Texas Updates Abortion Guidelines But Adds Little Clarity Over Exceptions

Houston Chronicle: Texas Medical Board Approves Limited Guidance For Emergency Abortions
The Texas Medical Board on Friday adopted guidance on when physicians can perform emergency abortions, loosening some paperwork requirements but adding little clarity to the state ban’s exceptions. The decision follows a meeting last month in which doctors, patients and lawyers criticized an earlier proposal of the rules, with many saying it only added more administrative requirements that could further delay care in emergency situations. (Gill, 6/21)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Averages Five Abortions A Month After Dobbs
In the last two years, Texas abortion clinics closed, legal challenges raced through the court system, towns tried to ban out-of-state travel, conservative activists made abortion pills and emergency rooms into battlegrounds, and woman after woman after woman came forward with stories of medical care delayed or denied because of confusion over Texas’ abortion laws. And five women were able to get an abortion, on average, each month. (Klibanoff, 6/24)

Abortion news from Kentucky and Ohio —

The Tennessean: Kentucky Gov. Beshear Decries Abortion Extremism At Nashville Event
Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear decried "extremism" in state abortion bans during a Nashville event on reproductive rights on Friday, pointing to a lack of rape and incest exceptions in Kentucky and Tennessee law as Republicans have effectively banned nearly all abortions in both states. "Extremism pushes everybody off. It's not the right way to govern," Beshear said. "It's not the right way to make policies, because our policies aren't about proving how pure you are to this party or that party. They're about human beings." (Brown, 6/22)

AP: Woman Who Was Raped As A Child Campaigns With First Lady On Abortion 
A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady Jill Biden in Pennsylvania this weekend as part of a 2024 election push around the anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade. Hadley Duvall of Owensboro, Kentucky, first told her story publicly last fall in a campaign ad for the governor’s race in her home state, discussing the consequences of abortion restrictions, particularly those without exceptions for rape or incest. (Long, 6/22)

Cleveland.com: Ohio Has Abortion Rights In The Constitution. Yet As Abortions Are On The Rise, Hospitals Have Not Increased Services.
Ohio voters enshrined reproductive rights in the state constitution last year, but smaller clinics continue to provide most of the abortions in the state as Ohio’s hospitals are not increasing services or wading into the abortion debate. Abortion clinics report seeing increasing numbers of patients, including many from states outside Ohio, where women no longer have abortion rights, according to estimates, though state data won’t be available until later this year. (Hancock, 6/24)

From New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and California —

The Boston Globe: N.H. Teacher Fired For Helping A Pregnant Student Access Abortion Services
A teacher was fired in New Hampshire after investigators concluded she secretly escorted a pregnant student to a medical appointment during the school day, ostensibly to access abortion services. The teacher admitted to her employer that she had lied about having food poisoning when she called in sick from work and drove the student to the medical facility, according to records obtained by The Boston Globe through a public records request. State officials then opened an investigation into her alleged failure to observe appropriate boundaries with the student entrusted to her care. (Porter, 6/23)

The Boston Globe: Massachusetts Has An Abortion Shield Law And Is Leading The Post-Dobbs Resistance
Affixed to the far window of Dr. Angel Foster’s tiny Somerville office is a large map of the United States dotted with silver stars. Each star represents the hometown of a patient, or group of patients, who received abortion pills through the mail last fall in the first month after she launched her telemedicine provider. There are stars in 13 Florida locales, 10 in Georgia, five in Indiana, and a sprinkling in Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, Kentucky, Idaho, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Ohio. (Piore, 6/21)

Politico: In California, Is ‘Pro-Choice Republican’ A Winning Strategy? 
A Republican running to flip a competitive California House seat has an unusual strategy on abortion: Talk like a Clinton-era Democrat. “I’m a pro-choice Republican that believes abortion should be safe, legal and rare,” said Matt Gunderson, the car dealership owner challenging Democratic Rep. Mike Levin in Southern California. That position, a throwback to Democrats’ framing on abortion in the nineties, puts Gunderson in a vanishingly small club of Republicans who espouse support for abortion rights — and sets him apart from most GOP candidates who try to avoid the topic altogether. (Mason, 6/22)