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Right to abortion overturned by US Supreme Court after nearly 50 years in Roe v Wade ruling

Where do you stand on the abortion debate?


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The most important question of all: What is a Woman?Why are people worried about woman rights when they can't even define what a woman is? :inti

This is about the freedom of people who are able to bear children.

About giving a cis-woman the freedom to be able to control her own body.

Comparisons with COVID vaccines are false equivalences. We all have a responsibility to each other. Your liberty ends at the point where another’s is impinged upon. Not taking the vaccine is irresponsible because it increases the risk to everyone. Having an abortion is a personal choice which does not increase the risk to thousands of others. Before someone says an embryo is a person, I say it’s just an undifferentiated bunch of cells. It becomes a person with rights according to the laws of the nation - 24 weeks after conception in the UK.
 
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Washington: President Joe Biden said Friday that federal legislation offered the fastest route to restoring US abortion rights and urged voters to elect pro-choice legislators in upcoming elections in defiance of an "out of control" Supreme Court.

Under pressure to take a tougher line on defending women's reproductive rights, Biden signed an executive order aimed at shoring up access to abortion after what he described as the court's "terrible, extreme" decision to remove the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

But the president, whose room for manoeuvre on the issue is limited, said the most effective response would be made through the ballot box in the November mid-term elections by handing him firm control of the legislature.

"Vote, vote, vote," he said in an appeal particularly aimed at American women.

"The fastest route to restore Roe is to pass a national law codifying Roe, which I will sign immediately upon its passage at my desk. We cannot wait," Biden said, referring to the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that established the right to abortion.

If Republicans were to take control of Congress, he also vowed to veto any effort to pass a federal ban on abortion.

"We cannot allow an out of control Supreme Court working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy," he said.

Biden has been criticized from within his own Democratic Party for perceived inaction since the Supreme Court ruling on June 24.

After the ruling, several states have banned or severely restricted abortion and others are expected to follow suit.

- 'Not nearly enough' -

Many Democrats, often speaking anonymously in the press, have complained that Biden and his team have failed to respond adequately to the bombshell judgment by the Supreme Court.

Seeking to recover, Biden on Friday signed an executive order designed to protect women's sensitive health-related data and "fight digital surveillance related to reproductive health care services."

Advocacy groups are warning of the risks posed by women's online data such as their geolocation and apps that monitor their menstrual cycles, which they say could be used to go after women who have had abortions.

Biden's order also seeks to protect mobile clinics deployed to the borders of states that have banned abortion.

The administration wants to guarantee access to contraception and abortion medication and set up a network of volunteer lawyers to help women on abortion issues, the White House said.

"The executive actions being undertaken are needed first steps, but it's not nearly enough," said Women's March director Rachel O'Leary Carmona in a statement.

"I call on the administration to recognize the true emergency we are in. Get creative. Get caught trying. Don't let norms, or decency, or 'tradition' stand in your way. Lives are on the line."

But Biden cannot do much to battle the Supreme Court, or the states hostile to him when he lacks a solid majority in Congress.

So he is calling on Americans to turn out in droves and vote Democrat in the midterm elections.

The goal is to codify the right to abortion as a federal law, which would nullify state decisions to ban the procedure.

Many Democrats fear this drive to get out the vote will flop. Biden is now an unpopular president and Americans' biggest worry these days is sky-high inflation.

And beyond the abortion issue some Democrats wonder if Biden, 79, a centrist who shuns headline-grabbing action, has the ability to take on an aggressively conservative American right in an era of acute political tension.

All he has to do is look at press editorials of recent days, including in news outlets seen as sympathetic.



NDTV
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The US House of Representatives has voted to restore abortion rights across the country after the overturning of Roe v Wade <a href="https://t.co/AdObuuNndD">https://t.co/AdObuuNndD</a> <a href="https://t.co/nNDczKBLoe">pic.twitter.com/nNDczKBLoe</a></p>— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1548030917708374016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 15, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
I am not Pro or Anti in this fight. But there are situations where an abortion is needed. In cases of rape, incest, fetus detected with medical problems, Age of the girl/woman etc.
 
Presumably millions of women in red States are now going to vote Dem to get Roe reinstated and their reproductive rights back?
 
