Study and Action Guide to Abortion Policy and Christian Social Ethics in the U.S.

Today’s Christian pro-life movement has misplaced its priorities. The issue of abortion is more complex than the movement often appreciates. For a start, Scripture is less clear about the moral weight of the fetus than we often think. In fact, early Christians took different positions on abortion because they also relied on different scientific sources about the unborn. Furthermore, Christian conservatives today do not acknowledge that in American history, as today, Christian stances on abortion were motivated by other political fears: White Protestant Americans developed different state laws on abortion to accomplish anti-immigrant goals in the North, but anti-black racism in the South. That messiness impacts U.S. constitutional law, including Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, Scripture commissions God’s people to confront socio-economic factors that push abortion rates higher: male privilege and the disempowerment of women; the high cost of childraising; the causes of birth defects; the desire to care narrowly for just “my children”; mistaken views about contraception and the “culture wars”; and most of all, poverty. The Study and Action Guide to Abortion Policy takes three themes from Mako’s book, with some readings and videos.

Wikipedia, History of Christian Thought on Abortion (Wikipedia article).

Religious Tolerance, Abortion History: Pagan and Christian Beliefs 400 BCE - 1983 CE (Religious Tolerance).

Abortion (Bad News About Christianity) contains references to Augustine's acceptance of abortion.

F.N. Lee, King Alfred the Great and Our Common Law. The Works of Rev. Professor Dr. F.N. Lee, Aug 2000. See Code of Alfred 18 on page 11 for his citation and interpretation of Exodus 21:22 - 25. This is important as both legal history and tradition history. Alfred’s Code is the start of English common law. Alfred’s deployment of Exodus 21:22 - 25 indicates an acquaintance with the Hebrew Masoretic Text’s view that the fetus is not assigned full personhood until birth and breath, which is to be expected since the Roman Catholic Church probably educated him with the Latin Vulgate, which is based on Jerome’s translation of the Hebrew Masoretic Text.

Nitzan Rimon-Zarfaty, Aviad E Raz, Yael Hashiloni-Dolev, When Does a Fetus Become a Person? An Israeli Viewpoint. BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health (2010/2011?), Volume 37, Issue 4.

William Neaves, The Status of the Embryo in Various Religions. Development (2017) 144 (14): 2541–2543. Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu.

Ronit Irshai, A Fetus Is Not an Independent Life: Abortion in the Talmud. Torah.com. Date unknown.

Katha Pollitt, Abortion in American History. The Atlantic, May 1997.

Z. Acevedo, Abortion in Early America. Women’s Health, Summer 1979. “This piece describes abortion practices in use from the 1600s to the 19th century among the inhabitants of North America. The abortive techniques of women from different ethnic and racial groups as found in historical literature are revealed. Thus, the point is made that abortion is not simply a "now issue" that effects select women. Instead, it is demonstrated that it is a widespread practice as solidly rooted in our past as it is in the present.”

Carla Spivack, To "Bring Down the Flowers": The Cultural Context of Abortion Law in Early Modern England. William and Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice, Volume 14, 2007 - 08. Spivack covers early Anglo-Saxon law from Alfred the Great onward, which is very important for legal history and background of U.S. constitutional law.

Gary Kowalski, The Founding Fathers and Abortion in Colonial America. Revolutionary Spirits blog, Apr 6, 2012. also posted here, see comments.

Marvin Olasky, Did Colonial America Have Abortions? Yes, But ... World Magazine, Jan 17, 2015.

Leslie Reagan, When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973. University of California Press | Amazon page, Feb 2022. This edition has a new preface.

Sarah Hougen Poggi and Cynthia A. Kierner, A 1792 Case Reveals That Key Founders Saw Abortion as a Private Matter. Washington Post, Jul 19, 2022. “Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Patrick Henry didn’t advocate for prosecution of a woman who probably had an abortion.”

Libby Anne, How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement.  Love, Joy, Feminism | Patheos, Oct 29, 2012.  A personal account of how one woman realized that the “pro-life movement” advocates for policies that are counterproductive.  She concludes that the “pro-life movement” is not desirous of lowering the abortion rate and discusses why.

Randa Morris, Pro-Life? GOP Promotes Nine Out Of Ten Things That Cause Death In Unborn Children. Church and State, Jul 30, 2013.

Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, Pro-Life, Anti-Poverty. The American Conservative, Jul 14, 2020. “Women with incomes at less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level accounted for 42.4 percent of abortions between 2000 and 2008, while only roughly 15 percent of people total live under the federal poverty line. It is challenging to say how many of these women would not have elected to have abortions had their financial circumstances been different, but a 2011 Gallup poll suggests pro-life sentiment is far more common among poorer people, with a majority of both Republicans and Democrats making under $30,000 a year identifying as “pro-life.” Couple the data with anecdotal reports like those cited in “The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion,” and it seems fair to conclude that financial privation pushes a considerable number of women into electing abortion who would, in different economic arrangements, decide instead to give birth. With this in mind, it’s unclear why so much of pro-life policy seems to center on bans and fines and scans and threats.”

Statista, Abortion Statistics. Statista. Data on abortions in the U.S. and some in other countries.

Mark Murray, Digging Into the Pro-Trump Vote: Who Makes Up His Base? NBC News, Feb 26, 2016. “45 percent describe themselves as "pro-choice" on abortion (versus 60 percent of all voters)” is an interesting poll statistic suggesting that the meaning of social conservatism has shifted towards immigration, guns, etc. See also John Bowden, More Than Half of Americans Identify as ‘Pro-Choice’: Poll. The Hill, Jun 7, 2019. “57 percent of Americans surveyed said they support abortion rights, while 35 percent said they were against the procedure. A similar poll in January found that 55 percent of Americans considered themselves “pro-choice,” while 38 percent identified as “pro-life.””

The Guardian UK, How America's Abortion Obsession Was Sparked on a Conference Call. The Guardian UK, Aug 1, 2019.

The Economist, How American Politicized Abortion. The Economist, Dec 4, 2019. Spotlights international trends.

Ashton Pittman, In Mississippi, Fetal Deaths Double Among Unvaccinated Pregnant Women With COVID-19. Mississippi Free Press, Sep 8, 2021. Shows the impact of social policies on maternal and fetal/infant health, demonstrating how right-wing priorities on freedom and retributive accountability for choices do not lead to the outcomes pro-life advocates say they want.

Emily Jashinsky, Ryan Grim, and Kim Iversen, California Plans To Become A "Sanctuary" State For Abortion-Seekers If Roe V. Wade Is Overturned. Rising | The Hill, Dec 10, 2021. Covers recent public polling on views on abortion and Roe. They also discuss the possibility of state-level responses to the likely overturning of Roe, and the eventual pro-life attempt to re-federalize the anti-abortion uniform policies.

Yehuda Kircher and Michal Raucher, How Jews Talk About Abortion. Shalom Hartman Institute Identity/Crisis Podcast, May 10, 2022. Most Jews are politically liberal, with a minority conservative; but abortion is a complex moral issue and many Jews should use specifically Jewish sources rather than simply adopting the framework of political liberalism.

Jon Stewart, Roe v. Wade: Law Professors Break Down What Happened. The Problem With Jon Stewart Podcast, Jun 30, 2022. This discussion with law professors Leah Litman, Melissa Murray, and Kate Shaw is helpful in analyzing the Supreme Court logic in their June 2022 decisions on abortion, guns, and voting rights.

Lauren Reliford, If Christians Want to ‘Choose Life,’ Let’s Talk About Black Maternal Mortality. Sojourners, Apr 20, 2023.

The Humanist Report, Comedian Walter Masterson Effortlessly Exposes the “Pro-Life” Movement’s Hypocrisy. The Humanist Report, Feb 4, 2023. “Walter Masterson attended an anti-abortion rally and asked attendees if they'd support other "pro-life" policies like free school lunches and universal pre-k and many forced birthers shot down these proposals immediately.”

David Schraub, Liberal Jews and Religious Liberty. New York University Law Review, Nov 2023. “The Supreme Court’s new religious liberty jurisprudence has dramatically expanded the circumstances in which religious objectors can claim exemption from general legislative enactments. Thus far, most of the claimants who’ve taken advantage of these doctrinal innovations have been conservative Christians seeking to avoid liberal policy initiatives (on matters like COVID-19 restrictions, vaccines, or LGBTQ inclu- sion). This emerging jurisprudence, as well as the rhetoric from legal and political elites regarding religious liberty, has generally acceded to the conflation of religiosity with conservatism. Liberal Jews challenge this conflation, as they offer an example of a religious community whose spiritual commitments tend to align with progressive rather than conservative politics. Nominally, the new religious liberty doctrine should also provide protections to more liberal Jewish denominations that may seek relief from conservative statutory enactments, such as restrictive abortion laws following Dobbs.”

Marie Solis, Texas Is Hostile to Abortion, So People Are Doing It Themselves. Vice, Jan 13, 2020. Using pill forms, largely misoprostol. “New research published in the journal BMC Women’s Health shows that women in Texas—one of the states with the most restrictions on abortion—attempted to self-manage abortions because an in-clinic procedure was out of reach for them. Their reasons were many, but largely centered on cost, which was prohibitive for these patients, and the distance to the nearest clinic.”

Devin James Stone, The Texas Abortion Decision Is Bad For Everyone. Legal Eagle, Sep 14, 2021. Considers the substantial issue of a woman’s right to abortion under Roe, and the procedural issue of deputizing private citizens and claiming that Texas state officials are not responsible for enforcing the law.

José Díaz-Balart and Maya Wiley, With Texas Abortion Ruling, SCOTUS Sends Warn Off Signal To Would-Be Copycat States. MSNBC, Dec 10, 2021.

Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, Texas’s Abortion Law Is Unprecedented, But the Supreme Court Isn’t Treating It That Way. Five Thirty Eight, Dec 10, 2021. Goes into a bit more depth into the justices’ reasoning, which is unusual and appreciated.

Isaac Maddow-Zimet, Kelly Baden, Rachel K. Jones, Isabel DoCampo, and Jesse Philbin, New State Abortion Data Indicate Widespread Travel for Care. Guttmacher Institute, Sep 2023. “Monthly Abortion Provision Study Findings Validate Efforts to Strengthen Abortion Protections”

Isaac Maddow-Zimet et.al., Monthly Abortion Provision Study. Guttmacher Institute, Sep 2023. The Monthly Abortion Provision Study produces national and state estimates of the number of abortions provided within the formal health care system in the United States. This ongoing project reveals current trends and aims to put timely data in the hands of policymakers, advocates and providers. For information on using our interactive graphics, view the “How to” section below.  

Ali Velshi, A Warning from Alabama Clinics on Abortion: ‘This is Coming for Blue States’. Velshi | MSNBC, Sep 10, 2023. “Alabama’s Attorney General, in a state that is already enforcing one of the nation's strictest abortion bans that makes no exception for rape or incest, is now asserting his right to criminally prosecute anyone who assists women in traveling to other states for abortions. Whether the abortion would be legal in the state where it's performed would be of no consequence. Legal historian and abortion law scholar Mary Ziegler says nothing like this has been tried since the civil war. “Nobody is safe anywhere,” says Robin Marty, operations director at West Alabama Women’s Center. The fight is in Alabama and southern states now, but “this is coming for blue states.””

Kyle Kulinsky and Krystal Ball, One Of The Most Devastating Political Ads You'll Ever See. Krystal, Kyle, and Friends, Sep 22, 2023. In the Kentucky Governor race, incumbent Andy Beshear, a Democrat, released an ad featuring one young woman who was raped and impregnated by her abusive stepfather.

Gilda Sedgh, Jonathan Bearak, Susheela Patel, Akinrinola Bankole, Anna Popinchalk, Bela Ganatra et al., Abortion Incidence Between 1990 and 2014: Global, Regional, and Subregional Levels and Trends. Lancet, May 11, 2016. The most comprehensive down to the regional level, though data can be inconsistent at times. Summarized by Smitha Mundasad, Abortion Study: 25% of Pregnancies Terminated, Estimates Suggest. BBC, May 12, 2016. Says, “the annual number of abortions worldwide increased from 50 million a year between 1990-1994 to 56 million a year between 2010-2014. The rise in numbers is mostly seen in the developing world - driven in part by population growth and by a desire for smaller families. Their calculations show that while the number of abortions per person has stayed stagnant in many poorer areas, in richer areas it fell from 25 to 14 per 1,000 women of reproductive age…. The report goes on to highlight areas such as Latin America where one in three pregnancies ends in abortion - higher than any other region in the world.”

