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Reproductive Rights

Stand Up And Fight Back On International Women’s Day

March 2, 2025 Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Fight Back! News. , , ,
Across the world, International Women’s Day has always been more than a celebration – it is a day of struggle. It was forged in the fight of New York City garment workers who took to the streets in 1908, to protest the super-exploitation they endured in sweatshops as they tried to support their families: dangerous working conditions, back-breaking hours, child labor and wage theft. They marched shoulder to shoulder with the suffragettes fighting for women’s right to vote. The revolutionary hero Clara Zetkin marked March 8th as a global day of action as a way to unite women worldwide in the fight for socialism and liberation.

Louisiana Issues Arrest Warrant For New York Doctor Over Abortion Pill

February 4, 2025 Zane McNeill, Truthout. , , , , ,
A grand jury in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has indicted and issued arrest warrants for a New York physician who prescribed abortion pills to a pregnant minor in Louisiana, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. The case directly targets the most common abortion method in the U.S. and challenges protections for out-of-state providers in Democratic-led states. In addition to physician Margaret Carpenter and her company, Nightingale Medical, PC, the grand jury unanimously issued an indictment and an arrest warrant for the minor’s mother.

Reproductive Justice Organizers Find New Ways To Help Incarcerated Moms

December 25, 2024 Anushka Dakshit, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Reproductive justice advocates in the South can rarely depend on laws on the book to safeguard incarcerated pregnant people. Instead, they’ve learned to create their own aid. Motherhood Beyond Bars, a reproductive justice group in Georgia, was originally centered on helping pregnant people inside prisons. After finding it increasingly difficult to work internally at the Georgia Department of Corrections, the group decided to devote its resources towards helping inmates from the outside. “The number of problems and fires we’re trying to put out has kind of exceeded even our expectations of what folks would need our help with,” said Amy Ard, executive director of Motherhood Beyond Bars, or MBB.

A Review Of Key 2024 Ballot Measures

November 11, 2024 Emma Cohn and Jennifer Sherer, Economic Policy Institute. , , , , , , ,
In this year’s election, voters given the opportunity to weigh in directly on questions of economic justice showed policy preferences far more progressive than those reflected in many national and state election outcomes. Across the country, voters seized opportunities to approve state or local ballot measures increasing the minimum wage, expanding paid leave, strengthening workers’ rights to unionize, preserving public education, and protecting access to abortion. These ballot measure outcomes reflect a clear ongoing trend of strong voter support for policies that prioritize worker, racial, and gender justice—and illustrate how state and local governments can continue to play important roles in enacting such policies.

Inside New Jersey’s Fight Against Anti-Abortion Centers

October 31, 2024 Kimberly Izar, Next City. , , , , ,
Pilgrim Medical Center is a small, privately-owned abortion clinic in downtown Montclair, New Jersey, offering abortions conducted by licensed and board-certified medical professionals. Just three blocks down the street stands First Choice Women’s Resource Center. Its website promises “compassionate care” with cost-free services, and answers questions about abortions: How late can the abortion pill be taken? How much does an abortion cost? When is the latest I can get an abortion? “If you think you could be pregnant, please come in for a pregnancy test and to receive information about your options,” the website encourages. But First Choice does not actually provide abortion services or referrals to abortion providers.

The Private Pilots Flying Abortion Seekers Across The Midwest

September 9, 2024 Lucas Frisancho, Next City. , , , , , , , , ,
In the fall of 2022, Mike climbed into the pilot’s seat with an idea. For the past few months, the private pilot had been volunteering with the Illinois-based Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion support fund that he’d come across in his post-George Floyd anti-racism journey. “I thought, there’s gotta be people out there helping people travel for abortions, because it’s not like every medical facility you go to provide abortion care,” says Mike. Next City has agreed to use Mike’s first name only to protect his safety and privacy as he engages in this sensitive work. “So I reached out to say, hey, I want to volunteer for anything you might need – driving, hosting, whatever.”

DNC Swarms With Police As Activists March For Palestine, Abortion Rights

August 21, 2024 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. , , , , , , ,
Protests against the Democratic National Convention DNC) kicked off on Sunday night with hundreds of people marching for Palestinian liberation and reproductive justice under a notably heavy police presence in downtown Chicago. The Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws march showcased the palpable anger greeting Democrats in the streets as they arrive in Chicago for three days of celebrations ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’s official nomination for president. The protest was organized by a coalition of Palestine solidarity, LGBTQ and reproductive rights groups that are frustrated with the Democratic Party’s failure to halt U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza and protect abortion rights in the decades before the Supreme Court threw out Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Arizona’s Abortion Rights Showdown

