Florida
‘Heartbeat bill is the most likely legislation’ that could be pushed by GOP in 2023
By Isaac Morgan
Florida Phoenix
Amid court challenges to Florida’s 15-week abortion ban, the leader of a statewide policy council who’s against the medical procedure believes GOP lawmakers could push for a more restrictive ban — at around six weeks — during the Legislature’s spring session.
DeSantis promises to approve 6-week ‘heartbeat’ abortion, permitless carry in Florida
By Sam Sachs
WFLA Tampa
Gov. Ron DeSantis said while speaking at Tallahassee event to announce the next year’s budget that he would sign a 6-week abortion ban, and permit-less carry, legislation into law for Florida.
MidPoint-Medication Abortion Pill Access
By Shelley Reback
WMNF Tampa Bay
What’s next for medication abortion access? My guests from Red State Access which provides information on medication abortion resources for people in restricted states and Progress Florida and Floridians for Reproductive Freedom, which represents abortion rights advocates and also provides abortion rights information, fill us in on today’s show on the current state of affairs surrounding abortion pill access.
Florida attorney general joins warning to Walgreens, CVS over abortion pills
By Jim Salter
Associated Press
A group of 20 Republican state attorneys general sent a joint letter to Walgreens and CVS on Wednesday warning the major pharmacy chains against mailing and distributing pills used for medication abortion.
City of St. Pete is ready to meet health committee to discuss sending funds to Tampa Bay Abortion Fund
By Arielle Stevenson
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
St. Pete City councilmembers laid out their budget priorities last week, with Democratic socialist councilmember Richie Floyd reiterating his desire to see funds allocated to the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund.
What is mifepristone and why is it essential to abortion access?
Staff Report
ACLU Florida
Here are five facts to know about medication abortion, and why it’s a critical part of our fight for abortion access.
Two people charged with vandalizing anti-abortion centers in Hialeah and Hollywood
By Michelle Marchante
Miami Herald
A federal grand jury indicted two people on charges they vandalized anti-abortion health facilities in Florida with spray-painted threats to intimidate employees, including in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Florida students may be forced to prove they can menstruate before playing sports. Yes, really
By Sophie Perry
Pink News
The Florida High School Athletics Association’s (FHSAA) sports medicine advisory committee has stood by its recommendation to require high school athletes to submit information about their periods for each year they register to participate.
Sex-education policy will be revised for Broward schools due to new state law
By Shira Moolten
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The Broward School Board has agreed to revise its sexual education policy, in order to comply with Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law, known to critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
National
Republicans are only getting sneakier with their antiabortion proposals
By Abigail Tracy
Vanity Fair
Kansans may have resoundingly rejected an antiabortion referendum last year, by a striking double-digit margin, to ensure reproductive rights remain enshrined in the state constitution, but that wasn’t deterrence enough for the state’s Republican legislators.
HHS weighs abortion access actions, including possible health emergency declaration
By Oriana Gonzalez
Axios
The Biden administration is weighing additional actions to help people access abortions, which may include a public health emergency declaration.
RNC Tells Republican Politicians to Stay Extreme on Abortion
By Ed Kilgore
New York Magazine
For decades, the Republican National Committee has staked out a hard-core anti-abortion position.
Breaking: GOP bill would create gov’t website to collect data on pregnant women
By Jessica Valenti
Abortion, Every Day
Republicans want to create a federal anti-abortion website that not only seeks to deceive women about abortion and direct them to crisis pregnancy centers—but would collect their personal information to give to anti-abortion groups.
Anti-abortion activists aim to sway GOP White House hopefuls
By Sara Burnett and Jill Colvin
Associated Press
Emboldened anti-abortion activists are looking to the 2024 presidential election as an opportunity to solidify their influence over the Republican Party.
House Dems introduce bill to allow federal funding to cover abortion
By Oriana Gonzalez
Axios
House Democrats today are set to introduce a largely symbolic bill that would lift longstanding government restrictions on the use of federal funds to cover abortions.
Anti-Abortion Groups Try to Intimidate Pharmacies Planning to Dispense Abortion Pills
By Carrie N. Baker
Ms. Magazine
On Feb. 4, anti-abortion groups are organizing a national day of protests targeting pharmacies that have announced plans to offer abortion pills, including Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid.
A Volatile Tool Emerges in the Abortion Battle: State Constitutions
By Kate Zernike
New York Times
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion in June, it declared that it was sending the issue back to the “people and their elected representatives.”
Looming Court Rulings to Decide Future of Abortion Pills
By Christine Vestal
Stateline
Medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States, has become more common since the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion this summer.