William Robert Johnston, Abortion Statistics and Other Data. Johnston Archive. Regularly updates abortion data and documents sources on many countries and U.S. states.

CBS News, Abortion Around the World: Where Are Rates Highest? CBS News, Jan 19, 2012. Summarizes the 2012 Lancet study in digestible form. “Countries: Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Ukraine. This region has the highest abortion rate in the world, at 43 abortions per 1,000 women.”

Ann M. Moore, Richard Kitombo, Deva Cats-Baril, Ugandan Opinion Leaders’ Knowledge and Perceptions of Unsafe Abortion. Health Policy and Planning, Oct 2014. estimates 54 per 1,000 women.

Guttmacher Institute, Contraception and Unintended Pregnancy in Uganda. Feb 2017. finds that Ugandan women have on average 2 more children than they want.

European Data. Abort Report - EU. E. Ketting and A.P. Visser, Contraception in The Netherlands: The Low Abortion Rate, Explained. Patient Education and Counselling, Jul 1994. find “The abortion rate fluctuates between 5 to 7/1000 women of reproductive age, the lowest abortion rate in the world… Special family planning programs in the Netherlands target groups at risk of unwanted pregnancy, particularly teenage pregnancy. Almost all secondary schools and about 50% of primary schools address sexuality and contraception.” Dutch teenagers tend to have sex less frequently than American teenagers, start at an older age, and have a teenage pregnancy rate six times lower than the U.S.

Emily Matchar, In Liberal Europe, Abortion Laws Come With Their Own Restrictions. The Atlantic, Aug 5, 2013. Matchar highlights the intellectual framing: In the U.S., abortion is about morality; in Western Europe and some other nations, babies are about the common good and population.

Rachel B. Vogelstein and Rebecca Turkington, Abortion Law: Global Comparisons. Council on Foreign Relations, Oct 28, 2019. gives helpful commentary on health care systems and legal changes in abortion policies in various countries.

Diana Lobl and Peter Onneken, Abortion in Europe: Scorned, Concealed, Prohibited. Deutsche Welle, May 6, 2022. A 42 minute documentary spotlighting recent developments in Italy — where some doctors refuse to terminate pregnancies even in medical emergencies, resulting in the death of Valentina Milluzzo, who died of sepsis because doctors would not remove twin fetuses, one of which had already died — Poland, which has effectively moved to ban all abortions — Spain, and Germany. The documentary also spotlights the World Congress of Families (26 min mark), the ultra-conservative Christian lobbyist organization Ordo Iuris, Christian fundamentalists in Spain, and other antiabortion fundamentalist groups threatening legal action.

Henry McDonald, Emma Graham-Harrison, and Sinead Baker, Ireland Votes by Landslide to Legalise Abortion. The Guardian, May 26, 2018. notes that 66.4% of the voting population voted for legalization. “Support appeared to cross almost every divide – old and young, urban and rural, rich and poor – defying some predictions that the liberal capital might force change on conservative countryside areas. The turnout was 64.1%, the third highest for a referendum in Ireland since the adoption of the constitution in 1937. The highest was the 1972 question on joining the European Economic Community, at 70.88%. The scale of the victory makes it almost impossible for opponents to challenge the laws that the government must now pass, which are expected to allow abortion on request up to 12 weeks and under stricter conditions beyond that.” Voters 65+ years were the only demographic who voted “no” — at 58.7%.

Henry McDonald, Abortion Refusal Death: Hindu Woman Told Ireland ‘Is a Catholic Country’. The Guardian, Apr 8, 2013. McDonald raised the question of religious interpretation and conscience.

Malta is a Catholic country with strict anti-abortion laws dating back to 1724, providing no exception for rape or incest. In theory, women can receive up to 3 years in prison, and doctors up to 4 years for performing an abortion.

L. Caruana-Finkel, Abortion in the Time of COVID-19: Perspectives from Malta. Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, Dec 1, 2020. “Estimates [from 2018] suggest that over 500 women in Malta access abortions each year.” Malta’s total population is under 500,000, which suggests the abortion rate for women ages 15 - 44 is about the same as that of other Western European nations (12/1000). Women either go abroad to Western Europe or order pills.

Rebecca Iverson, 300 to 400 Maltese Women Go Abroad for an Abortion Each Year - AD Chairperson. Malta Independent, Feb 4, 2018. looks at UK data on Maltese women abroad, and affirms the estimate: “According to statistics measuring the frequency of abortions among women of childbearing age, the rate for Malta is between 3.6 and 4.7 per thousand women. The EU average is 4.4.”

Abortion in Malta: The Complete Guide and Doctors for Choice Malta are two websites offering abortion information to women in Malta.

Women’s Rights Foundation, Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights – Malta. Women’s Rights Foundation, Mar 2018. called for four exceptions to abortion law: mother’s life, mother’s physical and mental health, rape and incest, fetal impairment. Summarized by Denise Grech, Women Should Have Access to Abortion in at Least Four Circumstances - Paper Says. Times of Malta, Mar 10, 2018. For the impact of COVID-19’s shutdown of international travel on abortion, see also Sophia Smith-Galer, Covid: Locked-Down Women Turn to Pills Amid Malta Abortion Ban. BBC, Jan 9, 2021. And Megan Clement and Bertrand Borg, How Malta’s Abortion Taboo Leaves Women in Despair. The Guardian, Jun 11, 2020.

In Poland as of 1993, abortions are legal only when pregnancy poses a threat to the mother’s life or health, or pregnancy due to rape or incest (within 12 weeks). Severe fetal impairment is no longer legally permitted; see Antonia Mortenson and Reuters, Poland Puts New Restrictions on Abortion Into Effect, Resulting in a Near-Total Ban on Terminations. CNN, Jan 28, 2021. for court ruling and backlash.

Adriana Sas, Number of Legal Abortions in Poland 1994 – 2019. Statista, Aug 25, 2020. provides data on legal abortions.

William Robert Johnston, Historical Abortion Statistics. Johnston’s Archive, last updated Jan 14, 2020. Includes data on abortion back to 1955, sourced to the extent possible.

Ewa Hirvonen, Polish Abortion Tourism. Laurea University of Applied Sciences, 2017. estimates between 80,000 - 200,000 illegal abortions per year currently based on data from other countries. Poland’s 2021 total population is 38 million (comparable to USA, which has total population of 333 million, with perhaps 800k abortions annually.

Kevin Duffy, Abortion in Poland. Percuity blog, Oct 23, 2020. says of the larger 200,000 figure, “These numbers and proportions are similar to the abortion statistics for England and Wales, in which 98% are performed under Ground C, which as we have discussed before, is largely interpreted by abortion providers as being on-demand by the choice of the woman for any reason.” Kevin Duffy, Women on Web in Poland. Percuity blog, Oct 25, 2020. also gives stats on a study of women who aborted at home with counsel by telehealth.

Józefa Deszcz, Maria Stachura, Beata Trzcińska, and Jadwiga Wronicz, The Abortion Underground in Poland - Myths and Facts. Archiwalna Pro-Life, Dec 2013. Argue that the number is much less, around 7,000 - 14,000 per year, although they do not give compelling reasons as to why pills are less available in Poland than elsewhere, or whether the gray/black market for abortions has expanded and what would indicate that. Also, they do not consider Malta as a comparison point to Poland, despite the similarities, especially a pervasive Catholicism.

BBC, Poland's Tussle Over Abortion Ban. BBC, Oct 6, 2016. cites polls on approval and disapproval of the abortion ban as of 2016.

Human Rights Watch, Poland: A Year On, Abortion Ruling Harms Women. Human Rights Watch, Oct 19, 2021. examines various organizations contacted by Polish women seeking abortions, and people protesting the law or advocating to change it, summarized by Rosie Swash, More Than 30,000 Polish Women Sought Illegal or Foreign Abortions Since Law Change Last Year. The Guardian, Oct 22, 2021. See also the disturbing political pressure from the right in Human Rights Watch, Poland: Escalating Threats to Women Activists. Human Rights Watch, Mar 31, 2021.

The DR had a complete ban on abortion, with no exception for saving the mother’s life, or rape/incest. Abortion has been constitutionally prohibited since September 18, 2009, when a constitutional amendment was approved by Congress by a majority vote of 128 to 34. However, in 2014, President Danilo Medina granted the typical exceptions, according to Center for Reproductive Rights, Dominican Republic Decriminalizes Abortion in Limited Circumstances. Center for Reproductive Rights, Dec 22, 2014.

Abortion in the Dominican Republic. DR1, says, “According to Dr. Cordero, some 90,000 abortions are performed in the Dominican Republic each year, making it the third leading cause of maternal death in the country. These abortions are either self- induced, or are performed by a backstreet practitioner. In either case, there are serious risks.”

Telesur, Dominican Republic Could Hold Plebiscite On Safe Abortion Law. Telesur, Apr 19, 2021. once again presents the typical exceptions.

Olga Khazan, When Abortion Is Illegal, Women Rarely Die. But They Still Suffer. The Atlantic, Oct 11, 2018. writes, “Even though abortion is illegal in El Salvador, one in three pregnancies still ends in abortion, Oberman says. Many women there who want to abort their pregnancies do it by finding misoprostol on the street. Those who have internet access and reading skills can look up information about how to take it properly. According to Oberman, those who do die from abortion-related causes in the country fall into roughly three categories, none of which resembles a case like Elizabeth’s in Argentina. First, some doctors refuse to treat pregnant women with chemotherapy or other potent medications because they are worried they might harm the fetus. Second, some doctors allow ectopic pregnancies—in which a fertilized egg grows outside the womb and can’t survive to birth—to continue until the woman’s fallopian tube explodes, because they fear that eggs in even ectopic pregnancies will be considered living beings under the law. In the third category are teenage girls who kill themselves because they are distraught over their pregnancies. These teenage deaths account for three-eighths of all maternal deaths in El Salvador.”

Before 2006, Nicaragua permitted abortion for “therapeutic” reasons, which ostensibly meant to save the mother’s life. In November 2006, Nicaragua’s National Assembly outlawed abortion in all circumstances.

Kenneth Roth, Nicaragua: Events of 2020. Human Rights Watch, 2021. notes, “Women and girls who have abortions face prison terms as long as two years. Medical professionals who perform abortions face one to six years. The ban forces women and girls confronting unwanted pregnancies to seek illegal and unsafe abortions, risking their health and lives.”

Ian Bateson, This Is What It’s Like On The Front Lines Of Nicaragua’s Abortion Crisis. Huffington Post, Oct 31, 2017. discusses Manuel Noriega’s turn from atheist to Catholic to retain power, stripped the typical exceptions (rape, incest, fetal deformity, mother’s life) from the law. “Under the law, women who consent to an abortion face up to two years in prison, and anyone performing the procedure faces up to six years in prison. A physician charged with performing an abortion faces up to a 10-year ban from practicing medicine.”

Shuka Kalantari, Nicaragua’s Teen Pregnancy Rate Soars. PRI | The World, Aug 17, 2016. says, “Nicaragua has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in all of Latin America, according to The World Bank… According to a report called "Stolen Lives" by Planned Parenthood Global, the rate of 10- to 14-year-old girls having babies in Nicaragua has shot up almost 50 percent over the last decade. One in three teenagers here has a child before she turns 18 years old.” Includes helpful charts about abortion rates and teen pregnancy in Latin America.

Human Rights Watch, Nicaragua: Abortion Ban Threatens Health and Lives. Human Rights Watch, Jul 31, 2017. gives more texture to the cultural context for girls and women facing sexual violence, and health care workers.

Ipas, Marking 10 Years of Nicaragua’s Abortion Ban, Ipas Releases Study on Epidemic of ‘Child Mothers’. Ipas, Oct 31, 2016.

