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With the Alabama Abortion Ban, Republicans Push to Challenge Roe v. Wade and Strip Women of Their Rights


“If we are arguing personhood,” said Eric Johnston, the president of the Alabama Pro-Life Coalition, “then it does not matter how a child is conceived.” Late last night, Alabama passed a total abortion ban passed in the state after an amendment that would have made an exemption to the law in cases of rape or incest failed. (The ban does have an exemption for cases in which a woman’s life is in danger.) Johnston had helped draft the bill. If it’s signed into law and allowed to take effect, doctors who perform abortions on women at any stage of pregnancy could face 99 years in prison.

In the lead up to the vote, Republican Rep. Terri Collins was even clearer, arguing that “[o]ur bill says that a baby in the womb is a person.” Collins is a cosponsor on the bill, which she hopes will help overturn Roe v. Wade. In Alabama, as in Georgia and Ohio, which both passed extreme abortion bills earlier this month, a clump of cells now has more rights than an adult woman—or, as CBS News pointed out, an sixth grader. Under the Ohio law, for example, a pregnant 11-year-old rape victim would no longer be allowed to have an abortion.

Yes, ICYMI: Republicans want to overturn Roe. They want to take away the right to have a safe abortion. They want to send us right back to America pre-1973. But it’s not just about Roe. Under Donald Trump, a man who’s had a lot of sexual relationships with a lot of women who aren’t his wife, the GOP has declared an open war on women’s reproductive health. It seems we can’t reach the end of a week without a new crisis, some gruesome legislative nightmare explicitly crafted to rein in our rights. It’s 2019, and Republicans have an unquenchable thirst for the Handmaid’s Tale agenda.

Lately, the crusade has taken the form of “heartbeat bills,” which ban abortion before most women even know they’re pregnant at around six weeks. (That’s a little after one late period, although presumably most of the men who wrote these bills are unfamiliar with how menstruation works.) Other efforts have attempted to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides life-saving mammograms and pap smears to millions of people, using a sneaky Title X “Gag Rule.” But inevitably, there’s more to come. The GOP has one goal when it comes to women—strip us of our rights to reproductive health care and the freedom to live the lives we choose.

Since the appointment of Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, state and local Republicans have doubled down on their plan to regulate women’s bodies. And why not? For the first time since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, the makeup of the court is so conservative that it’s entirely possible the decision will soon be struck from the books.

We could scream ourselves hoarse, calling out how highly strange and deeply hypocritical it is that the supposed party of small government wants to squeeze itself inside women’s uteruses. Or we could acknowledge what’s really going on here: It’s not a set of ideological principles that motivates the Republican Party. It’s a desire to control women, to limit our possibilities and our potential, to beat back the gains of feminism and civil rights, and to do all that on a platform of coercion, intimidation, and misinformation. Of course, there are some good actors in the Republican Party (likely Catholics) who truly believe that life begins at conception. I don’t believe that, but at least I understand where those people are coming from. Most anti-choice sentiment isn’t that.





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How to Be Prepared if Roe v. Wade Is Overturned


Nearly half a century after the Supreme Court ruling that enshrined a woman’s right to choose into federal law, Roe v. Wade’s future is uncertain. If Roe is overturned or restricted, yes, we will need to raise holy hell. But beyond fighting policy, there are steps every woman should take now to protect their rights, according to ob-gyn Kate White, M.D., and nurse practitioner Molly Finneseth.

“Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” Some may say that’s a pessimist’s credo, and that those of us who worry about how the current political climate will impact reproductive rights are just liberal Chicken Littles. But who would have thought we’d be having the kinds of conversations that we’ve had in the past two years about access to basic women’s health care?

As health care providers who see more than 250 women as patients each month—that’s 3000 a year—we are very concerned about what the new composition of the Supreme Court might mean for our patients. The right to an abortion is already restricted or imperiled in many states; and the future of accessible contraception is also increasingly uncertain. (Justice Brett Kavanaugh hinted that he believes oral contraceptives are abortion-inducing drugs during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings). That means, depending on what cases come before the Court, we may be one judicial decision away from abortion becoming illegal across the country.

