A Brain-Dead Woman’s Pregnancy Raises Questions About Georgia’s Abortion Law
NPR, May 21, 2025
“Adriana Smith, a 30 year-old nurse and mother, was about nine weeks pregnant in February when doctors declared her brain dead after she suffered a medical emergency. But Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, told Atlanta TV station WXIA that doctors at Emory University Hospital have been keeping her organs functioning since then until the fetus can be delivered, citing Georgia’s law banning most abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, or roughly six weeks into pregnancy. Smith is now roughly 22 weeks into the pregnancy and has been on life support for more than 90 days. Democratic State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes wrote a letter to Georgia’s Republican Attorney General Chris Carr asking for clarity about how Georgia’s abortion law should be applied in this context. The law, known as the LIFE Act, was narrowly passed and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, but was not in force until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A legal challenge to Georgia’s abortion law is still working its way through the state courts. “There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” Carr’s office responded in a statement. “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.” Emory Healthcare seems to have come to a different conclusion. The hospital has not addressed the attorney general’s legal opinion and has not responded to repeated requests for comment, but the health system did provide a statement to several outlets last week.”
How Shoddy Science Is Fueling a Charge To Restrict Abortion Pill Access
NBC News, May 19, 2025
“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has tasked the Food and Drug Administration with conducting a safety review of mifepristone, a pill used in most U.S. abortions. Kennedy said this week that the review was warranted due to an “alarming” new report on serious adverse events released last month. The report in question, which was neither peer-reviewed nor published in a medical journal, claims to find a 22-times higher rate of serious complications from mifepristone than reported by the FDA. It calls on the agency to “further investigate the harm mifepristone causes to women” and “reconsider its approval altogether.” It was released online in April by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank that says it promotes Judeo-Christian traditions. The center was on the advisory board of Project 2025, a right-wing policy initiative that appears to have informed many of President Donald Trump’s recent actions. Days before the report came out, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said he had no plans to take action on mifepristone unless new data suggested there was a safety concern. Hawley, who has consistently voted to limit abortion access, called on Makary last month to “follow this new data” and reinstate certain restrictions that made mifepristone harder to obtain, such as requirements for the medication to be dispensed in person by a physician. Whereas a wealth of data has shown that less than 0.5% of women who take mifepristone have serious adverse reactions, the report claims the true number is around 11%. Researchers who study reproductive health said it amounts to junk science and exaggerates the risks of the medication.”
House Panel Advances Measure To Cut Off Planned Parenthood From Medicaid Funds
The 19th News, May 14, 2025
“A key House panel advanced legislation that includes a provision aimed at cutting off Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, a longtime goal of congressional Republicans. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees health care as part of its wide-ranging portfolio, voted along party lines to approve its portion of congressional Republicans’ tax cut and spending bill, a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s agenda. The health portion of the bill, which would also impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, has drawn criticism and opposition from Democrats and abortion advocates. Planned Parenthood is one of the largest providers of family planning services to low-income patients. One in 10 Medicaid recipients aged 15-49 who received family planning services went to a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2021, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy, research and polling organization. Federal funds allocated through programs like Medicaid and Title X are already prohibited from directly paying for abortions, except in limited cases. With the bill, congressional Republicans are seeking to bar clinics and providers that offer abortions from accepting Medicaid for the other family planning and reproductive health care services they provide. The language of the measure, while not addressing Planned Parenthood by name, is written as to apply only to the organization.”
The Real Meaning of RFK Jr.’s Cryptic New Remarks on Abortion
Slate, May 20, 2025
“The Trump administration’s next steps on reproductive rights have remained a question mark for months, but cryptic remarks by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before Congress last week might have revealed the start of a plan. Investigation has emerged as the administration’s strategy on abortion. That was what RFK promised, explaining that he had recently launched an inquiry as to the safety of one of the most closely studied drugs in the world, mifepristone. Investigation has lots of advantages: It gives Trump an excuse to postpone dealing with reproductive rights until he is ready—even potentially after the 2026 midterm. But more than that, it gives him political cover. Trump has promised to leave abortion to the states, but armed with new data and a fresh inquiry, he can now claim the mandate to change his mind. Since January, when Trump took office, anti-abortion leaders have devised various strategies to get the administration to act on access to abortion pills. All of this is meant to force Trump to act. But if the president isn’t moved by the federal courts or the stock market, Josh Hawley is not likely to do any better. That seemed to be part of RFK’s message to Hawley: Any change on mifepristone, he suggested, would come through the White House. Hawley might be planning to gently nudge Trump toward a national ban, but RFK’s implications were clear. It’s Trump who’s calling the shots.”
A Texas Bill To Clarify Exceptions to the State’s Abortion Ban Clears a Key Hurdle After a Rocky Path
Associated Press, May 21, 2025
“Texas lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday to clarify medical exceptions under one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the U.S., putting the GOP-backed proposal on the brink of reaching Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. The changes would not expand abortion access in Texas or list specific medical exceptions under the state’s near-total ban, which took effect in 2022 and only allows for an abortion to save the life of the mother. It also would not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest. But the proposal is still a pivot for Texas Republicans, who for years have defended the ban as written in the face of legal challenges and pleas for clarity from medical providers. Democrats, meanwhile, have called the bill a positive step but also faced criticism from some abortion-rights allies who raised doubts about what, if any, impact it will have. The bill passed 129-6 and needs only a final procedural vote before reaching Abbott, who has signaled support for the measure. The bill would specify that doctors cannot face criminal charges for performing an abortion in a medical emergency that causes major bodily impairment. It also defines a “life-threatening” condition as one capable of causing death. Similar near-total abortion bans across the country have faced numerous legal challenges and criticism from medical professionals who have said that medical exceptions are too vague. Supporters of these bills have said they have the potential to save lives. Critics, including some abortion rights groups, have questioned whether they make state abortion laws easier to understand.”
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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.
