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Post by Webster on Jun 30, 2022 10:30:10 GMT -5
The overturning of Roe v. Wade thread can be found here. (The Guardian) Biden supports changing filibuster rules to codify RoeBiden said he would support changing the Senate filibuster rules to codify abortion rights nationally. “We have to codify Roe v Wade in the law and the wya to do that is to make sure Congress votes to do that. And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, ... we should require an exception to the filibuster for this action,” he said. The filibuster requires 60 votes to advance most legislation in the evenly-divided Senate. All 50 Democrats and two Republicans say they would support, in theory, legislation codifying abortion, which leaves them 8 votes short of the 60-vote threshold. However, Democrats lack the necessary 50 votes to eliminate or change the filibuster rules. Under pressure from pro-choice advocates for not doing enough, Biden said he would meet with a group of governors on Friday to discuss abortion rights. He told reporters he would announce long-promised actions by the federal government to protect abortion access at the event. Given his evolution on abortion, Biden is asked if he is the party’s best messenger on the issue. He let out a chuckle: “Yeah, I am.” “I’m the president of the United States of America. That makes me the best messenger,” he said. “I’m the only president they got. And I feel extremely strongly that I’m going to everything in my power which I legally can do in terms of executive orders as well as push the Congress and the public. The bottom line here is, if you care, if the polling data is correct, and you think this decision by the court was an outrage or a significant mistake: VOTE. Show up and vote. Vote in the off-year and vote vote vote. That’s how we’ll change it.”
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Post by Webster on Jul 1, 2022 13:09:36 GMT -5
(The Guardian) In what has become something of a pattern for Republicans, an Utah lawmaker has apologized for a bizarre comment that suggested women could do more to prevent pregnancies resulting from rape. (See: Todd Akin.) According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah state representative, Karianne Lisonbee, said during a press conference that she had received messages urging lawmakers should also hold men accountable for unwanted pregnancies in the wake of the supreme court’s ruling on Roe. “I got a text message today saying I should seek to control men’s ejaculations and not women’s pregnancies,” Lisonbee reportedly said. She added: “I do trust women enough to control when they allow a man to ejaculate inside of them and to control that intake of semen.” In a statement to the paper, she clarified her remarks and pointed to her efforts to expand protections for victims of sexual assault. “Women do not have a choice when they are raped and have protections under Utah’s trigger law,” she told the Tribune. “The political and social divide in America seems to be expanding at an ever-faster pace. I am committed to ongoing respectful and civil engagement. I can always do better and will continue to try.”
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Post by Webster on Jul 1, 2022 13:10:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden calls Roe ruling a 'tragic reversal'Opening the meeting with Democratic governors, Biden called the court’s ruling on abortion a “tragic reversal”. “I share the public outrage of this extremist court that is committed to moving America backwards,” Biden said. He vowed to fight to protect women’s rights: “This is not over.” He pointed to two steps the administration has taken to increase the availability of medication abortion and protect women who travel out-of-state for an abortion. Per the White House, the Democratic governors participating in Friday’s meeting are: --Ned Lamont, Governor of Connecticut --Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York --Michelle Lujan Grisham, Governor of New Mexico --JB Pritzker, Governor of Illinois --Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington --Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon --Roy Cooper, Governor of North Carolina --Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado --Dan McKee, Governor of Rhode Island
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Post by Webster on Jul 1, 2022 13:12:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Speaking first, New York governor Kathy Hochul, said her state is acting quickly to shore up women’s reproductive rights in its constitution and protect access to contraception and other rights. “This is frightening time for women all across our nation, a lot of fear and anxiety out there,” she said. Hochul also pushed Biden to use federal lands for abortion services – a suggestion that the White House has so far dismissed as “well-intentioned” but potentially risky. Next we’re hearing from North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, a Democratic in a Republican-leaning state. “This democratic governor is going to hold the line to protect women’s reproductive freedom in our state,” he said. But he said he needs more Democrats in the state legislature to help sustain his vetos of Republican bills that seek to ban or severely restrict abortions. Already he said North Carolina is seeing an influx of patients from other states with bans and tighter restrictions. “We are in fact that brick wall against this horrific supreme court decision,” said Michelle Lujan Grisham, the governor of New Mexico said. She outlined the ways New Mexico was preparing to be a haven for women coming from neighboring states that have already outlawed abortions. She also pressed Biden to do more at the federal level to protect abortion access, such as setting up abortion clinics on tribal lands, should a tribe want to open private clinics for non-Native Americans to receive care.
Biden concluded the public portion of the meeting, but asked the governors to stick around so they could discuss ways in which the federal government might act to protect abortion access. During a press conference yesterday, Biden suggested that he might unveil a series of new actions but there was no such announcement.
