Arizonans Will Vote On Abortion This November
The state confirmed Monday that abortion-rights supporters submitted enough signatures for the issue to appear on the ballot. Under current law, abortions are banned after 15 weeks. If the measure passes, abortions would be protected by the state constitution and available until viability, around 24 weeks.
ABC News:
Abortion Access Will Officially Be On Arizona’s Ballot In November
An amendment that would create a right to an abortion in Arizona’s constitution will appear on the state’s ballot this November. Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition supporting the amendment, announced on Monday night that the measure would appear on the state’s November ballot as Proposition 139, allowing voters in the swing state to decide on the issue this election cycle. ... If passed in November, the measure would establish a fundamental right to an abortion in the state. It would protect access to abortion up until viability, which is generally around 24 weeks, with exceptions after that if a “healthcare provider determines an abortion is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the patient.” Arizona law currently bans abortions after 15 weeks and includes exceptions in cases of medical emergencies. (Demissie and Oppenheim, 8/12)
The 19th:
Texas Hospitals Wouldn’t Treat Their Ectopic Pregnancies. Each Lost A Fallopian Tube As A Result.
Two women have filed complaints with the federal government alleging that Texas hospitals denied them abortion care necessary to treat their ectopic pregnancies. The complaints were filed August 6 by Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz and Kyleigh Thurman against Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital and Round Rock-based Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital, respectively. Both women are represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights. (Luthra, 8/12)
AP:
Wisconsin Capitol Police Decline To Investigate Leak Of State Supreme Court Abortion Order
Wisconsin Capitol Police have declined to investigate the leak of a state Supreme Court abortion order in June citing a conflict of interest, but the court’s chief justice told The Associated Press she is pursuing other options. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler told AP via email on Thursday that she continues “to pursue other means in an effort to get to the bottom of this leak.” She did not respond to messages last week and Monday asking what those other means were. Other justices also did not return a request for comment Monday. (Bauer, 8/12)
News Service of Florida:
Number Of Florida Abortions Are Down After The 6-Week Limit Goes Into Effect
More than 40,000 abortions had been reported this year in Florida as of Aug. 1, but the number being performed is down after a law took effect preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, according to newly released state data. (Saunders, 8/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Parties Where Volunteers Pack Abortion Pills For Red-State Women
The women huddling around the conference table shuttled the small cardboard boxes along, assembly-line style. Into each went medical-information paperwork and a handwritten note proclaiming, “We wish you the best!” Then came the critical addition, a two-drug regimen that ends a pregnancy. This tiny Boston-area office represents a new bulwark in America’s abortion battle. Volunteers are mobilizing with growing frequency for pill-packing parties to help strangers in faraway states circumvent strict laws. On a recent Monday evening, the group filled 350 boxes—in-home abortion kits ready for mailing to women in states such as Texas and Florida with near-total or six-week abortion bans. (Calvert, 8/12)
The Guardian:
Child Rape Survivors Face Extraordinary Barriers In States With Abortion Bans
Since Roe v Wade was overturned by the US supreme court in 2022, 14 states have passed near-total abortion bans. Ten of those states, including Texas, have no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. A study published earlier this year estimated that 65,000 rape-related pregnancies probably occurred in states with abortion bans since Roe fell. While there are no studies on the numbers of rape-related pregnancies in minors since Roe was overturned, young people in states with abortion bans face unique barriers, according to doctors and advocates who spoke with the Guardian. (Cincurova and Williams, 8/11)
The New York Times:
When ‘Abortion’ Wasn’t A Dirty Word
One morning in 2012, eight weeks into her pregnancy, Shannon Withycombe woke up bleeding: She was having a miscarriage. In the emergency room, however, no doctor or nurse uttered that word. Instead, she had to wait to read her discharge papers, which read “incomplete abortion.” Dr. Withycombe, a medical historian at the University of New Mexico, knew the term from her research on 19th-century medical journals; it was doctorspeak for a miscarriage that had not fully exited the uterus. But it was jarring to see it on her own 21st-century medical notes. (Gross, 8/13)
On the IVF crisis in Alabama —
The New York Times:
I.V.F. Threats In Alabama Drive Clinics To Ship Out Embryos
An emerging movement against in vitro fertilization is driving some doctors and patients in red states to move or destroy frozen embryos. The embryo migration is most striking in Alabama, where the State Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos were “unborn children.” Since then, at least four of Alabama’s seven fertility clinics have hired biotech companies to move the cells elsewhere. A fifth clinic is working with a doctor in New York to discard embryos because of concerns about the legality of doing so in Alabama. (Ghorayshi and Kliff, 8/12)
