Religious Freedom Gone Too Far: The Story of Kate Cox Should Horrify Us All

Texas Woman Denied Abortion for Nonviable Fetus, Flees State, “One of Thousands” in Similar Position

A Texas woman has had to flee to another state to have an emergency abortion after the state Supreme Court ruled against her. Kate Cox fled Monday after she had petitioned a judge to get an exemption from the state’s near-total abortion ban when her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition and doctors warned her carrying to term could endanger her fertility. “Unfortunately, it’s one of hundreds, if not thousands, of comparable stories,” says Dr. Bhavik Kumar, an abortion provider in Texas. “While these politicians say there are exceptions, somebody really has to be at death’s door before we can reasonably act in their favor.” We also speak with Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, who says the Texas case could have a “chilling effect” on people seeking abortions elsewhere in the country, including in Kentucky, where a pregnant woman is the lead plaintiff in a new class-action lawsuit that argues the state’s ban on abortion violates its constitution. “These laws, restrictions and attacks don’t happen in a vacuum,” says Wieder.

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/12/12/texas_woman_denied_abortion_for_nonviable?jwsource=cl

Island of Access: VP Harris Visits MN Abortion Clinic in Historic First Amid Growing Restrictions

 In what is believed to be the first time a president or vice president has publicly toured an abortion clinic, Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood location in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday. The visit was the latest in a nationwide tour by Harris to highlight reproductive rights. In her remarks outside the clinic, she lauded Minnesota’s efforts to protect abortion rights in the face of what she describes as a “very serious health crisis,” with restrictive laws and outright abortion bans in more than a dozen states. Clinics in Minnesota have seen a drastic rise in appointments for reproductive healthcare as one of the last remaining access states in the region, says our guest Megan Peterson, who adds that it is “really important” that the Biden team not take pro-abortion voters “for granted.” Peterson is the executive director of Gender Justice Action, a reproductive rights group working in Minnesota and North Dakota. We also speak to professor Michele Goodwin, who calls the consequences of state-level abortion bans since Dobbs v. Jackson a “trail of horrors” that are “antithetical” to science, health and human rights.

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/15/kamala_harris_abortion_reproductive_rights_2024?jwsource=cl