Justice & Law

‘Women Are Afraid to Get Pregnant’: How the Texas Abortion Ban Denies Life-Saving Care

PUBLISHED 10/1/2024 by

Kyleigh Thurman and Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz are the latest Texan women to file complaints or lawsuits after suffering harm to their reproductive health after the state enacted a near-total abortion ban.

“These women are examples of how scared, terrified and confused providers are even with the Texas law redefining that it’s legal that an ectopic pregnancy is a medical exception,” said Austin Dennard, a Dallas OB-GYN. Abortion bans in states like Texas are making doctors hesitate to provide life-saving care and “stealing the joy out of pregnancy,” she said.

Supreme Court of Georgia Rules to Reinstate the State’s Six-Week Abortion Ban

PUBLISHED 10/1/2024 by | UPDATED 10/7/2024 at 11:50 A.M. PT

The Supreme Court of Georgia will reinstate the state’s six-week abortion ban starting 5 p.m. Monday, just a week after a trial court struck down the law. 

Some abortion providers in the state had resumed offering abortions past six weeks of pregnancy since the state’s lower court struck down the ban. The lower court ruling had temporarily allowed legal abortion up to 22 weeks of pregnancy. Monday’s decision means the ban will remain in effect while the case challenging Georgia’s law makes its way through the state court system.

War on Women Report: More Women Die From Abortion Bans; Senate Republicans Block IVF Bill; Texas AG Sues Biden Over Teen Birth Control Access

PUBLISHED 9/30/2024 by and

U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report… Former Rochester police officer Shawn Jordan, convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl, was sentenced to just 10 weekends in jail; at least 11 states will ask voters to weigh in on abortion and reproductive healthcare access by way of ballot measures; a scarcity of research on tampon safety reveals a lack of women’s health prioritization in medicine and law; Taysha Wilkinson-Sobieski, a 26-year-old woman in Indiana, died in October 2023 after being unable to access timely care for her ectopic pregnancy; the gender pay gap has widened significantly for the first time in 20 years; and more.

It’s Time to Protect People With Albinism and Their Right to Live Safely

PUBLISHED 9/27/2024 by , and

Albinism is a non-contagious, genetically inherited condition that affects people regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. The condition is characterized by a lack of melanin in the hair, skin and/or eyes. This lack of melanin makes people with albinim susceptible to ultraviolet rays, increasing their risk of developing deadly skin cancer. Although it is a relatively rare condition, albinism disproportionately affects people in poverty and those facing multiple and intersecting forms of stigma, discrimination and violence.

This summer marked a decade since the creation of International Albinism Awareness Day. Ten years on, we reflect on the challenges faced by individuals with albinism and to celebrate the significant strides made to advance their human rights.

Not a ‘Groom,’ but ‘Grooming’: It’s Past Time to End Child Marriage in the United States

PUBLISHED 9/27/2024 by

There’s no romance in being a child bride. And whether the “groom” is R. Kelly, with his marriage to 15-year-old Aaliyah, your great-grandmother, or Justine (name changed for protection)—a minor married to a man twice her age in the state of Maryland—more often than not, these marriages are a form of child abuse … government-sanctioned child abuse, in some states.

Child marriage remains legal in well over half of all U.S. states, with over 300,000 minors married between 2000 and 2018. Every year, hundreds of children of every gender, ethnicity and religious background are married, with no regard for their consent. “Groom” might be the technical term in these marriages, but “grooming” is more accurate.

More Than 8,000 Catholic Employers Can Now Deny Workers Time Off for an Abortion or IVF

PUBLISHED 9/27/2024 by

More than 8,000 Catholic employers across the country will not be required to provide accommodations for workers needing abortion or fertility care following a ruling in North Dakota. An estimated 162,000 workers are on these health plans.

Abortion access, IVF treatment and gender-affirming care have all become major talking points in an election that may be defined by them. Vice President Kamala Harris, who supports all three, has been critical of Trump’s stance on abortion and IVF in particular.

What Does the ‘Pro-Life’ Movement Care About?

PUBLISHED 9/26/2024 by

When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health and overturned Roe v. Wade, there was a lot of talk, mostly from “compassionate conservative” abortion opponents, about what was next. It would be necessary, these abortion opponents argued, for the pro-life movement and perhaps even the Republican Party to finally turn its focus to actually helping women and babies. The country would be remade into one reflecting a broader “culture of life.” We were going to get a bipartisan pro-family agenda. Abortion wouldn’t just become illegal; the nation would be so welcoming to pregnant women that abortion would simply be unthinkable.

None of that has happened.

Florida Just Banned Sex Ed in Public Schools. Project 2025 Calls for the Same Ban *Nationwide.*

PUBLISHED 9/25/2024 by and

If you don’t live in Florida, you may be inclined to distance yourself from the news that they just banned public school districts from teaching sex education—including lessons on consent, HIV transmission, abuse prevention, and the existence of LGBTQ+ people.

But this is not a “Florida problem”—it’s a national preview. Because Project 2025 calls for a federal ban on sex education too. It’s just hidden, snuck in as part of their ban on pornography. 

Crossing State Lines to Get an Abortion Is a New Legal Minefield, With Courts to Decide if There’s a Right to Travel

PUBLISHED 9/25/2024 by and

Almost half of the states in the country have made it harder to get an abortion since the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the federal right to get an abortion. Fourteen states ban abortions in almost all circumstances, and another eight in almost all cases after 6 to 18 weeks of pregnancy.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the 2022 Dobbs decision that states cannot legally prevent their residents from going to another state to get an abortion, because he believes there is a “constitutional right to interstate travel.”

The U.S. Constitution does not, however, explicitly recognize a “right to interstate travel.” But the Supreme Court has issued decisions as far back as 1867 that can be interpreted to protect this right—and some scholars are confident that such a right exists.