Cynthia McKnight, Life Without Roe: Making Predictions About Illegal Abortions. The Horatio R. Storer Foundation, 1992. See also Mary Louise Kelly, What Abortion Was Like In The U.S. Before Roe V. Wade. NPR, May 20, 2019. interviews Karissa Haugeberg, who says, “scholars estimate that between 20% and 25% of all pregnancies ended in abortion before Roe v. Wade.” See also Ted Joyce, Ruoding Tan, and Yuxiu Zhang, Abortion Before and After Roe. Journal of Health Economics, Sep 2014. who focus on NY’s legalization of abortion in 1970, and how many women traveled there. Rachel Benson Gold, Lessons from Before Roe: Will Past be Prologue?. Guttmacher Institute, Mar 2003. focuses equal choice issues.

B.E. Kwast, Abortion: Its Contribution to Maternal Mortality. Midwifery, Mar 1992. “500,000 women die each year in pregnancy and childbirth, of which 100,000-200,000 are estimated to be the result of a poorly performed abortion. Inadequate abortion techniques also contribute to future reproductive problems. 40-60 million legal and illegal abortions are estimated to be performed annually. Latin American estimates of maternal deaths from illegal abortion amount to 50%. Recent evidence from urban areas in Africa shows a current problem with illegal abortion where none existed 10 years ago.”

E. Ketting and A.P. Visser, Contraception in The Netherlands: The Low Abortion Rate, Explained. Patient Education and Counselling, Jul 1994. find “The abortion rate fluctuates between 5 to 7/1000 women of reproductive age, the lowest abortion rate in the world… Special family planning programs in the Netherlands target groups at risk of unwanted pregnancy, particularly teenage pregnancy. Almost all secondary schools and about 50% of primary schools address sexuality and contraception.” Dutch teenagers tend to have sex less frequently than American teenagers, start at an older age, and have a teenage pregnancy rate six times lower than the U.S.

George McKenna, On Abortion: A Lincolnian Position. The Atlantic, Sep 1995.

Katha Pollitt, Abortion in American History. The Atlantic, May 1997.

Mark A. Graber, Rethinking Abortion: Equal Choice, the Constitution, and Reproductive Politics. Princeton University Press, 1999. see also reviews on Amazon. Graber makes an outstanding contribution by also asking about the implementation of the law in this case.

Lisa B. Haddad and Nawal M. Nour, Unsafe Abortion: Unnecessary Maternal Mortality. Review of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Spr 2009. “Every year, worldwide, about 42 million women with unintended pregnancies choose abortion, and nearly half of these procedures, 20 million, are unsafe. Some 68,000 women die of unsafe abortion annually, making it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality (13%). Of the women who survive unsafe abortion, 5 million will suffer long-term health complications.”

Ann M. Moore, Lori Frohwirth, Elizabeth Miller, Male Reproductive Control of Women Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence in the United States. Guttmacher Institute, Feb 2010.

Stuart Koehl, An Independent Witness to Marriage. First Things, Jul 16, 2010.

Ross Douthat, What Reduces Abortion Rates. The New York Times, Feb 21, 2012.

Star-Ledger Staff, Why I Perform Abortions: A Christian Obstetrician Explains His Choice. NewJersey.com, May 27, 2012.

Gary Kowalski, The Founding Fathers and Abortion in Colonial America. Revolutionary Spirits blog, Apr 6, 2012. also posted here, see comments

BBC News, German Incest Couple Lose European Court Case. BBC, Apr 12, 2012.

Libby Anne, How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement.  Love, Joy, Feminism | Patheos, Oct 29, 2012.  A personal account of how one woman realized that the “pro-life movement” advocates for policies that are counterproductive.  She concludes that the “pro-life movement” is not desirous of lowering the abortion rate.

Julie, God Was Pro-Choice in 1968. Left in Alabama, Nov 1, 2012. very exemplary quotes from white evangelicals. See also Ed Stetzer, Morning Roundup 11/5/12: Pro-Choice Evangelicals?; President Obama's Faith; High Priests of Culture. Christianity Today, Nov 5, 2012.

Garance Franke-Ruta, The Anti-Abortion Movement's Intelligence Failure. The Atlantic, Apr 17, 2013.

Randa Morris, Pro-Life? GOP Promotes Nine Out Of Ten Things That Cause Death In Unborn Children. Church and State, Jul 30, 2013.

Father Peter West, History of the Black Madonna. Human Life International, Aug 1, 2013. Important as a demonstration of Catholic piety, population demographics of decline, and anti-abortion policy.

Ranana Dine, Scarlet Letters: Getting the History of Abortion and Contraception Right American Progress, Aug 8, 2013.

Lucina Suarez et.al., Neural Tube Defects on the Texas-Mexico Border: What We've Learned in the 20 Years Since the Brownsville Cluster. Clinical and Molecular Teratology, Sep 3, 2012. A study of the unusually high incidences of a specific fetal anomaly: anencephaly. This condition raises the question of whether God ensouls the fetus without a brain or functional nervous system. It raises the question of relational personhood acutely: If a pregnant mother is missing key nutrition, in this case folic acid, how might the fetus be impacted?

Eric Sapp, If You Are Truly Pro-Life, You'd Vote Democrat. Patheos, Sep 4, 2012. only 10 States have anti-abortion laws, accounting for 10% for abortions

David Goldberg, I, Pedophile The Atlantic, Aug 26, 2013.

Sara Boboltz, Here's Why the Idea of "Traditional Marriage" is Total Bullsh*t. Huffington Post, Jan 20, 2014.

Gregory Ciotti, Is Your Brain Truly Ready for Junk Food, Porn, or the Internet? Sparring Mind blog.

Scott Keyes, Conservatives Aren’t Just Fighting Same-Sex Marriage. They’re Also Trying to Stop Divorce. Washington Post, Apr 11, 2014.

William Patrocelli, Five Ways Men Benefit From Women's Empowerment. Huffington Post, Apr 27, 2014.

Michelle Goldberg, Tear Gas Is an Abortifacient. Why Won’t the Anti-Abortion Movement Oppose It?. The Nation, Aug 19, 2014.

Health Research Funding, 18 Noteworthy Botched Abortion Statistics. Heath Research Funding, Feb 7, 2015.

I Had an Abortion at 27 Weeks; the House 20-Week Abortion Bill Feels Like a Slap in the Face. Reddit, May, 2015.

Danielle Kurtzleben, Fact Check: How Does Planned Parenthood Spend That Government Money? NPR, Aug 5, 2015.

Julia Smucker, Abortion as Political Profit: The Unspoken Consensus. Christian Democracy Magazine, Sep 22, 2015.

Hannah Levintova, Up to 240,000 Women Have Tried to Give Themselves Abortions in Texas. Mother Jones, Nov 17, 2015.

Robert Tracy MacKenzie, When Being Pro-Life Didn't Make You a Republican. Christianity Today, Nov 23, 2015.

Ryan Hammill, That Time C.S. Lewis Predicted the Future. Sojourners, Dec 17, 2015.

Matt Agorist, Michigan Senate Passes Bill Outlawing Oral and Anal Sex — Violators Will Face 15 Years in Prison. Free Thought Project, Jan 8, 2016.

John Oliver, Abortion Laws. Last Week Tonight, Feb 21, 2016.

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, The Return of the D.I.Y. Abortion. The New York Times, Mar 5, 2016.

Sara Reardon, The Spectrum of Sex Development: Eric Vilain and the Intersex Controversy. Nature, May 10, 2016.

Rob Stein, In Search For Cures, Scientists Create Embryos That Are Both Animal And Human NPR, May 18, 2016.

Ellen Wulfhorst, Up Against Strict Laws, Texas Women Learn Do-It-Yourself Abortions. Reuters, May 24, 2016.

Aaron Cline Hanbury, The Surprising New Findings that Could Re-Shape the Pro-Life Movement: New Data Calls for a New Response. Relevant, May 25, 2016.

Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, Supreme Court Rejects States' Ploy to Roll Back Abortion Rights. Los Angeles Times, Jun 27, 2016.

Michael Brown, Since God Hates the Shedding of Innocent Blood, Can a Christian Vote for Hillary? The Stream, Jul 26, 2016. an example of an abortion policy position

Shannon Dingle, I'm Pro-Life. And I'm Voting for Hillary. Here's Why. blog, Jul 31, 2016.

Mary Elizabeth Williams, "There's So Much Shame and Stigma": "Abortion Stories" Director Tracy Droz Tragos Pulls Back the Curtain on "Super Complicated" Issue. Salon, Aug 12, 2016.

Matthew Tyson, I’m Pro-Life, And I Don’t Care About the Supreme Court. Patheos, Sep 6, 2016.

Eric Sapp, Hillary Clinton Is the Best Choice for Voters Against Abortion. Christian Post, Oct 3, 2016.

Ruth Graham, The New Culture of Life. Slate, Oct 11, 2016.

Neil Carter, What Does the Bible Say About Abortion? Patheos, Oct 23, 2016. including history of the politics of abortion

Lisa Shannon, U.S. Policy Prevents Women Who Are Raped By ISIS From Accessing Abortion New York Times, Nov 1, 2016.

Laura Bassett, How House Republicans Derailed A Scientist Whose Research Could Save Lives. Huffington Post, Nov 3, 2016. and The Young Turks, Doctor's Life-Saving Research Destroyed By Republicans. The Young Turks, Nov 3, 2016.

Neha Thirani Bagri, The Sharpest Drops in Abortion Rates in America Have Been Under Democratic Presidents Quartz, Dec 7, 2016.

Brandy Zadrozny, Sofia Vergara Embryo Case Could Open Floodgates. Daily Beast, Dec 8, 2016.

Marie Solis, Judge Rules Doctors Can Refuse Trans Patients and Women Who Have Had Abortions. Policy Mic, Jan 4, 2017.

Nina Agrawal, Abortion Rate Declines to Historic Low, with Obamacare a Likely Contributor, Study Says. Los Angeles Times, Jan 18, 2017.

Myriam Renaud, Myths Debunked: Why Did White Evangelical Christians Vote for Trump? Chicago Divinity School, Jan 19, 2017. not abortion, but terrorism and economy

Charlotte England, Arkansas Passes Law Allowing Rapists to Prevent Victims Who Want an Abortion. Independent, Feb 3, 2017.

Noel Wise, Judge: Gender Laws Are At Odds With Science. Time, Mar 8, 2017.

Francis X. Rocca, Why Abortion Doesn’t Resonate in European Politics. Wall Street Journal, Mar 23, 2017. why populist movements downplay it

Christina Forrester, The Truth About Christianity and Abortion. Huffington Post, Apr 17, 2017.

Kyle Howard, Moral Credibility and Ethnic Diversity in the Pro-Life Movement. Speak for the Unborn, Aug 7, 2017.

Caroline Kitchener, Will Technology Change the Abortion Debate? The Atlantic, Jan 16, 2018.

Joseph P. Williams, Satanic Temple Sues Missouri Over Abortion Rights – and Could Win. USA Today, Jan 26, 2018. testing the First Amendment

Anna North, Plenty of Conservatives Really Do Believe Women Should Be Executed for Having Abortions. Vox, Apr 5, 2018. shows the retributive ethic in conservatism, and white American evangelicalism

Kevin Williamson, The Punishment I Favor for Abortion. Washington Post, Apr 25, 2018. Cites France’s 12 week limit on permitting abortion.

Frederica Perera, The Womb Is No Protection From Toxic Chemicals. New York Times, Jun 1, 2017.

Christine Cauterucci, Abortion Access in Missouri Is Getting Easier, Thanks to Planned Parenthood and Satanists. Slate, Sep 12, 2017.

Li Zhou, Ten Legal Experts on the Future of Roe v. Wade After Kennedy. Vox, Jul 2, 2018.

Davorah Blanchor, Abortion Is Immoral, Except When It Comes to My Mistresses. McSweeney’s Jul 11, 2018. and Arwa Mahdawi, A Republican Theme on Abortions: 'It's OK for Me, Evil for Thee'. The Guardian, Aug 25, 2018. “An illustrious list of Republican men are publicly anti-choice, but privately have supported women in their lives having abortions.”

Michael Shermer, Abortion Is a Problem to Be Solved, Not a Moral Issue. Scientific American, Sep 2018.

