Maine, California Move To Boost Access To Abortions

AP: New Maine Law Aims To Stop Harassment At Abortion Clinics
A new law in Maine is designed to prevent harassment and blockades outside abortion providers in the state. Supporters said the new law gives health service facilities the ability to establish and mark a “medical safety zone” that extends 8 feet (2 1/2 meters) from the center of an entryway. The zone would prohibit people from intentionally blocking entrances or harassing and threatening patients, said supporters. Violations could be charged as a misdemeanor. (Whittle, 4/25)

CalMatters: Abortion Rights: California Preps To Be A Haven 
California abortion clinics are building new facilities closer to transit hubs and training more staff. A package of a dozen abortion rights bills moving through the Legislature could expand the number of providers, provide financial assistance to women traveling to California to terminate their pregnancies, and legally protect the doctors who treat them. As new restrictions rapidly sweep the country in anticipation of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer that may dramatically scale back or even end the constitutional right to abortion, California is preparing to step into the void — and welcome a possible surge of patients losing access in dozens of other states. (Koseff, 4/25)

Slate: The Unexpected Repercussions Of The Texas Abortion Ban.
In a third-floor medical suite with sweeping views of a Texas highway, staff members at Houston Women’s Reproductive Services are adapting to the new demands the state’s restrictive abortion law has placed on their jobs. They try to schedule every patient for a visit on the same day she calls, lest that patient lose a single valuable day of the narrow window for care. They linger on the phone with frantic women who are already terrified that they’ll be forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, even though they are just a day or two late on their period. And they have pivoted, in many cases, to dispensing emotional and logistical support instead of medical care. (Cauterucci, 4/24)

In other abortion news —

USA Today: Supreme Court Abortion Decision Could Shape Nevada Senate Race
Republicans and Democrats alike see Nevada's U.S. Senate race this year as pivotal to controlling the upper chamber of Congress, but a looming Supreme Court decision on abortion rights could upend the election and, Democrats hope, keep the seat blue. Outrage over the potential loss of a constitutional right to an abortion could be particularly galvanizing for more liberal voters in Nevada, Democrats say, because the state has a long history of supporting reproductive rights. (Wells, 4/24)

Politico: Abortion Advocates’ Strategy Depends On Pills. An Information Gap Threatens Their Efforts.
Mail-order abortion pills could help millions of people discreetly terminate their pregnancies should the Supreme Court strike down Roe v. Wade in the coming months, providing a way to circumvent mounting state-imposed restrictions. But the majority of patients and many doctors remain in the dark or misinformed about the pills, how to obtain them, where to seek follow-up care and how to avoid landing in legal jeopardy, according to medical groups, abortion-rights advocates and national polls. (Ollstein and Messerly, 4/24)

The Washington Post: Catholic Priest Buried Fetuses From Abortion Clinic In A Private Cemetery 
The first time the Rev. William Kuchinsky performed a funeral Mass outside a parish, it was in the basement kitchen of a Capitol Hill rowhouse. He prayed over dozens of tiny blue circular, plastic containers. They held more than 100 human fetuses, and the service was a secret. Kuchinsky, a West Virginia priest well known for his antiabortion activism, had been called to the apartment on March 28 by other antiabortion activists who said they had gotten the remains from the driver of a medical waste disposal truck in D.C. — an account the waste company denied. Lauren Handy, who rented the apartment, and Terrisa Bukovinac, another activist, had asked Kuchinsky to come, and he celebrated a funeral Mass. (Boorstein, 4/25)

In other reproductive health news —

CBS News: Minnesota State Senate Candidate Delivered Convention Speech While In Labor And Having Contractions 
A Minnesota State Senate candidate was in labor while giving a speech at a convention to secure her party's nomination and had to leave early to give birth. Erin Maye Quade went into labor at about 2 a.m. on Saturday, the morning of Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party convention. She still showed up in labor and gave her speech, her campaign manager Mitchell Walstad told CBS News.  Video taken at the convention shows her holding her stomach and pausing, apparently having a contraction, after finishing a sentence of her speech. (O'Kane, 4/25)

ABC News: Ashley Tisdale Opens Up About Healing From Postpartum Diastasis Recti Condition
Ashley Tisdale is opening up about her experience with diastasis recti, a condition that affects pregnant and postpartum people. In an Instagram post over the weekend, the “High School Musical” actress wrote that she’s spent the past year working on loving her body. ... Diastasis recti happens when the uterus stretches the muscles in the abdomen. It can cause the two large parallel bands of muscles that meet in the middle of the abdomen to become separated by an abnormal distance, according to the Mayo Clinic. (Bernabe, 4/25)