Southerners Soon May Be One Abortion Crisis Away From Financial Ruin
With farther to go and travel assistance funds already under strain, urgent abortion care might become out of reach for many women when Florida's abortion ban goes into effect this week. Meanwhile, some cities in Texas and California are throwing up more barriers for abortion care.
The New Republic:
Florida’s Six-Week Abortion Ban Will Ruin Some People Financially
When a new abortion ban goes into effect in Florida this week, it will rob people across the south of one of the last few options they had. Floridians and those in neighboring states will instead have to travel to North Carolina or even farther to get an abortion. Abortion funds were already straining to meet the need of patients. Now, they must raise more money for people traveling longer distances, later in pregnancy when abortions can be more complicated and expensive. This is the post-Dobbs reality: For all the optimism surrounding state ballot measures in November, abortions are increasingly out of reach or financially ruinous for large numbers of people. (Grant, 4/30)
Abortion news from Texas, California, Missouri, and Wisconsin —
The Texas Tribune:
Amarillo Activists Gather Signatures For Abortion Travel Ban
Anti-abortion activists in Amarillo say they have collected enough signatures — more than 10,000 — to force the City Council to reconsider a policy that would outlaw using local streets to access an abortion in other states. Organizers submitted the petition to the city last week. (Carver, 4/30)
Dallas Morning News:
Dallas Church Opens Pregnancy Center With Abortion Resources
Leaders of the First Unitarian Church of Dallas cut the ribbon Friday on a new pregnancy resource center that aims to provide comprehensive reproductive health information and to act as a foil for crisis pregnancy centers. The Truth Pregnancy Resource Center is a direct reaction to Texas’ strict abortion bans that made the procedure illegal in all cases but those that threaten the life of the mother. Abortion clinics around the state shuttered, limiting access to women’s health care providers in regions already known to be maternal care deserts. (Wolf, 4/29)
CalMatters:
An Abortion Fight In Beverly Hills Exposes The Limits Of California’s ‘Reproductive Freedom’
A proposed clinic in Beverly Hills was blocked from opening, highlighting California’s barriers to abortion rights. (Koseff, 4/29)
NPR:
Voters Could Support Abortion Rights And Republicans In November
Missouri may soon be a barometer for how abortion-related ballot initiatives can affect elections in Republican-led states. If advocates and volunteers turn in enough signatures by May 5, Missourians will vote on an abortion-rights initiative in November. Some Democrats in the state hope it energizes voters enough to help candidates running for key statewide and state legislative posts, but in some respects, having the ability to pick and choose policies through a robust initiative petition process could be a double-edged sword. (Rosenbaum, 4/30)
Kentucky Lantern:
Can 14 Strangers From Wisconsin Help America Find Common Ground On Abortion?
Fourteen people from around the state have been recruited to find common ground on abortion amid their deeply divergent stances. The Wisconsin Citizen Solutions on Abortion and Family Well Being is an experiment designed by Starts With Us, a nonprofit civic organization whose mission is to try to effect change through citizen solutions and show that people on opposite sides of controversial issues can come to a mutual understanding when they engage in guided mediation. (Resnick, 4/29)
Also —
The 19th:
What Is Doxxing? And Why Is A Constant Worry For Reproductive Rights Workers?
In November, a study revealed how easily foreign governments could use companies known as data brokers to purchase personal information about U.S. military personnel. In some cases researchers paid less than a quarter per record for information that included home addresses, cell phone numbers and sensitive health data. (Mithani, 4/29)
The Washington Post:
An AI Genetic Test Aims To Detect Postpartum Depression Before Symptoms
Postpartum depression is a leading cause of maternal death, but its diagnosis and treatment is spotty at best, negligent at worst. Now San Diego-based start-up Dionysus Digital Health is pitching a blood test to check for the condition, even before symptoms appear. The company says it has pinpointed a gene linking a person’s moods more closely to hormonal changes. The test uses machine learning to compare epigenetics — how genes are expressed — in your blood sample with benchmarks developed during a decade of research into pregnant people who did and didn’t develop postpartum depression. (Hunter, 4/29)
