of the marginalized, I think that we are with the patients who are walking into the health centers rather than protesting on the sidewalks outside of them.”

What’s more, abortion access is biblical because it’s actually in the bible. While Jesus never mentions abortion or opines on when life begins, other parts of the bible do, equating life with breath and even offering instructions on how to perform the procedure. For those who would use other verses — and there are always other verses — to equate abortion with murder or argue that bodily autonomy also pertains to an embryo or fetus, pro-abortion Christians counsel against the far right’s certitude of its own righteousness in this matter. The frequent conservative rejoinder “thou shalt not kill” is improperly applied here, says the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, a senior minister at Collegiate Church, the oldest continuous Protestant church in America. As she points out, the Old Testament, which includes that commandment, also includes plenty of other laws that baldly conflict with it and that have been the subject of earnest Jewish debate throughout the centuries. “‘If the far-right Christian-ish people want to debate ‘thou shalt not kill,’ get a rabbi, not your far-right pastor, but a rabbi to come talk to your church and speak about what those texts mean and what Jewish people think about abortions,” she says. “That same Jewish code, those same Jewish laws, also had provisions for when you must have an abortion .”

Which is why, for many pro-abortion Christians, access to abortion care is actually a matter of — wait for it — religious liberty. It’s about allowing not only for the religious difference of people of other faiths or no faith at all, but also allowing for other interpretations of Christianity. “Really, they’re trampling on my religious liberty when they enforce their way of looking at things on me legislatively,” says Butler. “That’s not the purpose of religious liberty. It’s to grant people the freedom to make moral decisions,” even — or perhaps especially — if those decisions arrive at different outcomes. For Butler and others, allowing a religious minority to dictate public policy leads to exactly the sort of coercion and force the founders were attempting to escape and that Jesus frequently denounced. Making way for other interpretations should be a foundational principle not just of democracy but also of faith — otherwise, it isn’t faith at all; it’s just stale indoctrination.

People of color have been fighting that stale indoctrination for years, fortifying a faith that respects women’s bodily autonomy. “There are communities and churches of color that have been connected to this work from the beginning,” says Mayfield, whose home state of Kentucky was one of three that had a trigger law in effect banning abortion immediately the moment Roe was overturned. “The white, progressive church is coming to this conversation a little bit late, but at least we’re here for the conversation now, and we do well to follow the movement of people of color and pastors of color who have been trying to galvanize on the issue of abortion since the religious right started to take over.”

For many pro-abortion Christians, the issue boils down to an authentic pursuit of the life of Christ, one that they see as meeting people where they are and trusting them to make decisions faithfully. “I think Jesus would be like, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing in my name? Why are you oppressing the women in my name?’” says Lewis. “Listen to the guy who was an outsider, who was a homeless person, who was a refugee, who was poor, who God chose — let’s just be honest — to come in that marginal place to heal the world.” She pauses, letting that thought resonate. “What would Jesus do? What would he do, really ?”

Sign up for Rolling Stone’s Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

More for you

  • Supreme Court Grants Victory to Reintroduction of Prayer in Public Schools

  • Jodie Sweetin Vows to ‘Continue Fighting’ After Cops Shoved Her at Abortion Rights Protest

Filed Under: Entertainment Christians, Jennifer Butler, Americans, God, Roe, Jesus, Lauren Jones Mayfield, Jodie Sweetin, Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, Jacqui Lewis, Rev., Christ, Pew, ..., anti intellectualism christianity, christian anti intellectualism, anti extremism think tank, abortion song christian, anti abortion song, anti abortion songs, doubts grow over ‘nurse’ used by anti-abortion campaign, anti gay christians, anti zionist christians, anti christians

Anti-abortion centers to grow, wield more influence post-Roe

June 27, 2022 by www.sfgate.com Leave a Comment

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

6

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — “Woman’s Choice,” the sign proclaims in bold pink letters. But despite promising abortion information and free pregnancy testing, the facility in Charleston, West Virginia, is designed to steer women facing an unwanted pregnancy away from choosing an abortion.

