On December 1st, the United States Supreme Court will hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This Mississippi case could overturn, refine, or re-affirm Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood. Join Bill Marianes live with three special guests to discuss theological, legal, outreach, and ministry perspectives on this important event

January 22 marks the 35th anniversary of legalized abortion in the United States despite all of the facts demonstrating the presence of life at conception. You don't want to miss this powerful commentary! To read more from Frederica on this topic, you will want to pick up Real Choices published by Conciliar Press.

Fr. John Whiteford discusses the new laws in New York state regarding abortion.

Orthodox pro-life advocate, author, and Martha and Mary House Director/Housemother Sarah Elisabet Oftedal talks with Kevin about the impact abortion has had on our culture, the lingering trauma on women (and families) who have had them, and what Martha and Mary House—the U.S.'s only Orthodox maternity home—is doing about it.

Today on the program we feature a lecture by Fr. Stanley Harakas, the Archbishop Iakovos Professor of Orthodox Theology, Emeritus, at Holy Cross, given at the first annual Anne and Theodore Phillips Paschal Lecture Series in Chicago, Illinois.

As U.S. Catholic bishops gather for their annual fall meeting this week in Baltimore, the specter of President-elect Donald Trump's resounding victory will hang over the proceedings.

Maryland voters overwhelmingly passed a sweeping proposal adding abortion rights to the state constitution.

Perhaps no issue has motivated more Democratic voters than abortion access.

Anti-abortion advocates say there is still work to be done to further restrict access to abortion when Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House next year.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday on whether a law that legislators adopted more than a decade before the Civil War bans abortion and can still be enforced.

When opponents of Idaho's strict abortion law said it was forcing women to be emergency-airlifted out of state to have their pregnancies terminated, it shocked the Supreme Court. Now Idaho says the claim is not true.

Democrats for Life of America said Tuesday that 97% of its endorsed candidates won their races in last week's election, which raises the question: Is there such a thing as a pro-life Democrat?

Until Tuesday, abortion rights advocates had prevailed on all seven measures that have appeared on statewide ballots since the fall of Roe.

The post Abortion rights advocates win in 7 states and clear way to overturn Missouri ban but lose in 3 appeared first on Boston.com.

The Trump administration is expected to pull back Biden's controversial directive that requires emergency rooms to provide abortions when necessary to stabilize a woman's health or life.

The post Anti-abortion advocates press Trump for more restrictions as abortion pill sales spike appeared first on Boston.com.

The substantial increase mostly came from out-of-state telehealth appointments, where providers prescribe abortion medication.

The post Abortions shot up in Mass. last year in wake of Dobbs, WBUR report shows appeared first on Boston.com.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday on whether a law that legislators adopted more than a decade before the Civil War bans abortion and can still be enforced.

Buffer zones around abortion facilities went into effect in England and Wales, a development that pro-life advocates contend criminalizes silent prayer and offering pregnancy help information to women and families in need of resources. 

A British man has been found guilty of sexual assault and other crimes for tricking a pregnant woman into drinking a liquid that contained abortion drugs to induce a miscarriage, unbeknownst to the victim.

The president of Focus on the Family says he’s “encouraged” by Tuesday’s election results even as he acknowledged both victories and setbacks for the pro-life movement.

Theologian and Pastor John Piper weighed in on a question from a listener struggling with guilt after having an abortion in an episode of his podcast "Ask Pastor John."

The 2024 election yielded mixed results for the pro-life movement, with voters in several states supporting pro-abortion ballot measures as such referendums came up short in other states. 

Leaders of pro-life advocacy groups are celebrating former President Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, citing his win as evidence that the American people do not support the unfettered abortion access endorsed by the Democrats.

Adolescents in regions with fewer abortion restrictions and those who had an abortion were more likely to have graduated from college, earn higher incomes and have greater financial stability at two time-points over an almost 25-year period. Girls who became teen moms, conversely, were more likely to experience eviction, debt and food insecurity.

While legal abortions in the U.S. are safe, the likelihood that women will receive the type of abortion services that best meet their needs varies considerably depending on where they live, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Despite conservative efforts to criminalize medication abortion using the 1873 Comstock Act, organizers continue to expand access to this necessary health care.

Even before abortion became illegal in 14 states, some reproductive health care clinics were rebranding to better reflect the broad spectrum of gender-inclusive care they provide.

When it comes to the often-taboo topic of abortion, the authors of "Liberating Abortion" are eager to share their wisdom with anyone considering accessing this form of health care.

Readers offer a variety of reasons Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris -- gender bias, the presentation of Harris' policies and Democrats' track record under Joe Biden.