We have been taking care of women and girls for a combined 46 years and have seen women at every stage of their reproductive lives; we know how often women don’t think about abortion until they need one. We’ve already started talking with our patients about things to think about to protect their health and their choices in the next few years. Since we can’t be in all y’all’s exam rooms, we want to share that same advice with you.

1. Think long and hard about pregnancy.

Public health professionals talk a lot about planned and unplanned pregnancies, but many women don’t think about pregnancy as something you plan (it’s not like a Caribbean vacation or a birthday party for your boyfriend). Many women we care for honestly don’t think about pregnancy until they have a scare—or until they’re actually pregnant. But if it becomes really hard or super expensive to access an abortion, women may not have the luxury of not knowing what they want until “later.” You’ll have to know and be able to act fast.

2. Think equally hard about your birth control.

If you know that you don’t want to have a baby in the next few years, it may be time for a talk with your partner. Are you both actively avoiding pregnancy? Are you using your birth control consistently (like, all the time) and correctly (no condom slippage or starting pill packs too late)? If not, an IUD or an implant may be a better choice for you. The insertion procedures have a bad wrap for being scary, but we’ve talked many a woman through them, and everyone gets through them okay. Most say it’s nothing worse than a Pap smear or a period with cramps. For many, that’s well worth years of peace of mind.

And if you don’t currently have a partner, make sure that you’re prepared for the casual encounter that gets intimate before you thought it would. That’s another advantage of the implants and the IUDs: You get to have sex like a man…without thinking about becoming pregnant.

3. Think about what birth control will cost you.

When we talk to patients about contraception, we’ve always ask what is most important to them about their method. We hear often hear questions like, “Can I stop and restart when I want?”, “What will it do to my periods?” and “What are the side effects?” But these days, we also talk about short-term versus long-term investment. If you want the pill, patch or ring, how do the monthly copays add up compared to a longer-term investment in the IUD or implant? Here’s why: the availability of abortion isn’t the only thing that may change—insurance coverage for contraception may also change. Your $4 copay may soon become a $50 co-insurance cost, depending on how the new Congress and the new Court approach things like the Affordable Care Act. That could mean shelling out a whopping $600 per year for your birth control. This is where long- versus short-term planning can become super handy. While IUDs cost more upfront, they can come out to as little as $136 per year when you divide the cost over their many year life span.

4. Track your periods.

Using an app on your phone to track your periods has many advantages—you can be prepared when your next period is due, and you can see if your physical symptoms like cramps are related to your periods. But another advantage is that you’ll know as soon as you’re late for a period or miss one altogether. This alerts you to take a home pregnancy test right away. With some states, like Iowa, already eyeing limiting abortion before a fetal heartbeat is detected, knowing early on if you’re pregnant will give you more options if you need to seek abortion care.

5. When you’re pregnant, seek prenatal care early.

Women who are healthy don’t always go to their OB/GYN or their midwife early—we get it, those early prenatal visits can feel like a waste of time. But getting care early means finding out a lot of things about your health that you might not have known, like being anemic or being a carrier of certain genetic diseases. Early obstetric care also allows you to choose prenatal testing (blood tests and ultrasounds) that might reveal if something’s wrong. Even if you wouldn’t choose to have an abortion under any circumstances, information about a problem facing your baby can help you prepare, such as planning to deliver in a hospital with specialized neonatal care.

6. Set up a rainy-day fund and check your passport.

Abortions can be incredibly expensive. While it’s hard to pin down an average (insurance coverage and variations in state-by-state costs contribute to a wide range) Planned Parenthood estimates the procedure can run up to $950. That doesn’t include the cost of transportation or housing if you need to travel to get an abortion. And unless you live on the right or left coast, or a comfortable car ride to Chicago, access to abortion care will likely require travel. Insurance won’t pay for an out-of-state abortion, and gas, food, and lodging costs are going to be just as real as the cost of the procedure.

The most likely national ban on abortion may come from the Supreme Court upholding a state law that makes abortion illegal beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy. Proponents may claim that they are doing this to protect women, but many fetal anomalies (including lethal ones) are not detected until past the 20 week mark. A law like this would mean women who develop life-threatening conditions in the second trimester might lose the opportunity to save their own life by terminating the pregnancy. The safest and most accessible way to end a pregnancy may be provided by our more politically reasonable neighbors to the north; women may have to leave the United States to go to Canada to get an abortion.

