Idaho’s ‘Abortion Trafficking’ Law Mostly Can Be Enforced as Lawsuit Proceeds, Court Rules
ABC News, December 2, 2024
A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that most of Idaho’s first-in-the-nation law that makes it illegal to help minors get an abortion without the consent of their parents can take effect while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality continues. The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the statute’s prohibition on helping a minor get an abortion by harboring and transporting them with the intent to conceal the procedure from the minor’s parents is likely to be found constitutional and can be enforced. Part of the law remains blocked, however. The court found that the law’s prohibition on “recruiting” pregnant youth violates the First Amendment. That means prosecutors, for now, will not be able to charge a person with “recruiting” or influencing a minor to have an abortion. The ruling largely reverses U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham’s decision, which prevented the law from being enforced after opponents sued the state in the summer of 2023. Abortion is banned in Idaho at all stages of pregnancy, and the law enacted in 2023 was designed to prevent minors from getting abortions in states where the procedure is legal if they don’t have their parents’ permission.
Lawsuit Seeks To Undo 15-Week Abortion Ban That Conflicts With Expanded Access in Arizona
ABC News, December 3, 2024
Reproductive rights advocates sued Arizona on Tuesday to undo a 15-week abortion ban those conflicts with a constitutional amendment recently approved by voters to expand access up to fetal viability. The American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed the lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of the local chapter of Planned Parenthood and two physicians, arguing the law interferes with pregnant Arizonans’ fundamental right to abortion and individual autonomy. It’s the first step in efforts to dismantle existing laws they say are too restrictive. The lawsuit also seeks to undo the ban’s enforcement mechanisms, which could lead to criminal charges against providers who knowingly or intentionally perform abortions beyond 15 weeks except in medical emergencies. Physicians who violate the ban could face suspension or revocation of their medical licenses. Arizona was one of five states where voters approved ballot measures in the 2024 general election to add the right to an abortion to their state constitutions.
Judge Considers First Lawsuit To Overturn Missouri’s Near-Total Abortion Ban
Associated Press, December 4, 2024
Abortion-rights advocates on Wednesday asked a judge to overturn Missouri’s near-total ban on the procedure, less than a month after voters backed an abortion-rights constitutional amendment. Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang did not immediately rule after the hearing. Planned Parenthood and other plaintiffs had asked her to issue a temporary order blocking enforcement of Missouri’s numerous abortion laws. Missouri is one of five states where voters approved ballot measures this year to add the right to an abortion to their state constitutions. Reproductive rights advocates in Arizona on Tuesday sued to undo a 15-week abortion ban that conflicts with that state’s new constitutional amendment expanding access up to fetal viability. The Missouri amendment does not specifically override any state laws. Instead the measure leaves it to advocates to ask courts to knock down bans that they believe would now be unconstitutional. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, an abortion opponent, last week issued an opinion agreeing that most abortions will be legal when the amendment takes effect Thursday. But Bailey’s office is still fighting for a ban on most abortions after viability, along with a number of regulations that Planned Parenthood argues made it nearly impossible to offer abortions in the state even before abortion was almost completely banned in 2022.
Abortions Fell by Only 2% in Year Roe Was Overturned, CDC Report Shows
Forbes, November 27, 2024
The number of abortions performed in the U.S. fell just 2% in 2022, the year the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which protected reproductive rights for almost 50 years, a new report from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention shows, while data from other agencies shows the rate rose in 2023 despite the wave of state bans that followed the ruling. The CDC reported that 613,383 abortions were performed by providers in 48 reporting areas in 2022, a roughly 2% decrease from the 622,108 abortions reported in 2021 (Roe was overturned in June 2022).The vast majority of abortions took place at or before nine weeks of pregnancy, according to the CDC, with 6% performed between 14 and 20 weeks and about 1% at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, often described as a “late term” abortion. The 2022 data is the latest available by the CDC, but other groups, like the Guttmacher Institute, have also released reports on 2023 data that suggest abortion rates rose in the year after Roe was overturned – to the highest recorded number in more than a decade (1,037,000).
Texas Bill Would Reclassify Abortion Drugs as Controlled Substances
Texas Tribune, November 25, 2024
A Louisiana law that reclassified abortion-inducing drugs as controlled substances has made it more difficult for doctors to treat a wide range of gynecological conditions, doctors say. Now, a similar proposal has been filed in Texas. Texas Rep. Pat Curry, a freshman Republican from Waco, said the intent of House Bill 1339 is to make it harder for people, especially teenagers, to order mifepristone and misoprostol online to terminate their pregnancies. Doctors in Louisiana say the measure has done little to strengthen the state’s near-total abortion ban, but has increased fear and confusion among doctors, pharmacists and patients. These medications are often used to empty the uterus after a patient has a miscarriage, and are commonly prescribed ahead of inserting an intrauterine device. Misoprostol is also often the best treatment for obstetric hemorrhages, a potentially life-threatening condition in which women can bleed to death in minutes. Since the Louisiana law went into effect, hospitals have taken the medication off their obstetrics carts and put them in locked, password-protected central storage.
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