Category Archives: Abortion

San Francisco archbishop bars Pelosi from communion over abortion stance

Posted on by

Ultra conservative Salvatore Cordileone accuses pro-choice House speaker of failing to ‘understand the grave evil she is perpetrating’

The Roman Catholic archbishop in Nancy Pelosi’s home town of San Francisco has banned her from receiving communion there over her staunch support of abortion rights, which she has strengthened as supreme court justices weigh finalizing a draft ruling outlawing the termination of pregnancies in more than half the county.

In a letter addressed to the US House speaker and posted on his Twitter account, ultra conservative Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone argued that Pelosi’s “position on abortion has become only more extreme over the years, especially in the last few months,” and he had decided to block her from communion after she had ignored his requests to explain her stance to him.

Continue reading...

‘Any number of rights could be next’ if Roe v Wade goes, says Buttigieg

Posted on by

US transportation secretary says supreme court’s ruling could determine future generations’ freedoms

Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary and the first openly gay member of a US administration, has expressed his worry that the expected overturning by the supreme court of the 1973 landmark decision which made abortion legal, may be the start of a series of eliminations of other groundbreaking rights and protections.

Earlier this month a leaked document showed that five conservatives on the nine-justice supreme court had voted to reverse their predecessors’ ruling in Roe v Wade nearly 50 years ago. The provisional ruling could lead to abortion being outlawed in more than half of US states unless it is changed substantially before becoming final.

Continue reading...

Oklahoma Republican-led legislature passes nation’s strictest abortion ban

Posted on by

Bill bans abortion at conception and if signed into law it would allow citizens to sue anyone who ‘aids or abets’ a patient

Oklahoma’s Republican-led legislature passed the nation’s strictest abortion ban on Thursday. The bill, if signed into law, would allows citizens to sue anyone, anywhere who “aids or abets” a patient in terminating a pregnancy.

The bill bans abortion from conception, even before an egg implants in the uterus, and would go into effect immediately if signed by Republican governor, Kevin Stitt. Abortion providers expect he will do so before the coming week.

Continue reading...

Nancy Pelosi: supreme court ‘dangerous to families and to freedoms’

Posted on by

House speaker rails against conservative judges appointed by Trump as justices prepare to finalize draft abortion ruling

The supreme court is “dangerous to families and to freedoms in our country”, Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday, as justices prepare to finalize a draft ruling stripping almost have a century of abortion rights in the US.

The House speaker railed against conservative judges appointed by former president Donald Trump in an interview Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, in which she urged Democrats to keep their “eye on the ball” to protect other freedoms she sees under threat.

Continue reading...

Pro-choice demonstrators rally across the US over expected reversal of Roe v Wade – live

Posted on by

Thousands take to the streets in opposition to supreme court’s draft opinion scrapping constitutional right to abortion

• ‘We will not go back’: Thousands rally for abortion rights across the US

• Clarence Thomas calls leak of supreme court abortion draft ‘tremendously bad’

• ‘This is real’: in Oklahoma, a post-Roe world has arrived

State judicial races become increasingly politicized over issues such as abortion, partisan gerrymandering and gun rights.

Spending and campaigning around the judicial races could intensify if the US supreme court overturns Roe v Wade, which a leaked draft opinion indicates justices are prepared to do.

“State courts are going to be front-and-center in the fight over abortion access,” said Doug Keith, an attorney in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “These races in some states are likely going to take a prominence that they’ve never had before.”

Continue reading...

‘We will not go back’: Thousands rally for abortion rights across the US

Posted on by

More than 300 pro-choice protests organized around US against expected reversal of 1973 landmark law that made abortion illegal

• Nationwide abortion rights protest – follow live

Thousands of people were taking part in protests across the US on Saturday to decry the supreme court’s expected reversal of the landmark 1973 law that made abortion legal in America.

Demonstrators were gathering at more than 380 protest events being held from Maine to Hawaii, in cities including Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, to demand that the right to an abortion is not stripped away by the court, which is dominated by rightwing justices.