<b>Biden rallies supporters around abortion rights ahead of midterms</b>

<I>US president pledges to sign law protecting reproductive rights if Democratic Party wins upcoming legislative elections.</I>

US President Joe Biden has called on Americans concerned with reproductive rights to vote for Democrats in midterm elections, promising to push a bill in Congress that would protect the right to abortion nationwide if his party wins next month.

Biden said in a speech on Tuesday that he would sign legislation early next year codifying Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that had ensured a constitutional right to abortion, if Democrats retain control of the House of Representatives and expand their majority in the Senate.

“Folks, if we do that, here’s the promise I make to you and the American people: The first bill that I will send to the Congress will be to codify Roe v Wade, and when Congress passes that, I’ll sign it in January,” Biden said.

The conservative majority on the top court in the United States overturned Roe in June, igniting outrage among abortion rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers.

Democrats have made abortion a key election issue, which so far has proved effective. Democratic candidates who focused on abortion in their campaigns have won key early races.

Voters in Kansas, a Republican-leaning state, also rejected a referendum to remove abortion protections from its constitution.

Democrats now have narrow control of both chambers of Congress, but a legislative procedure known as the filibuster in the 100-member Senate sets a 60-vote threshold to pass major bills.

Biden had previously expressed support for carving out a filibuster exemption to pass laws to protect abortion rights. But two conservative Democratic senators have balked at the idea, and measures in support of reproductive rights approved by the House have stalled in the Senate.

All 435 seats in the House and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats will be up for grabs in the midterm elections on November 8.

Almost immediately after Roe was overturned, conservative states moved to pass restrictions on abortion, including near total bans, arguing that abortion violates the “sanctity of life”.

While some Republicans argue that the issue should be left to the states to regulate, Senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of former President Donald Trump, introduced a bill in the US Congress last month that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

On Tuesday, Biden pledged to veto any national abortion ban that might reach his desk.

He added that the only way to stop the “extremists” trying to jeopardise reproductive health care is for Congress to pass a law safeguarding abortion rights.

“Together, let’s remember who we are,” he said. “We are the United States of America, and there’s nothing beyond our capacity. So vote, vote, vote.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022...ters-around-abortion-rights-ahead-of-midterms
 
U.S. FDA allows abortion pills to be sold at retail pharmacies

WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills in the United States for the first time, the agency said on Tuesday, even as more states seek to ban medication abortion.

The regulatory change will potentially expand abortion access as President Joe Biden's administration wrestles with how best to protect abortion rights after they were sharply curtailed by the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and the state bans that followed.

Pharmacies can start applying for certification to distribute abortion pill mifepristone with one of the two companies that make it, and if successful they will be able to dispense it directly to patients upon receiving a prescription from a certified prescriber.

...
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us...pharmacies-new-york-times-reports-2023-01-03/
 
Wyoming becomes first US state to outlaw use of abortion pills
Bill from Republican-controlled legislature comes as measures to crack down on abortion pills gather pace across the country

Wyoming has become the first US state to outlaw the use or prescription of medication abortion pills after the governor, Mark Gordon, signed into law a bill that was passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature earlier this month.

The crux of the two-page Wyoming bill is a provision making it illegal to “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion”.

So-called “morning-after” pills, prescription contraceptive medication used after sex but before a pregnancy can be confirmed, are exempted from the ban.

...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...irst-us-state-to-outlaw-use-of-abortion-pills
 
A Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas has ordered a hold on the longstanding approval of a widely used abortion drug, mifepristone.

But an hour later an Obama-picked judge in Washington state issued a competing ruling, ordering that access to the drug be preserved in 17 states.

The pill has been allowed for over 20 years, and is used in most abortions.

The duelling court orders make it likely that the issue will escalate to the US Supreme Court.

In a 67-page opinion, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, halted the FDA's approval of mifepristone. The ruling will not go into effect for seven days to allow the government time to appeal.

The US Department of Justice confirmed on Friday night it would challenge the Texas ruling.

Judge Kacsmaryk's decision could limit access to the drug for millions of women in the US. Legal analysts said the ruling threatens to upend the entire foundation of America's drug regulatory system.

