Abortion – Gloomberg News

California attorney general warns town against abortion ban as governor signs 13 reproductive health bills

28Sep

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Politics

California attorney general warns town against abortion ban as governor signs 13 reproductive health bills

A city in California is considering legislation that would ban abortions within the city. In response, California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned Temecula's city council not to pass such legislation, threatening legal action if it attempts to go above state law. In a letter sent Friday to the city's mayor and council, Bonta emphasized that local laws cannot conflict with state laws. "The California Legislature and the California Supreme Court have declared time and again that California is a reproductive freedom state and that Californians have a right to access abortion," the letter said. Earlier this month, during a Temecula City Council meeting, member Jessica Alexander proposed the creation of a resolution barring abortions."Let Temecula be...

Michigan to vote on amendment protecting constitutional right to abortion

9Sep

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Politics

Michigan to vote on amendment protecting constitutional right to abortion

An amendment protecting the constitutional right to an abortion will go before voters in Michigan this November, a state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.The court directed the Board of State Canvassers to certify the Reproductive Freedom for All petition for inclusion on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.The move comes as the fight over abortion rights have been front and center since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision in Roe v Wade in June – leaving it up to states to determine whether abortion would remain legal. Michigan is one of the states at the center of that fight. The state has a 1931 law on the books that bans abortion with no exceptions for rape and incest. A claims court judge on Wednesday declared the law unconstit...

Women Race Political Clock, Cross State Lines for Abortions

30Aug

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Politics

Women Race Political Clock, Cross State Lines for Abortions

By LINDSEY TANNER AND PATRICK ORSAGOS, Associated PressDAYTON, OHIO (AP) — In the dim light of a clinic ultrasound room, Monica Eberhart reclines on an exam table as a nurse moves a probe across her belly. Waves of fetal cardiac activity ripple across the screen.“The heartbeat,” the nurse says. “About 10 weeks and two days.”Eberhart exhales. It’s good news. “That means I’m just under,” she says, raising her hands and crossing her fingers.The 23-year-old mother of three is racing a political clock. When she learned she was pregnant again, she decided abortion was her best choice — even if meant navigating a patchwork of state laws enacted since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.Political CartoonsHours after the ruling in late June, Ohio imposed a ban on abortions once cardiac activit...

In California, abortion could become a constitutional right. So could birth control.

4Aug

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Politics

In California, abortion could become a constitutional right. So could birth control.

Sacramento — Californians will decide in November whether to lock the right to abortion into the state constitution.If they vote "yes" on Proposition 1, they will also lock in a right that has gotten less attention: the right to birth control.Should the measure succeed, California would become one of the first states — if not the first — to create explicit constitutional rights to both abortion and contraception. The lawmakers and activists behind the constitutional amendment said they hope to score a one-two punch: protect abortion in California after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to abortion under Roe v. Wade, and get ahead of what they see as the next front in the reproductive rights fight — birth control."The U...

In rare move for Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito mocks foreign critics of abortion reversal

31Jul

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Politics

In rare move for Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito mocks foreign critics of abortion reversal

Justice Samuel Alito mocked foreign leaders' criticism of the Supreme Court decision he authored overturning a constitutional right to abortion, in his first public comments since last month's ruling. The justice's remarks drew more criticism as well as some support.Speaking in Rome at a religious liberty summit, Alito, 72, spent only a couple of minutes on the subject of abortion, and then only to discuss his foreign critics — an unusual step for a high court justice.Dressed in a tuxedo and sporting a beard he sometimes grows when the court is out of session, Alito quipped that the ruling he authored had been "lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders," then joked that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had "paid the price" for his comments. Johnson called the decision "a b...

Federal appeals court, citing Roe v. Wade reversal, lets Georgia’s “heartbeat” abortion law take effect

21Jul

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Politics

Federal appeals court, citing Roe v. Wade reversal, lets Georgia’s “heartbeat” abortion law take effect

Atlanta — A federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and allowed Georgia's restrictive 2019 abortion law to take effect immediately Wednesday. The decision was expected after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.The law, which had been barred from taking effect, bans most abortions once a "detectable human heartbeat" is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many pregnancies are detected. The Georgia law includes exceptions for rape and incest, as long as a police report is filed. It also allows for later abortions when the mother's life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a...

Biden says he’s considering declaring a public health emergency for abortion access

10Jul

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Politics

Biden says he’s considering declaring a public health emergency for abortion access

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware — President Biden said Sunday he is considering declaring a public health emergency to free up federal resources to promote abortion access, even though the White House has said it doesn't seem like "a great option."He also offered a message to people enraged by the Supreme Court's ruling last month that ended a constitutional right to abortion and who have been demonstrating across the country: "Keep protesting. Keep making your point. It's critically important."The president, in remarks to reporters during a stop on a bike ride near his family's Delaware beach house, said he lacks the power to force the dozen-plus states with strict restrictions or outright bans on abortion to allow the procedure. "I don't have the aut...

Biden Strategizes With Democratic Governors to Protect Abortion Rights | Politics

1Jul

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Politics

Biden Strategizes With Democratic Governors to Protect Abortion Rights | Politics

Hamstrung by narrow Democratic majorities in Congress, President Joe Biden Friday huddled virtually with Democratic governors to find ways to provide abortion access even as states move to ban or severely restrict the procedure."We're going to do everything in our power" to help girls and women get abortions no matter where they live, Biden told nine governors on a videoconference to plot strategy. He said he had just spoken with Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the two were determined to make sure two workarounds – getting medication abortion from an out-of-state provider or traveling across a state line to get an abortion, would be protected."This is not over," Biden said, a week after the Supreme Court handed down a decision reversing the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling guaranteeing a woma...

Protests begin outside Supreme Court, across U.S. in wake of decision overturning Roe v. Wade

25Jun

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Politics

Protests begin outside Supreme Court, across U.S. in wake of decision overturning Roe v. Wade

With the Supreme Court decision striking down the precedent that had been in place for nearly 50 years, protests are springing up across the country, with more than 100 scheduled as of Friday.Millions of young Americans have never lived in a world without the constitutionally protected right to an abortion. The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson that overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision could galvanize young people.CBS News polling found that a greater number of young Americans believe abortion should be legal in their state if Roe v Wade is overturned: 73% of those under 30 believe it should be legal in all or most cases, the most of any age category. In the immediate wake of the decision Friday morning, both protesters in support and who opp...

Iowa Supreme Court rules abortion is not protected by state constitution

17Jun

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Politics

Iowa Supreme Court rules abortion is not protected by state constitution

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for lawmakers to severely limit or even ban abortion in the state, reversing a decision by the court just four years ago that guaranteed the right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution.The court, now composed almost entirely of Republican appointees, concluded that a less conservative court wrongly decided that abortion is among the fundamental privacy rights guaranteed by the Iowa Constitution and federal law.Friday's ruling comes amid expectations that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established the constitutional right to choose to have an abortion nationwide. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, Iowa lawmakers could ban abortion in the state without completing the lengthy process of am...