Tag Archives: abortion rights

The Oklahoman reports: Gov. Kevin Stitt is giving California a taste of its own medicine. Citing “Oklahoma’s pro-life stance,” Stitt on Thursday signed an executive order banning all nonessential state-funded travel to California. The move comes after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in October banned city-funded travel to 22 states, including Oklahoma, that city officials say have “restrictive abortion …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump announced Wednesday that he will attend Friday’s March for Life, the annual gathering of antiabortion protesters to commemorate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s landmark abortion decision. While other presidents have addressed the annual rally by phone or sent video greetings, Trump would be the first to speak to the crowd …

The Christian Post reports: A federal grand jury has indicted Robert L. Dear, charging him with committing a mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015 that resulted in three deaths, including a police officer. The grand jury indicted Dear on 68 counts, including 65 counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and 3 counts …

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before abortions. The justices did not comment in refusing to review an appeals court ruling that upheld the law. The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law on behalf of Kentucky’s lone remaining …

Courthouse News reports: A federal jury found an anti-abortion cohort led by David Daleiden caused substantial harm to Planned Parenthood by infiltrating abortion industry conferences to secretly tape abortion doctors and staff, and awarded punitive damages of $870,000. Daleiden, who heads the Center for Medical Progress, and his co-defendant Sandra Merritt, posed as human tissue procurers for a fake company …

Fox News reports: A federal judge issued a ruling Tuesday blocking an Alabama law that would make abortion a felony in nearly all situations, regardless of the stage of the pregnancy. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson granted a motion for a preliminary injunction, temporarily preventing the law from being enforced as a lawsuit over the law brought by abortion providers …

The Hill reports: Planned Parenthood’s super PAC announced a $45 million electoral campaign on Wednesday to defeat President Trump and Republicans in key Senate races. The investment will fund “large-scale” grassroots organization and canvass, digital, television, radio and mail programs. “Next November, our very rights and freedoms will be on the ballot,” said Kelley Robinson, executive director of Planned Parenthood …

NPR reports: The U.S. Supreme Court has jumped headlong back into the abortion wars. The court said Friday that it will hear arguments in a case from Louisiana that is nearly identical to a Texas case decided by the court three years ago. Like the Texas law that the court previously struck down, the Louisiana law requires any doctor performing …

CNN reports: A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a Missouri law banning abortions after eight weeks from going into effect. “The various sections specifying prohibitions on abortions at various weeks prior to viability cannot be allowed to go into effect on August 28, as scheduled,” writes Judge Howard Sachs in an 11-page opinion. “However formulated, the legislation on its face …

Roll Call reports: A routine House debate nearly exploded Wednesday when California Democrat Norma J. Torres implied her Republican colleagues were “sex-starved males” for opposing abortion. “Mr. Speaker, it is tiring to hear from so many sex-starved males on this floor talk about a woman’s right to choose,” Torres said as lawmakers debated a rule setting up amendment consideration for …

NBC News reports: Louisiana lawmakers passed an abortion ban on a 79 – 23 vote Wednesday that would prohibit women from terminating a pregnancy once a fetal heartbeat has been detected. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards [photo] has indicated that he would break with his party and sign the ban if it crosses his desk. The Senate already approved the …

Time Magazine reports: Pope Francis said Saturday that abortion can never be condoned, even when the fetus is gravely sick or likely to die, and urged doctors and priests to support families to carry such pregnancies to term. Speaking to a Vatican-sponsored anti-abortion conference, Francis said the opposition to abortion isn’t a religious issue but a human one. “Is it …

ABC News reports: A federal court in Mississippi on Friday temporarily blocked the state’s new “fetal heartbeat” law that bans abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. The law was set to take effect July 1. “Here we go again,” U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves wrote in his opinion. “Mississippi has passed another law banning abortions prior to viability.” …

Law & Crime reports: A 51-year-old Brooklyn man who threatened to murder a sitting U.S. Senator for their criticism of President Donald Trump pleaded guilty on Friday, meaning he now faces up to 10 years behind bars. Michael Brogan, ostensibly a pro-life man, was accused of threatening to kill an unidentified U.S. Senator “in retaliation for the United States Senator’s …

CBS News reports: Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Friday signed a bill that bans abortions on or beyond the eighth week of pregnancy without exceptions for cases of rape or incest, making it among the most restrictive abortion policies in the nation. Under the law that comes into force Aug. 28, doctors who violate the eight-week cutoff could face five …

Entertainment Weekly reports: Leslie Jones joined “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost on the Saturday Night Live season 44 finale over the weekend, decked out in the red robes worn by the women in The Handmaid’s Tale. Jones soon ripped off the robes to reveal her bold, defiant black T-shirt with the word “Mine” written across the front, above a white …

NPR reports: The Kansas Constitution protects a woman’s right to an abortion, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Friday. The landmark ruling now stands as the law of the land in Kansas with no path for an appeal. Because it turns on the state’s constitution, abortion would remain legal in Kansas even if the Roe v. Wade case that established a …

New York Magazine reports: A total abortion ban criminalizing the procedure and classifying it as a homicide cleared a committee Tuesday and will now be debated at the Texas House of Representatives. If House Bill 896 becomes law, abortion could carry penalties ranging from a state jail felony to a capital felony, and patients who seek the procedure could in …

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court is rejecting an appeal from an anti-abortion group that surreptitiously recorded Planned Parenthood employees. The justices joined lower courts Monday in allowing Planned Parenthood’s racketeering and other claims against the Center for Medical Progress to proceed. Two members of the group also are facing criminal charges in California over the secret recordings. The …

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: Should pregnant women be monitored by the state? That’s what a Louisville lawmaker is proposing out of frustration with a flurry of bills in the current legislative session meant to restrict or eliminate abortion in Kentucky. “It’s so arrogant of a bunch of legislators,” said Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, a Louisville Democrat and supporter of abortion …