Reproductive Rights News Roundup – January 5th 2024

Florida

Florida Abortion Amendment Has Enough Verified Signatures for Ballot: Almost 1M (Exclusive)
By Marc Caputo, NBC News
The effort to enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s Constitution reached another milestone Friday when the secretary of state’s office reported that advocates collected enough verified voter signatures to make the Nov. 5 ballot.

Arguments over abortion-rights initiative set for Feb. before Florida Supreme Court
By Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix
The Florida Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments next month over whether an abortion-rights state constitutional amendment would qualify to appear on the November General Election ballot.

Advocates nearing the impossible: Securing abortion rights in Florida
By Arek Sarkissian, Politico
Florida abortion rights advocates, who have seen access to the procedure erode in the state and nationally in recent years, are on the verge of a major win that could shape abortion access throughout the south.

Anti-Abortion ‘Infodemic’? Florida’s Tax-Funded Christian Pregnancy Centers Are Targeting Women Like Never Before
By Grace Tillyard and Bob Norman, The Florida Trident
When Abby learned she was pregnant, the first thing she did was look online for support. As a college student in a small town in northwest Florida, she thought the Internet was her best hope to find help for her unplanned pregnancy with a boyfriend who had become abusive.

Sponsors of abortion-rights initiative claim 1.4 million signatures, though their work is not done
By Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
Sponsors of the proposed abortion-rights state constitutional amendment have collected over a million signatures, and they’re now focusing on meeting the geographic diversity threshold to get the amendment on the ballot in 2024.

Florida abortion measure tops 863K signatures on path to 2024 ballot
Staff Report, News Service of Florida
With a deadline a month away, supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights continue getting closer to meeting a petition signature requirement.

No, Attorney General Moody, Florida doctors and patients aren’t confused about viability
By James Esserman, Tampa Bay Times
I have been a doctor in Miami for more than 40 years. I am board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, and have served as chairperson of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at both Baptist and South Miami Hospitals.

Florida appeals court rejects minor’s attempt to get abortion without consent
By Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
For the second time in less than three weeks, an appeals court Wednesday rejected a minor’s attempt to have an abortion without notifying and getting consent from a parent or guardian.

Ron DeSantis defends ‘exceptions’ in 6-week abortion ban
By A.G. Gancarski, Florida Politics
Florida’s Governor is speaking out in defense of Florida’s strictest abortion law in history, and defending “exceptions” put in to the six-week ban as the Legislature acceding to the popular will.

Florida is pulling out all stops to block voters from deciding on abortion
Editorial, Miami Herald
The group working to ensure abortion access in Florida has nearly reached the number of signatures it needs under state law to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot.

National

In Texas Case, Federal Appeals Panel Says Emergency Care Abortions Not Required By 1986 Law
By Kevin McGill, Associated Press
The Biden administration cannot use a 1986 emergency care law to require doctors in Texas hospitals to provide abortions for women whose lives are at risk due to pregnancy, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

SCOTUS Is Likely to Decide if Abortion Is Health Care
By Jessica Mason Pieklo, Rewire
This week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Texas hospitals could refuse to provide patients life-saving abortions despite a federal law stating the contrary. The ruling was expected but still devastating.

How Abortion-Rights Backers Changed Their Message—and Started Winning
By Molly Ball, Wall Street Journal
Shortly after November’s state-level elections affirmed voters’ support for abortion rights in Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, a Democratic pollster named Angela Kuefler got on a webinar to deliver an analysis—and a warning—to her fellow progressives.

Abortion debate creates ‘new era’ for state supreme court races in 2024, with big spending expected
By Christine Fernando and Andrew Demillo, Associated Press
The 2024 elections will be dominated by the presidential contest and the battle for control of Congress, but another series of races is shaping up to be just as consequential.

More Americans are stockpiling abortion pills without pregnancy – study
By Carter Sherman, The Guardian
More Americans are now stockpiling abortion pills in case they get pregnant, according to new research published Tuesday.