Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates State’s 6-Week Abortion Ban
NBC News, October 7, 2024
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban while it reviews the state’s appeal of a lower court ruling that had struck down the law. The decision goes into effect at 5 p.m. local time, meaning that most abortions will again be illegal in the state after six weeks of pregnancy after that time. The state Supreme Court’s decision, however, left in place the lower court’s ruling blocking a separate provision of the law that had given state prosecutors broad access to the medical records of abortion patients without due process protections. Gov. Brian Kemp signed the state’s near-total abortion ban, known as the LIFE Act, in 2019, but it didn’t take effect until July 2022, after it faced a legal challenge and the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. The law bans abortion care when a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant. It includes exceptions for some situations to protect the woman’s life and health and for some situations when fetal anomalies are detected.
Supreme Court Declines Biden’s Appeal in Texas Emergency Abortion Case
Associated Press, October 7, 2024
A court order that says hospitals cannot federally be required to provide pregnancy terminations when they violate a Texas abortion ban will stay for now, the Supreme Court said Monday. The decision is another setback for opponents of Texas’ abortion ban, which for two years has withstood multiple legal challenges, including from women who had serious pregnancy complications and have been turned away by doctors. It left Texas as the only state where the Biden administration is unable to enforce its interpretation of a federal law in an effort to ensure women still have access to emergency abortions when their health or life is at risk. The justices did not detail their reasoning for keeping in place a lower court order, and there were no publicly noted dissents. Texas had asked the justices to leave the order in place while the Biden administration had asked the justices to throw it out.
Supreme Court Rejects IVF Clinic’s Appeal of Alabama Frozen Embryo Ruling
ABC News, October 7, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review an Alabama ruling that triggered concerns about in vitro fertilization availability by allowing couples to pursue wrongful death lawsuits over the accidental destruction of frozen embryos. A fertility clinic and hospital had asked the court to review the Alabama Supreme Court decision that a couple, who had a frozen embryo destroyed in an accident, could pursue a lawsuit against them for the wrongful death of their ‘minor child.’ Justices turned down the petition without comment.
Florida is Trying To Block a TV Ad About a Woman With Cancer Who Got an Abortion
The 19th, October 8, 2024
The Florida Department of Health is making an unprecedented legal effort to stop a local TV station from airing an advertisement in support of an abortion rights ballot measure. The ad in question — which as of Tuesday has not been pulled by any TV stations — concerns a Tampa woman named Caroline, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2022, months before Roe v. Wade was overturned. Caroline, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is worried about harassment directed at her young daughter, began developing symptoms when she was 17 weeks pregnant, struggling with speech and writing and eventually requiring a days-long stay in her hospital’s neuro-intensive care unit. At 18 weeks, she underwent surgery to determine what was wrong and what it might mean for her pregnancy. Two weeks later, she learned she had stage four glioblastoma. The typical prognosis is less than two years. Chemotherapy could extend her life, allowing her a bit more time with her daughter and husband. But as is true with many cancer treatments, the treatment would require her to terminate her pregnancy. The state’s health department has argued that because the six-week ban has this medical exception, patients facing severe complications with pregnancy — including cancer — should be able to terminate their pregnancies without leaving the state and as a result, the advertisement sharing Caroline’s story is misleading.
Politicians Say Health Plans Should Cover IVF. Currently Only 1 in 4 Employers Do
NPR, October 10, 2024
One round of in vitro fertilization or IVF can cost you around $20,000 (or more). It’s a multi-step process that involves retrieving eggs from ovaries, fertilizing them in a lab, watching the embryos develop, and then transferring them into the uterus. For those who are lucky enough to get pregnant and have a baby, it can take several cycles to get there. It’s so expensive that access to insurance coverage for IVF is basically access, period. So, for the 150 million people in the U.S. who get health insurance through work, how many have help with some of those costs? A report out this week from KFF, a nonprofit research organization, finds only about a quarter of U.S. companies with 200 or more employees cover the procedure. Matthew Rae, who ran the survey for KFF, says the rates are better for larger companies; more than half of those with more than 5,000 workers cover IVF. He notes that roughly a third of employers responded that they didn’t know what they covered for IVF and other family building options.
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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.