Joe Fox, Ann Gerhart and Aaron Steckelberg, What Could Happen If Roe v. Wade Gets Struck Down? Washington Post, Sep 4, 2018.

Shannon Dingle, Pro-Life Friends Supported Our Children’s Adoptions. But They Balk at Policies Keeping Them Alive. Washington Post, Sep 4, 2018.

Joshua Zeitz, Why Conservatives Should Beware a Roe v. Wade Repeal. Politico, Sep 4, 2018. contains a helpful history of abortion practices and attitudes from colonial times

Gabrielle Blair, Men Cause 100% of Unwanted Pregnancies. Medium, Sep 24, 2018. witty and challenging

Carolyn Yoder, Blood on Our Hands: 7 Reasons Why I’m a Christian Against Abortion Who Doesn’t Vote Pro-life Peace Amid & After Trauma, Oct 23, 2018.

David C. Reardon, The Abortion and Mental Health Controversy: A Comprehensive Literature Review of Common Ground Agreements, Disagreements, Actionable Recommendations, and Research Opportunities. SAGE Open Medicine, Oct 29, 2018.

Alice Miranda Ollstein and Rachel Roubein, Here Comes the Roe v. Wade Challenges. Politico, Nov 8, 2018.

Zamira Rahim, Ohio Considers Total Ban on Abortion and Death Penalty for Women or Doctors Found Guilty. UK Independent, Nov 20, 2018.

Françoise Girard, Abortion Pills Aren’t Enough to Keep Coat Hangers in the Closet. The New York Times, Nov 25, 2018.

Sarah Kliff, The American Abortion Rate Is at an All-Time Low. Vox, Dec 3, 2018. due to better birth control

Alice Miranda Ollstein, Kavanaugh, Roberts Side With Liberal Judges on Planned Parenthood Case. Politico, Dec 10, 2018.

Anna North, Roe v. Wade Is at Risk, But Abortion Rights Groups See Surprising Opportunities for Gains. Vox, Jan 24, 2019.

Jennifer Gorman, Here’s What I Want Donald Trump And Everyone Else To Know About My ‘Late-Term Abortion’. Huffington Post, Feb 7, 2019.

Susan Page, Barbara Bush’s Long-Hidden ‘Thoughts on Abortion’. The Atlantic, Mar 29, 2019. Reflecting on the birth and death of her daughter Robin, Barbara Bush agrees with the Hebrew Masoretic Text’s view that full legal personhood begins at birth and breath:

“When does the soul enter the body is the #1 question. Not when does life begin, as life begins in a flower or an animal with the first cell. So the question is does the life begin (soul entering the body) at conception or at the moment the first breath is taken? If the answer to that question is at conception, then abortion is murder. If the answer to that question is the moment the first breath is taken, then abortion is not murder.” “Judging from both the birth and death of Robin Bush, I have decided that that almost religious experience, that thin line between birth, the first breath that she took, was when the soul, the spirit, that special thing that separates man or woman from animals + plants entered her little body. I was conscious at her birth and I was with her at her death. (As was G.B.) An even stronger impression remains with me of that moment, 27 years ago [when she died]. Of course, extreme grief, but that has softened. I vividly remember that split second, that thin line between breathing and not breathing, the complete knowledge that her soul had left and only the body remained.”

Anna North, Trump Administration’s “Domestic Gag Rule” Blocked by Judge. Vox, Apr 26, 2019. highlights difficulties with tying funding for contraception with funding for abortion

Andrew Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren Just Transformed the Abortion Debate. New York Magazine, May 17, 2019.

Heather Timmons, Trump Shifted from Pro-Choice to Pro-Life Only as He Planned a Presidential Run. Quartz, May 20, 2019.

Olga Khazan, Why So Many Women Choose Abortion Over Adoption. The Atlantic, May 20, 2019. important stats and perspective

Jamelle Bouie, Anti-Abortion and Pro-Trump Are Two Sides of the Same Coin. The New York Times, May 20, 2019. “Both seek to reinforce and re-establish hierarchies that were beginning to lose force” namely, privileges of race, gender, and class exemplified by Trump’s personal lifestyle

Angela Denker, I Wanted to Be Pro-Life. But the Pro-Life Movement Forces Me to Take the Other Side. Washington Post, May 29, 2019.

Wesley J. Smith, Don’t Let Profiteers Control Human Genetic Engineering. National Review, May 29, 2019.

Lornet Turnbull, How Colorado Halved Abortion and Teen Birth Rates. Yes! Solutions Journalism, Jun 5, 2019.

Elise C. Boddie, Kamala Harris Has a Brilliant Idea on Abortion. New York Times, Jun 6, 2019. re: preclearance, preventing state laws from taking effect unless in agreement with federal law

Legal Eagle, Are Fetal Heartbeat Laws Constitutional? (and the History of Roe v. Wade) -- Real Law Review. LegalEagle, Jun 13, 2019.

Heather Timmons and Annalisa Merelli, DNA Testing Means Forced Fatherhood as States Limit Abortion. Quartz, Jun 16, 2019. “Prior to the 1970s, says Milanich, when the HLA (Human Leucocyte Antigene) test was developed, there was essentially no way to conclusively determine fatherhood. Even the HLA test, which had about 90% accuracy, wasn’t widely used. After DNA testing became common and accepted as conclusive evidence of paternity, some even debated the fairness of “forced fatherhood.”… When a man is identified as a parent with a modern DNA test, “the odds of him not being the father are in the hundreds of millions to billions to one”… in 1992, the US passed a federal law that makes it a criminal felony to fail to pay child support for two years or more, punishable with time in prison.”

Lindsay Schnell, Jews, Outraged by Restrictive Abortion Laws, Are Invoking the Hebrew Bible in the Debate. USA Today, Jul 28, 2019. “While some Orthodox rabbis have denounced abortion, within Jewish communities there’s considerable support for keeping it legal. Studies from the Pew Research Center show that Jews overwhelmingly (83%) support abortion rights. The National Council of Jewish Women, a 126-year-old organization that helped establish some of the first birth control clinics across the country, considers reproductive rights a cornerstone issue and has publicly condemned the strict abortion bans recently handed down in Alabama and Mississippi.” The Hebrew Masoretic Text of Exodus 21:22 - 23 says birth marks personhood. “The Talmud, a two-part Jewish text comprised of centuries worth of thought, debate and discussion, is also helpful when discussing abortion. The Talmud explains that for the first 40 days of a woman’s pregnancy, the fetus is considered “mere fluid” and considered part of the mother until birth. The baby is considered a nefesh – Hebrew for “soul” or “spirit” – once its head has emerged, and not before.” 

Benjamin Fearnow, Rand Paul: Republican Leaders Are Fake Pro-Life, Refuse to Defund Planned Parenthood. Newsweek, Jul 3, 2019. “Last year, I tried to attach to a spending bill a prohibition to have any money spent by Planned Parenthood. You know what happened? [GOP leadership] sat me down and one of the senior Republican senators said, 'We cannot have the vote today.' I said 'why?' He said ‘we might win.’”

David French, The South is a Pro-Life Stronghold National Review, Jul 11, 2019. admits that the South was the stronghold of slavery and Jim Crow, but does not consider that the retributive justice ethic that informed and undergirded both of those forms of racism also affects gender relations and perceptions of responsibility in the case of abortion

Ja’han Jones, For Black Women With Means, Money Isn’t The Only Barrier To Abortion Access. Huffington Post, Jul 11, 2019. “Many Black women who can afford to pay for an abortion are still denied the freedom to do so, and not due to an abortion ban” but by availability and access, and “black conservatism”

The Guardian UK, How America's Abortion Obsession Was Sparked on a Conference Call. The Guardian UK, Aug 1, 2019.

Financial Times, US Abortion Law, What the Numbers Tell Us. Financial Times, Jun 4, 2019. Looks at red state abortion restrictions. Glances at UK abortion rate, which is a destination for Irish women seeking abortion, suggesting that abortion demand is inelastic and simply forces women to seek abortion in other places. Breaks countries into three categories: least, moderately, and most restrictive on abortion to examine impact on abortion safety.

Anna Louie Sussman, When the Government Seizes Your Embryos. The New Yorker, Oct 22, 2019. “In Poland, single women who have frozen embryos are now barred from accessing them.”

Dahlia Lithwick, The Judges Republicans Are Doing It All For. Slate, Oct 23, 2019. “Trump nominated his fifth judge rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association this week. She’s never tried a case.” Sarah “Pitlyk’s primary legal work has consisted of attacks on abortion rights, tempered by attacks on constitutionally protected contraception rights, leavened by other attacks on abortion, and supported with her work defending David Daleiden—the author of a vicious smear campaign against Planned Parenthood, based on fake videos of Planned Parenthood officials appearing to negotiate the sale of aborted fetal body parts.”

Aida Chavez, The GOP’s Fearmongering Over Abortion Flopped in Kentucky and Virginia. The Intercept, Nov 6, 2019.

The Economist, How American Politicized Abortion. The Economist, Dec 4, 2019. Spotlights international trends.

Caitlin Flanagan, The Dishonesty of the Abortion Debate. The Atlantic, Dec 2019. “Why we need to face the best arguments from the other side”

Imani Gandi, Groundbreaking South Carolina Bill: Compensate People for Forcing Them to Give Birth. Rewire News Group, Dec 13, 2019.

David Leach, Planned Parenthood Has Another Big Year Thanks to Trump and the GOP. The Strident Conservative, Jan 7, 2020. “Trump and the GOP included over $550 million in Planned Parenthood funding between now and the end of the fiscal year (September 2020).”

Marie Solis, Texas Is Hostile to Abortion, So People Are Doing It Themselves. Vice, Jan 13, 2020. Using pill forms, largely misoprostol. “New research published in the journal BMC Women’s Health shows that women in Texas—one of the states with the most restrictions on abortion—attempted to self-manage abortions because an in-clinic procedure was out of reach for them. Their reasons were many, but largely centered on cost, which was prohibitive for these patients, and the distance to the nearest clinic.”

Ariana Eunjung Cha and Emily Guskin, Most Americans Want Abortion to Remain Legal, but Back Some State Restrictions. Washington Post, Jan 22, 2020. “New poll finds support for waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds and other limits.”

Erika Bachiochi, The Troubling Ideals at the Heart of Abortion Rights. The Atlantic, Jan 24, 2020. Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) on the resourcing of abortion availability

Rob Ryerse, I Questioned the Sincerity of Donald Trump's Pro-Life Stance. The Response From My Fellow Evangelicals Was Troubling. Time, Feb 12, 2020.

Karen Swallow Prior, Must Pro-Life Mean Pro-Trump? Christianity Today, Feb 24, 2020. “We have placed too much faith in the political calculus and not enough faith in God’s power.”

Jordan Smith, Courts Put the Brakes on Politicians’ Efforts to Ban Abortion Amid COVID-19 Outbreak. The Intercept, Mar 31, 2020. “Federal judges in Alabama and Ohio granted temporary orders protecting access to abortion. A similar order in Texas was halted by the 5th Circuit.”

Vanessa Gera, Poles Divided on ‘Draconian’ Abortion, Sex Education Bills. Associated Press, Apr 15, 2020. an example from Poland of the political aims of a conservative Catholic group

Katherine Stewart, How Fringe Christian Nationalists Made Abortion a Central Political Issue. Literature Hub, Jun 12, 2020. Katherine Stewart on the New Right.

Michelle Goodwin, The Racist History of Abortion and Midwifery Bans. ACLU, Jul 1, 2020. "Following the Supreme Court’s decision in June Medical Services v. Russo this week, it is worth reflecting on the racist origins of the anti-abortion movement in the United States, which date back to the ideologies of slavery. Just like slavery, anti-abortion efforts are rooted in white supremacy, the exploitation of Black women, and placing women’s bodies in service to men. Just like slavery, maximizing wealth and consolidating power motivated the anti-abortion enterprise. Then, just as now, anti-abortion efforts have nothing to do with saving women’s lives or protecting the interests of children. Today, a person is 14 times more likely to die by carrying a pregnancy to term than by having an abortion, and medical evidence has shown for decades that an abortion is as safe as a penicillin shot—and yet abortion remains heavily restricted in states across the country. Prior to the Civil War, abortion and contraceptives were legal in the U.S., used by Indigenous women as well as those who sailed to these lands from Europe. For the most part, the persons who performed all manner of reproductive health care were women — female midwives. Midwifery was interracial; half of the women who provided reproductive health care were Black women. Other midwives were Indigenous and white. However, in the wake of slavery’s end, skilled Black midwives represented both real competition for white men who sought to enter the practice of child delivery, and a threat to how obstetricians viewed themselves. Male gynecologists claimed midwifery was a degrading means of obstetrical care. They viewed themselves as elite members of a trained profession with tools such as forceps and other technologies, and the modern convenience of hospitals, which excluded Black and Indigenous women from practice within their institutions.”

Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig, Pro-Life, Anti-Poverty. The American Conservative, Jul 14, 2020. “Women with incomes at less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level accounted for 42.4 percent of abortions between 2000 and 2008, while only roughly 15 percent of people total live under the federal poverty line. It is challenging to say how many of these women would not have elected to have abortions had their financial circumstances been different, but a 2011 Gallup poll suggests pro-life sentiment is far more common among poorer people, with a majority of both Republicans and Democrats making under $30,000 a year identifying as “pro-life.” Couple the data with anecdotal reports like those cited in “The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion,” and it seems fair to conclude that financial privation pushes a considerable number of women into electing abortion who would, in different economic arrangements, decide instead to give birth. With this in mind, it’s unclear why so much of pro-life policy seems to center on bans and fines and scans and threats.”

David French, Do Pro-Lifers Who Reject Trump Have ‘Blood on their Hands’? The Dispatch, Aug 23, 2020. focuses on state legislatures, not Roe v. Wade, and shows the problems with focusing on presidents and Supreme Court justice nominations

Phil Vischer, What About Abortion? Should This One Issue Determine How Christians Vote?. Phil Vischer, Oct 17, 2020. features Skye Jethani’s comments: (1) Republican domination of the Court for 5 decades has not overturned Roe; (2) overturning Roe is not the key to ending abortion; (3) policies of Democrats reduce the abortion rate more than Republicans because of economics and contraception coverage.

Vice News, This Anti-Abortion, Evangelical Pastor Says the GOP is a "Religious Cult". Vice News, Sep 2, 2020. 5 minute video on why Rob Schenck is now voting for Joe Biden

David E. DeCosse, Catholics, Voting, and Abortion: Time to Correct the Record. National Catholic Reporter, Sep 14, 2020. “It may surprise many Catholic voters to know that church teaching does not prohibit a Catholic from voting for a pro-choice candidate. In fact, the teaching of Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops all permit a Catholic to do so.”

Jayson D. Bradley, 4 Reasons We Should Focus on Poverty Instead of Abortion. Honest to God | Patheos, Oct 16, 2020. because 1 in 5 children live in poverty; women in poverty made up half of all abortions; the abortion rate does not go down under restrictive laws; and focusing on poverty would reduce political polarization

Mary Pezzulo, The True Effect of COVID and the Pro-Life Movement on Abortion. Steel Magnificat | Patheos, Oct 19, 2020. cites reports of steep increases in the number of abortions due to COVID

Bob Seidensticker, Most U.S. Abortions are Due to Pro-Life Movement. Cross Examined | Patheos, Oct 24, 2020. because of treating the symptom rather than the underlying problem

Paul D. Miller, Politics Is More Than Abortion vs Character. Mere Orthodoxy, Nov 2, 2020. shifts the conundrum to nationalism vs. progressivism. I would have preferred individualism as the label of the “progressivism” he describes, because he is describing cultural, but not economic, progressivism.

Gracy Olmstead, Markets and the Strangulation of the American Family. Mere Orthodoxy, Nov 24, 2020. reviewing Alissa Quart, Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America. Amazon book, Jun 2018. and Maxine Eichner, The Free-Market Family: How the Market Crushed the American Dream (and How It Can Be Restored)  Amazon book, Jan 2020. and Matt Bruenig, Family Fun Pack. People’s Policy Project.

Michael W. Chapman, Vatican Says COVID Vaccine Made From Cell Lines of Aborted Babies 'Morally Acceptable,' Some Bishops Disagree. Catholic News Service, Jan 4, 2021.

Fran Ferder and Fr. John Heagle, How Catholics Got Conned by Donald Trump. NCR Online, Jan 14, 2021. Fran Ferder is a Franciscan sister and a clinical psychologist. Fr. John Heagle is chair of the Gospel Nonviolence Working Group for AUSCP (the Association of United States Catholic Priests). They share a counseling ministry in Oregon.

Lyman Stone, Child Allowances Reduce Abortion. Public Discourse | The Witherspoon Institute, Feb 25, 2021.

Yelena Dzhanova, Survivors of Domestic Violence Call on the IRS to Recognize Financial Abuse and Help Them Combat It.  Business Insider, May 22, 2021.  “About 99% of domestic violence survivors experience financial abuse, according to experts. Over the course of the pandemic, abusers pocketed stimulus checks and might direct much-needed child tax credits to their own accounts.”

Obery Hendricks, Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith. Beacon Press | Amazon page, Jul 2021. Black theologian Obery Hendricks cogently critiques the unholy alliances between white evangelicals and the NRA, the modern antiabortion platform, big business and antilabor, and others. Chapter 6, on abortion, is excellent.

Michele Goodwin, Banning Abortion Doesn’t Protect Women’s Health. New York Times, Jul 9, 2021.

Ryan Burge, Abortion Just Isn’t the Motivating Issue for Evangelicals As It Once Was. Religion News Network, Aug 9, 2021. “The PRRI poll, conducted in March of 2018, asked about abortion from several angles. The Association of Religion Data Archives also provides a measurement wizard to other abortion questions here. One battery of questions asked respondents how they would prioritize a number of important problems in the United States. Among white evangelicals, nearly 40% said reducing health care costs should be a top priority, while nearly the same percentage emphasized reducing the deficit. About a third wanted the government to address the opioid epidemic, and 32% wanted immigration reform to be a top priority. However, just 30% said enacting anti-abortion laws should take precedent, and an even larger share of white evangelicals (33%) said abortion should be a lower priority in 2018. PRRI also asked about abortion and support for candidates more directly. Specifically, they asked a question that probed whether the issue of abortion was a dealbreaker for supporting a candidate.”

Nina Totenberg, Supreme Court Upholds New Texas Abortion Law, For Now. NPR, Sep 2, 2021. See also commentary by Heather Cox Richardson, Facebook post September 1, 2021. Facebook, Sep 1, 2021. and Facebook post September 2, 2021. Facebook, Sep 2, 2021. and Facebook post September 3, 2021 (Facebook, Sep 3, 2021. Oren Oppenheim, Which States’ Lawmakers Have Said They Might Copy Texas’ Abortion Law. ABC News, Sep 3, 2021. See Justin King, Let’s Talk About People Defeating the Texas Tip Website (Beau of the Fifth Column, Sep 3, 2021. See also Ryan Grim, Kim Iversen, and Robby Soave, DOJ Vows To Defend Women Over TX Abortion Ban, VA Dems Seize On Pro-Choice Messaging For Midterms. Rising | The Hill, Sep 7, 2021. about the procedural step taken by SCOTUS, not the legal merits of abortion per se; they discuss the political ramifications of the decision. On procedural law, see Laurence H. Tribe and David Rosenberg, How a Massachusetts Case Could End the Texas Abortion Law. Boston Globe, Sep 8, 2021. “We successfully invoked the civil parallel of the Ku Klux Klan Act to prevent the neighbor of a Harvard Square restaurant from wielding a state-conferred veto power over the issuance of any liquor license within a 500-foot radius.”

BBC News, Mexico Decriminalizes Abortion in Landmark Ruling. BBC, Sep 7, 2021.

Ashton Pittman, In Mississippi, Fetal Deaths Double Among Unvaccinated Pregnant Women With COVID-19. Mississippi Free Press, Sep 8, 2021. shows the impact of social policies on maternal and fetal/infant health, demonstrating how right-wing priorities on freedom and retributive accountability for choices do not lead to the outcomes pro-life advocates say they want.

Devon James, The Texas Abortion Decision Is Bad For Everyone.  Legal Eagles, Sep 14, 2021.  Examines the legal and policy ramifications of the Texas decision to deputize ordinary citizens to sue abortion providers and people assisting a woman to get an abortion.

Samantha Schmidt and Sammy Westfall, Abortion Pills Are Booming Worldwide. Will Their Use Grow in Texas?. Washington Post, Sep 14, 2021. Carma Hassan and Devan Cole, Texas Governor Signs Bill Tightening Restrictions on Abortion-Inducing Drugs. CNN, Sep 21, 2021.

Thomas B. Edsall, Abortion Has Never Been Just About Abortion. New York Times, Sep 15, 2021.

Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Jessica Glenza, Women Can Say No to Sex if Roe Falls, Says Architect of Texas Abortion Ban. The Guardian, Sep 17, 2021. “Jonathan Mitchell writes in supreme court brief that ‘women can “control their reproductive lives” without access to abortion’”

Alan Herrera, Texas Abortion Ban Architect Now Looking To Recriminalize Gay Sex And Overturn Gay Marriage. Comic Sands, Sep 21, 2021.

Danya Ruttenberg and Katey Zeh, An Ancient Mistranslation Is Now Helping to Threaten Abortion Rights.  Washington Post, Oct 12, 2021.  The authors take the Jewish position of the superiority of the Hebrew Masoretic Text, and assume that the Greek Septuagint translation made a mistake, tracing out the Christian position against abortion post-ensoulment from the distinction between the “unformed” vs. “formed” fetus.

Rachel Maddow, Absurdity Of Texas Abortion Law Laid Bare In Supreme Court Arguments. The Rachel Maddow Show | MSNBC, Nov 2, 2021. interviews Dahlia Lithwick who analyzes the argument of new Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar

Nadya Williams, How (Not) to Drive Up the National Birthrate: A Cautionary Tale from the Roman World, and an Underexplored Pro-Life Answer. Patheos, Nov 3, 2021. “When Dan Price, the CEO of one Seattle company, raised the minimum annual wages of all employees to $70,000, effectively doubling the salaries of some, not only did the company’s employee retention rates and happiness go up dramatically, but so did birthrates. And lest one think that there is no significant statistical causality here, we are talking about a ten-fold increase in the annual number of births to employees. When asked how he managed to balance the company budget with all these pay increases, Price responded that he took a one million dollar pay cut himself.”

Richard Wolff, Ask Prof Wolff: Why Texas Bans Abortion. Democracy at Work, Nov 10, 2021. gives the economic-historical argument, that abortion policy represents a misguided nostalgia vote; Wolff underestimates the religious factor which can operate independently of the economic-historical factor, but reminds us that white evangelicals can and do invent a mythical past

Thom Hartmann, Why Getting Pregnant Increases Your Chance of Being Murdered By 16%. Thom Hartmann Program, Nov 16, 2021. A disturbing fact for both the right and the left, because a woman who becomes a mother is not always safe from her male intimate partner, revealing that she does not always have the judgment necessary to act on her long-term self-interest.

Michele Goodwin, I Was Raped by My Father. An Abortion Saved My Life. New York Times, Nov 30, 2021. Offers personal and also broad statistical perspective on domestic abuse situations and the resultant impact on girls and young women

Caroline Kitchener and Casey Parks, How Mississippi Ended Up with One Abortion Clinic and Why That Matters. Washington Post, Nov 30, 2021. “By the mid-1980s, Mississippi had more than a dozen abortion providers, and the country as a whole had close to 3,000. Then, in the mid-1980s, as antiabortion protesters began bombing clinics and threatening doctors, that number abruptly began to dip nationwide. By 1990, nearly 1,000 doctors had quit, and 84 percent of counties nationwide had no abortion clinic at all… Surveys of OB/GYNs from this time reveal a number of reasons doctors declined to offer abortions. Some, particularly younger doctors, were morally opposed or said they hadn’t learned the procedure in medical school. Most said they feared the wave of brash new protesters. And, on top of it all, work at abortion clinics typically didn’t pay as much as other medical jobs did.” Also state-level restrictions such as a 24-hour waiting period and parental consent for minors. The quality of physicians also declined.