August 18, 2024 Alexandra Jacobo, Nation of Change. , , ,
The fight for reproductive rights in Arizona has reached a critical turning point as Proposition 139, a proposed constitutional amendment to secure abortion rights, will be on the ballot this November. The initiative’s path to the ballot is marked by a record-breaking signature collection effort, reflecting widespread public support amid a national landscape of increasing restrictions on abortion access. Arizona has long been a battleground for abortion rights, with its laws reflecting the broader national struggle over reproductive health. The state’s history includes an 1864 territorial statute that banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy, a law that was reinstated in 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Streets Of Brazil Erupt In Fury Against The ‘Child Pregnancy Bill’

June 19, 2024 Nara Lacerda and Caroline Oliveira, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
On Saturday, June 15, a demonstration against the bill that criminalizes legal abortion, dubbed the “Child Pregnancy Bill”, was held on Paulista Avenue in the city of São Paulo. The protesters walked down Augusta Street towards downtown São Paulo. Bill Number 1904/2024 punishes those who provide abortions, as well as the woman receiving the abortion, with the same sentence applied in homicide cases—even for abortion procedures allowed by Brazil’s legislation. Since Wednesday, the bill has been processed on an urgent basis by the Chamber of Deputies, which means it doesn’t need to be assessed by commissions and can go straight to plenary voting.

The Democrats Have Lost Their Trump Card

May 19, 2024 Anthony Rogers-Wright, Black Agenda Report. , , , , , ,
Samuel Clemens’ (aka Mark Twain) sage aphorism, “History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” is certainly one of the more accurate ways to describe the Democratic Party’s approach to the 2024 presidential election in that it eerily, though not surprisingly, mimics the neoliberal, corporate party’s methodology during the 2016 election - paint Donald Trump as a megalomaniac demagogue and dictatorial mad man who will unilaterally destroy  “democracy” to generate  so much fear in voters that they would have no other choice but to choose the Democrats. This strategy, of course, failed and resulted in the ignominious defeat of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as down ballot Democrats, which handed Trump a “trifecta” government.

More ‘Navigators’ Are Helping Women Travel To Have Abortions

February 3, 2024 Lillian Mongeau Hughes, Scheer Post. , , ,
Chloe Bell is a case manager at the National Abortion Federation. She spends her days helping people cover the cost of an abortion and, increasingly, the interstate travel many of them need to get the procedure. “What price did they quote you?” Bell asked a woman from New Jersey who had called the organization’s hotline seeking money to pay for an abortion. Her appointment was the next day. “They quoted me $500,” said the woman, who was five weeks pregnant when she spoke to Bell in November. She gave permission for a journalist to listen to the call on the condition that she not be named. “We can definitely help,” Bell told her.

Mexico’s Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion Nationally

September 11, 2023 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , ,
On Wednesday, September 6, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) unanimously ruled to decriminalize abortion at the national level. The SCJN resolved that the legal system that criminalizes abortion in the Federal Penal Code is unconstitutional as it violates the human rights of women and people with capacity for pregnancy. The ruling came two years after the SCJN first declared criminal penalties for abortion as unconstitutional and ordered the northern State of Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from its criminal code in September 2021. The ruling was in response to a case filed in 2018 challenging a criminal law in the Coahuila State legislation that punished women and pregnant individuals for terminating their pregnancy.

Resisting Abortion Bans A Year After Dobbs

July 29, 2023 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. , ,
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The culmination of a years-long political struggle between health care providers and right-wing politicians in Mississippi, the Dobbs decision overturned 50 years of legal precedent that guaranteed the federal right to abortion. Now that abortion’s legal status is left up to individual states, 20 have moved to restrict or ban abortion so far, especially in the South and Midwest. Many of these states have used so-called “trigger laws” that were already set to take effect if Roe v. Wade were ever reversed.

Europeans Have Far More Reproductive Freedom Than Americans

June 30, 2022 Ryan Cooper, The American Prospect. , , ,
Since the end of Roe v. Wade, numerous European political leaders have lamented the decision. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson labeled the Dobbs decision a “big step backwards,” and French President Emmanuel Macron said abortion “must be protected,” as his country prepared to place a nationwide right to abortion in its constitution. In response, conservatives have cried hypocrisy, both to deflect criticism and to cast doubt on European institutions in general. “Many of the leaders who criticized the United States for the decision have laws that are either comparable to the Mississippi law at the center of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which outlawed abortion past the 15th week of pregnancy,” Charles Hilu writes at National Review. “Americans should be very skeptical of the opinions of leaders across the pond.”

Blueprint For Sexual And Reproductive Health, Rights, And Justice

July 18, 2019 Staff, Reproblueprint.org ,
As advocates for gender equity and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice, we know that our reproductive and sexual autonomy are at the core of some of the most important decisions impacting our lives as individuals, families, and communities. Achieving the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health and rights is based on the fundamental human rights of all individuals to: have their bodily integrity, privacy, and personal autonomy respected; freely define their own sexuality; decide whether and when to be sexually active; choose their sexual partners...
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