It comes after the Supreme Court removed constitutional protections for abortion last year, triggering a wave of state-by-state bans.

A lawsuit filed by anti-abortion groups had argued that the drug's safety was never properly studied.

BBC
 
The US Supreme Court has temporarily halted a ruling that set limits on access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

The pause ordered by Justice Samuel Alito is the latest move in an ongoing legal battle over access to the drug.

Last week, a Texas court had ordered the drug to be pulled off the market.

A lower appeals court responded to the Texas ruling by keeping the drug available, but with conditions.

But on Friday, Justice Alito, a conservative, halted the restrictions until right before midnight on 19 April, after the Biden administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to restore access to the drug.

The delay will give justices more time to review the case. Justice Alito asked that additional briefing material be filed by 18 April.

BBC
 
The US Supreme Court has preserved access to a commonly used abortion pill, ruling the drug can remain available while a legal case continues.

In a split decision, it also rejected restrictions on mifepristone implemented by a lower court, essentially maintaining the status quo.

The future of the drug was called into question after a Texas judge sought to invalidate its long-standing approval.

The case could have wide-ranging implications for abortion access.

BBC
 
North Carolina abortion: Lawmakers override governor's veto on 12-week ban

North Carolina lawmakers have voted to override the governor's veto of a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks.

The measure was passed by the state's Republican-controlled legislature in early May, but was vetoed by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper over the weekend.

Republicans overturned the veto in back-to-back votes, prompting chants of "shame" from onlookers.

The law, which cuts the window for abortion in the state down from 20 weeks, will now take effect on 1 July.

On Tuesday, the state Senate voted 30-20 and the House by 72-48 to override the veto. A single Republican defector could have tipped the outcome the other way.

"Shame! Shame! Shame!" protesters in the statehouse started shouting.


Officially known as the Care for Women, Children and Families Act, it was passed by the state Senate along party lines on 4 May, a day after being passed by the state House of Representatives.

The measure was vetoed by Governor Cooper at a rally on Saturday. He said the bill would stand "in the way of progress" and "turn the clock back 50 years on women's health".

...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65615310
 
Google earned $10m from ads misdirecting abortion seekers to ‘pregnancy crisis centers’
Study finds the search giant has profited since Roe was overturned from anti-abortion groups buying misleading search terms

Google has made millions of dollars in the last two years from advertisements misdirecting users who were seeking abortion services to “pregnancy crisis centers” that do not actually provide care, according to a new study.

The tech giant has taken in an estimated $10m in two years from anti-choice organizations that pay to advertise such centers alongside legitimate results on the Google search page, according to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit group that conducts misinformation research. Its study, published on Thursday, estimates that the search results have reached and potentially misled hundreds of thousands of users.

Using the analytics tool Semrush, the CCDH estimated how much revenue Google has brought in from such advertisers between 1 March 2021 and 28 February 2023. It said Google’s lack of enforcement against these groups has enabled a multimillion-dollar “cottage industry” of anti-abortion marketing firms, which provide prepackaged promotional materials and websites to crisis pregnancy centers.

...
https://www.theguardian.com/technol...leading-abortion-ads-pregnancy-crisis-centers
 
Ohio has rejected a Republican motion to make it harder to change the state's constitution - a move seen as a defeat for anti-abortion groups.

The Republican-controlled state legislature had hoped to raise the bar for constitutional amendments to 60% instead of a simple majority.

It was largely seen as a move to derail a planned referendum to place abortion rights into the constitution.

President Joe Biden called it a victory for democracy and for women.
 

Trump says abortion laws should be decided by US states​


April 8 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday that abortion laws should be determined by U.S. states, stopping short of proposing a national ban that could have imperiled his chances with swing voters in the November election.

Trump previously signaled support for a ban beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy but said political considerations were paramount in the first presidential election since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, ending a nearly 50-year federal right to the procedure.

"Always go by your heart. But we must win. We have to win," Trump said in a video posted on his social media platform.
The former president reiterated that he backed exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother, and also that he supported the availability of in-vitro fertilization.

A call for a national ban could have dented Trump's support in the six or seven U.S. states that swing between Democratic and Republican candidates and are therefore likely to decide the election outcome.