Just months after the Supreme Court limited abortion access, infant mortality rates rose significantly higher, according to a new study.

A federal judge is permanently blocking Georgia’s 2019 “heartbeat" abortion law, finding that it violates the U.S. Constitution. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled against the state Monday in a lawsuit filed by abortion providers and an advocacy group.

Jordan Daniels has worked in the Atlanta film industry for years. Monday's court ruling, which reversed the controversial "heartbeat" abortion bill passed last year in Georgia, came as a relief. "We did have a few productions leave on the basis of HB 481, and I'm happy that more won't," she said. "Obviously, I'm dually relieved since I'm a woman who loves her job, and also wants the right to choose."

Fifty-seven percent of Floridian voters wanted to protect abortion rights going up to about the 24th week of pregnancy. But a 60 percent majority is required there, so the abortion amendment failed.

Here's how the coming second term of President-elect Donald Trump could impact Colorado's immigrants, public lands, abortion access and hosting of the U.S. Space Command headquarters.

By DAVID A. LIEB Life, death, crime and taxes will be on ballots for voters to decide this fall. More than 140 measures are going before voters in 41 states during the general election alongside choices for president and other top offices. The ballot questions will give voters a chance to directly decide some consequential […]

As U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo emphasizes abortion rights in her reelection race in Colorado's battleground 8th Congressional District, she's moved the right on immigration -- angering some allies -- while facing fierce attacks from supporters of Republican challenger Gabe Evans.

“Good rule of thumb: those who frequently use the word “disinformation” are the ones most likely to be pushing it” — Elon Musk

Photo by Reed Naliboff  In a pivotal moment for reproductive rights in America, the Supreme Court has declined to intervene in the clash between federal emergency care law and Texas’ near-total abortion ban. This decision marks a significant setback for advocates of reproductive rights and has far-reaching implications, particularly for women of color in Texas. The […]

The post The Deepening Crisis: The Texas Abortion Ban and Its Far-Reaching Implications appeared first on Feminist Majority Foundation.

America's abortion ban will hurt women everywhere The World Today mhiggins.drupal 9 August 2022

In the final part of a series on the impact of the Roe v Wade ruling, Nina van der Mark assesses the global impact of America’s reverse on reproductive rights.

In overturning the constitutional right to an abortion established by Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court of the United States placed the US alongside Poland, El Salvador and Nicaragua as countries that have restricted access to abortion in recent decades. While the Dobbs ruling is a domestic reversal, the US remains the largest funder of global health, family planning and reproductive health services. There is a lot at stake for women and girls around the world. 

Here are four potential global impacts to consider.

Millions of women will be at greater risk 

The Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that aims to improve sexual and reproductive health worldwide, calculated that in 2021 American international family planning assistance saw an estimated 27.2 million women and couples receive contraceptive services, some 12 million pregnancies averted, four million unsafe abortions prevented and 19,000 maternal deaths avoided. These outcomes help to improve gender equity as well as increase women’s education and employment opportunities and boost economic growth. 

This happens despite US funding for international family planning being in decline over the past decade. It peaked during the Obama administration at $715 million in 2010 but since 2017 averaged about $607 million a year. Using US aid to directly fund abortions as a method of family planning is prohibited under the terms of the Helms Amendment of 1973.

In America, the Dobbs ruling has so far led 14 Republican-controlled states to enact anti-abortion legislation. This, in turn, has motivated pro-choice campaigners – on August 2, a referendum in the staunchly conservative state of Kansas returned a decisive vote to preserve abortion rights. That result gives hope to abortion-rights groups that the issue will cut across traditional political loyalties and bring swing voters to their cause in the mid-term congressional elections in November.  

That is important because Congress decides on the level of funding for America’s global health programmes, including family planning and reproductive health. The stakes are high. For instance, Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia, with a combined population of more than 370 million, are among the top 10 recipients of US Overseas Development Assistance, most of which goes to health programmes. Nigeria, for instance, received $794 million in such funding from America in 2019-2020. 

A sudden policy reversal affecting funding for reproductive health would lead to clinic closures, reduced access to help and shortages of essential family planning commodities. The result would be more unintended pregnancies, more unsafe abortions and a potential increase in maternal mortality. 

Women will have more unsafe abortions

The Helms Amendment, which prevents recipients of American aid directly funding abortion services, was passed by Congress in 1973 following the Roe v Wade decision. The Global Gag Rule, first enacted by Ronald Reagan in 1984, goes further, forbidding NGOs abroad in receipt of American aid from promoting or counselling abortion as a form of family planning, even when using their own funds. Since its introduction, Republican administrations have enforced the rule while Democratic administrations have rescinded it, as Biden did in January 2021.  