That will become much easier now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states like West Virginia can make abortion illegal.

It’s one of hundreds of so-called crisis pregnancy centers nationwide whose aim is to discourage women from seeking abortions. The facilities, which have been accused repeatedly of deceiving women about their true purpose, are expected to wield even more influence in states where the dwindling number of clinics are now canceling abortion appointments.

Often religiously affiliated, the anti-abortion centers are not licensed medical facilities and do not provide medical services such as pre- or post-natal care or other health care for uninsured women, unlike clinics that offer abortions — which are subject to strict government regulations and patient privacy laws. They do sometimes have nurses on staff or as volunteers.

“Basically, these centers are looking around and saying, ‘Our services are going to be needed now more than ever because there’s going to be so many pregnant people who need support during their pregnancy — particularly unintended pregnancies,’” said Andrea Swartzendruber, a University of Georgia public health professor who has helped map center locations nationwide.

Shortly after Friday’s Supreme Court decision, West Virginia’s only abortion clinic announced it was suspending abortion services, but continuing to provide birth control, STI treatment and other services.

The Charleston anti-abortion center, which calls itself the Woman’s Choice Pregnancy Resource Center, has been located next to the abortion clinic for years. The people who run it say their work won’t change. They will continue to offer parenting and health classes, counseling for “women who regret a past decision to abort and wish to find comfort from guilt and sadness” and provide “facts about abortion risks — both physical and psychological,” they said in an email to The Associated Press.

The board also said staff must complete training emphasizing the importance of clients’ “right to be respected regardless of their decision.”

At the clinic next door, called the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, executive director Katie Quinonez has her doubts about such statements. She has repeatedly seen patients seeking to end their pregnancies lured into the anti-abortion center and bombarded with warnings about abortion risks. Some who found their way to her office have shared pamphlets declaring that “abortion causes new problems that can haunt a woman for the rest of her life.”

One titled “Abortion — Living Without Regret” shows a woman crying on the cover and lists “abortion risks,” including “suicidal feelings,” “death” and “cervical incompetence.”

Quinonez said she worries about the dozens of patients whose abortion appointments were cancelled after the Supreme Court decision came down.

“I’m incredibly concerned,” she said. “It’s possible that they could think maybe there is another provider and state that’s doing abortions. ‘How about I call ‘A Woman’s Choice,’ located in Charleston?’ and then they make an appointment and go there because they’ve been lied to by a fake clinic that says ‘Yes, we can provide you with care.'”

While the anti-abortion centers are mostly mum about their plans now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, experts say they’re likely to redouble efforts to persuade women not to end their pregnancies. The logistics work in their favor, since many women won’t have the legal option of abortion without leaving their state.

The centers have been expanding in every state with support from wealthy conservative donors, powerful state lawmakers and religious institutions. They’ve also received tens of millions of tax dollars funneled to them by conservative state leaders.

Left-leaning states have shown more willingness to regulate how the centers advertise their services. Last year Connecticut banned them from using “deceptive advertising” about the services they provide.

Connecticut had 18 health clinics that provided abortions as of 2018; there are also around 20 pregnancy crisis centers.

“As we head into this new world and into this next phase, I think it’s more important than ever for women to be able to access medically accurate information,” said Democratic Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, who sponsored the Connecticut legislation.

“The last thing we want is for women to be at what they believe to be a health clinic only to receive misinformation about their options.”

Nationally, crisis pregnancy centers outnumber abortion clinics more than 3 to 1, but in Republican-led states the numbers can be far higher, according to a 2021 report from The Alliance: State Advocates for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. Some 2,500 centers are located across the country, while there are fewer than 800 abortion clinics.