While there more than 70 funding organizations in the National Network of Abortion Funds that can help women partially pay for an abortion, the fact remains there is not enough money to go around. The truth is, if Roe v. Wade is overturned or restricted, access to abortion is not going to come cheap. We know it may sound surreal to have a rainy day fund to pay for an abortion that you may never need, but we’ve heard too many stories from patients struggling to find the funds for care. So consider setting aside a few dollars for whatever reproductive care you might need—be it prenatal care, emergency care, or any other type of care. (It also might come in handy to help a friend.) And consider making a donation to NNAF or other organizations to help them help other women get the care they need to matter what.

The last thing we want to tell our patients? Politics isn’t just something you see on the news—these rulings and policy decisions will directly impact your health, and the health of the women you care about. We’ve already seen too many women struggle to find abortion providers, or who are shocked when they get hit with the bill for a much-needed procedure. These problems are only likely to grow. So talk to your friends and family (especially those in the red states), consider volunteering or supporting an organization like Planned Parenthood or NARAL, and vote. And see your doc for a check-in.

Katharine O’Connell White, M.D., and Molly Finneseth are both assistant professors of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University.



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More Than Half of Republicans Support Roe v. Wade


There are few issues more divisive in the United States than those surrounding abortion rights. And while there is no doubt that the debate is not going to be definitively settled anytime soon—especially with a Supreme Court seat currently open—a new poll shows that perhaps Americans aren’t as far apart on the matter as it might seem at first glance (even when it comes to party lines).

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that 71 percent of American voters believe that Roe v. Wade—the Supreme Court ruling that gave women the legal right to an abortion—should not be overturned.

According to NBC News, that’s the highest level of support registered for the decision (and the lowest percentage of opposition at just 23 percent) in the poll’s history, which goes back to 2005. In 1989, a Gallup survey showed that 58 percent said they believed it should stay in place while 31 percent disagreed.

Any way you look at it, that’s a pretty solid majority. But it’s also interesting to note that the poll found that 52 percent of Republican voters also support Roe v. Wade and do not believe that it should be overturned—compared to 88 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of independents.

This level of support for Roe v. Wade obviously comes at an interesting time, when many are rightfully concerned about what President Trump’s conservative Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, might mean for a woman’s right to choose. In fact, the NBC News/WSJ poll also showed that support for Kavanaugh is much lower than past nominees at this point in the pre-confirmation process.

Voters also said that they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights versus one who opposes them. And as one Twitter user pointed out, “More support for Roe than ever before. Including a majority of Republicans. Presumably some of them live in Alaska and Maine.” That’s an apparent nod to pro-choice Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who could be swing votes in the Kavanaugh nomination.

While the NBC News/WSJ poll didn’t break down the numbers across gender, a recent study from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 65 percent of men and 68 percent of women support the ruling.

Those the numbers jump even higher among women of ages 18-44, where 74 percent want to see Roe v. Wade upheld.





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These States Will Likely Ban Abortion if the Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade


In June, 81-year-old Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the bench. The news of his departure shook the nation, not just because the retirement of a Supreme Court justice is incredibly rare, but because it also meant President Donald Trump got the chance to nominate and potentially appoint his second justice in just two years.

Appointing two justices of Trump’s approval would not only shift the court closer to the right, but it would possibly fulfill a promise the president made during the 2016 presidential election to upend abortion rights in America.

“If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that’s really what’s going to be, that’s what will happen,” then candidate-Trump said during the final presidential debate. “And that’ll happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.”

On Monday night, Trump announced his nomination would go to Brett Kavanaugh, a 53-year-old federal judge on the D.C. circuit and a former Kennedy clerk. And while it remains unclear if Kavanaugh will explicitly state his stance on abortion or on overturning Roe v. Wade in Senate hearings, according to Cardozo Law School Professor Kate Shaw, it’s his dissent in the dispute over whether an undocumented teen in federal custody could obtain an abortion that gives pro-choice advocates pause.

As Jennifer Dalven, director of the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, explained to Glamour, women in the U.S. really should be worried for their reproductive rights. “I can say this is the time I’ve been most concerned in my 20 years here about the future of access to abortions in our country,” she said.

