The Alabama attorney general officially asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to review a lower court’s decision that a state law prohibiting a common method used for second-trimester abortions is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit against Alabama’s dilation and evacuation (D&E) ban is the second anti-abortion case before the Supreme Court. There are at least 11 other cases at the appeals level, meaning more anti-abortion cases can land on the Supreme Court’s 2019 doc...
reproductive-rights
Now that a record number of women head to Congress, can they repeal the Hyde Amendment?
For the past four decades, lawmakers in Washington, D.C. have largely prohibited federal dollars from paying for low-income people’s abortions. But with a record number of Democratic women elected to office in November and their party holding the majority in the House next year, momentum is building to lift the ban.
By ThinkProgress’ count, at least 183 House members support repealing the Hyde Amendment, a legislative provision that prohibits federal Medicaid dollars fro...
Trump administration finalizes rules allowing employers to stop paying for birth control
The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it has finalized the rollback of an Obama-era rule mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that required employers to provide contraception coverage for their employees, regardless of whether it conflicts with their moral or religious beliefs.
The new rules, set to take place in about 60 days, will allow employers that object to the use of birth control to stop paying for their workers’ contraception. The change will affect b...
West Virginia and Alabama voters approve dangerous anti-choice ballot initiatives
Voters in Alabama and West Virginia approved ballot initiatives on Tuesday that will update the state constitutions to declare that abortion rights are not guaranteed, a move that will severely curtail reproductive rights in the states. In Oregon, voters blocked a similar ballot initiative that would have prevented taxpayer dollars from covering abortions for Medicaid beneficiaries and public employees.
Pro-choice and anti-choice advocates in all three states campaigned for weeks pr...
The US midterm elections are crucial to abortion rights
With the confirmation of conservative Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, many abortion rights advocates fear that the right to abortion could soon be under threat. Nearly half of all Americans believe the new Supreme Court appointee would vote to overturn the precede...
Republicans in swing districts are scared to tell voters the truth about Planned Parenthood
Since anti-abortion advocates released a series of selectively edited and highly misleading videos in 2015 intended to give the false impression that Planned Parenthood clinics inappropriately profit from the sale of aborted fetuses, Republicans in Congress have repeatedly tried to cut off all federal funding that goes to the health non-profit. But as the 2018 midterms draw near, few Republican House candidates in swing districts are talking about it at all — even those who are runni...
Rand Paul proposes Planned Parenthood ‘poison pill’ to Senate funding bill
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is continuing his years-long crusade against Planned Parenthood, filing an amendment to a massive Senate appropriations bill last week that would cut federal funding from the organization, as well as others that perform abortion procedures.
In a statement released Friday, Paul said his amendment to the Senate appropriations package for Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education is “our chance to turn our words into action, stand up for the sancti...
Pro-choice movement seizes on chance to overturn decades-old, anti-abortion laws in Virginia
Health care providers are trying to use the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt to strike down five abortion restrictions passed more than 10 years ago in Virginia.
The 2016 Supreme Court decision struck down some of the most regressive restrictions in Texas, as the highest court found they were more burdensome than beneficial for people looking to terminate their pregnancies. Now, providers want the courts to examine Virginia law...
A 15-week abortion ban is heading to the Louisiana governor’s desk
The Louisiana legislature has sent Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) a bill to ban abortion after 15 weeks, except in the cases of a medical emergency. The governor is expected to sign the measure into law.
If a doctor performs the procedure, they’d be imprisoned for at least one year (and up to ten years) and fined anywhere between $10,000 to $100,000. The state Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill (24-5) on Wednesday.
Roughly 94 percent of abortions in Louisiana t...
Most young people want health insurance to cover abortion, new poll finds
A new national poll found a majority of young adults believe abortion services should be covered by most health care plans, a finding that contrasts current coverage bans at the national and state level.
While the survey — conducted by the nonpartisan research organization Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) — also found that the United States is more divided on whether health plans should generally cover abortion care, especially as compared to other reproductive ...