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Post by Webster on Jul 5, 2022 10:56:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Americans are continuing to grapple with the supreme court’s ruling last month allowing states to ban abortion - including the founder of the country’s largest provider of the procedure. Jessica Glenza spoke to Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, about how the group plans to help women continue accessing abortions: In the time after the US supreme court rescinded the constitutional right to abortion in America and thereby allowed nearly a dozen states to outlaw the procedure, the president and CEO of the US’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, has worked feverishly with three goals in mind. Alexis McGill Johnson wants to get women where they need to be to access abortion, whether that means helping patients cross state lines or flying doctors to states where abortion remains legal. Then, she wants to win in state courts. Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have filed 11 lawsuits seeking to delay abortion bans or, perhaps optimistically, strike them down entirely. “What we can see, essentially, is just a lot of chaos, a lot of confusion and a lot of concern for patients on the ground being able to get the care they need,” McGill Johnson told The Guardian. “What we’ve also seen is a significant amount of rage.” That will power her third goal – to win at the ballot box. “Our work right now is to maximize the care that we can in the states that we can, and also take this moment as an opportunity to maximize mobilization.” -Read more: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/05/planned-parenthood-abortion-rights-ceo-alexis-mcgill-johnson
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Post by Webster on Jul 5, 2022 22:23:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Mississippi’s restrictions on abortion were at the center of the supreme court’s ruling last month overturning Roe v. Wade, but the litigation isn’t finished in the state. The Associated Press reports that Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the plaintiff in the supreme court case, is suing to stop a law that would ban almost all abortions in the state: The law — which state lawmakers passed before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling that allowed abortions nationwide — is set to take effect Thursday.
The Jackson Women’s Health Organization sought a temporary restraining order that would allow it to remain open, at least while the lawsuit remains in court.
The closely watched lawsuit is part of a flurry of activity that has occurred nationwide since the Supreme Court ruled. Conservative states have moved to halt or limit abortions while others have sought to ensure abortion rights, all as some women try to obtain the medical procedure against the changing legal landscape.If Chancery Judge Debbra K. Halford grants the clinic’s request to block the new Mississippi law from taking effect, the decision could be quickly appealed to the state Supreme Court. Twenty-six states are expected to outlaw abortion entirely following the supreme court’s decision, and according to the Guttmacher Institute, six states have already done so.
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Post by Webster on Jul 6, 2022 11:39:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic that was at the center of the supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade, will close, the Associated Press reported. The clinic had sued to stop the enforcement of state law banning abortion, but lost in court yesterday. According to the AP: As attorneys argued about abortion laws across the south on Tuesday, a Mississippi judge rejected a request by the state’s only abortion clinic to temporarily block a law that would ban most abortions.
Without other developments in the Mississippi lawsuit, the clinic will close at the end of business on Wednesday and the state law will take effect on Thursday.
One of the clinic’s attorneys, Hillary Schneller of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the judge should have blocked the law. “People in Mississippi who need abortions right now are in a state of panic, trying to get into the clinic before it’s too late,” Schneller said. “No one should be forced to live in fear like that.”
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Post by Webster on Jul 7, 2022 16:09:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) South Carolina lawmakers have begun considering a bill to ban nearly all abortions in the state, Reuters reports. The proposal would “ban all abortions from conception, except to save the life of the mother, and would make performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison,” according to the report. The measure would be more stringent than a law that a federal judge allowed to go into effect last month which outlaws the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy. The court ruling followed the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to ban abortions.
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Post by Webster on Jul 7, 2022 16:10:49 GMT -5
(The Guardian) California’s Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein has come out in support of creating an exception to the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to pass legislation protecting abortion rights nationwide. Reproductive rights activists are pressuring Democrats to pass a law protecting access to abortion nationwide after the supreme court last month overturned Roe v. Wade. But the filibuster, which allows the Republican minority to stop legislation in the Senate that does not win at least 10 of their party’s votes, has stood in the way of that, and until now, Feinstein hasn’t said if she would support modifying it to get an abortion law passed.
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Post by Webster on Jul 8, 2022 12:12:06 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden is signing an executive order to protect abortion access for millions, two weeks after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, a landmark ruling that ensured federal abortion protections for the past 50 years. According to a fact sheet, the executive order will protect access to several reproductive healthcare services, including abortion and contraception. The order also safeguards access to medication abortions, also known as abortion pills, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The executive order comes as many have been critical of the Biden administration for failing to do more to protect abortion rights, including codifying abortion access amid ongoing attacks on reproductive rights nationwide.
Biden’s executive order comes at a time when frustration is mounting against his administration for not doing enough to protect federal abortion rights. Progressive politicians and abortion rights advocates have been public about their disappointment with the Biden administration, asking Biden and other Democrats to do more to protect reproductive rights following the overturning of Roe v Wade two weeks ago. US House representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat of New York, urged Democrats to push back harder against the rollback of abortion protections, tweeting last week: “Use the bully pulpit. We need more.” A group of more than 20 Black Democratic congresswomen signed a letter last week, urging Biden to declare a public health emergency following the rollback of Roe v Wade. “In this unprecedented moment, we must act urgently as if lives depend on it because they do,” the legislators wrote.
