Reproductive Rights News Roundup

Reproductive rights advocates want you to eat tacos and drink beer to support abortion services
By Daniel Figueroa IV
WMNF
A group of reproductive rights advocates is challenging social media to eat tacos and drink beer for charity. The Tampa Bay Abortion Fund launched one of its flagship fundraising events in Safety Harbor this week.

Women Congress Members Call for Increased Abortion Pill Access: “It’s Time We Trust the Science”
By Carrie N. Baker
Ms.
Over 70 Congress members are calling for “equitable, science-based” policies governing access to the abortion pill. 

Access to medication abortion is expanding — and conservative states want it stopped
By Lisa Needham
The American Independent
Research shows the procedure is extremely safe and allows an alternative to in-office care. During the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the use of telemedicine became very widespread, and consumers want to keep it that way. Telemedicine use also expanded for medication abortion, but that expansion also seems to be fueling increased attacks on telehealth access.

Shevrin Jones to file bill protecting imprisoned pregnant women after baby born in Alachua jail died
By Ryan Nicol
Florida Politics
Democratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones says in light of a newborn dying earlier this month after being born in an Alachua County jail, he’ll refile a measure protecting pregnant women who are arrested. Erica Thompson says she screamed for staff to help as she gave birth to the infant at just six months. Thompson says when she was arrested she told jail staff she felt contractions.

Forget feeding needy kids. Florida is busy fighting over masks and transgender sports
By Scott Maxwell
Orlando Sentinel
By now, you probably know Gov. Ron DeSantis is waging a lot of wars over kids these days. He doesn’t want them to have to wear masks in school. And he wants to stop transgender kids from playing on the sports teams they want — even if the kids’ teammates, coaches and opposing teams all like the idea.

Full appeals court to hear Florida transgender bathroom fight
By News Service of Florida
Tampa Bay Times
Tossing out a July decision, a full federal appeals court will hear a battle about whether a transgender male student should have been allowed to use boys’ bathrooms at a St. Johns County high school. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday vacated a July 14 ruling by a three-judge panel that said a St. Johns County School Board policy preventing Drew Adams from using boys’ bathrooms was “arbitrary” and violated equal protection rights.

Biden pledge on Women’s Equality Day: We will ‘rededicate ourselves to the work we still have ahead of us to protect voting rights’
By Errin Haines, Candice Norwood
The 19th
President Joe Biden officially recognized Women’s Equality Day on Thursday, signing a proclamation celebrating the 101-year anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment — which gave women the right to vote — and honoring the women of color who helped lead the movement even though it would take them decades to be granted the same ability to cast ballots. “We celebrate their extraordinary courage and resolve, and rededicate ourselves to the work we still have ahead of us to protect voting rights across our country,” Biden’s proclamation reads. 

Republicans’ New Stance on COVID Contradicts Everything They’ve Said About Abortion
By Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern
A Trump judge and a GOP governor push an incoherent theory of freedom that coddles COVID deniers and torments abortion patients.

Schools Must Provide Inclusive Sex Ed
By Delilah Gray
The Progressive
For parents who worry that LGBTQ+ education will “turn my kids gay,” let me just say that regular sex education didn’t turn me straight, so, I assure you, the inverse won’t happen.