Yesterday a federal judge placed a temporary block on North Dakota’s ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Signed into law in March, the abortion law in North Dakota bans the procedure once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can usually be found around the six-week mark. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland said that North Dakota’s abortion ban, which is the nation’s earliest ban, is “clearly invalid and unconstitutional.”
The Texas state Senate passed an anti-abortion law that threatens to close all but five clinics in the state and has garnered national attention in a vote of 19 to 11 on Friday.
In states across the country, legislatures are restricting women’s reproductive healthcare choices at an unbelievable rate.
Conservative North Carolina representatives have passed a “sneak attack” bill that combines an unrelated House bill on motorcycle safety with anti-abortion provisions. These provisions mirror the amendment added to an anti-Sharia bill that was passed in the Senate.
On Wednesday morning, during the last minute discussion of an anti-Sharia bill, the North Carolina state Senate gave final approval to an amendment restricting abortion access in a vote of 29 to 12.
On Sunday night Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) signed a new state budget into law that includes provisions that will severely restrict access to reproductive healthcare across the state. Ohio will now be home to some of the nation’s strictest abortion regulations.
After a marathon filibuster to defeat an extreme anti-abortion bill, Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) has called a second special session in an attempt to pass the anti-choice legislation of Senate Bill 5.
Texas state Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) successfully blocked an extreme anti-abortion measure from coming to a vote by filibustering the bill for over 10 hours until the end of the special congressional session.
Yesterday, the House of Representatives approved a nationwide abortion ban after 20 weeks gestation in a vote of 228 to 196.
Falls Church Healthcare Center filed an appeal Monday against the Virginia Board of Health, the Department of Health, and Virginia State Health Commissioner Cynthia Romer over the TRAP regulations that were approved in April requiring clinics performing over five abortions a year to meet new building regulations.
After intense but brief debate, the Wisconsin state Senate approved a bill that could mandate transvaginal ultrasounds before an abortion and impose unnecessary regulations on abortion clinics. The bill, SB 206 [PDF] was approved in a vote of 17 to 15 along party lines.
Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 20 to 12 along party lines to approve a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks nationwide. The bill now goes before the full House of Representatives, and could be brought up for debate as early as next week.
On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit to prevent an anti-abortion law that could threaten to close three out of the five clinics in the state from going into effect July 1.
“The Women’s Equality Act, which I will introduce today, is designed to address gender inequality in our communities, and to restore New York as a leader in women’s rights.”
After a federal appeals court rejected Planned Parenthood’s challenge to a ban on government funding for the state’s women’s health clinics on Friday, Planned Parenthood immediately filed another lawsuit contesting the ban. In the new lawsuit, Planned Parenthood argues that the “Affiliate Ban Rule” is illegal on the grounds that the appeals court ruling has […]
In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Ms. will be outlining state ballot initiatives and referenda of major significance to women. I know what you’re (wishfully) thinking: By 2012, American women should already have easy access to, and public funding for, abortions—with the most minimal-to-nonexistent restrictions. Unfortunately, the opposite is true: In state legislatures […]
Today the Virginia Board of Health met and voted 13-2 to reverse their June decision to grandfather in existing clinics, exempting them from new, hospital-like restrictions for the state’s abortion clinics, commonly called TRAP laws or Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers. Instead, the board has allowed existing clinics to come into compliance with regulations within […]
The video that inspired the founding of the group We Are Woman is titled “We are Warriors,” and as the the national rally for women’s rights that the group organized came to a close last Saturday in Washington, D.C., the members of We Are Woman did indeed feel like warriors. Saturday’s rally attracted more than […]
Update 9/12/2012:Colorado Personhood Will Not Appear on November 2012 Ballot Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler announced today that the Colorado Personhood Coalition has missed the Monday deadline for ballot certification for the “Personhood” Amendment to appear on the November 2012 ballot. On August 29, Gessler determined that the amendment did not have enough valid […]
Since the end of last month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have been busy rallying up their base to come out and defend their “religious liberty.” A series of events, spanning over two weeks and dubbed the ‘Fortnight of Freedom,” were planned and publicized to parishes and diocese across the US in an attempt to […]