Overall, 57% of Americans think abortion should be legal in most or all cases, a March Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
While his statement aimed to carve out a political middle ground, it drew criticism from Democrats on the left who favor abortion rights and from anti-abortion groups on the right who want stricter limits, underscoring the divisions over the issue.

"Trump is scrambling. He's worried that since he's the one responsible for overturning Roe the voters will hold him accountable in 2024," said President Joe Biden, a Democrat, who has made Trump's opposition to abortion rights a tenet of his re-election campaign.

"Well, I have news for Donald. They will," Biden said in a statement.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said she was deeply disappointed in Trump's position as it would allow Democratic lawmakers to take steps to expand access to the procedure in some states.
Alluding to the three conservative justices he appointed to the nine-member Supreme Court, Trump took credit for the high court's overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision, which had protected a right to abortion at up to around 24 to 28 weeks.

The court's 2022 decision triggered a voter backlash that was widely credited with curbing Republican gains in the congressional midterm election that year and propelling Democrats to victories in some state elections last year.

"This 50-year battle over Roe v. Wade took it out of the federal hands and brought it into the hearts, minds, and vote of the people in each state, it was really something," Trump said. "Now, it's up to the states to do the right thing."

'PUNTING THE ISSUE'

The reversal of Roe v. Wade allowed the matter of abortion to be decided state-by-state, and Republicans responded by enacting restrictive laws in nearly two dozen states.

In a media call on Monday, Biden’s campaign highlighted that Trump did not say he would veto legislation banning IVF treatment, or that he opposes abortion bans currently in place that do not have exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

Trump has criticized a six-week ban pursued by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a former rival for the Republican nomination, as overly restrictive and politically toxic. But Trump is aligned with many Republicans in Congress and evangelical Christians urging strict curbs on the procedure.

While Americans tend to accept restrictions on abortion after the first trimester, polls also show that a sizable majority prefer to have the decision made by the patient and her doctor, not the government.

"With Roe v. Wade overturned, leaving abortion to the states is his way of punting on the issue," Jeanette Hoffman, a Republican political consultant, said of Trump's position. "Now that the primary is over, there’s nothing to be gained from proposing a national abortion ban, as he’ll lose support from voters in many swing states."

The Reuters/Ipsos poll in March found a sizable majority of Democrats - 83% - think abortion should be legal in most or all cases while most Republican poll respondents - some 57% - think abortion should be outlawed in most or all cases.

Mike Pence, who served as Trump's vice president, called his former boss's position a "slap in the face" to the millions of anti-abortion voters who supported him in 2016 and 2020.

But Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said Trump made the right call by not seeking a national limit that would be seen as overly permissive by anti-abortion voters.

"A 15-week ban is very controversial within the pro-life movement, because it would still allow 95% of all abortions to continue. Not supporting that measure is not going to hurt President Trump," she said in an interview.

Source: REUTERS
 

Arizona Supreme Court reinstates near-total abortion ban from 1864​

The Arizona Supreme court has ruled that the state can enforce a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban.

The 1864 law - which precedes Arizona becoming a state - makes abortion punishable by two to five years in prison, except in cases where the pregnant person's life is at risk.

The ruling could shutter all clinics in the state, and affect both women's health care and the upcoming election.

Arizona voters may be able to undo the ruling in a November referendum.

The decision follows months of legal wrangling about whether the pre-statehood law could be enforced after years of dormancy. Many argued that it had been effectively nullified by decades of state legislation, including a 2022 law that allows abortions until 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Arizona's top court agreed to review the case in August 2023 after the right-wing law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, appealed against a lower court ruling that said the more recent law should stand.

In a 4-2 ruling, the state supreme court overturned that ruling, saying the 1864 law "is now enforceable" because there were no federal or state protections for the procedure.

The Alliance Defending Freedom joined anti-abortion activists in celebrating the decision, saying in a statement that the "significant" ruling "will protect the lives of countless, innocent unborn children".

Arizona's Supreme Court delayed enforcement of the law for 14 days, and the justices sent the case back to a lower court to hear further arguments.

But it remains unclear how the law will be enforced.

Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, issued an executive order last year that placed the abortion law enforcement in the hands of state attorney general Kris Mayes - a Democrat who has promised that Arizonans will not be prosecuted for getting or performing an abortion.

Ms Mayes reiterated that promise in a statement on Tuesday, calling the law "draconian".

"Today's decision to reimpose a law from when Arizona wasn't a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn't even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state," she said.

Some Republicans also expressed concerns about the ruling.

Kari Lake, a close ally of Donald Trump and a Republican candidate for the state's seat in the US Senate, said in a statement she opposed the decision.

She called on Governor Hobbs and the state legislature to find a "common sense solution".

Source: BBC
 
This is a very sensitive topic. I believe woman has more to lose or gain with pregnancy than a man. Outside of giving sperm, a man has very little to do during the entire 9 months of pregnancy. So they should be able to decide what they want to do about their pregnancy.
The outright banning of terminating pregnancy is stupid. I wish woman did not lay down with every loafer they meet on the street that too without protection. Youngsters should be taught to be very judicial who they sleep with or marry.

Government should not interfere in this.
 
Former President Donald Trump said Arizona has gone too far after the state's top court upheld a near-total abortion ban dating back to1864.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr Trump said he thought the ban would quickly be "straightened out".

The law bars abortion from conception, except to save a mother's life.

His remarks come two days after he released a statement saying abortion rights should be left to US states, sending a mixed signal.
 

Florida's 'Nightmare' Abortion Ban Takes Effect​


Florida introduced one of the strictest abortion bans in the United States Wednesday in what President Joe Biden called a "nightmare" triggered by his election rival and predecessor Donald Trump.

US Vice President Kamala Harris was visiting Republican-led Florida to deliver a speech condemning Trump as the harsh ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy took effect.

Republican Trump has bragged about how justices he nominated allowed the conservative-leaning US Supreme Court to revoke the national right to abortion in 2022, in turn paving the way for 21 states to bring in total or partial bans.

"Today, an extreme abortion ban takes effect in Florida, banning reproductive health care before many women even know they are pregnant," Biden said in a statement.

"There is one person responsible for this nightmare: Donald Trump."

Biden himself visited Florida last week as Democrats seek to make abortion one of the core issues of the 2024 election, seeing it as a vote-winner against Trump.

Florida's strict new law replaces a 15-week ban and has left women and clinics across the southern United States scrambling for options.

One of the most populous states in the country, Florida was one of the few in the region where the time limit for abortion was still relatively high, leading many women to travel there to terminate their pregnancies.

Harris, the first female, black and South Asian vice president in US history, has become the campaign's leading voice on abortion rights and will speak in the city of Jacksonville.

In her speech, Harris was to describe the bans in Florida and 20 other states as "Trump abortion bans," pinning the issue on the hard-right former president.

"This ban applies to many women before they even know they are pregnant -- which tells us the extremists who wrote this ban don't even know how a woman's body works. Or they just don't care," she was to say, according to excerpts released by her campaign.

Harris was also set to slam Trump's remarks in a Time magazine interview published on Tuesday in which he said states might monitor women's pregnancies to see if they have had abortions in defiance of a ban.

"Under Donald Trump, it would be fair game for women to be monitored and punished by the government," she was to say.

"Joe Biden and I have a different view: we believe no politician should ever come between a woman and a doctor."

Despite touting the Supreme Court ruling, Trump has recently fudged on the abortion issue amid signs that it is hurting him in the polls. He repeatedly said in the Time interview that it was up to states to decide when asked if he would support a nationwide federal abortion ban.

By going to Florida the Democrats are taking the abortion fight right into Trump's backyard, as the scandal-tainted former commander-in-chief spends much of his time at his Mar-a-Lago resort in the south of the state.

Florida has meanwhile voted Republican since Trump's 2016 election victory, and its six-week abortion ban is the brainchild of Republican governor Ron DeSantis.

The conservative DeSantis, who unsuccessfully ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination this year, signed into law in April 2023 a bill to lower the limit from 15 weeks to six weeks.

The Sunshine State's supreme court dismissed a final legal challenge by pro-abortion groups in April, paving the way for the ban to take effect on Wednesday.

