Abortion Legislation

North Dakota Today. What's Next Tomorrow?

By Elissa Berger, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 5:10pm

Today, North Dakota achieved the shameful distinction of enacting the most restrictive law on abortion in any state. In addition to passing a bill that would ban abortions after only six weeks of pregnancy, Gov. Jack Dalrymple also signed into law a separate bill that targets women with medically complicated pregnancies and a bill designed to shut down the one abortion clinic in the state.

We need to make sure our elected officials know they work for us. We didn't hire them to play doctor and to pass laws that withhold medical care. And yet, some are laser focused on banning a woman's access to abortion care under any circumstances. We need to tell them to #StopTheBans.

Some Michigan Politicians “Wanna Be My Doc.” Use Our New Twitter Generator to Challenge Them

By Rana Elmir, ACLU of Michigan at 4:51pm

It looks like some Michigan politicians want to “play doctor” and take away a woman’s ability to make personal, private medical decisions for herself. In June, Michigan vaulted to the top of the list of states with outrageous, regressive legislation on women's health, placing a monster omnibus package - House Bills 5711, 5712 and 5713- on the fast-track to becoming law. HB 5711, or the War on Women Mega Bill, passed in the House and if it survives in the Senate, it would effectively make safe abortion services inaccessible in the state.

Pennsylvania Politicians Ought to be Ashamed: The Latest Attack on Women's Health Care

By Becca Cadoff, Reproductive Freedom Project at 4:30pm

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted to block women from having access to comprehensive insurance coverage that includes abortion care. This is yet another example of the continuing attack on women.

Most health insurance plans currently cover abortion care, but some politicians are trying to take it away. They are attempting to rob a woman and her family of the ability to make personal and private decisions about her pregnancy. A woman's decision should be left to her and her family, not her legislator.

Bringing Down Arkansas' House of Cards

By Becca Cadoff, Reproductive Freedom Project at 4:44pm

Yesterday, we filed a lawsuit in Arkansas to challenge what was, for a short time, the most extreme abortion ban in the nation. Don't be mistaken though, the Arkansas law is still outrageous - banning most abortions just a few weeks after a woman finds out she is pregnant. By passing this law, politicians are preventing a woman and her family from being able to make the most personal decision they might ever make.

Some Arkansas Legislators Do the Time Warp; Pass Most Extreme Abortion Bill In The Nation

By Hayley Smith, Advocacy and Policy Associate, ACLU at 4:52pm

This morning I sat at my desk in disbelief, as I heard the news that the Arkansas legislature passed two abortion bans today...

Forty Years After Roe, the American People Have Spoken. Will Politicians Finally Listen?

By Jennifer Dalven, Reproductive Freedom Project at 11:12am

Forty years ago today, the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that recognized that a pregnant woman...

“It was all in their hands, and they just let her go.” -- Remembering Savita Halappanavar

By Eunice Hyon Min Rho, ACLU at 5:36pm

On October 21, Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist who was 17 weeks pregnant, sought treatment...

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Dance!

By Merissa Kovach, Field Organizer, ACLU of Michigan & Maggie McGuire, Communications Associate, ACLU of Michigan at 5:22pm

As Michigan legislators observed states quickly upping the ante with extreme war on women policies like the personhood amendments and mandatory vaginal probe laws, they must have grown tired of our state merely being a face in the crowd; so they decided to dole out their own special brand of bat-crackers crazy in the form of an outrageous, monster War on Women Mega Bill.

We’ve written about the War on Women Mega Bill before, which combines every attack on women's health into the greatest assault on reproductive rights in our state’s history.

State Legislatures Full of Akins

By Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 6:49pm

So much has been said about Rep. Todd Akin in the past few days and yet there’s so much more I still want to say. But I won’t (except for a little bit at the end) because, Todd Akin is just a piece of the story

Move Over Mississippi: Michigan is the Latest State Vying to Shut Down All Abortion Clinics

By Elissa Berger, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 4:36pm

As you may have heard, Mississippi passed a law earlier this year, which was explicitly designed to shut down the only health care center in the entire state where a woman can get a safe, legal abortion.  In passing the law, some politicians made quite clear that they knew the closure would jeopardize the health and lives of Mississippi women—and that they didn’t care.

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