Global Courant
US President Joe Biden is hosting a rally on Friday to mark the approaching one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal abortion protections and will issue an executive order to strengthen access to contraception.
The president’s executive order aims to strengthen access to birth control, a growing concern for Democrats after some conservatives showed a willingness to move beyond abortion and regulate birth control. In 2017, nearly 65 percent of girls and women ages 15 to 49 in the US used some form of contraception, about 47 million in total.
Some abortion opponents are calling for the abortion drug mifepristone to lose its 23-year-old U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. The Supreme Court has provisionally retained the inspection.
“We are really trying to do three separate things that are all interrelated,” said Jen Klein, a top Biden aide on gender policy. “The first is more and expanded birth control options. The second is to reduce out-of-pocket costs. And the third is to raise awareness about what options are available.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who has hosted nearly 50 rallies in 16 states on the topic of reproductive rights since the seismic Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling last June 24, is expected to speak at a public conference on the issue. event in Charlotte, NC, on Friday.
Since last year’s June 24 ruling revoked a five-decade-old right to abortion, more than 25 million girls and women ages 15 to 44 now live in states where access to abortion is stricter than the highest court. pronunciation. That’s 40 percent of all women in that age range, and 5.5 million more live in states where restrictions have been put in place but are pending legal proceedings.
Polls have consistently shown that most Americans believe abortion should be possible in some circumstances, especially early in pregnancy. Gallup in February found that nearly half of Americans surveyed thought abortion laws should be less strict, a significant jump in that finding since the previous survey conducted just a few months earlier.
Reproductive rights groups support Biden-Harris early on
Also timed for the anniversary are messages of support for Biden and Harris from Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Emily’s List. The leading voices on abortion rights would always support the Democratic ticket, but the heads of the three organizations say coming out early and loud is important on an issue they expect will inspire voters.
“The longer these bans are in place, the more people know someone who has gone through something or read a terrible story,” said Mini Timmaraju, head of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “They have to make a decision about where to go to college based on the states with the bans. They have to make a decision about whether to practice medicine based on an abortion ban. It’s now permeating everyday life and it has unintended consequences.”
LOOK | Women in Texas are considering options in the state, with some exceptions to the abortion ban:
This is what an abortion ban looks like in Texas
Texas effectively banned abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. CBC’s Ellen Mauro traveled to the state to see how people are navigating the restrictions and preparing for them to get worse.
Decisions about the law are largely in the hands of state legislatures and courts. Most Republican-led states have banned abortion. Fourteen prohibit abortion in most cases at any time during pregnancy.
As a result, the stakes remain high, said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
“We are going to an election where the opposition is very clear: they are pushing for a national ban,” she said.
In 25 states, abortion generally remains legal until at least 24 weeks of pregnancy. In 20 of those states, protections have been strengthened through constitutional amendments or laws. Officials in many of those states, including California, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico and New York, have explicitly invited women from places where the procedure is banned.
Access clinics are seeing a rise in out-of-state patients
Kansas is one of the closest places to obtain abortions for people in parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. A new clinic opened in Kansas City, Kansas, four days before Dobbs. Within weeks, the clinic was overwhelmed, even after extending hours, hiring staff, and flying in doctors.
Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood in Kansas, said most patients at the Kansas clinics now come from elsewhere.
“You’re in a really, really bad public health situation when you look at someone who had to jump through endless amounts of hoops to make this work and say they’re so lucky to be able to do this,” Alsaden said.
LISTEN | The battle for the abortion pill mifepristone:
The current19:52Fight over access to abortion pill in US
A legal battle in the US over the abortion drug mifepristone raises concerns that the courts could set a precedent around access to other drugs. Matt Galloway talks with Elizabeth Janiak, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School; and Alice Ollstein, a health care reporter on Capitol Hill for Politico.
Due to reporting delays and gaps in data, the impact on the number of abortions performed in the US is not entirely clear. But the authors of #WeCount, a study conducted for the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit organization that promotes research and supports access to abortion, say the monthly average fell after Dobbs.
In Louisiana, where abortion was legal up to 22 weeks gestation before Dobbs, the state reported more than 7,400 abortions in 2020, the latest year for which complete data was available. #WeCount found that there were an average of 785 per month in April and May 2022 – and less than 10 per month since the ban came into effect there.
There are similar trends elsewhere. In Idaho, 1,700 abortions were reported in 2020 and #WeCount recently found less than 10 per month. In Texas, state data shows only a handful of abortions per month from August to January. Before the restrictions came into effect there in 2021, there were often more than 5,000 per month.
The #WeCount survey found that abortion rates have risen dramatically in states bordering no-access states, such as Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, and North Carolina. In Illinois, for example, the study counted about 5,600 abortions in April 2022 and more than 7,900 in March 2023.
