Reproductive Rights News Roundup

(Some of the news stories below may require a subscription to read.) 

What are Ron DeSantis’ plans on abortion in Florida? He’s not saying as Election Day nears
By John Kennedy and Kathryn Varn
Capital Bureau USA Today Network-Florida
One of the most talked-about topics for months has turned into one that Gov. Ron DeSantis and many Florida Republicans want to speak about least as the Nov. 8 election nears.

Biden vows abortion legislation as top priority next year
By Seung Min Kim
Associated Press
President Joe Biden promised Tuesday that the first bill he sends to Capitol Hill next year will be one that writes abortion protections into law — if Democrats control enough seats in Congress to pass it — as he sought to energize his party’s voters just three weeks ahead of the November midterms.

‘This is Florida under Ron DeSantis’: Charlie Crist ad lambastes Gov. over incest report
By Renzo Downey
Florida Politics
Charlie Crist blames Gov. Ron DeSantis for the case of a middle school-aged incest survivor who was forced to leave Florida to obtain an abortion.

Rubio and Demings clash over abortion in lone Florida Senate debate
By Matt Dixon
Politico
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic challenger Rep. Val Demings clashed Tuesday during the pair’s first and only debate in a race that will be among the nation’s most expensive contests this cycle.

Florida providers say young women, violence victims harmed by abortion restrictions
By Nelly Ontiveros Cervantes
Orlando Sentinel
Asked to explain how Florida’s new abortion laws have impacted her practice, Dr. Shelly Tien shared the story of an abused teenager who came to her north Florida clinic for help — but had to be sent to another state.

The abortion story that could shift the tide in Florida
By Peter Schorsch
Florida Politics
I’ve already said the race for Governor is over. There’s just too much stacked against Democrat Charlie Crist to pull off an upset and flip the Governor’s Mansion blue for the first time since Buddy MacKay left office in 1999.

New legal challenges to Florida’s abortion law could be groundbreaking
By Jacques Berlinerblau
MSNBC
In April, Florida enacted a law that sharply restricted abortion access in the state and banned most abortions after 15 weeks.

Nikki Fried’s PC announces support for 20 pro-choice women on the ballot in Florida
By Mitch Perry
Florida Phoenix
“Won’t Back Down,” Nikki Fried’s recently created political committee designed to put a constitutional amendment to codify abortion rights on the 2024 ballot, has announced a list of 20 female pro-choice candidates running on state and local ballots in Florida next month.

Anti-abortion groups: It’s time for Republicans to stop avoiding the issue
By Megan Messerly and Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico
Democrats have spent the last five months pummeling their GOP opponents on abortion.

Alan Cohn, Laurel Lee spar on abortion, immigration as accusations fly
By Jacob Ogles
Florida Politics
Republican Laurel Lee swatted off attacks on her family portfolio as “nonsense” while defending her record as Secretary of State.

As abortion access shrinks in the South, tax dollars flow to fake clinics
By Elisha Brown
Facing South
Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling in June, at least 66 clinics in 15 states have stopped offering abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research and policy organization. In the South, 22 clinics have closed across eight states.

Abortion and Equal Rights Are Top Drivers of Young Women’s Vote in Battleground States
By Roxy Szal
Ms. Magazine
Among young women voters ages 18-29 in the battleground states, abortion and women’s rights are the most important and highly motivating issues in determining their vote, according to new Ms. magazine and Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) polling by Lake Research Partners across the nine battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Getting an abortion as a trans person is hard — with or without state restrictions
By Brianna Scott
NPR
Abortion rights are on the ballot this year in Kentucky, Montana and a handful of other states.

What it’s like being an abortion doula in a state with restrictive laws
By Destinee Adams
NPR
In the hectic days after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Ash Williams, an abortion doula, welcomed panicked pregnant people into North Carolina’s abortion clinics.

Abortion Bans Are Creating Free Speech Battles in Schools
By Lisa Needham
Rewire
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, conservatives scored a victory decades in the making: controlling pregnant people’s bodies.

Pentagon to provide funds, help for troops seeking abortions
By Tara Copp
Associated Press
The Pentagon will provide travel funds and support for troops and their dependents who seek abortions but are based in states where they are now illegal, according to a new department policy released Thursday.

South Carolina Supreme Court takes up state’s abortion ban
By James Pollard
Associated Press
South Carolina Supreme Court justices grilled lawyers over the extent of the right to privacy in a case Wednesday that could determine the scope of the state’s abortion restrictions.

Louisiana proposes expanding list of exceptions to abortion ban
By Julie O’Donoghue
Florida Phoenix
Louisiana has proposed adding one new condition to the list of medical diagnoses that permit a person to have an abortion under the state’s strict abortion ban.