In Missouri, which has just one abortion clinic, Swartzendruber and her colleagues identified nearly 70 anti-abortion centers in 2021. The situation is similar in North Dakota, where at least seven centers operated last year and the state’s lone abortion clinic is relocating now that Roe v. Wade was overturned.

In Mississippi, there are 30 centers, while the Jackson Women’s Health Organization — a plaintiff in the legal battle that came before the Supreme Court — was the lone provider offering abortion services.

Those three states are among 13 with so-called trigger laws that banned most abortions after Roe was overturned. West Virginia doesn’t have a trigger law, but does have an old statute on the books that had been shelved while Roe was in place.

“I see states with trigger laws working to continue to fund or increase funding to crisis pregnancy centers and trying to pass new legislation that would make the centers even more prominent,” Swartzendruber said.

Earlier this month, anti-abortion leaders called on churches to support their local crisis pregnancy centers.

“I believe that we have an opportunity like never before as the church to really rush in and to make a huge difference,” said Dean Nelson, vice president of government relations for Human Coalition, a national anti-abortion group that frequently directs pregnant women seeking information online to the centers and operates a handful of its own.

Some centers offer financial counseling, free diapers and food pantries for mothers after they’ve given birth. By expanding and strengthening the network of centers, anti-abortion advocates hope women will see they have resources and options.

That concerns reproductive rights advocates, who worry that without licensed abortion providers, women who become unexpectedly pregnant and desperate for help will wind up in places intent on deceiving them. Earlier this year, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an internet watchdog group, released a report that found 1 in 10 Google searches for abortion services in states with trigger laws led people to the centers.

Amanda Furdge says that happened to her while searching for information about Mississippi’s only abortion clinic in 2014. Instead, she found a listing for what turned out to be a crisis pregnancy center in Jackson.

“I went for an appointment, and they kept me there all day, traumatized me. They gave me a pregnancy test and they told me, ‘We are not going to be able to recommend any abortion services for you,’” she said. “I was clear: ‘I don’t want to carry this pregnancy. I want to terminate it.’”

By the time she found the abortion clinic, she said she decided on her own she was too far along to have the procedure. She is now happily raising her 7-year-old son.

In West Virginia, the Charleston abortion clinic has rows of hedges blocking view of the building next door to reduce confusion. In front a sign reads “WARNING: The building behind this sign is an ANTI-CHOICE, ANTI-BIRTH CONTROL Crisis Pregnancy Center. It is not affiliated with the Women’s Health Center.”

“You shouldn’t be able to pose as a medical facility and just straight up lie to patients,” director Quinonez said.

___

Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press writer Emily Wagster Pettus contributed from Jackson, Mississippi.

—-

For AP’s full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

Filed Under: Uncategorized Andrea Swartzendruber, Katie Quinonez, Amanda Furdge, Jillian Gilchrest, Emily Wagster Pettus, Dean Nelson, ___ Kruesi, Missouri, Mississippi Jackson North..., anti abortion center, anti abortion centers, anti d post abortion, anti-abortion pregnancy centers

Does Ivanka Trump back or oppose abortion rights?

March 8, 2017 by www.newsweek.com Leave a Comment

Marchers in New York marked International Women’s Day on Wednesday afternoon by chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go” while walking between two of the real estate mogul’s signature properties. Some hoisted posters featuring coat hangers, a strong symbol for many women in the battle over abortion rights.

Meanwhile, the most powerful millennial woman in the Trump inner circle tweeted her version of support. “Today, we celebrate women and are reminded of our collective voice and the powerful impact we have on our societies and economies,” Ivanka Trump wrote.

Related: Ivanka helped ‘set the tone’ for Trump’s speech

Her record on the most crucial of women’s rights, though, is one of artful dodging. The landing page of Ivanka’s eponymous website celebrated the day with the words “Be Bold for Change,” written in pink, beige and red. The website gives no clue about what this “change” might be, but throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump made it pretty clear that one thing he intended for women would be a rollback to the days when access to legal and safe abortions was rare or nonexistent. That would herald other, more fundamental and devastating changes in the lives of women who can’t choose when or if to have children, because they would face extreme difficulties in pursuing educations and careers.

