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SCOTUS Allows Idaho to Keep Banning Abortion in Nearly All Cases

Rolling Stone, January 5, 2024

The Supreme Court has allowed Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, which applies to medical emergencies. The decision arrived on Friday as a legal battle over reproductive rights rages on in the state, and is the first time the high court weighed in on Idaho’s abortion ban since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A lower court ruling that blocked the law in hospital emergencies was put on hold and justices agreed to hear an appeal in April. The court order rebuffs the Biden administration’s argument that hospitals receiving Medicare funds are required by federal law to provide emergency care. In the wake of 2022’s Supreme Court ruling, the administration issued guidelines on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). In a letter to healthcare providers, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra emphasized that state law restricting access to abortion in emergency situations would be preempted by federal law. A month after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the Democratic administration sued Idaho. Although a district court ruled in favor of the administration and blocked the ban, Idaho appealed and the injunction was lifted by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit reversed the ruling and had set arguments in the case for late January. Idaho has led the push to criminalize abortion. After the high court ended the landmark 1973 decision that enshrined abortion protections in federal law, the state’s “Defense of Life Act” went into effect and banned abortion in nearly all circumstances, with the exception for when the procedure is “necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.” According to Idaho’s law, anyone who performs a “criminal abortion” could face up to five years in prison.

In the Fight Over Abortion Rights, the Government Bans Its First Company From Tracking Medical Visits

Politico, January 9, 2024

The Biden administration stopped a company from selling data on people’s medical visits on Tuesday, its first settlement on a privacy issue that has many Americans concerned about who can see their most sensitive personal data — particularly visits to abortion providers. After an investigation, the Federal Trade Commission said it had reached a settlement with Outlogic, a location data broker formerly known as X-Mode Social, which had been collecting information on people’s visits to medical centers. The settlement is the first major enforcement on location data since a 2022 executive order directed the government to ramp up privacy protections for anyone seeking an abortion. The FTC has been cracking down on health privacy violations after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled there is no constitutional right to an abortion when it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. A Biden executive order in July 2022 directed federal agencies to protect people’s privacy related to reproductive health care services. With no federal law against selling location data from smartphones, cars, computers and other connected devices, companies are able to collect and share people’s whereabouts, which can track individuals to their homes, workplaces and other sites. According to the FTC, in one contract, Outlogic collected location data on people who visited certain medical facilities and then went to pharmacies or specialty infusion centers, and the data broker then shared its information with a clinical research company for marketing and advertising.While the company didn’t share any data related to abortion clinics, the FTC said Outlogic’s sales were still a significant privacy violation. “The FTC’s action against X-Mode makes clear that businesses do not have free license to market and sell Americans’ sensitive location data,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “By securing a first-ever ban on the use and sale of sensitive location data, the FTC is continuing its critical work to protect Americans from intrusive data brokers and unchecked corporate surveillance.”

Supreme Court’s Looming Mifepristone Decision Leaves Abortion Rights In Spotlight

The Hill, January 6, 2024

The Supreme Court’s expected decision this summer on whether to restrict access to medication abortion promises to keep the issue front and center of the 2024 election. Justices will hear a case weighing federal approval of the common abortion pill mifepristone, with a likely ruling in June — five months before voters decide who will go to the White House and Congress, and almost exactly two years after the high court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. Both parties are now gearing up for one of the Supreme Court’s first abortion cases since reversing Roe v. Wade, a legal sea change that has galvanized voters toward the Democratic Party and bedeviled Republicans at the ballot box and the campaign trail. Democrats, who have made abortion rights a focal point in 2024, see the mifepristone case as yet another motivating force for voters in battleground areas. “If [the decision] were to in some way result in [mifepristone] not being available, I just think it’s another earthquake,” said Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg, who’s worked for Planned Parenthood and Reproductive Freedom for All. Even agreeing to hear the case in December, the high court added to several major abortion cases and rulings that have rocked the country and emboldened Democrats. That same week in December, the Texas Supreme Court ruled against a woman seeking an emergency abortion who fled the state to receive the procedure. And last week, a federal appeals court ruled Texas health providers were not required to provide abortion access in emergency care. “As long as women have to refight these fights over and over again, the more Democrats will have to fight with them. And the more that conversation continues to be had, the more energized voters are going to be to come out and vote on that issue, specifically,” said Jennifer Holdsworth, a Democratic strategist who was prescribed mifepristone for a past miscarriage. Holdsworth says she feels the issue personally. “I don’t want Republicans or the United States Supreme Court telling me what conversation I can have with my doctor,” she said.

Texas’ Latest Quest to Drive Out Planned Parenthood

Rewire News Group, January 8, 2024

Planned Parenthood no longer provides abortions in Texas, Louisiana, and the other ten states that have essentially banned abortion since the Supreme Court handed down its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022. But the nonprofit is still providing other services for patients in those places, including cancer screening, contraception, and the treatment of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. And Texas hasn’t given up on its long-running quest to force the group, which provides reproductive health care in its nearly 600 U.S. clinics, to stop operating within its borders. Alongside an anonymous whistleblower identified as “Alex Doe,” Texas authorities are suing Planned Parenthood for more than $1.8 billion in penalties and fees over what they allege are fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements. Planned Parenthood denies having committed Medicaid fraud. It calls the lawsuit “another political attack.” As an economist who studies the health effects of restricted abortion access, I believe that if Texas prevails in this federal lawsuit, Texans will have even less access to sexual and reproductive health care. Notably, the state ranked 50th in access to high-quality prenatal and maternal health care in 2022, and maternal mortality rates in the state more than doubled between 1999 and 2019. The elimination of Planned Parenthood facilities across Texas will likely exacerbate the dismal conditions of reproductive care in the state.

Proposed Bill Would Make Abortions Even More Restrictive in Florida

WPTV, January 10, 2024

How Florida women handle unwanted pregnancies is becoming an even bigger issue for politicians and potentially voters this election year. As the legislative session gets underway, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have filed bills related to abortion rights. Just days ago, abortion rights groups announced they have enough signatures to take the issue to voters in November. While both sides gear up for Supreme Court hearings on the ballot language next month, lawmakers are busy filing bills on the controversial topic. Republican Rep. David Borrero from Miami-Dade County started the legislative session with a move to make abortion even more restrictive in Florida. The “Termination of Pregnancies” bill would remove exceptions for rape and incest and says “a person or an entity may not purposely perform or attempt to perform an abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.” “They don’t want us to have any say in our lives. That is not freedom. This is not the freedom state,” said Sheila Jaffe, the president of the Palm Beach County chapter of the National Organization for Women.

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

ICYMI Yesterday @POTUS repealed the most harmful parts of Trump admin's Refusal of Care rule which would allow people to deny medical care based on personal and religious reasons-including abortion. We’re grateful the administration has stepped up to protect health care access.

— National Partnership (@NPWF) January 10, 2024

 

 

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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.