Continue reading...

Protesters rally outside US supreme court justices’ homes ahead of pro-choice marches

Posted on by

Protests have been occurring since the leak as organizations prepare for a nationwide day of marches on Saturday

Pro-choice demonstrators continue to turn up outside the homes of supreme court justices, with the latest target being conservative Amy Coney Barrett, who signed on to a majority draft opinion that was leaked to reveal an intention to overturn the constitutional right to seek an abortion in the US.

“The right to your own body – to do what you want with your own body – is the most personal freedom you can have,” one protester said from among a group wearing long red “handmaid” capes and white bonnets earlier this week to symbolize forced childbearing, as members of the Virginia state police watched nearby.

Continue reading...

California proposes new funding to help low-income and out-of-state abortion seekers

Posted on by

Governor Gavin Newsom wants $57m for organizations offering the procedure to the uninsured and for reproductive health outreach

California’s governor has announced a new reproductive health spending plan, dedicating an additional $57m to prepare for an influx of people from other states seeking abortions in California.

About $40m in Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget would fund grants for abortion providers offering care to low-income patients without health insurance. An additional $15m would go to help community-based organizations do sexual and reproductive health outreach and education.

Continue reading...

IVF treatment faces ‘clear and present danger’ from US anti-abortion effort

Posted on by

Warning from reproductive rights advocate comes as US states pass or debate legislation that would give full rights to embryos

In vitro fertilization treatment is facing a “clear and present danger” and could be a “casualty” of some of the proposed anti-abortion laws that are emerging across the US, according to a key advocate of reproductive medicine.

The warning comes as US states, including Louisiana, have passed or are debating new proposed legislation that would give full rights to embryos, which in some cases means fertilized eggs, created in the process of IVF and not implanted in a woman, would have the same legal rights as children.

Continue reading...

Democrats lose Senate vote to codify abortion rights into federal law

Posted on by

Final tally was 49-51, with all Republicans and one conservative Democrat, Joe Manchin, voting against the measure

The US Senate on Wednesday failed to advance legislation that would codify the right to an abortion into federal law, after it was blocked by Republicans.

It was a largely symbolic vote by Democrats to mobilize Americans around the issue ahead of a likely supreme court decision striking down the protections enshrined by Roe v Wade.

Continue reading...

Democrat Joe Manchin says he will vote no on guaranteeing abortion rights – live

Posted on by

Majority leader Chuck Schumer says Senate vote is among most important of the century even though it will fail to pass

• Pro-choice states rush to pledge legal shield for out-of-state abortions

• Mitch McConnell says Senate Republicans couldn’t pass abortion ban

• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email

We’ve heard a lot about the “rival” abortion rights bill pushed by Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, and they’ve just released a joint statement explaining why they believe their reproductive rights act is preferable to the Democratic Women’s Health Protection Act they’ll vote against in the Senate this afternoon.

“I support codifying the abortion rights established by Roe v Wade. That’s not what the women’s health protection act would do,” Collins, of Maine, said in the statement.

Continue reading...

El Salvador: woman sentenced to 30 years in prison for homicide after miscarriage

Posted on by

Activists say case offers a stark warning to women in the US, where the supreme court is considering overturning Roe v Wade

A court in El Salvador has sentenced a woman who suffered a miscarriage to 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide, in a case which activists said offers a stark warning to women in the United States, where the supreme court is considering overturning a key ruling which legalized abortion.

The woman, identified only as “Esme”, was sentenced on Monday, after nearly two years under pre-trial detention, following her arrest when she sought medical care in a public hospital.

Continue reading...

Pro-choice group claims arson attack on Wisconsin anti-abortion office

Posted on by

Madison police investigate attack on Wisconsin Family Action after claim by group calling itself Jane’s revenge

Federal agents and detectives from the Madison police department are investigating a claim by a pro-choice group that it was behind a weekend arson attack on an anti-abortion office in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown through a window, starting a small fire, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. Nobody was hurt.