Indeed, Justice Kennedy chose to uphold Roe v. Wade in a court decision in 1992, but a new, more aggressively right-leaning judge may not choose to do the same. And, even if Kavanaugh doesn’t go as far as overturning the law, he could decide to uphold incredibly strict abortion laws around the nation that, to date, are considered unenforceable.

“We may not know the specifics, but whether the right to legal abortion is taken away entirely or whether the court decides, ‘No, we don’t need to go quite that far, we don’t need to be that explicit about it, but we’ll simply uphold every restriction that comes this way,’ the effect will be dire for women and families in this country,” Dalven said.

Though there were literally hundreds of new abortion laws introduced across the nation in just the first quarter of 2018 alone—308 restrictions were introduced and 10 were enacted—there are a few laws that could be considered a bit more dire.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, there are four states which currently have a “trigger law” on the books that would immediately ban abortions if the Roe is overturned.

As the Institute further noted, “seven states have laws that express their intent to restrict the right to legal abortion to the maximum extent permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the absence of Roe,” and, as The Guardian reported, there are currently 24 states that would likely ban or “severely limit abortion upon reconvening, at earliest within seven months of the supreme court’s decision.”

Here’s what you need to know about a few of those laws.

PHOTO: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Protesters hold pro-choice signs at a demonstration.

Mississippi, Louisiana, North Dakota and South Dakota will immediate ban all abortions:

These four states, according to The Guardian, each have a trigger law on the books that would immediately ban all abortions in the state (except if the pregnancy threatens a mother’s life) if Roe were to be overturned by the Supreme Court.

As the Center for Reproductive Rights reported, North Dakota, for example, would flatly deny abortions if Roe fell. As it stands, the state already attempted to pass a six-week abortion ban, which was struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.

Mississippi, the site explained, also has both a trigger law and a highly-restrictive abortion law already in place, banning women from receiving an abortion after 20 weeks. That 20-week ban is currently in effect. South Dakota and Louisiana has similar 20-week bans.

International Women's Day Rally Celebrates Women's Rights

PHOTO: Getty Images

A protester holds a sign supporting abortion providers.

Twenty-one states would see their unconstitutional restrictions go into effect:

The Guardian explained, “Laws that ban abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb are unconstitutional,” yet 21 states, it noted, currently ignore that fact and have bans in place based on the age of a fetus, typically at 20 weeks or less.

For example, the state of Iowa recently passed a law that would ban abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which typically takes place at or around the sixth week of pregnancy. This, the Los Angeles Times astutely pointed out, is often before most women even know they are pregnant. The law in Iowa was set to take effect this month, however, a state judge put it on hold, the L.A. Times noted.

“States are enacting laws that say, ‘Take us to court; let this go all the way to the Supreme Court. We are confident now that it will go our way,’” Carol Sanger, a law professor at Columbia University and author of a book on the history of abortion, told the L.A. Times. “Even if they don’t strike down Roe, whittling it down is very effective. States can find new restrictions that make women pay financially, and also emotionally, by making them feel they are doing something shameful.”

Abortion Clinic Protest

PHOTO: AP Images

Clinic escorts line up in front of an health care center.

However, in some states, a woman’s right to an abortion will still be protected:

As TIME noted, in several states, including New York and California, abortion will remain a legal right even if Roe is overturned as both states have protections.

“If the court rolls back Roe vs. Wade, abortion will become front and center of every state political debate and campaign,” Patrick Egan, a political scientist at New York University, told the L.A. Times. “The extent to which states prohibit or make it more difficult to access legal abortion could become the battleground in the politics of many states for decades to come.”

And truly, it’s a subject that will divide the nation. In 2017, Pew Research Center found that 57 percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 40 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases.

As Dalven noted to Glamour, the best way people can continue to protect their federal and state rights is to let their feelings be known.

“I think that the most direct thing is letting your senators know where you stand,” she said, “and that you take this issue very seriously.”





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A Reminder That We Won't Need a Full Repeal of Roe v. Wade for Abortion to Be Restricted


On Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the bench. The 81-year-old has served since his appointment by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. Now, the world must sit and wait for President Donald Trump to nominate his second Supreme Court judge in less than two years.