Caitlin Knowles Myers and Morgan Welch, What Can Economic Research Tell Us About the Effect of Abortion Access on Women’s Lives? Brookings Institute, Nov 30, 2021. Cites and links to important studies demonstrating the complex effect between economic hardship and abortion rates

Rachel Pannett, Marjorie Taylor Greene, In Feud with Nancy Mace Over Islamophobia, Launches Personal Attack Over Abortion. Washington Post, Dec 1, 2021. As Nancy Mace is a rape survivor and supports some restrictions on abortion. This is an example of the personality-driven policy debates on the right.

Reynolds Holding, The Judge Who Told the Truth About the Mississippi Abortion Ban. The Atlantic, Dec 1, 2021. Points out the salience of Judge Carlron Reeves’ decision and criticism of the Mississippi state legislatures’ claim to benefit women and African-Americans, given policies that affect people post-delivery. Holding also critiques James Ho, judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. “Justice Thomas—and Judge Ho—see an abortion rate among Black people that is nearly three times as high as that of white people as evidence of eugenics rather than a reflection of life under those conditions.”

Mary Ziegler, The End of Roe Is Coming, and It Is Coming Soon. New York Times, Dec 1, 2021. “There are two likely scenarios for how this decision could go: The justices could throw out the so-called viability standard, which is the underpinning of abortion law today. (Viability is the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, or about 23 weeks of pregnancy.) Or they could do something much more radical and say — precedent be damned — there is no right to abortion in America at all.”

Mary Fitzgerald, The World Is Lifting Abortion Restrictions. Why Is the U.S. Moving Against the Tide?. New York Times, Dec 2, 2021. “Anti-abortion activists in this country argue that the United States is one of only a handful of countries, including what Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, called “notorious human rights violators” like China and North Korea, that have such liberal abortion laws. This is highly misleading. While states like Texas and Mississippi are retrogressing on abortion, the rest of the world is moving the other way. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, over 50 countries have liberalized their abortion laws in the past 25 years, including 20 countries that have removed complete abortion bans. The Supreme Court in heavily Catholic Mexico recently ruled that criminalizing abortion is unconstitutional. Argentina legalized the procedure last year. Across Latin America, a number of legislatures are moving in similar directions (with notable exceptions, such as El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, which still render abortion a crime punishable with imprisonment).”

David Brooks, Abortion: The Voice of the Ambivalent Majority. New York Times, Dec 2, 2021. Brooks is an example of a conservative who is reluctantly pro-choice, not least because of the fragile legitimacy of the law and body politic.

Jennifer Rubin, Can Minds Be Changed on Abortion? Ask Jennifer Rubin. Washington Post, Dec 3, 2021.  

Emily Jashinsky, Ryan Grim, and Kim Iversen, California Plans To Become A "Sanctuary" State For Abortion-Seekers If Roe V. Wade Is Overturned. Rising | The Hill, Dec 10, 2021. Covers recent public polling on views on abortion and Roe. They also discuss the possibility of state-level responses to the likely overturning of Roe, and the eventual pro-life attempt to re-federalize the anti-abortion uniform policies.

Dahlia Lithwik and Katherine Franke, The Faith-Based Case for Saving Abortion Rights. Slate, Dec 10, 2021. a glance at the Constitution as an ecology of balanced rights, and the conservative Supreme Court’s leaning on religious (Christian) freedom and gun rights.

José Díaz-Balart and Maya Wiley, With Texas Abortion Ruling, SCOTUS Sends Warn Off Signal To Would-Be Copycat States. MSNBC, Dec 10, 2021.

Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, Texas’s Abortion Law Is Unprecedented, But the Supreme Court Isn’t Treating It That Way. Five Thirty Eight, Dec 10, 2021. goes into a bit more depth into the justices’ reasoning, which is unusual and appreciated

Rebecca Shabad, Chief Justice John Roberts Warns Supreme Court Over Texas Abortion Law. NBC News, Dec 10, 2021. “Roberts joined the high court’s three liberal justices in discussing the constitutionality of the Texas abortion law.” ““If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the Constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery,” he said, quoting the 1809 U.S. v. Peters case, which found that state legislatures can't overrule federal courts. “The nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake.” The Texas law, which took effect in September, delegates enforcement to any person, anywhere, who can sue any doctor performing an abortion or anyone who aids in the procedure. That makes it virtually impossible for abortion providers to sue the state to block the law, S.B. 8. Texas has argued that the law's opponents had no legal authority to sue the state because S.B. 8 does not give state officials any role in enforcing the restriction.”

Jake Horton, Who Could Be Most Affected By US Abortion Changes? BBC, Dec 11, 2021. a good snapshot of recent abortion statistics

Ryan Burge, Very Few Religious Americans Favor A Total Abortion Ban. Religion Unplugged, Dec 13, 2021. more helpful political polling and stats.

Margot Sanger-Katz, Claire Cain Miller, and Quoctrung Bui, Who Gets Abortions in America? New York Times, Dec 14, 2021. “The typical patient . . . Is Already a Mother. Is in Her Late 20s. Attended Some College. Has a Low Income. Is Unmarried. Is in Her First 6 Weeks of Pregnancy. Is Having Her First Abortion. Lives in a Blue State.”

Pam Belluck, F.D.A. Will Permanently Allow Abortion Pills by Mail. New York Times, Dec 16, 2021.

Caroline Kitchener, Self-Managed Abortion Could Be the Future -- But Its Hard to Talk About. The Lily, Dec 20, 2021.

Becky Sullivan, 21 States Poised to Ban or Severely Restrict Abortion if 'Roe v. Wade' is Overturned. NPR, Dec 21, 2022.

Jordan Ballor, No Free Exercise for Aztecs — Or Abortionists.  Anchoring Truths, 2021. Ballor argues from legal and theological grounds.  Legally, he says that child sacrifice or human sacrifice is forbidden despite possible religious freedom claims, and extends that principle to abortion carte blanche.  Theologically, he argues from “natural law” as if Paul’s statements in Romans 2 establish a common morality.

Jacobin Magazine, Pandemic Birth Rates Are Plummeting...Except in Scandinavia.  Jacobin Magazine, Jan 23, 2022. 

Amy Goodman, "The Janes": The Women Who Formed a Collective to Provide Safe Abortions Before Roe v. Wade.  Democracy Now, Jan 24, 2022. 

Michelle Boorstein, The Threat to Roe v. Wade is Driving a Religious Movement for Reproductive Choice.  Washington Post, Feb 5, 2022.  

Julie Turkewitz, Colombia Decriminalizes Abortion, Bolstering Trend Across Region.  New York Times, Feb 22, 2022. “The ruling by Colombia’s Constitutional Court follows years of organizing by women across Latin America for greater protections and more rights, including access to abortion, and significant shifts in the region’s legal landscape. Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in a similar decision in September and Argentina’s Congress legalized the procedure in late 2020. Colombia’s decision means that three of the four most populous countries in Latin America have now opened the door to more widespread access to abortion.”

Catalina Martinez Coral, The Key Argument on Abortion That Changed Everything in Colombia. New York Times, Mar 14, 2022.

Kate Zernike, Idaho Is First State to Pass Abortion Ban Based on Texas’ Law.  New York Times, Mar 14, 2022.  The bill prohibits abortions after about six weeks, and allows family members of a “preborn child” to sue abortion providers.  The Idaho House passed the abortion bill, 51-14, and then sent it to Gov. Brad Little.

Tish Harrison Warren, How the ‘Whole Life’ Movement Challenges the Politics of Left vs. Right.  New York Times, Mar 2022. 

Jaclyn Diaz, While Red States Restrict Abortion, Blue States Are Voting to Protect Access. NPR, Apr 6, 2022. “More than a dozen states have moved to codify the right to an abortion in state law, rather than rely entirely on Roe. On the same day Little signed S.B. 1309, Colorado's legislature approved the Reproductive Health Equity Act. The legislation solidifies protections for abortion access within Colorado law. If signed by Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado will join 15 other states that have similar laws on the books. Karen Middleton, the president of Colorado abortion rights group Cobalt, said in a statement: "As abortion access hangs in the balance at the Supreme Court, RHEA ensures these fundamental rights are protected in Colorado State Law." She said the legislation "should serve as encouragement to policymakers and advocates in other states that boldly protecting reproductive rights, including abortion rights, can be done, and it's the right thing to do." Vermont voters will decide on a similar constitutional amendment during a statewide referendum in November. Kansas, Kentucky and Iowa have responded in the opposite way. They've taken steps to pass an amendment explicitly declaring their state constitution does not secure or protect the right to abortion.”

Mark Joseph Stern, Only One Blue State Is Fully Preparing for the Next Phase of the Abortion Wars. Slate, Apr 20, 2022. “The measure, H.B. 5414, bars state courts from enforcing another state’s penalties against someone who performed or facilitated an abortion that’s legal in Connecticut. It allows people sued under vigilante abortion bans, like Texas’ S.B. 8, to countersue in Connecticut court, collecting both damages and attorneys’ fees if they prevail. And it broadly prohibits state authorities from complying with another state’s request to investigate, penalize, or extradite individuals for providing or facilitating reproductive health services.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Everything You Need to Know: SCOTUS To Overturn Roe v. Wade. Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, May 3, 2022. Following the leak to Politico of the Alito-authored opinion overturning Roe. See also Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Unprecedented Leak On Roe vs Wade Opinion Rocks SCOTUS. Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, May 3, 2022. They explore whether this was deliberate leak from a justice or staff member on the right or the left. To see political surveying of the US population, see Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Analysis: Will Abortion Upend American Politics? Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, May 3, 2022.

Associated Press, Medical Abortion Next Battle. Associated Press, May 5, 2022. Medical abortion pills, FDA approval, distribution. Half of abortions in the US are done with medical pills.

Daniel K. Williams, This Really Is a Different Pro-Life Movement. The Atlantic, May 9, 2022. “What happened when a campaign led by northern Catholics was captured by southern evangelicals” was the “Southernization” of the anti-abortion movement.

Joy Reid, Alito's Reason For Overturning Roe: Decline In 'Domestic Supply Of Infants' For Adoption. The Reid Out | MSNBC, May 10, 2022. Reid cites many examples of white evangelical political commitments ranging from anti-abortion to anti-contraception. Reid also challenges Alito’s legal history and legal reasoning: Alito does not account for how enslaved black women used abortion as acts of resistance, and how anti-abortion laws in the 1800s were the response of the newly professionalized doctors against black women’s knowledge of herbal abortifacients. See more on white Christian supremacists.

Yehuda Kircher and Michal Raucher, How Jews Talk About Abortion. Shalom Hartman Institute Identity/Crisis Podcast, May 10, 2022. Most Jews are politically liberal, with a minority conservative; but abortion is a complex moral issue and many Jews should use specifically Jewish sources rather than simply adopting the framework of political liberalism.

Heather Cox Richardson, Facebook Post. Facebook, May 10, 2022. “With the overturning of Roe v. Wade seemingly on the horizon, right-wing lawmakers are now escalating their attacks on national policies their base voters oppose. This means, for example, that Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and Mississippi governor Tate Reeves are standing behind the “trigger laws” they have signed to take effect as soon as the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, laws that outlaw abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. Other lawmakers are suggesting they are willing to outlaw contraception, and pharmacists in Texas are already refusing to fill prescriptions for medications commonly prescribed for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. And for all that ending Roe was supposed to turn the issue of abortion over to the states to decide as they wished, there is now talk of advancing a national ban on abortion so that states could not, in fact, choose to protect abortion rights. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is backing federal legislation to punish corporations who pay to fly their employees to different states for abortion care and gender-affirming care for their children. “Our tax code should be pro-family and promote a culture of life,” Rubio said. “Instead, too often our corporations find loopholes to subsidize the murder of unborn babies or horrific ‘medical’ treatments on kids. My bill would make sure this does not happen.” In Michigan, Republican Ryan Kelley, who is running for governor, has openly attacked the idea of democracy. “Socialism—it starts with democracy,” he said. “That’s the ticket for the left. They want to push this idea of democracy, which turns into socialism, which turns into communism in every instance.” Kelley’s distinction between “democracy” and a “constitutional republic” is drawn from the John Birch Society in the 1960s, which used that distinction to oppose the idea of one person, one vote, that supported Black voting.”