Trump was all for abortion in his libertine days (back when he proclaimed that unprotected sex and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases were his Vietnam). He began proclaiming himself anti-abortion only in recent years, and because of his flip-flop on the subject, many hoped he might flop back to an abortion rights position once in office.

Since his election, though, he’s packed his Cabinet with evangelical Christians, picked a known extreme conservative for the Supreme Court vacancy and looked on benignly as Republicans in Congress ginned up attacks on women’s reproductive rights, starting with their long-cherished goal to defund Planned Parenthood, a leading provider of low-cost contraception and health care, in addition to abortions. These anti-abortion politicians—who represent a minority in the U.S. but a majority in Congress—want to cut the $400 million in Medicaid money that goes to Planned Parenthood, which would leave around 400,000 women lacking access not just to abortions but also to actual health care, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

It is an open question whether Ivanka is anti-abortion like her father. During her days as an elegant Manhattan billionaire’s daughter-about-town, she and her husband, Jared Kushner, donated money to a group known to back abortion rights, Democrats in New York, and socialized with progressives. But there is no record that she openly supported Planned Parenthood or even the right of women to choose safe and legal abortions across America.

Growing up a privileged young woman and attending the best private and boarding schools in the country, Ivanka would have had access to the best medical care and expert sex education. She is also known to be conservative and abstemious in her lifestyle, and friends say she actually might regard legal abortion as either unnecessary or as a matter of importance only to people who behave irresponsibly.

It’s also possible Ivanka is anti-abortion for religious reasons. Before marrying Kushner, she converted to his family’s Orthodox Judaism, and she keeps a kosher home and adheres to other rules of that faith. Orthodox Jews are divided over abortion, but many believe it is wrong and sanctioned only when a mother’s life is threatened. If a mother’s life is at stake, Jewish law requires that her life be saved first, before the fetus. That is the opposite of the Catholic approach, which says a fetus must be born in order to be officially brought into the faith.

During the campaign, Ivanka dodged a straight yes-or-no question on abortion . In February last year, in response to Boston radio host Margery Eagan’s question, she replied, “I don’t talk about my politics,” adding, “I don’t feel like it’s my role, and not the candidate’s. I’m the daughter…. I don’t think my politics are relevant to the discussion.”

Ivanka then pivoted to suggest that her father has always “advocated for” gender equality in his businesses. “My whole life I was surrounded by incredible female role models at the Trump Organization, women doing jobs that in the late ’80s and early ’90s women were just not doing.”

Last fall, at a women’s summit in California , Ivanka said she saw her “core” role as “advocating for women.” She noted, “I don’t express my views on policy, with one exception as it relates to child care and advocating for women, because I never thought I’d have this platform. But it was incredibly important for me to participate in that conversation and very core to my personal and professional mission over the last decade, so I stepped into the fray on that front.”

Ivanka is due to publish a book on working women later this spring, and the book’s publicity platform, the #WomenWhoWork portion of her website, currently proclaims, “Of Ivanka’s many roles, she considers ‘mom’ to be her most important and challenging. ‘Raising a daughter, I hope that she grows up to feel empowered to do anything that her brothers can do and to relentlessly pursue her dreams,’ she says. ‘I hope that my sons grow up to be in touch with the sides of their personality that have previously been considered more feminine—that they’re great husbands like their father and they’re great siblings and they’re sensitive and loving and caring, in addition to being driven and passionate and ambitious. That’s what I wish for my children along with health and happiness.'”

Two days ago, Ivanka reportedly was behind an offer made to Planned Parenthood: Donald Trump said he wouldn’t support cutting off funding and might even give the organization more money if it would simply stop providing abortions. Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, declined. The New York Times credited Ivanka with pushing her father toward that appearance of conciliation with Planned Parenthood.