Continue reading...

Senate Democrats aim to reveal which Republicans oppose abortion ahead of midterms – live

Posted on by

Nancy Pelosi has assailed Republicans in her weekly “Dear Colleague” letter to fellow Democrats, saying once Roe v Wade abortion protections are overturned, basic human rights will be next.

In the missive, the House speaker says it is “urgent and essential” that Democrats share with the American public the “dangers of the Republican agenda” in the wake of the supreme court’s draft ruling ending almost half a century of constitutional abortion protections:

Republican state legislators across the country are already advancing extreme new laws, seeking to arrest doctors for offering reproductive care, ban abortion entirely with no exceptions, and even charge women with murder who exercise their right to choose.

These draconian measures could even criminalize contraceptive care, in vitro fertilization and post-miscarriage care, dragging our nation back to a dark time decades into the past.

Continue reading...

Gillibrand calls abortion rights ‘fight of generation’ after ‘bone-chilling’ court draft opinion

Posted on by

New York Democrat urges her party to stand up to concerted efforts from Republicans seeking to abolish constitutional right

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Sunday called the battle over abortion rights in the US the “biggest fight of a generation”.

The New York Democrat urged her party to stand up to Republicans seeking to abolish the constitutional right, and called the draft US supreme court opinion leaked last week, revealing a conservative-leaning super-majority supports overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision, “bone-chilling”.

Continue reading...

British scientist says US anti-abortion lawyers misused his work to attack Roe v Wade

Posted on by

Giandomenico Iannetti, a pain expert at UCL, angrily denies that his research suggests foetuses can feel pain before 24 weeks

A University College London scientist has accused lawyers in the US of misusing his groundbreaking work on the brain to justify the dismantling of Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised abortion nationally in America.

Giandomenico Iannetti said his research, which used imaging to understand the adult brain’s response to pain, had been wrongly interpreted to make an anti-abortion argument.

Continue reading...

Women who fought for US abortion rights in the 70s call for mass global protests

Posted on by

Veteran activists say the overthrow of Roe v Wade would equate to murder, and should send warning signals around the world

It was over the Thanksgiving holiday, catching up with old high school friends, that Frances Beal heard that Cordelia had died. Like the now 82-year-old Black feminist and activist, her friend had left home to go to college, but she didn’t make it through her first year because, like anybody who wanted to terminate a pregnancy in America in 1958, she had been forced to undergo a backstreet abortion.

“She was dead because she’d had an illegal abortion. And it had gone bad. And if you take a look at the statistics, the number of woman that died from illegal abortions was tremendous,” Beal, who later joined the movement to legalise abortion, told the Observer.

Continue reading...

Texas attorney general says state bar suing him over bid to overturn 2020 election – live

Posted on by

Here are more pictures from Jill Biden’s trip to Romania and Slovakia, where she will visit with Ukraine refugees over Mother’s Day weekend.

In addition to serving food, Biden also brought ketchup for personnel stationed overseas, as many have run out of different comforts from home like the condiment.

Continue reading...

How overturning Roe v Wade could supercharge the 2022 midterm campaigns

Posted on by

Swing state Democrats are calling for a defense of abortion rights and Republicans doubling down on ending them

As the US waits to see whether the supreme court will follow through on its provisional decision to end the federal right to abortion, Democrats and Republicans are already preparing for how a reversal of Roe v Wade would affect the 2022 midterm elections.

Republicans have been heavily favored to retake control of the House and probably the Senate as well, but the court’s forthcoming final opinion in the crucial Mississippi case now before it, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, could alter those predictions.

Continue reading...

Schumer announces Senate abortion rights vote: ‘America will be watching’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Numbers are growing and tempers are fraying outside the supreme court. My colleague David Smith has just sent this video of protestors on both sides of the abortion rights debate facing off:

Celebrities are sharing their abortion stories as the backlash to the supreme court’s draft ruling removing women’s rights to the procedure grows. My colleague Lizzy Davies has this report:

Continue reading...