Georgia Attorney General Appeals a Judge’s Rollback of Abortion Ban
ABC News, October 2, 2024
Georgia’s attorney general has appealed a judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s abortion ban. Attorney General Chris Carr’s office is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to reinstate the law banning most abortions after the first six weeks or so of pregnancy while the court considers the state’s appeal. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Monday that the ban in place since 2022 violated women’s rights to liberty and privacy under Georgia’s state constitution. His decision rolled back abortion limits in the state to a prior law that allowed abortions until viability, roughly 22 to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Some Georgia clinic officials said they would begin accepting patients whose pregnancies are past six weeks’ gestation, though they’re aware the ban could be reimposed quickly. Carr’s office noted in its notice of appeal filed Tuesday that the case goes straight to Georgia’s highest court because it involves a challenge to the constitutionality of a state law.
States With Abortion Bans Saw Steep Declines in Birth Control Prescriptions After Roe
19th, September 26, 2024
The June 2022 Supreme Court decision eliminating the constitutional right to abortion was followed by steep declines in prescriptions for birth control pills and emergency contraception in states where abortion is banned. This finding was revealed by a new study published in the top-ranked journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. “In states such as Texas and Mississippi, where women now don’t even have the option to have an abortion, their access to contraception is also becoming more difficult,” said lead author Dima M. Qato, senior fellow at the University of Southern California Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. Researchers found that states enacting the most restrictive laws experienced about a 5 percent total decline in oral contraceptive prescriptions filled by pharmacies in the first year after Roe’s reversal. In Texas, the rate dropped 28 percent. The declines were particularly dramatic for the emergency contraception pills Plan B and Ella, which dropped 65 percent more in the most restrictive states compared to less restrictive states.
California Governor Signs Bill Making Insurance Companies Pay for IVF Treatment
USA Today, October 1, 2024
California’s governor signed into law Sunday legislation requiring certain insurance providers to cover costs for infertility treatment and in vitro fertilization, his office announced.”California is a proud reproductive freedom state – and that includes increasing access to fertility services that help those who want to start a family,” Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in a press release posted to his office’s website. “As Republicans across the country continue to claw back rights and block access to IVF – all while calling themselves ‘the party of families’ – we are proud to help every Californian make their own choices about the family they want.”According to Newsom’s announcement, the law requires large group health care service plan contracts and disability insurance policies to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and fertility service, including IVF.The bill also requires these companies to cover a maximum of three completed oocyte retrievals, a process where eggs are taken from the ovaries, according to the Emory School of Medicine. The requirements would be for healthcare service plans issued, adjusted or renewed on or after July 1 next year.
A New Louisiana Law Requires Abortion Meds To Be Locked in a Cabinet, Even if Needed for Emergency Care
CNN News, October 1, 2024
Louisiana’s first-in-the-nation law listing the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances” took effect Tuesday, triggering fears among health-care providers and pharmacists that routine care may be worsened for women in the state. Beyond abortion, the medicines are used for miscarriage management and, in misoprostol’s case, to stop dangerous bleeding after childbirth, physicians say. Now, in Louisiana, misoprostol is required to be stored in a locked box like other controlled substances, which doctors fear could delay treatment in emergency situations. Health-care providers in the state have been doing drills to see how long it will take to get misoprostol from locked cabinets in emergencies during childbirth…Doctors in addiction medicine said that characterizing these drugs as controlled substances is an overreach of what the scheduling system aims to do. Scheduling the drugs also requires that their use be tracked by a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, “a statewide program where I can look for a patient under my care and I can see for the past 15 years if they’ve been prescribed any scheduled medications, who the prescriber was, where they filled that medication,” and information about dates and amounts used, Dr. Smita Prasad said.
Muted Mics and Politeness – Six Takeaways From VP Debate
BBC News, October 2, 2024
Abortion rights, a top issue in the 2024 election, sparked one of the longest and most heated exchanges of the night.It’s an issue Democrats have used to galvanize voters, regularly framing Trump as a threat to women’s autonomy because of his role in appointing a conservative majority to the Supreme Court. The court later overturned Roe v. Wade, the ruling that had protected abortion rights in the US for decades. Walz cited the stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, two women from Georgia whose deaths were connected to abortion restrictions in their home state. Vance, meanwhile, said his opinion on the issue had changed. He previously supported some type of national restrictions on abortion, but said his position shifted when he saw the majority of Ohio voters supported access to abortion. He also said his party had to do “so much better… at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don’t trust us.”
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
Reproductive freedom and data privacy are inextricably linked. Given the heightened risks of surveillance looming over pregnant people post-Dobbs, it is imperative that both public and private actors take action. https://t.co/7FbAcc1Q0B
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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.