“There is an opportunity for organizations to continue the important work they do in support of women’s health while not providing abortion services,” the president said. But Richards responded, “We will always stand for women’s ability to make decisions about their health and lives without interference from politicians in Washington, D.C.”

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told reporters she thought that Trump extended the offer only so he could say he had done so and that he would follow up Planned Parenthood’s refusal with an accusation that the organization was not being reasonable.

The Times also reported that Ivanka had “urged her father to tread carefully on the Planned Parenthood issue during the Republican primary contest.” If that was the case, her father certainly did not heed her advice.

Outside the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday afternoon, two high school juniors, Leyla Ulusoy and Munis Koc—both wearing red hijabs—held up a sign that read, “My Body My Choice My Country My Voice.” The two friends said they thought Ivanka was out of touch on the subject of abortion.

“I feel like she lives such a luxurious, rich life that she doesn’t know what other women are going through,” said Ulusoy, 17. “She can decide to give birth, but it should be a choice for women who have been raped, or incest victims, or who have no money, or whose husbands or boyfriends don’t want children.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized U.S., Ivanka Trump, Abortion..., Donald Trump, Abortion rights, Anti-abortion, Planned parenthood, Jared kushner, ivanka trump abe, robin givhan ivanka trump, scarjo ivanka trump, ivanka trump at world bank, christine lagarde ivanka trump, kushner ivanka trump, ivanka trump's hair, ivanka trump samantha bee, does ivanka trump have children, does ivanka trump have a clothing line

Supreme Court’s abortion ruling sets off new court fights

June 27, 2022 by www.sfchronicle.com Leave a Comment

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

11

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The fall of Roe v. Wade shifted the battleground over abortion to courthouses around the country Monday, as one side sought quickly to enact statewide bans and the other tried to block or at least delay such measures.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday to end constitutional protection for abortion opened the gates for a wave of litigation from all sides.

Many of the court cases will focus on “trigger laws,” adopted in 13 states in anticipation of the ruling and designed to take effect swiftly. Lawsuits could also target old anti-abortion laws that were left on the book and went unenforced under Roe. Newer abortion restrictions that were put on hold pending the Supreme Court ruling have also started to come back into play.

“We’ll be back in court tomorrow and the next day and the next day,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which argued the case that resulted in the high court ruling, said Friday.

On Monday, abortion rights advocates asked a Florida judge to block a new state law that bans abortions after 15 weeks with some exceptions and is set to take effect this week. Attorneys hoping to stave off a prohibition on abortion in Louisiana filed a lawsuit arguing state laws are unclear on when a ban can take effect and what constitutes an exception.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and an abortion-rights group filed an emergency motion Saturday seeking to block a 2021 law they worry can be used to halt all abortions. Planned Parenthood in Utah has challenged a trigger law with narrow exceptions.

Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said the organization is looking at “all options” to protect access to abortion.

As of Saturday, abortion services had stopped in at least 11 states — either because of state laws or confusion over them.

In some cases, the lawsuits may only buy time. Even if courts block some bans or restrictions from taking hold, lawmakers in many conservative states could move quickly to address any flaws cited.

That’s likely to be the case in Louisiana. The state’s Republican attorney genera took to Twitter on Friday to say bans with “trigger” provisions passed in anticipation of the ruling were immediately in effect. The only three clinics providing abortions in the state closed that day.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday in state court in New Orleans — including one of those clinics — don’t deny that Louisiana can now ban abortion. Instead, they contend Louisiana now has multiple, conflicting trigger mechanisms in the law.

They also argue that state law is unclear on whether it bans an abortion prior to a fertilized egg implanting in the uterus. And while the law provides an exception for “medically futile” pregnancies — in cases of fetuses with lethal abnormalities — the plaintiffs noted the law gives no definition of the term.

Around the country, challenges to other trigger laws could be made on the grounds that the conditions to impose the bans have not been met, or that it was improper for a past legislature to bind the current one.

