Skip to content

Reproductive Rights

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...

A (Real) Strike To Fight For Abortion Rights

June 6, 2019 Tatiana Cozzarelli, Ezra Brain and Olivia Wood, Leftvoice.org , , , ,
In recent weeks, several states have passed incredibly restrictive laws against abortion. The specifics of these laws vary, but the end result is the same: abortion is becoming illegal again. In many cases, these laws threaten anyone who gets or performs an abortion with prison time. The Alabama bill (HB 314) reclassifies performing an abortion at any stage of the pregnancy as a Class A felony, meaning that doctors will face a minimum of 10 years and up to 99 years in prison. The law states that people who seek or attain abortions will not face criminal or civil liability.

The Escalating War On Reproductive Rights

June 6, 2019 By Tharanga Yakupitiyage, Towardfreedom.org , , ,
(IPS) – Abortion has long been a contentious issue across the world, and the debate is only heating up, prompting women to stand up and speak out for their reproductive rights. In response to increasingly restrictive policies, civil society is taking action to help protect abortion rights. “The failure of states to guarantee reproductive rights is a clear violation of human rights,” said President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) Nancy Northup. “The center is committed to using the power of law to ensure that women and girls…are guaranteed access to sexual and reproductive health rights and services,” she added.

The Real Border Emergency, Thought Crimes & The Truth About Abortion

May 30, 2019 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com , ,
A look at the worsening emergency in the borderlands – hint: the migrants aren't the ones creating the emergency. Next up, they say dissent is patriotic – but they clearly haven't met the 'Muricans pushing hardcore totalitarian legislation that criminalizes protest. And finally, we speak with a doctor from Physicians for Reproductive Health about the recent escalation in anti-reproductive rights legislation.

Abortion Rights And The Power Of Protest

May 27, 2019 Margaret Kimberley, Blackagendareport.com , , , ,
Americans do not know how to protest. Even on those occasions when they take to the streets they also waste time with nonsense. Props like pink hats or costumes from the Handmaids Taletelevision show are poor substitutes for effective politics.  It has been nearly 50 years since mass action has been coordinated into coherent political demands. Now the right to abortion is at risk and the lack of effective protest is partly the cause. The states of Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Iowa, Kentucky, and Arkansas have passed so-called fetal heart beat laws which ban the procedure before many women even realize they are pregnant.

Abortion Providers Fear For Their Safety As Rhetoric Ratchets Up

May 25, 2019 Melissa Jeltsen, Huffpost.com , ,
A few weeks ago, Jen Villavicencio, an OB-GYN in Michigan, Googled her name. There, on the results page, was an anti-choice website that identified medical professionals working in the “abortion cartel.” Her name was on the list. The site had posted several photos of her, stripped from social media, along with her work phone number and the city where she practices. Villavicencio wasn’t surprised; ever since she started providing abortions six years ago, she’d expected to be targeted online. But when her husband walked up behind her and saw the photos on her computer screen, he sat down and began to cry.
«12»
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.