Though conservative, Justice Kennedy was known for his more centrist viewpoints and rulings. As CBS reported, he was a pivotal swing vote for marriage equality, corporate spending on elections, affirmative action, and the protection of abortion rights in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey. That case, CBS explained, would have prohibitively restricted abortion access for women across the nation.

And now, women fear they may soon face a similar battle. After all, Trump himself stated during the final presidential debate that he would work to see the end of Roe V. Wade.

“If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that’s really what’s going to be, that’s what will happen,” he said. “And that’ll happen automatically in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.”

To find out just how concerned women should be, Glamour called Jennifer Dalven, Director of the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, to find out more. For two decades, Dalven has dedicated her work to protecting access to abortion and reproductive health care.

And due to the latest SCOTUS shakeup, she says she’s never been more worried about women’s reproductive rights.

“I can say this is the time I’ve been most concerned in my 20 years here about the future of access to abortions in our country,” she told Glamour.

That’s because she knows that it won’t take a repeal of Roe v. Wade for extreme restrictions to be put in place. Here, she explains:

What specifically is making you so concerned?

Justice Kennedy provided a key vote to uphold a woman’s right to abortion and to stop politicians from blocking women from getting abortions. And President Trump, as you know, has repeatedly pledged to appoint justices who will take away our right to legal abortion. If we allow him to follow through on that promise, the balance of the court will certainly turn against the constitutional right to abortion and access to abortion.

What’s the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned?

That’s a really good question, but I think that if President Trump gets to appoint a new justice in the mold he has said he would appoint, whether Roe gets overturned outright or not won’t really be the question. We may not know the specifics, but whether the right to legal abortion is taken away entirely or whether the court decides, ‘no, we don’t need to go quite that far, we don’t need to be that explicit about it, but we’ll simply uphold every restriction that comes this way,’ the effect will be dire for women and families in this country.

How have abortion rights been restricted already?

In the first quarter of 2018, 37 states introduced 308 new abortion restrictions. So there is no doubt that there are politicians out there in a huge number of states who are standing at the ready to restrict women’s access to abortion care.

This could really go two ways: With a new justice on the court, the right to legal abortion could just be taken away entirely. And states could ban abortion outright and we know that there are states chomping at the bit to do that. By some counts almost half of the states are ready to do that. But, as I said, the court doesn’t have to go that far. It could simply decide to uphold any restriction that a politician can dream up and that will just make it impossible for women to get the care they need.

A couple of years ago, there was a case before the Supreme Court called Whole Woman’s Health that was challenging a Texas abortion restriction that would have had the effect of making Texas a state that went from about 40 clinics to about 10 clinics. And what that would’ve meant for women is that abortion would have been as good as outlawed. Justice Kennedy provided the crucial fifth vote to strike down that law. Without Justice Kennedy on the court, if a new justice upholds a requirement like that, we could see laws like that throughout the country. We know that 10 percent of the states are down to one abortion provider already.

Of President Trump’s a current list of nominees, who would you say is the closest to a Justice Kennedy that the American public could hope for?

I can’t comment on the specifics of that list, but what I can tell you is he and Mike Pence have been unbelievably clear that they have a litmus test and that they will only nominate somebody who will overturn the right to legal abortion. Mike Pence said he wants abortion “consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs.” So we need to be incredibly skeptical and need to carefully evaluate any nominee that President Trump forwards. And the Senate really needs to do its job and carefully evaluate any potential nominees.

This isn’t a drill. This is real. This will have effects for generations to come. Seven in 10 Americans believe that abortion should remain a legal right. If you are one of those people, the time is now to make your voice heard.

Speaking of making your voice heard, what would you say people should do to make that happen?

The most direct way is to let your Senators know where you stand because they are the folks that will stand between a nomination from President Trump and that person actually sitting on the Supreme Court. But I would not be surprised if there are marches and protests in the streets in the coming weeks and months ahead as this battle heats up. But I think that the most direct thing is letting your Senators know where you stand and that you take this issue very seriously.

Note: This interview has been condensed for clarity and length. You can find more information on abortion and women’s reproductive rights, here.

Related Stories:

How Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Retirement From the Supreme Court Could Erode Women’s Rights

Democratic Voters Wanted Something Different. They Got Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.



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