Restricting access to safe abortion services increases the number of unsafe abortions, whereas legalizing abortion services reduces them. During the Bush administration, the Global Gag Rule prompted a 12-per-cent increase in pregnancies in rural Ghana, which led to an additional 200,000 abortions. 

Another study found a substantial increase in abortions, a decline in contraceptive use and an increase in pregnancies in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa affected by the rule across three US administrations. It’s estimated that 77 per cent of abortions in the region are unsafe. In 2019 that translated into 6.2 million unsafe abortions.

The failure of America to consistently support safe abortion services contributes to the more than 35 million unsafe abortions that take place each year across 132 lower middle-income countries.  

Under the Trump administration, the Global Gag Rule was extended from family planning funding to cover all US global health assistance, increasing the level of US funding affected from around $600 million to $8.8 billion. Were a Republican administration to be elected in 2024 there is little doubt the rule would be reinstated, possibly in the most restrictive form that Trump enforced. 

Anti-abortion movements will double their efforts 

The repeal of Roe v Wade has not occurred in a silo, nor are its effects contained within the US.

News of the Dobbs ruling, which overturned Roe v Wade, prompted One of Us, a European anti-abortion platform, to mount an immediate, 20,000-strong anti-abortion demonstration in Spain, including leaders of the conservative Vox party.  On Twitter, Sara Larin, an anti-abortion activist from El Salvador, likened the Dobbs ruling to the abolition of slavery in the US, calling it ‘the beginning of the end for abortion [worldwide]’. 

Countries have based their legal protections for abortion access on Roe v Wade or cited it in their case law, which now opens them up to legal challenge domestically. A Christian anti-abortion group in Kenya is legally challenging a pro-choice ruling based on Roe v Wade. Such challenges may increase: anti-choice groups in Mexico and Peru cited the Dobbs ruling as an encouraging development. 

Many American Christian right-wing groups fund anti-abortion activities abroad. OpenDemocracy, an independent global media platform, recently reported that 28 Christian right-wing organizations spent more than $280 million internationally between 2007-2018 on anti-choice activities, targeting Europe primarily, followed by Africa and Asia.  

The American right is not afraid to take direct legal action abroad either. The European Center for Law and Justice, an offshoot of the Trump-backed American Center for Law and Justice, has made interventions in dozens of court cases on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the European Court, including in the case that overturned abortion rights in Poland.   

The European parliament in its most recent motion on the topic expressed concern about the potential for the Dobbs ruling to prompt a surge in the flow of money to anti-choice groups around the world.  

America’s global standing will take a hit 

The Dobbs ruling immediately attracted criticism from many world leaders.  ‘Watching the removal of a woman’s fundamental right to make decisions over their own body is incredibly upsetting,’ said Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister. ‘To see that principle now lost in the United States feels like a loss for women everywhere.’  

President Emmanuel Macron of France tweeted: ‘I wish to express my solidarity with the women whose liberties are being undermined by the Supreme Court of the United States.’ 

The ruling is in conspicuous opposition to the Biden administration’s more progressive stance on sexual and reproductive health and rights and its advocacy abroad. It sends a clear message from the world’s most powerful democracy that these rights are not guaranteed. 

While many world leaders reacted to the Dobbs ruling with dismay, other senior figures from the conservative right welcomed it, including the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, and Javier Milei, a potential candidate in Argentina’s presidential election next year.  

In 2020, the Trump administration co-sponsored the ‘Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family,’ declaring that there was ‘no international right to abortion.’ It was signed by more than 30 countries, including autocratic and right-wing governments in Brazil, Poland, Hungary and Saudi Arabia.  

The Biden administration withdrew from it – but its signatories are the governments who may yet take advantage of America’s self-inflicted erosion of authority on reproductive rights.  

The Dobbs ruling exposes the limitation of the American executive to act within the US legal system while opening up questions on American support of, and dedication to, fundamental rights.

Read the other two articles in this series: ‘Empowering women aids climate resilience’ and ‘Counting the cost of the abortion ban’

Abortion-related ballot initiatives were voted on in 10 states during the election. Here is a state-by-state breakdown of where abortion currently stands in each state.