Scenes outside pharmacies could foreshadow next phase in U.S. abortion battle
By Alexander Panetta
CBC News
We’re about to witness a tangible example of what the coming generation of abortion battles might look like in a post-Roe v. Wade United States.
KFF Health Tracking Poll: Early 2023 Update On Public Awareness On Abortion and Emergency Contraception
Staff Report
Kaiser Health News
The legality of medication abortion (mifepristone and misoprostol) and emergency contraceptives are a big source of confusion for adults in the U.S., including among women ages 18-49, who are their primary users.
Abort this!
By Devon Graham, PhD
American Atheist
Abortion has been the single most polarizing issue in politics for nearly 30 years.
Surge in complications from unsafe abortions likely post-Roe, doctors warn
By Gloria Oladipo
The Guardian
Top doctors in the US warn that surgeons should be prepared to treat more patients with complications from self-managed abortions and forced pregnancy after the overturning of Roe v Wade.
Are Blue States Ready To Relax Their Bans On Later Abortions?
By Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
FiveThirtyEight
You hear people say the term “third rail” all the time in politics, usually in reference to an issue that is too volatile — too charged — to touch.
What it’s Like to Fight for Abortion Rights, Post-Roe
Staff Report
ACLU
The last time we talked to Angel, Briana, Cazembe, Maleeha, and Veronika, abortion was still a constitutional right across the country.
Opinion: This law from the 1870s could imperil abortion in blue states
By Mary Ziegler
CNN
Since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June, promising strategies have emerged to protect abortion rights in individual states. Some have begun to pass ballot initiatives to preserve or create state constitutional protection.
Birth Control Access Is Under Threat After Texas Judge’s Ruling Against Title X
By Dana Johnson and Laura Lindberg
Teen Vogue
Long before the Supreme Court ended nearly 50 years of precedent and reversed Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June, experts warned that conservative lawmakers will target contraception next.
Republicans Are Trapped by Their Party’s Anti-Abortion Extremism
By Jeet Heer
The Nation
In 2019, Tennessee state Senator Richard Briggs, a heart surgeon turned politician, voted for a near-total ban on abortion, in a law that was designed to be triggered if Roe v. Wade were ever overturned.
Reproductive Rights Activists Charged Under Law Intended to Protect Abortion Clinics
By Natasha Lennard
The Intercept
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act was not written in response to acts like those Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart are alleged to have committed.
Other States
Reproductive justice pioneer Loretta Ross on strategies for the post-Roe South
By Elisha Brown
Facing South
This past Sunday, Jan. 22, marked what would’ve been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark United States Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion.
Satanic Temple opens telehealth abortion clinic and names it after Samuel Alito’s mom
By Aldous J Pennyfarthing
Daily Kos
It’s not clear whether members of the Satanic Temple really worship—or even believe in—Satan or if they’re simply partaking in an elaborate kayfabe designed to one day coax a facial expression out of Mike Pence.
South Carolina Supreme Court Affirms Abortion as a Protected Privacy Right Under the State’s Constitution
Staff Report
Center for Reproductive Rights
The South Carolina Supreme Court today agreed with arguments brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights and its partners that a ban on abortion at six weeks violates the state constitution’s guarantee to the right to privacy.
Abortion ban again advancing at SC State House
By Mary Green
WCSC Columbia
Three weeks to the day after the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state’s six-week ban on abortion, a new total ban is now under consideration at the State House.
Civil rights groups: Proposed NC House rules ‘shameful power grab’
By Elaina Athans
WTVD Raleigh
A rules change is being proposed in the North Carolina House and a coalition of civil rights organizations is calling it a “shameful power grab.”
NC Democrats signal they’ll uphold Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto
By Lucille Sherman
Axios
Every Democrat in North Carolina’s legislature has signed onto a pair of identical bills that would codify Roe v. Wade, House and Senate Democrats announced in a release Tuesday.
Rep. Nancy Mace warns her party to adopt a more ‘centrist’ abortion agenda or lose women voters
By Mel Leonor Barclay
The 19th
If Republicans don’t back away from an anti-abortion agenda that includes strict bans, and shift to a more “compassionate” view of unwanted pregnancy, the overturning of Roe v. Wade could come to be the party’s death knell, says GOP Rep. Nancy Mace.
State legislative wrap-up
Staff Report
Center for Reproductive Rights
In 2022, lawmakers in states hostile to reproductive rights intensified their efforts to attack legal protections for abortion, failing to pass laws to safeguard maternal health and declining to expand access to fertility care. In contrast, lawmakers in states supportive of reproductive rights took steps to protect abortion rights and improve access to maternal and fertility care.