Tag Archives: abortion rights

The Associated Press reports: A judge has ordered a woman who set fire to Wyoming’s only full-service abortion clinic to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution, the full amount sought by prosecutors. Lorna Green is serving five years in prison for burning Wellspring Health Access weeks before the clinic was set to open in Casper in 2022. The fire gutted the …

Courthouse News reports: The case, brought by Fund Texas Choice and others, takes aim at Senate Bill 8, a 2021 Texas law that allows private parties to bring lawsuits against any person who “aids and abets” an abortion. Under that law, private parties can seek damages of at least $10,000 for any instance where someone aids, abets, induces or performs …

Miami’s PBS affiliate reports: Groups behind the push to put abortion rights on the Florida ballot next year have reached a major milestone: They believe they have collected all the signatures needed to put it to a vote. The petition aims to place a state constitutional amendment to protect the right to an abortion on the 2024 ballot. It would …

The Hill reports: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley sidestepped a question on the high-profile abortion case in Texas, in which a woman was denied an abortion that her doctor deemed to be medically necessary. In the interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” Haley would not criticize the Texas Supreme Court, which diverged from the lower court in denying the woman, …

NBC News reports: Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas dodged questions Tuesday about Kate Cox, a mother of two who has drawn national attention after their state’s Supreme Court blocked her from getting an abortion after her fetus received a fatal diagnosis. Cruz and Cornyn were notably skittish when they were asked to weigh in on Cox’s …

Politico reports: Kellyanne Conway is going to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with a message for Republicans: promote contraception or risk defeat in 2024. The former senior counselor and campaign manager for President Donald Trump is part of a group set to brief Republicans on how they might get ahead of Democrats’ attacks that the GOP is anti-woman by talking more …

The Hill reports: A pregnant woman in Kentucky who filed a lawsuit demanding the right to an abortion discovered her embryo no longer has any cardiac activity, her attorneys said Monday. Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood who were representing plaintiff Jane Doe said they couldn’t comment on what impact the development will have on …

The New York Times reports: The Texas Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower court order allowing an abortion for a pregnant woman whose fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition, hours after her lawyers said she had decided to leave Texas for the procedure in the face of the state’s abortion bans. The court ruled that the lower court …

From a 2012 Texas Tribune report: A race for the Texas Supreme Court has an eight-year incumbent with the backing of the Republican establishment battling John Devine, an anti-abortion activist and frequent political candidate known for his fight to keep the Ten Commandments displayed in his Houston courtroom. Despite past criticism, Devine has not shrunk from making his anti-abortion ideology …

Reuters reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday threatened to prosecute any doctors involved in providing an emergency abortion to a woman, hours after she won a court order allowing her to obtain one for medical necessity. Paxton said in a letter that the order by District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin did not shield doctors from …

The Huffington Post reports Republicans in New Hampshire filed one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country on Tuesday ― and a GOP trifecta could allow the bill to become law once the legislature starts its 2024 session next month. The bill was pre-filed in the House in September, but the full text of the abortion ban was …

The Messenger reports: Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs endorsed an abortion ballot initiative that could appear on the November 2024 ballot earlier this week. Hobbs signed a petition form for the “Arizona Abortion Access Act,” which would guarantee the right to abortion in the state constitution by making abortion a “fundamental right” until fetal viability. The ballot initiative is being spearheaded …

Florida Politics reports: A new poll of Florida voters shows a proposed abortion rights initiative could pass in 2024 if it makes the ballot and that the measure has picked up support across gender, racial and party lines. The University of North Florida poll found that 62% of all respondents would vote yes on the proposed amendment while 29% oppose …

The Ohio Capital Journal reports: Issue 1, the proposal to enshrine abortion access into the state constitution, passed 57-43% on election night. Despite this large victory, Statehouse Republicans have been mulling over ways to combat it. State Rep. Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester) is seemingly leading this fight with other far-right representatives Bill Dean (R-Xenia), Melanie Miller (R-Ashland) and Beth Lear …

Bridge Michigan reports: Right to Life, Republican lawmakers and other abortion foes have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a voter-approved amendment to the Michigan constitution that guarantees a right to reproductive freedom. The federal lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials seeks to invalidate Proposal 3, arguing the 2022 ballot proposal created an illegitimate “super-right” to …

The Meidas Touch reports: Days after Ohio voters passed Issue 1 and codified abortion rights into Ohio’s constitution, Republicans are not accepting the election results. In a new, unhinged press release issued by the Ohio House Republican Committee, GOP members rant that “foreign billionaires” impacted the election results and call the results tainted by so-called “foreign interference.” It is unclear …

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: Voters who approved Ohio’s Issue 1 Tuesday dealt a blow to Catholic bishops and activists who mounted an unprecedented campaign to stop abortion from becoming a constitutional right in the state. They still lost by a 14-point margin, 57%-43%. The church in Ohio spent more than $1.7 million trying to convince voters to reject the amendment. …

Axios reports: After Ohio’s vote Tuesday to protect abortion rights, Democrats are rushing to get similar measures on the ballot next year in key states such as Arizona, Nevada and Florida — partly to boost President Biden and down-ballot Democrats. Voters now have explicitly endorsed abortion rights via ballot initiatives in seven states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. …

“For pro lifers, last night was a gut punch. No sugar coating it. Giving up on the unborn is not an option. It’s politically dumb and morally repugnant. Instead, we need to understand why we lost this battle so we can win the war. I was very involved in the ‘no’ campaign for issue 1, so let me share a …

Posted to the Family Research Council’s website: The pro-life cause suffered major setbacks in the 2023 off-year election, as voters in Ohio adopted a vaguely-worded constitutional amendment creating a “right” to abortion until birth and other “reproductive decisions.” Ohioans also legalized recreational marijuana, while other national bellwether states defeated a rising pro-life candidate for governor of Kentucky, elected a pro-abortion …