Reproductive Rights News Roundup

Senator’s staff locked door to faith leaders, abortion rights advocates bearing petition
By Isaac Morgan
Florida Phoenix
Holding signs bearing messages about women’s reproductive rights, and shouting into bullhorns, a group of at least 15 faith leaders and advocates for abortion rights attempted to hand-deliver a letter and petition to state Sen. Danny Burgess, but his office staff locked the door.

Abortion is essential to democracy
Staff Report
Ms. Magazine/Brennan Center for Justice
After S.B. 8 went into effect in Texas on September 1, and following the Supreme Court’s 5-4 egregious ruling allowing its enforcement, a cohort of staff from across the Brennan Center for Justice came together to show solidarity, express outrage, and articulate a response.

A 15-Week Abortion Ban Is a Coward’s Compromise
By Imani Gandy
Rewire
Letting Mississippi’s 15-week ban take effect—and undoing decades of precedent that permits the constitutional right to an abortion—is not a compromise.

The Stories Only Women Are Told
By Susan Rebecca White
Slate
When I was in college, I signed up to volunteer at a women’s center—to walk women from car to clinic door, in the hopes that my presence might mitigate the impact of the ever-present protesters, who zeroed in on each arriving patient with cries of, “Mom! Mom! Please don’t kill your baby!”

Cecily Strong Slams Texas Abortion Laws In Personal ‘SNL’ Sketch As Goober The Clown
By Tilly O’Brien
Bust
On Saturday night, Cecily strong slammed the recent ban on abortions in Texas in a sketch for Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update,” dressed as “Goober the Clown.”

As Supreme Court considers abortion cases, local governments impose bans
By Jacob Fulton
NBC News
As the Supreme Court takes up cases involving Texas’ restrictive abortion law and Mississippi’s legislation that directly challenges Roe v. Wade, local governments on their own have been steadily passing laws that ban abortion.

Analysis: U.S. abortion curbs: Fearing business impact, companies speak out
By Anastasia Moloney
Reuters
U.S. firms look set to face increasing scrutiny over their stance on abortion rights and whether employee healthcare plans are in step with social responsibility statements as abortion curbs are challenged in court, researchers and executives say.

Boom! Lawyered: Neil Gorsuch’s Big, Dirty Abortion Game
By Imani Gandy & Jessica Mason Pieklo
Rewire
It’s been a while since we’ve talked about what a bad dude Justice Neil Gorsuch is, and if you’d forgotten, the abortion double feature at the Supreme Court a week ago was a good reminder.

Abortion Finder Tool Now Includes Telehealth Providers: “It’s All About Access”
By Hannah Beck
Ms. Magazine
More abortion restrictions have been enacted this year than any other, with 19 statehouses passing 106 new limitations on the procedure.

We Should All Be Talking About America’s Black Maternal Health Crisis
By Anushay Hossain
Harper’s Bazaar
While the United States was already in the midst of a maternal health crisis before the pandemic hit, for women of color, especially Black women, things went from bad to worse.

Saturday Night Live Explained Abortion Rights in a Way You’ve Never Seen Before
By Jenny Singer
Glamour
People who defend abortion rights have tried almost everything to get their point across—from rallies and marches, #shoutyourabortion, and moving testimony at the Supreme Court, to Hollywood comedies, celeb involvement, and high school valedictorian speeches.

I Had an Abortion Simply Because I Wasn’t Ready. That’s Enough.
By Lesley-Ann Brandt
Self
I tore my ACL in early August. It was a clean tear, right at the base.

Here’s How Anti-Abortion Politics Hid Science News From The Public
By Dan Vergano
BuzzFeed News
National Institutes of Health officials backed away from publicizing promising federally funded research involving human fetal tissue cells early in the coronavirus pandemic, calling one study “a political landmine.”

New Evidence: Texas Residents Have Obtained Abortions in at Least 12 States That Do Not Border Texas
By Rachel K. Jones, Jesse Philbin, Marielle Kirstein and Elizabeth Nash
Guttmacher Institute
The Texas law (S.B. 8) that prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy went into effect on September 1. Mounting evidence illustrates that the negative effects of this law have been immediate and devastating—including new survey data from Guttmacher showing an increase in Texans obtaining abortions in far-flung states like Illinois, Maryland and Washington.

It’s the 100th anniversary of the first conference on birth control. Here’s a look at contraception’s lesser-known legacy.
By Hannah Good
The Lily
One hundred years ago, a group of prominent doctors, social workers, economists and advocates convened at what was then called the Hotel Plaza in New York City for a first of its kind conference. Their aim was to explore the benefits and legality of a technology that was simultaneously novel and impossibly ancient: birth control.

Company cites aborted fetal cells to fight COVID vaccine mandate. What science says
By Hayley Fowler
Miami Herald
Dozens of states have filed legal challenges to President Joe Biden’s workplace vaccine and testing requirement, citing a lack of authority and government overreach.

Legislative effort to repeal last year’s transgender athlete ban grows
By Anne Geggis
Florida Politics
A Central Florida lawmaker is bringing back one of the last Session’s most contentious issues with the hope her Republican colleagues will realize excluding transgender students from girls’ athletics could draw an economic penalty.