Laura Herner, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, said other challenges might call into question whether state laws sufficiently and clearly allow for exceptions to protect the life or health of a pregnant woman.

Now that the high court has ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee the right to an abortion, abortion rights supporters will make the case that state constitutions protect such a right.

A judge heard arguments on that issue Monday in Florida, where attorneys sought an emergency injunction to stop a new law from going into effect Friday. The ban beyond 15 weeks has exceptions to save the pregnant woman’s life or prevent physical harm or in cases where the fetus has a fatal abnormality. The ACLU of Florida has argued it violates the Florida Constitution.

In a lawsuit filed by a Jewish congregation in Florida, arguments over religious liberty and the separation of church and state will come into play.

Still other cases could be filed as states try to sort out whether abortion bans in place before Roe was decided — sometimes referred to as “zombie laws” — apply now that there is no federal protection for abortion.

For instance, Wisconsin passed a law in 1849 banning abortions except to save the life of the mother. Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, said he does not believe it’s enforceable. Abortion opponents have called on lawmakers to impose a new ban.

In the meantime, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said it immediately suspended all abortions, though the district attorneys in Madison and Milwaukee have both suggested that they would not enforce the ban.

In Michigan, Planned Parenthood challenged a 1931 abortion ban ahead of last week’s Supreme Court ruling. In May, a judge said the ban could not be enforced because it violates the state’s constitution. Abortion rights supporters are now trying to get a proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot in November to protect abortion and birth control.

Idaho, Oklahoma and Texas have adopted laws that allow people to seek bounties against those who help others get abortions. It is an open question as to whether that means people can be pursued across state lines, and legal challenges over those issues are likely to come up in cases of both surgical abortions and those using medicine mailed to patients.

The California Legislature, controlled by Democrats, passed a bill Thursday to shield abortion providers and volunteers in the state from civil judgments imposed by other states. In liberal Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed an executive order Friday that prohibits state agencies from assisting other states’ investigations into anyone who receives a legal abortion in Massachusetts.

The challenge filed in Arizona, where most providers stopped offering abortions, said the legal questions are urgent.

Even if abortions resume in weeks or months, the plaintiffs said, “patients may be at greater risk of medical complications or may lose access to abortion altogether as a result of the delay.”

___

Forliti reported from Minneapolis and Mulvihill from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Kate Brumback in Atlanta; Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Don Thompson in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.

___

For AP’s full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion .

Filed Under: Uncategorized Charlie Baker, Nancy Northup, Brigitte Amiri, POLITICIAN PERSON, Josh Kaul, Laura Herner, Democrat, Anthony Izaguirre, Mulvihill, Don Thompson, Scott Bauer, ..., ruling supreme court, rulings of the supreme court, latest rulings of supreme court, rulings supreme court, supreme court rulings today, gay marriage ruling supreme court, abortion supreme court, ruling of supreme court, rulings of supreme court, obamacare supreme court ruling

Illinois abortion advocates expect influx of patients from out-of-state: “It reinforces my commitment”

June 27, 2022 by www.cbsnews.com Leave a Comment

Laurie, who lives north of Chicago, says getting behind the wheel is an act of activism. She drives women who need a ride to get an abortion, both locally and from out-of-state. She volunteers for the Midwest Access Coalition (MAC) , a non-profit that helps fund everything from lodging and transportation to childcare for women who need those resources to get the procedure.

Laurie said she’s driven about 20 women in the last three years.

CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz asked, “What do you remember about the last woman you transported?”

“She was a single mom. She wasn’t getting a lot of support from her former husband. And she said, ‘I just can’t manage it as much as I would like to.’ And it was just, it was heartbreaking, and it was encouraging at the same time that she had an avenue to terminate her pregnancy, because she wanted to and felt she needed to.”

The Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v. Wade could create a new wave of pregnant people traveling to states where abortion is more widely available.

