Regulations implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would protect 2.8 million pregnant workers WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 26, 2024 – The National Partnership for Women & Families is calling out the recent partisan lawsuit led by 17 states to...
![NEWS: Abortion looms over 2022 state ballots](https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/repro-health-watch-rhw-author.jpg)
NEWS: Abortion looms over 2022 state ballots
Five forthcoming state ballot initiatives on abortion rights could add fissures to the fractured post-Roe landscape and the evolving patchwork of reproductive health policies. The big picture: The U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion has hardened sentiments in red and blue states and put critical access questions in front of voters this fall. Kansas showed how potent the issue is in driving turnout last month, when voters during state primary elections overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have struck abortion protections in the state’s constitution. The turnout of more than 900,000 was nearly half of all registered voters in the state, and almost double the amount of voters that Kansas normally sees in a primary election.
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NEWS: Democrats urge Biden administration to use HIPAA to protect abortion rights and privacy
Thirty Democratic senators led by Washington’s Patty Murray are calling on the Biden administration to use health care privacy laws to protect patients’ reproductive health information, specifically when it comes to abortion. In the letter sent Tuesday, first shared with The 19th, the senators ask the Biden administration to use the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to prohibit health care providers and personnel from sharing any information about patients’ medical records “without explicit consent.”
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NEWS: Abortion pill providers experiment with ways to broaden access
As bans and restrictions proliferate across the country, abortion pill providers are pushing the envelope of regulations and laws to meet the surging demand for medication abortion in post-Roe America. Some are using physician discretion to prescribe pills to patients further along in pregnancy than the 10-week limit set by the Food and Drug Administration.
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NEWS: Nearly 1/3 low-income Asian women in states with limited abortion access
When a young Rohingya woman touched down in New York in 2018, she thought she had finally reached safety – the end to an arduous lifelong journey of fleeing persecution without much choice. […] “Getting an abortion had a financial cost to it, but now that cost has essentially tripled,” said Rachna Khare, the executive director of Daya, a Houston-area survivors organization.
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NEWS: States with abortion restrictions fail to support pregnant people
States that have enacted abortion restrictions or bans are doing little to “support the health and economic security of pregnant and birthing people and their families,” according to a new report from the National Partnership for Women & Families first shared with Axios.
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NEWS: New Biden abortion rights push addresses both women and men
“Cheered by a decisive win for abortion rights in a Kansas vote and eyeing November midterm elections, the White House is launching a push for abortion access that aims to influence men as well as women, sources with direct knowledge told Reuters.”
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NEWS: Online privacy in a post-Roe world
“The case of a Nebraska woman charged with helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy after investigators obtained Facebook messages between the two has raised fresh concerns about data privacy in the post-Roe world.”
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NEWS: Biden signs second executive order to protect U.S. abortion access
“Joe Biden signed a second executive order on Wednesday that aims to protect access to reproductive healthcare after the US supreme court struck down the constitutional right to abortion.”
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NEWS: Their medications cause pregnancy issues. Post-Roe, that could be dangerous
“Karen Kaiser says she will never forget her feelings of dread and sadness as she hurried past picket lines of antiabortion protesters in 2008. In the waiting room of a Maryland Planned Parenthood, “I remember crying,” she said. Kaiser had decided to have an abortion in part because she was taking a medication called Depakote to control her bipolar disorder.”
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NEWS: They had miscarriages, and new abortion laws obstructed treatment
“Last year, a 35-year-old woman named Amanda, who lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, had a miscarriage in the first trimester of her pregnancy. At a large hospital, a doctor performed a surgical procedure often used as a safe and quick method to remove tissue from a failed pregnancy… Eight months later,”
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NEWS: What President Biden’s executive order on abortion does not address
“President Biden attempted to preserve abortion access on Friday through executive action but stopped short of restoring full access to the procedure or preventing states from enacting their own restrictions or bans. The executive order Biden signed empowers Health and Human Services (HHS) in a variety of ways,”
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NEWS: How the fall of Roe v. Wade could impact abortion access across the world
“Abortion rights activists say the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade will reverberate around the world, possibly restricting access to the procedure in other countries and weakening the global movement for reproductive rights.”
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NEWS: No, Justice Alito, reproductive justice is in the Constitution
Editor’s Note: The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and reverse a legal precedent of nearly 50 years is no surprise. The willingness of the Court’s majority to disrespect the importance of women’s autonomy and catapult them backwards into a 19th century, second-class status speaks volumes about the majority’s lack of respect for women’s equality and individual dignity.
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NEWS: Biden pledges executive orders on abortion. His options are limited.
Repro health news from the week of June 6 – 10, 2022.
Repro Health Watch is a weekly email digest designed to give you the most important reproductive health news of the week.
Note: The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.