Reproductive Rights News Roundup – February 21st 2025

Progress Florida
The reproductive rights and health movement is under attack by Big Tech! A troubling number of online accounts are seeing their content censored or removed all together when they include information about topics like abortion, pills by mail, and more.
As Floridians navigate a near-total abortion ban, access to accurate information is critical and timely. Join us next week with Electronic Frontier Foundation and Repro Uncensored for the #StopCensoringAbortion Week of Action!

Stop Censoring Abortion
Have you had your posts censored? Share your experience here.
Click here to access the full toolkit with sample graphics & messaging. We know that information is power; join us as we reclaim ours!
Action Alerts
Stay tuned: Actions to support ending Florida’s near-total abortion ban are coming soon. 

Stop the Pride Flag Ban Bill
Thank you to everyone who contacted members of the first committee stop for this bill which was born largely from far-right activists protesting LGBTQ pride flags on government buildings. The outreach was powerful! Click here for Step 2 in stopping this bad bill!

Protect Sex Ed in Duval County
The Duval County School Board is considering a shift to an abstinence-based sexual health curriculum along with an opt-in process that would severely limit the information students receive about critical topics like contraception, HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, testing, and treatment, consent, and healthy relationships.

Click here to take action by writing to the school board, attending the meeting in-person, and staying up-to-date on future calls to action.


Events & Volunteer Opportunities

Passion2Power
Passion2Power Trainingw/EducateUs
Monday, February 24th 12:00pm-4:00pm EST
Learn how to speak up for the need for comprehensive sex ed.
Register here.


Understanding the Difference: Emergency Contraceptives and Medication Abortion w/Reproaction
Tuesday, February 25th 12:00pm-1:00pm
Click here to register for the webinar.

Take the Lead, A Black Political Leadership Training w/Equal Ground & Black in Repro
Take the Lead, A Black Political Leadership Trainingw/Equal Ground & Black in Repro
Tuesday, February 25th at 6:30pm EST
Click here to sign up for the virtual training.

Ethical Pregnancy Support w/Shout Your Abortion & JustChoice
Ethical Pregnancy Support w/Shout Your Abortion & JustChoice
Thursday, February 27th 3:00pm EST
Click here to register for the Zoom.

Ending Florida's Extreme Abortion Ban Organizing Call w/Planned Parenthood
Ending Florida’s Extreme Abortion Ban Organizing Callw/Planned Parenthood
Wednesday, March 5th at 6:30pm EST
Click here to register for the Zoom.

Pride at the Capitol w/Equality Florida
Pride at the Capitol
w/Equality Florida
March 18th-19th
Register here for this important opportunity.

Let Us Live Banner
Let Us Live March 
Thursday, March 20th beginning around 8:00am
Click here to register.

4 Black women smile above text "Empowering Black Joy in Pregnancy and Parenting"
Be a partner for upcoming Black Maternal Health Week.
April 11th-17th
Click here for the partner packet on how to support the Central Florida Birth Network.


News Roundup 

Florida

Big News: Democrats file bill to repeal six-week abortion ban, want more data transparency
By Jackie Llanos
Florida Phoenix
Democrats intend to file legislation to repeal the state law banning most abortions after six weeks’ gestation, despite not having the votes to pass such legislation, hoping to create an opportunity to talk about the ban’s aftermath.

Knowing they don’t have the votes, Florida Democrats still aim to repeal abortion ban
By Ana GonÞi-Lessan
USA Today Network-Florida
Florida Democrats are trying to repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban in the Legislature with a bill, saying the “situation for the women in Florida is dire.”

Florida among most restrictive states for abortion rights, advocacy group says
By Lily Belcher
WUSF Tampa
Florida is one of the most restrictive states for abortion rights, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.

Reading Florida Abortion Bans Fine Print
By Carmen Macri
Folio Weekly
It’s a tale as old as time — what women are allowed to do with their bodies, and naturally with the course of history, that list gets shorter and shorter.

Can this Florida maternity ward be saved? Doctors and nurses sound alarm.
By Verónica Egui Brito and Michelle Marchante
Miami Herald
Victoria Valdes wants to give birth to her twins in the same hospital she helps care for patients.

National

Once off the table, bills to charge women who get abortions with murder get votes before failing
By Kimberlee Kruesi and Geoff Mulvihill
Associated Press
Abortion rights advocates feared the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to state abortion bans would also lead to tracking women and charging women who get abortions with murder.

Anti-abortion ‘Baby Olivia’ video could become required viewing for some schoolkids
By Elisha Brown
States Newsroom
Grade school students in several Republican-led states may soon be required to watch a fetal development video produced by a prominent anti-abortion group as part of their curricula.

Abortion providers in shield law states say they are undeterred by legal threats
By Sofia Resnick
States Newsroom
The brewing interstate legal fights over telemedicine abortion have had a consequence that was perhaps unintended by the authorities in Louisiana and Texas who have taken legal action against a doctor in New York.

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared.
By Lizzie Presser, Andrea Suozzo, Sophie Chou and Kavitha Surana
ProPublica
Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion in 2021, ProPublica found in a first-of-its-kind data analysis.

Trump’s IVF Order Angers Anti-Abortion Groups: ‘GOP Needs To Slow Down’
By Khaleda Rahman
Newsweek
Related AP story: Trump signs order to study how to expand IVF and calls for ‘radical transparency’ from government
President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at expanding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and lowering its cost has sparked criticism from anti-abortion groups.

USAID worker blames ‘stress and strain’ of Trump’s aid freeze for wife’s pregnancy scare
By Lucien Bruggeman
ABC News
A U.S. foreign service officer deployed overseas blamed President Donald Trump administration’s “cruel and harmful shutdown” of USAID for threatening the lives of his pregnant wife and unborn child, according to court documents filed Monday night.

Job Openings


APIA Vote is accepting applications for their summer internship.
Apply by 4/1.

EducateUs
EducateUs is hiring a Communications Intern and Organizing Intern.
$17/hour.
Apply by 3/10.

Home
Equality Florida
is hiring multiple paid fellow positions for Spring.
Learn more here.

ERA Coalition
The ERA Coalition
is hiring Public Policy & Social Media interns.
Class credit available.
Learn more here.

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