Tag: #Abortionishealthcare

Pro-birthers vs. Pro-Lifers

Since the reversal of Roe vs. Wade it’s become difficult to keep track of how the ruling is playing out without a scorecard… particularly since the game has gone into extra innings.

Yet even in Red vs. Blue America, the battle lines are not cleanly drawn, and states cannot be simply grouped into ‘pro’ or ‘con’.

Sanctuary.  There are 15 states (with the exception of New Mexico) in which the right to an abortion is expressly protected by state constitution or legislation. In all of these states providers are held harmless, and there is no restriction on the use of state funds:

  • New Mexico, Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, , Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has opened a state-funded abortion clinic near the Texas border.

The Republican gubernatorial nominee has proposed a statewide referendum that could place new limitations on access to abortion procedures.

Hospitable.  In an additional 9 states and the District of Columbia, abortion is legal for at least the first 22 weeks of pregnancy, but the use of tax funds is prohibited.  In Rhode Island and Colorado, governors issued executive orders protecting providers:

  • Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Nevada, Rhode Island, Colorado, Kansas.

In Limbo.  Final outcomes remain uncertain for 9 states in which judges have temporarily blocked bans – both pre-Roe and post-Roe, but abortion remains available up to 22 weeks:

  • Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, Wyoming

Hostile.  Even among states most hostile to abortion rights, Oklahoma’s new law is an outlier that bans abortion from point of fertilization.

Oklahoma is also one of 9 states that make no exceptions for rape or incest.  (Mississippi exempts victims of rape, but not of incest.)

  • Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin

In an additional 6 states, abortion rights are subject to restriction including shortened time limits for the procedure and prosecution of providers:

  • Indiana, West Virginia, Idaho, , Florida, Georgia, North Carolina

Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher derided arguments that Indiana’s new abortion ban violates the state constitution, saying Monday that:

“Opponents of the [abortion] ban are trying to invent a state right to privacy.

But not all of the obstruction has been legal.

A man who broke windows and security cameras at a Planned Parenthood clinic in southwestern Oregon because he opposed abortion has pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 prohibits intentionally injuring, intimidating, or interfering with, or attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere, any person by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction or to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from, obtaining or providing reproductive health services… or intentionally damaging or destroying the property of a facility because such facility provides reproductive health services.

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Abortion refugees

It is estimated that more than 100,000 women in need of an abortion will be unable to get one as states rush to pass restrictive laws in the post-Roe/Wade America. The primary reason is that the cost of travelling to a state in which abortion is legal is prohibitive for many low-income and minority households, locking them into a continuing cycle of poverty. For those who can afford to make the trip, workarounds are quickly springing up to meet the need.

Mexico.  At the Profem Tijuana clinic, within walking distance of the international border,  the the share of patients from the U.S. rose from 25% to 50% between May and July, 2022.          

Gulf Coast. Abort Offshore is a floating clinic that performs legal abortions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy in federal waters.  It draws patients from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  The shore-to-shore trip – including procedure – takes about 5 hours.

Illinois.  Hope Clinic is expanding services at its Granite City, IL., location, just across the Mississippi from St. Louis, MO.

Maryland.  Partners in Abortion Care is opening a clinic in College Park, MD.  Located within 40 miles of three major airports and interstate highways, it is convenient for patients from West Virginia and Ohio.  Beginning in July, nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants were empowered to perform abortions in Maryland.

Minnesota.  An abortion clinic in Duluth, MN. Has long provided services to patients from adjacent states, but expects more traffic in the wake of a recent court ruling which expanded abortion access. The ruling ended a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, two-parent consent for minors and a requirement that physicians discuss medical risks and alternatives to abortion.  It also tossed out requirements that only doctors could provide abortion care, and that abortions after the first trimester had to take place in a hospital.

New Mexico.   Governor Michelle Lujan recently signed an executive order to build an abortion clinic in Las Cruces, about 45 miles from its Texas border.

Oregon.  Planned Parenthood in Willamette, OR is bracing for an influx of patients from neighboring Idaho. Oregon’s legislature has approved a $15 million expenditures to establish the Oregon Reproductive Health Equity Fund to aid women in need of abortions.

Planned Parenthood maintains a continuously updated report on the legal status of abortion state-by-state.

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Contraceptives: Mexico’s new contraband

For 20 years Verónica Cruz Sánchez, founder of the feminist human rights group Las Libres in Guanajuato, Mexico, was a tireless advocate for women seeking abortions in a country with staggeringly high rates of rape and domestic violence. 

During that time, her non-profit organization distributed hundreds of thousands of ‘abortion pills’ to women in need.

But when Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in 2021 on the grounds that abortion bans violated the rights of women, it may have seemed that her organization’s work was concluded. 

Then the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade and Las Libres’ mission was suddenly turned on its head.

In recent weeks, the organization has experienced an avalanche of calls from U.S. jurisdictions in which abortion restrictions are already taking effect.

Previously scheduled abortions are being summarily cancelled, leaving the victims with too little time to sift through too few alternatives.

Las Libres packages the pills in orders of 3-5 each, depending upon availability.  They are batched and transported to the U.S.-Mexican border, where an army of volunteers carries them into the U.S. and assures that each is delivered to its final destination within days of order.

Mexican clinics are already anticipating an influx flood of U.S. women seeking abortions, evoking images of abortion clinics dotting the Mexican side of the border like casinos on Native American reservations.

And contraceptives are now a regular part of the mix of drugs making its way north. In an ironic reversal of stereotypes, Mexican Catholics have proven themselves far more tolerant and respectful of human rights than Evangelical Americans.

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Forced birth & adoption

Abortion ban supporters are touting that adoption will deal with the consequences of ‘forced birth’, but the claim rings hollow in the harsh light of the facts.

While it is true that up to 30% of Evangelical Christians may have an adopted child in their families (U.S. average is 2%)…. 

…there remain over 400,000 children in foster care hoping for adoption, and the number is rising each year.  Their chances are nothing but discouraging.

Fewer than 1 in 5 children in foster care are ever adopted. 

A white child is 40% more likely to be adopted than a black child.

On average, a child in foster care waits 4 years for an adoption, so it is unsurprising that the average child spends only 17 months in foster care before turning 18, and unadopted children fare significantly worse than others as adults on almost every significant dimension.

In addition, more than 400,000 more children are taken into custody by Child Protective Services each year.

The paradox is that despite this staggering level of need, only 2 in 5 adoptions originate from foster care.  Some 2 in 5 are completed through private agencies, and 1 in 4 adopts from outside the U.S.

One in four adoptions are actually of children born outside the U.S.

It’s worth noting that some of the Private and International adoptions are driven by laws in 11 U.S. states which allow adoption agencies to refuse service to LBGTQ applicants.

As the human race approaches the absolute limit of the planet to support it, the legislation of forced births appears as nothing less than a self-delusional exercise in self-destruction.

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