Public-private-nonprofit initiative will provide free legal advice & information on reproductive health   Joined by reproductive health advocates, Attorney General Jennings announced Wednesday the launch of the Attorney General’s Abortion Legal Helpline, a collaborative initiative led by the Department of Justice with support from nearly a dozen partner law firms, and several nonprofit and advocacy groups including the […]

Abuja, Nigeria — The Nigerian military welcomed a report by a human rights group that found “no evidence” the military secretly carried out thousands of illegal abortions as part of its fight against Islamist insurgency. The Reuters news agency says it stands by its three reports in 2022 which lodged the allegations.  In a statement over the weekend, Nigerian Defense Chief General Christopher Musa praised the report by the seven-member investigative panel set up by the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria.  Musa said no amount of false accusations will distract the armed forces from defending Nigeria's integrity.  On Friday, the Nigerian investigative panel said it found “no evidence” that the Nigerian military secretly carried out illegal abortions or had such a policy in its operations against terror groups.   The panel's probe lasted 18 months and was based on 199 testimonies from witnesses including Musa, who was leading the counterinsurgency campaign at the time.  In December 2022, Reuters news agency published three reports alleging that the Nigerian military ran a mass abortion program for victims of the long-running Boko Haram insurgency and massacred children in the northeast.  The report alleged that the military had carried out more than 10,000 abortions since 2013.  "The panel made its findings meticulously on each of the issues," said Hillary Ogbonna, secretary to the investigative panel. "For the abortion assault, the panel did not find evidence that the Nigerian armed forces committed a systematic, secret or policy-driven abortion in the northeast to the tune of 10,000 abortions."  The committee, however, agreed with a Reuters report alleging the military committed human rights violations, including infanticide, during a military operation in June 2016.  "The panel found the military culpable of infanticide and the killing of community members in the village of Abisare in Borno State. We've received witness testimonies including those of the survivors and relations of the deceased," Ogbonna said.  Responding to the panel's report, Reuters said it stands by its investigation, stating that it satisfied their standards for independence, accuracy and impartiality.  On Monday, a Nigerian human rights group, Women Concerns, called on Reuters to withdraw the report and apologize to the Nigerian military.  But security analyst Chidi Omeje said when there's disagreement between two parties, an independent committee can be set up to review the reports.  "I don't know how the human rights commission went about the investigation. I really cannot say whether it was a thorough job done or whether there was some influence somewhere. Maybe some other independent organizations should be able to wade in," Omeje said. "I know that [the] human rights commission, even though I'm not trying to doubt their integrity, it has some allegiance to the government because it's a government agency."  Years of military offensives against terror groups in Nigeria have been embroiled in allegations of human rights violations. Soldiers have been accused of mistreating civilians and carrying out extrajudicial killings.  "It tells you how it is very difficult to maintain or stick to that professionalism if you're dealing with this kind of asymmetric warfare. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish who the adversaries are," Omeje said.  Recently, the military launched a public relations campaign, seeking to repair its reputation.

What a privilege and joy it is to worship the Lord here at Grace church. Patricia and I miss it when we’re not here; there&rsqu

The right to abortion is a human rights issue that no government agency, courts, local and state legislators, or anyone else has the right to violate or impede in any shape or form. It is a fundamental right that every woman must be free to exercise with impunity, in consultation with her doctor only, who […]

The struggle for women’s right to decide in Latin America and the Caribbean, for their access to legal, safe and free abortion continues in the region, with some countries fully criminalising it, others with severe regulations, and a few guaranteeing better conditions, while threats of regression persist. This Saturday 28 September marks, as every year, […]

Title: Multiple Abortions May Raise Risk of Preemie Birth Later
Category: Health News
Created: 8/30/2012 2:05:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/31/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Arkansas Law Restricting Abortion Pills Remains on Hold
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2018 12:00:00 AM

Purpose:

Providing medication abortion in the primary care setting is a promising way to increase access to abortion, a threatened service in many States. This study aimed to characterize primary care clinicians’ interest in prescribing medication abortion, what barriers they face in adding this service, and what support they need.

Liberal women are stockpiling abortion pills and "morning after" pills and men are scheduling vasectomies at greater rates.

The post Report: Women Stockpile Abortion Pills, Men Schedule Vasectomies After Election appeared first on Breitbart.

Kamala Harris is blasting Donald Trump for vowing to protect women whether they “like it or not” at the same time he is calling for Republican Liz Cheney to be shot in the face. We get response from The Nation's abortion access correspondent Amy Littlefield and talk about 10 states with abortion rights on the ballot, including Arizona, Nevada, Florida, South Dakota and Missouri. Trump's remarks are a “succinct and clear definition of patriarchy,” says Littlefield. She argues the 2024 election will be decided in large part by white women and whether they will vote for abortion rights. Trump is “laying out the bargain that white patriarchy has offered for white women in this country,” says Littlefield. “He is saying, 'White women, we will protect you from Brown and Black men.'”