We must not overlook the important role federal policy plays in the lives and health-care options of girls. Fragmenting health care for adolescent girls creates a dangerous and artificial line between a girl’s reproductive needs and her other medical needs.
“Our patients who rely on Title X family planning funding—including people of color, people with low incomes, and those who live in rural areas—already face systemic barriers to getting health care," said Dr. Willie Parker, board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health.
Iowa's GOP majority failed to attach a so-called heartbeat ban to a 20-week abortion ban as Republicans continue to erode abortion access in the state.
The anti-choice front group's discredited smear campaign triggered a string of GOP efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and stoked violence against abortion care providers.
Since 2015, bills requiring pregnant patients be informed about “abortion reversal” have been introduced by Republican lawmakers in California, Colorado, Georgia, and North Carolina. Republican governors in Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota, and Utah have signed similar bills into law.
After giving birth in the latrine of her home in 2011, an unconscious Maria Teresa Rivera was taken to a public hospital. There, she was accused of provoking an abortion and sent to jail.
Underground tells the story of how enslaved women made complicated decisions around motherhood, from taking measures to control their fertility to ending unwanted pregnancies, and the lengths they went to protect their children.
“The best way to fight back is with a strong, sustained effort to drive proactive policies—and the public debate about such policies—in states, cities, and counties,” said Gloria Totten, president of the Public Leadership Institute.
After a day of “will they, won’t they” negotiations on Capitol Hill and at the White House, GOP leaders couldn’t muster the 215 votes needed for passage.
