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Study cited by Texas judge in abortion pill case retracted
Two of the key studies cited by plaintiffs and judges as evidence that medication abortion should be pulled from the market or heavily restricted have been retracted because of undeclared conflicts of interest and unreliable findings, academic publisher Sage announced Monday. States Newsroom聽was the first to report聽last year that Sage had opened an investigation into […]
Fear and confusion over abortion access persists as SCOTUS takes its first post-Dobbs case
This year will end on a major cliffhanger for abortion access. Last November, anti-abortion activists聽via a powerful conservative Christian law firm asked a federal court to effectively ban or widely restrict the abortion drug mifepristone. Finally on Wednesday last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take the case, making Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. […]
Anti-abortion attorneys ascend federal government ranks with Christian right legal training
When Mississippi Solicitor General Scott G. Stewart presented Dobbs v. Jackson Women鈥檚 Health Organization to the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2021, he argued that state lawmakers should be able to ban abortion at any time in pregnancy, not just after so-called 鈥渧iability,鈥 the point where a fetus could survive outside of a uterus. The […]
Abortion, contraceptive access among Alliance Defending Freedom鈥檚 lawsuits
Nearly a dozen of Alliance Defending Freedom鈥檚 ongoing lawsuits involve abortion and contraceptive access. Here is a look at those cases. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration.聽ADF represents anti-abortion activist medical groups (three states have聽recently filed motions聽to intervene in the case) and is聽asking the U.S. Supreme Court聽to order the FDA to […]
Abortion-rights victories cement 2024 playbook while opponents scramble for new strategy
Anti-abortion leaders woke up Wednesday to the sobering reality that abortion rights remain the nation鈥檚 predominant political issue. Decisive wins in swing and red states in two national election cycles since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year have given momentum to reproductive rights groups, who aggressively campaigned and fundraised in key states across the […]
Doctor suing FDA recruited to scientific advisory board to 鈥榬epurpose鈥 abortion pill
One of the anti-abortion doctors suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to rescind its 2000 approval of a medication abortion regimen on the basis that one of the drugs is dangerous is now consulting on the development of a breast cancer treatment that involves the same drug: mifepristone. It is the family doctor鈥檚 latest […]
Abortion rights advocates say consequences dire if SCOTUS declines to hear pill case
More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court decided states could set their own abortion laws, including bans, the nation鈥檚 highest court now could cut off abortion access in states where abortion is still legal. The Supreme Court began its new term this week and has yet to announce whether it will hear聽Alliance for […]
A men鈥檚 movement takes reins in a nationwide quest to end abortion
Wendell Shrock doesn鈥檛 believe in condoms. 鈥淲e should leave the uterus to God,鈥 the street preacher from Tennessee tells States Newsroom, in front of an abortion clinic outside of Atlanta, mid-morning in late July. Sweat drips from his cowboy hat into his salt-and-pepper beard that stretches halfway down his red-plaid shirt. The retired police officer […]
FDA approves first over-the-counter oral contraceptive
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration聽announced Thursday聽it has approved the country鈥檚 first daily birth control pill that can be used without a prescription, a move that reproductive health advocates celebrated after more than 20 years of advocating for an over-the-counter option. The contraceptive, called Opill, is a progestin-only oral pill that could soon become available […]
Appeals court judges embrace anti-abortion speculation
America鈥檚 major medical institutions and drug policy scholars have roundly denounced as 鈥減seudoscience鈥 many of the claims brought by anti-abortion groups in a high-profile federal lawsuit asking the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its 23-year-old approval of mifepristone, one half of a two-drug regimen that has become the most common form of pregnancy termination […]
From credit card restrictions to wastewater: What abortion foes have been up to since Dobbs leaked
Anti-abortion leaders could not stop paraphrasing Winston Churchill last June after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a victory that took 50 years to realize.聽 鈥淲hile we celebrate the momentous ruling in Dobbs, we must remember that overturning Roe was not the beginning of the end, but it was the end of the […]
Abortion-rights attorneys help patients and providers navigate legal chaos
These days Kylee Sunderlin is often the first person people will talk to about needing or wanting to terminate a pregnancy, even though she鈥檚 not a nurse or doctor or a loved one. She鈥檚 a lawyer.聽 This is Sunderlin鈥檚 third year overseeing a national hotline dedicated to helping people navigate legal questions around abortion in […]