Michael Levenson, Oklahoma Lawmakers Approve Near-Total Ban on Abortion.  New York Times, Apr 5, 2022.  “The measure, Senate Bill 612, would make performing an abortion “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency” a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $100,000. The Oklahoma House voted 70 to 14 to send the bill, which passed the Senate last year, to Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican whose office  responded by noting that Mr. Stitt vowed in September to sign “every piece of pro-life legislation” that came to his desk.”

Christina Cauterucci, The Most Unexpected Consequence of the Texas Abortion Ban.  Slate, April 24 2022.  Women face such a tight timeframe, they have to make hurried decisions.

Diana Lobl and Peter Onneken, Abortion in Europe: Scorned, Concealed, Prohibited. Deutsche Welle, May 6, 2022. A 42 minute documentary spotlighting recent developments in Italy — where some doctors refuse to terminate pregnancies even in medical emergencies, resulting in the death of Valentina Milluzzo, who died of sepsis because doctors would not remove twin fetuses, one of which had already died — Poland, which has effectively moved to ban all abortions — Spain, and Germany. The documentary also spotlights the World Congress of Families (26 min mark), the ultra-conservative Christian lobbyist organization Ordo Iuris, Christian fundamentalists in Spain, and other antiabortion fundamentalist groups threatening legal action.

FiveThirtyEight, How The Fight Over Abortion Will Play Out In Red States.  FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast, May 9, 2022.  

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Mississippi GOP Gov Defends Incest Abortion Ban.  Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, May 9, 2022. 

Daniel K. Williams, This Really Is a Different Pro-Life Movement.  The Atlantic, May 9, 2022.  “What happened when a campaign led by northern Catholics was captured by southern evangelicals.”

Charlotte Huff, In Texas, Abortion Laws Inhibit Care for Miscarriages.  NPR, May 10, 2022.  “One Texas law passed last year lists several medications as abortion-inducing drugs and largely bars their use for abortion after the seventh week of pregnancy. But two of those drugs, misoprostol and mifepristone, are the only drugs recommended in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines for treating a patient after an early pregnancy loss.”

Danya Ruttenberg, My Religion Makes Me Pro-Abortion.  The Atlantic, Jun 14, 2022.  A Jewish perspective.  

Reuters, Abortion Access in a Post-Roe America.  Reuters, Jun 24, 2022.  “When abortion bans go into effect and why pills are the next fight.”  See also Megan Messerly, Abortion Laws by State: Where Abortions Are Illegal After Roe v. Wade Overturned.  Politico, Jun 24, 2022.

Arek Sarkissian, Thousands Travel to Florida for Abortions. The Supreme Court’s Ruling Could Change That.  Politico, Jun 24, 2022.  “While Republicans control the state government and Legislature, Florida has the third highest rate of abortion in America.”  Florida is interesting because Gov. DeSantis signed a 15 week abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or human trafficking, while the majority of residents want to keep abortion legal, and because many Georgians and Alabamians procure abortions there.

Ben Leonard, What’s Next for Virtual Abortions.  Politico, Jun 24, 2022.  Telehealth providers often prescribe medical abortion.  “Medication abortions have become increasingly common in the past two decades: They made up more than half of abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy and research group.”  Predicts efforts in red and blue states to restrict or expand telehealth options

Lawrence Ukenye, House Democrats Rush to Preserve Access to Abortions for Troops.  Politico, Jun 23, 2022.

Elena Schneider, Democrats Launch Organizing Hub to Channel Response to Supreme Court Abortion Decision.  Politico, Jun 24, 2022. 

Quint Forgey and Josh Gerstein, Justice Thomas: SCOTUS ‘Should Reconsider’ Contraception, Same-Sex Marriage Rulings.  Politico, Jun 24, 2022. 

Myah Ward, ‘With Sorrow… We Dissent’: Liberal Justices Rebuke Decision to Overturn Roe.  Politico, Jun 24, 2022.  Examines the three liberal justices’ dissent.  Also notes:  “While Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the majority on Friday, he wrote his own concurring opinion, in which he appeared to push against the notion that the decision should be used to undermine other rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution. “The text of the Constitution does not refer to or encompass abortion,” Kavanaugh wrote. “To be sure, this Court has held that the Constitution protects unenumerated rights that are deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition, and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. But a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in American history and tradition. ... On the issue of abortion, the Constitution is neither pro-life nor pro-choice.”

Tish Harrison Warren, Dobbs, Roe and the Myth of ‘Bodily Autonomy’.  New York Times, Jun 26, 2022.  

Martha Raddatz, Reversing Roe, the Supreme Court Fixed 'a Wrong Decision … Made Many Years Ago': Noem.  ABC News, Jun 26, 2022.  South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a Republican, says that the Dobbs decision reversing Roe would now prompt antiabortion states to pass laws that support neonatal health, maternal health, affordable child care and health care, etc.  See the stinging rebuke by Brian Tyler Cohen, Finally: “Pro-life” Republican Confronted with Red States’ Dismal Health Outcomes On Air.  Brian Tyler Cohen, Jun 26, 2022.  Cohen examines the health and maternal outcomes in red states.

Miles Cohen, GOP Rep. Miller, Speaking Alongside Trump, Calls SCOTUS Ruling ‘Victory for White Life’.  ABC News, Jun 26, 2022.  

Geoff Bennett, How Doctors Are Reacting to the Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade.  PBS News Hour, Jun 26, 2022.  Interviews Dr. Jamila Perritt, president of Physicians for Reproductive Health.  Notes there is no mandate to report a woman who has performed a self-abortion.  

Houston Chronicle, Ken Paxton Wants to Exploit Century-Old Texas Abortion Laws in Court. It Won’t Be Easy, an Expert Says. Houston Chronicle, Jun 27, 2022.  “The attorney general’s advisory cites five different Texas state laws from 1925 that criminalize anyone who knowingly receives an abortion or provides an abortion. They also target anyone who attempts but fails to obtain an abortion. If someone were to die during an abortion, the abortion provider could be tried for murder.”

Mike Brzinsky, What a Law From 1931 Could Mean for Michigan.  Morning Joe | MSNBC, Jun 27, 2022.  Comments from AG Merrick Garland, who said that abortion medication cannot be blocked.  Michigan AG Dana Nessel notes that there is a 1931 law which makes abortion, without exceptions, a felony offense punishable with 4 years in prison, including for a woman self-administering a medical abortion.  Moreover, the law’s language strongly suggests that any doctor must be certain that the pregnant woman would die with 100% certainty before performing an abortion.  At the moment, AG Nessel and Governor Gretchen Whitmer are blocking the enforcement of this law.

Melissa Murray, Thomas and Alito Are Appropriating Racial Justice to Push a Radical Agenda.  Mother Jones, Jun 28, 2022.  Thomas and Alito argue that abortion legalization was motivated -- solely?, primarily? -- by racial animus.  “Justice Alito’s decision to include this footnote, and its not-so-subtle association of abortion with eugenics and racial genocide, in the leaked draft opinion in Dobbs is puzzling, if only because, as a matter of law, it is entirely gratuitous. Having laid out his case that Roe is “egregiously wrong” because the abortion right is unmoored from constitutional text and lacks deep roots in the country’s history and traditions, there was no need to invoke racial eugenics. So, why did Justice Alito, a shrewd tactician when it comes to advancing the conservative legal project, insist on this unusual aside?  Perhaps it was merely an anodyne gesture of collegiality toward Justice Thomas, who, as the most senior justice in the majority, could have kept this plum opinion assignment for himself, but instead allowed Justice Alito the opportunity to spear Roe’s great white whale. After all, Justice Thomas has diligently husbanded the notion of “eugenic abortion” to great effect, helping it to flourish in the lower federal courts, particularly among conservative jurists. When the Sixth Circuit, for example, recently upheld an Ohio law that barred doctors from performing abortions on women who choose to end their pregnancies because the fetus has Down syndrome, the majority opinion and all but one of the concurrences referenced Thomas’ Box concurrence and its condemnation of “eugenic” abortion. Judge Richard Allen Griffin explicitly noted “Nazi Germany’s horrific implementation of eugenics,” musing that the tragic practice of eugenics “continues today with modern-day abortions.”  Race is deployed again for gun freedom and anti-gun-safety.

Amy Goodman, Encrypt, Obscure, Compartmentalize: Protecting Your Digital Privacy in a Post-Roe World.  Democracy Now, Jun 28, 2022.  See also Wall Street Journal, Period-Tracker Apps Plan to Anonymize Data After Roe v. Wade Ruling.  Wall Street Journal, Jun 29, 2022.  

Daniel Arkin, Rabbi Fighting Florida's Anti-Abortion Law Is on a Mission to Help Religious Groups Challenge 'Theocratic Tyranny'.  NBC News, Jun 28, 2022.  “Rabbi Barry Silver of Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor in Palm Beach County has created an initiative to assist other religious organizations with lawsuits against anti-abortion measures.”  See video by NBC News, Rabbi Sues Florida Over Abortion Ban Law Arguing It Infringes On Religious Liberty.  NBC News, Jul 1, 2022.

Christiane Amanpour and Michelle Martin, Former Pro-Life Leader On Abortion Ruling: Our Movement Has Lost Our Way.  Amanpour and Company, Jun 29, 2022.  Rev. Rob Schenk talks about his impression of the political anti-abortion movement and why he changed his policy position.

Victoria Dominguez and Haleema Shah, Roe v. Wade v. God. Vox Explained Podcast, Jun 29, 2022. An overview of the Jewish and Muslim views of the fetus and abortion’s permissibility. They argue that abortion bans run counter to the majority of Jewish and Muslim religious practice.

CNN, Mom Who Sought Abortion Dies, See Her Chilling Texts. CNN, Jun 30, 2022.  A case in Poland where she died of sepsis when her water broke at 22 weeks and doctors were afraid of performing an abortion.  Cites an estimate that 100,000 to 200,000 abortions are procured by Polish women per year.

Amy Goodman, Meet the Dutch Doctor Helping Expand Abortion Access by Mailing Safe and Legal Pills Worldwide.  Democracy Now, Jul 1, 2022.  Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, founder of Women on Waves, discusses the safety of medical abortions by pill, and some of the legal aspects of access.

Isa Gutiérrez, Rabbi Sues Florida Over Abortion Ban Law Arguing It Infringes On Religious Liberty.  NBC News, Jul 1, 2022.  “A synagogue in Florida is suing the state for its new law slated to go into effect banning abortion at 15 weeks.”

Vice News, How the Anti-Abortion Rights Movement Took Down Roe.  Vice News, Jul 2, 2022.  Spotlights the Christian organization called Alliance Defending Freedom and their legal strategy.  ADF was on the Mississippi legal team, and wrote the argument in Dobbs.  

Chris Hayes, Republicans Scramble To Answer For Post-Roe Horrors. All In | MSNBC, Jul 7, 2022.  American College of Rheumatology and Lupus Foundation report that people are unable to access methotrexate, a treatment for arthritis and lupus, because it can also be used for medical abortion.  The 10 year old girl, a victim of rape, had to go from OH to IN to get an abortion.  South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and other GOP leaders struggle to talk about the results of Dobbs 2022 and state level anti-abortion laws.

Devon James, After Roe v. Wade, What Next?  Legal Eagle, Jul 8, 2022. This is an excellent legal analysis of what states and federal agencies like the FDA are doing.

Reese Oxner, Texas Sues After Biden Administration Issues Guidance Saying Doctors Can Perform Abortions in Emergencies.  Texas Tribune, Jul 14, 2022.  “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argues the Biden administration is violating the state’s “sovereign interest” by reassuring the nation’s doctors they can perform abortions in medical emergencies.”

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Details: 10 Year Old Rape Victim Abortion Story Confirmed. Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, Jul 16, 2022.  Ohio’s laws make no exception for rape.  Indiana’s Republican Attorney General Rokita accuses the Indiana doctor who performed the abortion of not filing the right paperwork, which was later demonstrated to be untrue.  See also Mehdi Hasan, Republicans In Frantic Denial Of The Cruel Reality Of Their Abortion Stance.  PBS News Hour, Jul 15, 2022.  Hasan surveys right-wing media expressing skepticism and doubt that the 10 year old was actually raped.  Chris Hayes, Complaint: Indiana AG Intended To ‘Harass And Intimidate’ Abortion Providers.  All In | MSNBC, Jul 19, 2022.  Indiana AG Rokita appears to be trying to scare other abortion providers; this shows the use of retributive tactics by the right.