  • With Roe v. Wade overturned, which states would restrict or protect abortion rights?
  • How Supreme Court conservatives are reshaping Americans’ rights (“Sunday Morning”)
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren says leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion “has opened a door to a whole lot of ugliness” (“CBS Mornings”)
  • Irish doctor says “women will die” if Roe v. Wade overturned in U.S. (“CBS Mornings”)

Illinois, which has strong abortion protections in place, is surrounded by states that have or could have restrictions on the procedure. With Roe overturned, Planned Parenthood estimates that up to 30,000 additional patients could travel to Illinois for abortions over the next year.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois has been preparing for years in case Roe fell, building a facility in Waukegan (about eight miles from the Wisconsin border), and another near Indiana.

Speaking ahead of the Supreme Court’s decision last Friday, MAC’s executive director Diana Parker-Kafka said demand for her organization’s services had already tripled this year. “Like, my phone’s vibrating every five seconds now,” she said.

And she worries that, without Roe, Illinois healthcare facilities would be stretched to capacity.

Diaz asked, “Do you expect people will have to be turned away?”

“Oh yeah. Yeah. There will be people that we won’t be able to see through their abortion care that need it. And we’re also thinking about plans on how to support those people.”

“There are anti-abortion rights activists who believe that it’s wrong to help women cross state lines to get an abortion if she’s coming from a state where it’s banned,” Diaz said. “What do you say to them?”

“I don’t think bodily autonomy should be limited by borders,” Parker-Kafka replied. “These are people making a decision that is really essential for their lives, for their families.”

“Is your organization helping people, women, skirt state laws?”

“I wouldn’t say they’re skirting state laws,” Parker-Kafka said. “If someone has an appointment at a clinic in Illinois and that care is legal, then we absolutely will help them get there.”

  • CBS News poll: Most Americans disapprove overturning Roe v. Wade, call it step backward
  • Thousands gather for pro-abortion rights protests across U.S. (“CBS Saturday Morning”)
  • The end of Roe v. Wade: America reacts

And for some volunteers, like Laurie, their passion is personal. She had an abortion in her thirties before she was ready for a family . “I knew immediately that there’s no way I’m going to have a child right now,” she said. “I was lucky it was after Roe. I’m old enough to clearly remember before Roe was passed. And I know what those experiences were like.”

She said ensuring access to safe, legal abortion is what drives her.

“Is it hard dropping folks off?” Diaz asked.

“Yes, yes, it is, it is. I think about them walking through the doors. They stay with me. It reinforces my commitment to keep on doing this as long as necessary – which is looking like it’s gonna be a while.”

It’s not a crime for a woman to travel to another state for an abortion – in fact, Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted in his concurring opinion that interstate travel is protected under the Constitution.

Some local prosecutors in places like St. Louis and Dallas have also said they will not prosecute anyone who helps a woman get an abortion, even though the procedure is banned in those states.

  • Texas abortion ban targets anyone who helps patients get the procedure (“CBS Mornings”)

  • Advocates report seeing “huge increase in demand” for abortion pills since leaked Supreme Court draft opinion (“CBS Mornings”)
  • A frontline in the fight over abortion (“Sunday Morning”)
  • Hillary Clinton on what happens if Roe v. Wade is overturned: “You have no idea who they will come for next” (“CBS Evening News”)
  • From 2021: Abortion – The great divide (“Sunday Morning”)
    In:

  • Abortion
  • Planned Parenthood

Filed Under: Uncategorized Abortion, Planned Parenthood, how to advocate for a patient, advocating for a patient, illinois abortion laws, illinois abortion clinics, illinois legal advocate, illinois abortion statistics, illinois abortion, advocate health care patient portal, life expectancy emphysema patients, life expectancy gist patients

Copyright © 2022 Search. Power by Wordpress.
Home - About Us - Contact Us - Disclaimers - DMCA - Privacy Policy - Submit your story