Planned Parenthood

The Komen Foundation: Just the Tip of Iceberg.

By Jennifer Dalven, Reproductive Freedom Project at 1:15pm

Last year, many states put politics before health and cut off funding for Planned Parenthood and other health care facilities that provide critical services for low-income women and men.

Core Civil Liberties Threatened in State Legislatures: Three Trends to Watch

State legislatures are ground zero in the fight for civil liberties. Although they may not attract as much attention as debates in Congress or arguments in the Supreme Court, they are the source of unprecedented assaults on our most fundamental rights.

Three troubling trends of the 2011 state legislative session were:

  1. restrictions on accessing abortion;
  2. racial profiling bills targeting Latinos and immigrants; and
  3. measures suppressing the right to vote.

Did your state see a battle on one of these issues? Check out this map to learn more.

The State Strategy: Abortion Foes Undermine Access to Health Care State-by-State

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 3:53pm

In a recent New York Times editorial, the Times highlights the mounting trend of efforts at the state level to make access to abortion care as onerous as possible for women. At the heart of the Times' argument is an ACLU case challenging a Kansas law that prohibits insurance companies from including coverage for abortion in their comprehensive plans.

Court Finds South Dakota's Extreme Abortion Law Degrades and Humiliates Women

By & Andrew Beck, Reproductive Freedom Project & Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project at 11:21am

In a case brought by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, a federal district court judge in South Dakota yesterday blocked the enforcement of the state's extreme abortion law, which was scheduled to take effect today.

The extreme law is just that: extreme. As we've blogged before here and here, this law requires women to wait 72 hours between the first counseling session with the doctor and the abortion; it also requires women to first visit "crisis pregnancy centers," entities that are notorious for providing false and misleading information; and requires doctors to tell the woman of any possible risk factor published in medical and psychological journals since 1972.

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