Reproductive Rights Today

A federal judge said Wednesday he will rule “as soon as possible” on the case challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval and regulation of mifepristone, the first drug used in a medication abortion, according to our partner newsroom The Texas Tribune.  The ruling could have widespread implications on the availability of abortion medication across the country. 

The most important court case since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization gets a hearing today. Federal District Judge Matthew Kascmaryk will hear oral arguments at 9 a.m. Central Time in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a lawsuit filed in November in the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy organization, on behalf of a consortium of anti-abortion doctors and groups.

A consortium of media companies and free press organizations sent a letter Monday to the Texas judge who sought to delay public notice of the first hearing in a pivotal abortion pill lawsuit. The ruling from Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who oversees a federal district court in Amarillo, could upend medication abortion access across the United States.

Doulas, midwives and lactation consultants are just a few roles that fall under the spectrum of birth work. Birth attendants aid people during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. They often work in tandem with obstetricians and gynecologists, but some expectant mothers choose to consult birth workers or OB-GYNs alone during their pregnancy journey. 

The Supreme Court opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade last year mentions that Americans in favor of abortion restrictions note “a woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home.” Justices cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showing over 3 million women aged 18-49 moved to adopt between 2015 and 2019. 

Sandwiched between Arizona and Texas, New Mexico is a safe haven for abortion access in the Southwestern United States. Democratic lawmakers took another step this week to solidify the state as a leader for marginalized groups seeking protection. On Tuesday, the New Mexico Senate passed a reproductive and gender-affirming health care bill that the governor is expected to sign into law after the revised measure returns to the House for approval. Local leaders in Arizona, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks along with a Republican-controlled legislature at odds with a Democratic governor, have taken measures to safeguard reproductive rights. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June, eliminating a federally protected right to abortion, three cities in Arizona passed ordinances directing local law enforcement to deprioritize arresting people who break abortion laws.

It’s International Women’s Day, and in the United States, 13 states currently have near-total abortion bans. The state of reproductive rights in the U.S. has alarmed the global health care community. A consortium of human rights groups, physicians and lawyers sent a letter to the United Nations last week asking the intergovernmental organization to intervene on behalf of the millions of women in the country who lack access to abortion and reproductive health care in the eight months since the high court overturned the constitutional right to abortion care, according to States Newsroom National Reproductive Rights Reporter Sofia Resnick.

The growing income inequality in the United States has led economists and historians to compare the current era to the Gilded Age. But the cultural climate of the late 1800s, led by moral purist Anthony Comstock – born on this day 179 years ago – also parallels the movements to restrict reproductive rights today. In fact, an 1873 anti-obscenity law that bears Comstock’s name is cited in the major abortion-pill lawsuit as a reason to undo medication abortion access. 

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion last year led to months of confusion stoked by a flux of state laws and court rulings. Some state judiciaries have protected reproductive rights based on constitutional rights to privacy. In January, the South Carolina Supreme Court – the majority opinion was issued by Justice Kaye Hearn, the lone woman on the state bench, who retired last month – permanently blocked the six-week abortion ban based on privacy rights protected in the state constitution. During the same month, the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the state’s abortion ban, concluding that the state code does not protect abortion rights. Legal challenges to abortion restrictions are still pending in courts across the country. 

The building that housed Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the lone abortion clinic in Mississippi for years, was nicknamed the Pink House for its bright hue. It’s now painted white and set to become a luxury consignment store, according to Shalina. The clinic was the defendant in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court case that ultimately overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. The paint job’s erasure of the now-shuttered Pink House underscores dwindling abortion access post-Dobbs, particularly in the South, a region with high maternal mortality rates. Some pregnant Southerners who can afford to are traveling out-of-state for abortions, reproductive rights advocates told States Newsroom.

In an ongoing legal battle over the state’s 15-week abortion ban that went into effect last summer, Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida and other abortion providers filed a brief Tuesday with the state’s Supreme Court asking the justices to consider legal precedent and the Florida Constitution in its upcoming decision to either uphold or strike down the new law.

By now, readers may be aware of U.S. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who will issue a pivotal ruling on a Texas lawsuit that could restrict, or undo, access to mifepristone, the first pill used in a medication abortion, across the United States. Washington D.C. Bureau Senior Reporter Jennifer Shutt took a closer look at Kacsmaryk’s background. The report notes that Kacsmaryk was asked few questions about his views on abortion during his December 2017 confirmation hearing.