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Post by Webster on Jul 8, 2022 12:15:03 GMT -5
(The Guardioan) Here are more specifics on what Biden’s executive order protecting access to abortion will entail. According to a fact sheet from the White house, the executive order will direct the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take steps in a number of areas concerning abortion access and report back in 30 days. The HHS secretary will take steps to: --Protect access to medication abortion, also known as abortion pills --Ensure emergency medical care for pregnant people and anyone experiencing pregnancy loss --Launch education and public outreach efforts --Convene volunteer lawyers to represent patients who seek out care The executive order will also seek to protect patient privacy and ensure the safety of patients, providers, and clinics who provide reproductive healthcare services.
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Post by Webster on Jul 8, 2022 12:17:30 GMT -5
(The Guardian) At 11.30am, Joe Biden will give remarks from the White House on protecting abortion access nationwide. Biden will likely speak on an executive order he is expected to sign today that would safeguard access to abortions and other reproductive healthcare services.
Ahead of Biden’s speech, US politicians are sharing reproductive rights resources that are currently available, modest steps the Biden administration have taken prior to the executive order expected today. From US House representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California: ICYMI: in response to the Supreme Court’s assault on reproductive health care, @hhsgov created a guide for women about their reproductive rights. Abortion & other reproductive care remains safe & legal in California.
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Post by Webster on Jul 8, 2022 12:18:43 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden says supreme court conservatives 'playing fast and loose with the facts'Biden is currently speaking on the rollback of federal abortion protections, two weeks after the supreme court voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark case that protected abortion rights nationwide. “This was not a decision driven by the constitution. This was not a decision driven by history,” said Biden of the supreme court overturning Roe v Wade. Discussing the conservative majority in the court, Biden said: “Today’s supreme court majority is playing fast and loose with the facts.” Later on in his remarks, Biden called on Americans to use their electoral power to elect senators who would help codify Roe v Wade, saying that it was the “fastest route” to solidifying federal abortion rights. “Your votes can make that a reality,” said Biden, acknowledging the frustration his administration has received amid urging people to vote. “You, the women of America, can determine the outcome of this issue,” adding the courts do not have a “clue about the power of American women.” “For God’s sakes, there’s an election in November. Vote, vote, vote,” said Biden. Biden’s remarks come on the same day that he is signing an executive order protecting access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare nationwide.
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Post by Webster on Jul 8, 2022 12:19:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden also brought up the story of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who was raped and forced to travel to Indiana to receive an abortion. “A 10-year-old girl should be forced to given birth to rapist’s child?” said Biden of the Ohio case, calling it an example of Republican extremism. Biden added: “Does anyone believe it’s Ohio’s majority view that that should not be able to be dealt with?”
During his remarks, Biden also pledged to veto any further abortion restrictions that could come across his desk if Republicans gain control of Congress during the midterm elections in November. “As long as I’m president it won’t happen, because I’ll veto it,” said Biden during his speech today, shortly before he signed an executive order safeguarding access to abortions and other reproductive healthcare services.
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Post by Webster on Jul 8, 2022 12:20:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Here’s additional context on Biden’s remarks from the Guardian’s health reporter Jessica Glenza: In a speech to mark an executive order to on reproductive rights, President Joe Biden emphatically called on the American people to “vote, vote, vote, vote,” in the upcoming election, describing it as the fastest way to regain abortion rights in the US. Both the speech and executive order, which directs federal agencies to enhance coordination and regulation, “just like in the Civil Rights era,” comes amid mounting criticism of the administration’s response to the end of federal abortion rights. Federal abortion rights ended nearly two weeks ago when the supreme court, controlled by a conservative supermajority, overturned Roe v Wade. The landmark 1973 case had prevented states hostile to the procedure from banning abortion. However, the president’s emphasis on voting also underscores the limitations on the federal government. While the executive order calls on agencies to protect access to the abortion pill, patient privacy, abortion clinics in states where it remains legal and interstate travel, intervention from Congress is necessary to restore the rights of people who can become pregnant in state that have already banned the procedure. “The choice is clear: if you want to change the circumstances for women and even little girls in this country please go out and vote,” said Biden. He also emphasized the stakes of abortion bans, citing the case of a 10-year-old sexual abuse victim from Ohio who was allegedly forced to travel to Indiana to obtain an abortion. “10 years old, 10 years old!” said Biden. “Raped, six weeks pregnant, already traumatized, was forced to travel to another state… Does anyone believe that it is Ohio’s majority view that should not be able to be dealt with? A 10-year-old girl should be forced to give birth to a rapist’s child?”
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