But Florida voters will have a chance to reverse the six-week limit in a referendum that will coincide with November's presidential election.

 
Arizona Senate passes repeal of 1864 abortion ban, sending it to governor's desk

The Arizona Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal a strict, Civil War-era abortion ban that was recently ruled enforceable by the state Supreme Court.

Two Republican senators, T.J. Shope and Shawnna Bolick, joined the 14 Democrats in the minority and the bill passed 16-14, over vocal GOP objection.

Ahead of her vote, Bolick took a broadly anti-abortion position on the floor -- explaining in detail the three difficult pregnancies she had herself, including the story of her own miscarriage -- but she voted with Democrats, suggesting the repeal of the stricter ban might weaken support for a Democratic-led ballot initiative in November to broaden abortion access further.

"Very little legislation written and signed into law is ever perfect. Until we have a better choice in this matter, I side with saving more babies' lives," Bolick said.

But Democrats who have pushed in recent weeks to undo the ban celebrated the successful vote in the Legislature.

"This was a historic and consequential vote .... But I'm more relieved for the people of Arizona who will not have their lives and private medical decisions subjected to this brutal and archaic law," state Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton said in a statement.

The repeal legislation now heads to Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, who said in a statement soon after the vote that she looks "forward to quickly signing the repeal into law."

After being signed by Hobbs, the repeal will then take effect 90 days after the legislative session ends, which must be by June 30.

The governor, in her statement, also called out the pending pro-abortion access ballot measure in November.

"I encourage every Arizonan to make their voices heard," she said.


ABC News
 
Abortion pill still under legal threat despite US Supreme Court ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday keeping the abortion drug mifepristone on the market with no new restrictions ends one chapter of the legal fight over the drug, but efforts by abortion opponents to restrict its use may not be over.

In rejecting a lawsuit by anti-abortion medical groups and doctors, the Supreme Court did not rule on their claim that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acted improperly when it eased restrictions on mifepristone, including allowing it to be prescribed by telemedicine and dispensed by mail. Instead, the court found that they had not shown that they had suffered the kind of harm that would allow them to bring a lawsuit.

The plaintiffs had argued that anti-abortion doctors were harmed by the pill's availability because they might be forced to violate their conscience by treating patients who developed complications after taking it. But the Supreme Court decided they had not offered any evidence that any doctor had actually faced that situation or was likely to in the future.

Normally, that would be the end of the case. Last November, however, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, where the lawsuit was originally filed, allowed three Republican-led states that ban abortion to join the case as plaintiffs.

Those states - Idaho, Missouri and Kansas - had asked to join the Supreme Court appeal, but the justices refused, leaving their claims pending in Kacsmaryk's lower court.

Now, they can try to go forward on their own. Abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, as well as abortion opponents, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the fight is not over and cited the pending claims by the states.

Mifepristone is the first part of a two-drug regimen used for medication abortion, which is approved by the FDA to terminate pregnancy in the first 10 weeks. Medication abortion accounted for more than 60% of U.S. abortions last year.

The drug has drawn increasing attention as Republican-led states have banned or restricted abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling reversing Roe v. Wade, its longstanding precedent that had guaranteed abortion rights nationwide.


Reuters
 

Abortion rights interests plow money into US election races​

NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned women's constitutional right to abortion, political contributions aimed at protecting abortion rights have far outstripped those to support anti-abortion causes.

In the 2023-2024 election cycle leading up to the Nov. 5 vote, pro-abortion rights interests have given $3.37 million to federal candidates, political parties, political action committees (PACs) and outside groups, compared to about $273,000 from anti-abortion interests, according to data from OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics.

The level of spending, opens new tab by pro-abortion rights interests is expected to offer a financial boost to the campaigns of some Democratic candidates including U.S. President Joe Biden, who has made protecting abortion rights a central part of his campaign message for reelection.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in 2022 overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent that had legalized abortion nationwide, prompting 14 states to since enact measures banning or sharply restricting the procedure.

Groups like super PACs received 65.8% of contributions from those backing abortion rights in this election cycle, according to a Reuters analysis of OpenSecrets data.

Republican candidates and party committees got the bulk - about 75.9% - of contributions from anti-abortion rights interests.

 
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