(NPR, Dec. 21, 2023) When it comes to reproductive rights, 2023 is ending in much the same way it began - with confusion, lawsuits and the stories of women in the midst of health crises unable to access abortion care because of a host of restrictive abortion laws across the country. Read Article >
Two new books chronicle the life of Madame Restell, who ran a birth-control empire in Manhattan - for as long as she could stay out of jail. Read Article >
Some Republican Missouri lawmakers are renewing their call to allow homicide charges against women who have abortions. Read Article >
Texas state Supreme Court rules against Katie Cox, 31, from getting an abortion even though her fetus has a slim chance of survival. Cox left the state. Her lawyer, Molly Duane, says: "My question is, if she doesn't [qualify], who does?" Read Article >
(New York Times, Dec. 13, 2023) The justices announced that they would hear a case challenging the FDA's approval of the commonly used pill, mifepristone. The move sets up a high-stakes fight over the drug, , that could sharply curtail access to the medication, even in states where abortion remains legal. It could also have implications for the regulatory authority of the FDA, which approved the pill more than two decades ago. Read Article >
(New York Times, Nov. 20, 2023) The G.O.P. is struggling politically with abortion. Jane Coaston interviews South Carolina's Sandy Senn, who says it is "best to put it to the voters." Read Article >
In Massachussets, joint bills filed by Sen. Rebecca Rausch, D-Needham, and Rep. Sally Kerans, D-Danvers, heard before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary Nov. 21, would eliminate the decades-old requirement that teenagers younger than 16 seek parental consent, or present their case before a judge, in order to access an abortion. Read Article >
(MSN, Nov. 21, 2023) New results from a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll show Americans’ support for abortion access is at one of the highest levels on record since nonpartisan researchers began tracking it in the 1970s. Some 55% of respondents say it should be possible for a pregnant woman to obtain a legal abortion if she wants it for any reason. The poll, conducted for the Journal by NORC at the University of Chicago, surveyed [...]
Seven women who were denied reproductive health care in Texas have joined an ongoing lawsuit. (And more people are joining by the day, including Austin-based Bumble, a women-focused dating app.) Read Article >
(Independent, Oct. 27, 2023) In a clip resurfaced by liberal political groups, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson tells a Louisiana congregation in 2016 that mass shootings are the result of no-fault divorce, feminism, abortion, and other expansions of social rights that took place in the 20th century. The Louisiana representative, elected to Congress the same year he gave the sermon, traced the roots of this “chaos” to the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and ‘70s. Note: [...]
