Reproductive Rights News Roundup

With Abortion in Spotlight, a Flurry of Legislation Across the Country
By Julia Jacobs and Matt Stevens
New York Times
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a Louisiana law that its opponents say would leave the state with a single doctor authorized to perform abortion, the latest development in the national legal fight over the fate of abortion law under a conservative-leaning court.

Anti-abortion bills: Odds good in GOP states, not Congress
By David Crary
Associated Press
President Donald Trump’s call for a ban on late-term abortions is unlikely to prevail in Congress, but Republican legislators in several states are pushing ahead with their own tough anti-abortion bills that they hope can pass muster with the Supreme Court.

All the Lies Trump Told About Abortion Last Night
By Jennifer Conti, MD
Seventeen
As an ob/gyn and abortion provider, it’s hard to see politicians inserting themselves into some of the most sensitive and intimate moments in women’s health care as if they were experts in the field.

Trump Turns To Absurd Abortion Imagery In State Of The Union Speech
By Lydia O’Connor
Huffington Post
President Donald Trump railed against recent abortion legislation during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, using graphic imagery to mischaracterize scenarios in which the procedure would be performed.

Controversial Abortion Measure Emerges In Florida Senate
Staff Report
CBSMiami/News Service of Florida
A controversial abortion measure known as the “fetal heartbeat bill” has been filed in the Florida Senate, mirroring a bill filed last month in the House.

Battle over Virginia abortion measure roils multistate plans by advocates to lock in rights protections
By Annie Linskey and Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post
The fresh battle over late-term abortion stemming from conflict over a Virginia measure has disrupted carefully laid plans to bolster abortion rights across the nation that are under threat from an increasingly conservative Supreme Court — and thrust the issue into the 2020 elections.

Fake news about abortion in Virginia
By Michelle Goldberg
Palm Beach Post
Under current law in Virginia, third-trimester abortions are permitted when a woman’s physician and two other doctors certify that continuing a pregnancy would result in a mother’s death, or “substantially and irremediably impair the mental or physical health of the woman.”

Festival of phony outrage: No, conservatives don’t actually care about late-term abortion
By Amanda Marcotte
Salon
The right-wing disinformation went into overdrive late last week, taking comments about third-trimester abortions by Del. Kathy Tran, a Democratic member of the Virginia legislature, wildly out of context in an effort to claim that Democrats want to legalize infanticide.

Americans still support abortion rights
By Rebecca Todd Peters
Tampa Bay Times
Last week, Florida Rep. Mike Hill filed a bill that seeks to criminalize abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Marco Rubio Stresses his Opposition to Abortion
By Kevin Derby
Florida Daily
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is doubling down on his opposition to abortion.

Florida Senator Rick Scott sponsors Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
Staff Report
Fox 35 Orlando
Florida Senator Rick Scott announced on Thursday that he will co-sponsor the S.130, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

Fake Health Clinics Are Tricking College Students
By Jennifer Gerson
Cosmopolitan
After having a few new sexual partners since her last STI screening, Millie Zehnder, then a 19-year-old sophomore at Florida State University, wanted to do the responsible thing and get tested again.

Abortion Clinics Nationwide Face Violence, Harassment and Threats When They Open Their Doors
By Katie Stone
Ms. Magazine
According to recent research from the Feminist Majority Foundation, an overwhelming majority of abortion providers and staff are facing anti-abortion violence, threats and harassment on a regular basis.

Supreme Court blocks Louisiana abortion clinic law
By Mark Sherman
Associated Press
A divided Supreme Court stopped Louisiana from enforcing new regulations on abortion clinics in a test of the conservative court’s views on abortion rights.

Your feelings don’t trump women’s right to bodily autonomy
By Jeffrey C. Billman
Orlando Weekly
Growing up – at home, at church, at school – there was one thing I knew to be true.

A look at Roe v. Wade 46 years later
By Kayla Lawson
The FAMUAN
The landmark decision in the Roe v. Wade case has dramatically changed the United States’ reproductive health care system by making abortion legal.

Panel tackles women’s health issues
By Alea Williams
The FAMUAN
The Tallahassee-Leon County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls is determined to improve the quality of life in the community.

Groups quietly mount Medicaid expansion ballot campaign in Florida
By Rachana Pradhan
Politico
Obamacare supporters are mounting a campaign to get Medicaid expansion on the Florida ballot in 2020, potentially elevating the Obamacare program as a key election issue in the presidential swing state.