Vice News, Why OB-GYNs Are Scared About Life After Roe.  Vice News, Jul 16, 2022.  Interviews three ob-gyns about women’s health around pregnancy, along with medical practice and procedures.  Medically necessary abortion:  fetal abnormalities including a fetus with no brain; a fetus that would live for only a few days.

Peter Butler and Dan Avery, Abortion Laws in Every State: Where Are Bans Being Enforced?  CNET, Jul 18, 2022.  Lists each state and its laws on abortion.

Sarah Hougen Poggi and Cynthia A. Kierner, A 1792 Case Reveals That Key Founders Saw Abortion as a Private Matter. Washington Post, Jul 19, 2022. “Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Patrick Henry didn’t advocate for prosecution of a woman who probably had an abortion.”

Derek Robertson, The Barstool Bros’ Split Over Abortion Could Determine the Future of the GOP.  Politico, Jul 22, 2022.  Commentary on the political coalitions on the right, related to abortion policy.

Mitch Smith, ‘Everybody Is Dug In’: Kansans Fiercely Debate the First Post-Roe Vote on Abortion.  New York Times, Jul 24, 2022. “The Aug. 2 ballot question will decide whether the State Constitution will allow legislators to ban or further restrict the procedure.”

Allison Orr Larsen, Opinion | The Supreme Court Decisions on Guns and Abortion Relied Heavily on History. But Whose History?  Politico, Jul 26, 2022.  “Justices say that history is a more legitimate way to interpret the Constitution, but they are taking that history from motivated advocacy groups, not professional historians.”

Ruth Marcus, Opinion | Indiana’s Cruel Abortion Bill Is a Warning of Post-Roe Reality. Washington Post, Jul 31, 2022.

Caroline Kitchener and Beth Reinhard, A Texas Blueprint for Converting the ‘Abortion-Minded’: Lattes and a View. Washington Post, Jul 31, 2022.

The Young Turks, Rabbi Slams Christian Nationalists For Stripping Women's Rights.  TYT Investigates, Jul 26, 2022.  Indiana Rabbi explains the Jewish tradition on the fetus, the mother, and abortion.  Argues that the Supreme Court is denying the Jewish community the free exercise of its religious rights. 

Michelle Goldberg, The Anti-Abortion Movement Is in Denial.  New York Times, Jul 29, 2022.

Katrin Bennhold and Monika Pronczuk, A Polish Priest’s War Against Abortion Focuses on Helping Single Mothers.  New York Times, Jul 30, 2022.  “The Rev. Tomasz Kancelarczyk sees little effect on women’s decisions whether to have a child from a 29-year abortion ban. What may matter more is support for women who choose to have a child.”

PBS News Hour, Early America’s Complicated History with Abortion Access.  PBS News Hour, Jul 31, 2022.

Morning Joe, Steve Kornacki: Kansas Referendum Brought Out Big Number Of Voters.  Morning Joe | MSNBC, Aug 3, 2022.  Over 900,000 Kansas voters came out in a primary, which was unprecedented for a primary.  Kansas voted for Trump by 15 points in 2020.  Yet 58.8% of voters voted to protect the right to abortion (i.e. rejected removing the state constitution’s right to abortion).  Johnson County, KS especially is noteworthy because it’s a big suburban county that voted for Romney in 2012, Trump in 2016, and Biden in 2020.  Even Republicans in small rural  counties voted against changing the Kansas state constitution protecting abortion rights.  Significant for states to the east and south of Kansas as well. See also David Doel, Kansas Stuns Everyone With Huge Result On Abortion Vote. The Rational National, Aug 3, 2022. Doel comments on right-wing pundits’ excuses, which include the level of outside funding. Kansas law will continue to allow elective abortion until 22 weeks, and later in cases of risk to the mother’s life or risk of “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” Saagar Enjeti, Dave Portnoy Was Right About GOP And Abortion. Breaking Points, Aug 4, 2022. Saagar argues this means that many on the right are “social libertarians” and not “social conservatives.” Significantly, 20 percent of voters in the Kansas primary only voted on the abortion question, as mentioned by Harry Enten, Kansas Shows How Abortion May Change the Midterm Turnout Dynamic. CNN, Aug 3, 2022. Also, 70 percent of new voters were women; see Katie Glueck and Shane Goldmacher, ‘Your Bedroom Is on the Ballot’: How Democrats See Abortion Politics After Kansas. New York Times, Aug 3, 2022.

Amy Goodman, Hungary PM Viktor Orbán Addresses CPAC as American Right Embraces His Authoritarian Rule. Democracy Now, Aug 4, 2022. Donald Trump welcomed Hungarian dictator-President Viktor Orbán ahead of the CPAC conference happening presently. A few days ago, Orbán criticized "race-mixing" in other European countries. Orbán's comments sparked outcry even from his own party -- a "pure Nazi-text worthy of Goebbels." So far, none of the U.S. conservatives at CPAC have condemned Orbán's remarks. Orbán came to power in 2010, using anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ dog-whistles before and regularly afterwards. He changed the Hungarian Constitution in 2011 to protect fetal life from the moment of conception. Notice how authoritarians get public support from conservatives and especially Christians by taking a hardline position on the fetus that the Bible itself does not support.

"What the American Right sees in him is the use of culture wars as a kind of cover for creeping autocracy. You see it because the Republicans are engaged in a campaign -- a very Orbán-like campaign -- to rig the rules of the election by changing laws in the U.S. states so that the Republicans are going to win no matter who wins the popular vote. That's the kind of thing that Orbán did in Hungary."

"Some of those specific tactics the Republicans are using here exactly mirror what Orbán did in Hungary. Come for the racism. Stay for the autocracy. I think that's what's in it for CPAC." Orbán refers to himself as a Christian Democrat. "It's a cover." "Orbán has the support of evangelicals and other Christians without ever setting foot in church." "It's exactly on immigration that you see the sharpest parallels between Orbán and Trump. If you know what Trump did to stop immigration -- he first built a wall. Orbán first built a fence. Then Trump pushed the people who were seeking asylum back across the border to wait in this kind of limbo before they could get into the country. Orbán set up "transit zones" -- a kind of limbo as people awaited entry. The similarities between Trump and Orbán are so extreme that there was even a point six months before the U.S. started doing it, that Orbán started separating parents and children. Now, they didn't lose track of which parents were connected to which kids, as happened here. But they decided that they had no human rights obligation to feed the parents in these "transit camps." But they did have an international obligation to feed the children. They took the children, fed them, and then brought them back to their parents so the kids couldn't share food. All of that was stuff Trump copied."

Amy Goodman, Viktor Orbán Has Eroded Democracy in Hungary. Now He’s Being Embraced by CPAC & American Right. Democracy Now, Aug 8, 2022. Is Part 2 of an interview with Princeton sociologist Kim Lane Sheppele. Examines the international reach of CPAC, including in places where Christianity is nominal or no longer meaningful, like Hungary.

Seema Mohapatra, Assisted Reproduction & Abortion.  Bioethics: Inclusive Voices | Georgia State University College of Law, 2022.  Mohapatra is the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.  She discusses the impact of Dobbs on assisted reproduction like IVF.  The whole series on Bioethics is excellent.

Timothy Dalrymple, How to Greet the End of ‘Roe’.  Christianity Today, Jun 21, 2022.  “Faithful responses to the Supreme Court decision should involve new care practices.”

Jeff Diamant and Besheer Mohamed, What the Data Says About Abortion in the U.S.  Pew Research Trust, Jun 24, 2022.  

Sheelah Kolhatkar, Another Likely Effect of the Roe Reversal: Higher Health-Care Costs.  The New Yorker, Jul 19, 2022.  “Abortion bans could lead to more high-risk pregnancies, which could raise the price of providing health care to women.”  “This is partly due to the fact that some women with health complications who might have terminated a high-risk pregnancy will no longer have the option to do so. “We might see higher costs associated with caring for those pregnancies, and a greater risk that they might become fatal,” Abramowitz said. “So, we might see more complicated and risky pregnancies carried to term.” All insurance providers, whether they are private companies or government-backed plans such as Medicaid, consider factors such as age, gender, health conditions and geographical location when calculating the expected cost of insuring a particular population.”

Amber Phillips and Tom Hamburger, Abortion Law in Indiana Leads to Fallout for State, Politics. Washington Post, Aug 6, 2022.  “The state, national leaders and activists on both sides are gearing up for long slog over abortion laws.”  “The Indiana ban, which goes into effect Sept. 15, allows abortion only in cases of rape, incest, lethal fetal abnormality, or when the procedure is necessary to prevent severe health risks or death. Indiana joins nine other states that have abortion bans starting at conception.  The new law represents a victory for antiabortion forces, who have been working for decades to halt the procedure. But passage occurred after disagreements among some abortion foes, some of whom thought the bill did not go far enough in stopping the procedure… An official at Indiana Right to Life, an Indiana antiabortion group, said the new law will end 95 percent of abortions in Indiana and will close all Indiana abortion clinics Sept. 15, the date the legislation takes effect, unless abortion activists go to court and get an injunction beforehand.  Indiana has considered abortion restrictions for years, though it remained a state where many in the region traveled for abortion care. Now, as many nearby states — including Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia — also push for abortion bans, patients may have to travel hundreds of miles in some cases for care, said Elizabeth Nash, a policy expert at the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. “Patients in Ohio won’t be able to go to Indiana for access. They’ll have to get to, perhaps, Illinois or Michigan,” she said.”

Brian Tyler Cohen, Republican Realizes the Devastating Mistake He Made by Voting for Abortion Ban.  Brian Tyler Cohen, Aug 24, 2022.  In South Carolina, Republican state representative Neal Collins voices his regret about the fetal heartbeat bill.  A 19 year old woman was turned away from her doctors when she wanted to get an abortion on account of her fetus being unviable -- the fetus had no skull.  The doctors gave her a 50%+ chance of losing her uterus, and a 50% of developing sepsis and dying.  Yet the doctors were legally unable to perform the abortion.  Cohen delivers stinging commentary.

Allan Smith and Mark Caputo, In Arizona, Blake Masters Backtracks on Abortion and Scrubs His Campaign Website.  NBC News, Aug 25, 2022.  “In an ad posted to Twitter on Thursday, Masters sought to portray his opponent, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, as the extremist on the issue while describing his own views as "commonsense."  "Look, I support a ban on very late-term and partial-birth abortion," he said. "And most Americans agree with that. That would just put us on par with other civilized nations." (Late-term abortions are extremely rare, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker.)  Just after it released the ad, Masters' campaign published an overhaul of his website and softened his rhetoric, rewriting or erasing five of his six positions. NBC News took screenshots of the website before and after it was changed. Masters' website appeared to have been refreshed after NBC News reached out for clarification about his abortion stances.  "I am 100% pro-life," Masters' website read as of Thursday morning.  That language is now gone.  Another notable deletion: a line that detailed his support for "a federal personhood law (ideally a Constitutional amendment) that recognizes that unborn babies are human beings that may not be killed."  See also Krystal Ball, GOP Candidates Caught Deleting Pro-Life Website Sections.  Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, Aug 30, 2022.  In the GOP primary, Blake Masters advocated for a federal fetal personhood law.  But after winning the primary, Masters advocated for a European-style ban; but Western European abortion law, focused around a 15 week limit, would not qualify in the US as “pro-life.”  Masters personally managed his website, according to his staff.  Also, Michigan state senator Tom Barrett also took down the abortion section of his website.  

Gary Fineout, Rubio Spells Out His Position on Abortion.  Politico, Aug 26, 2022.  “Rubio's interview with CBS Miami’s Jim DeFede for a weekend election special found the senator pressed about whether he would favor a complete ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking now that the Supreme Court has repealed Roe v. Wade.  Making it clear—Rubio said he favored such a ban, with the caveat that the issue should be dealt with by the states not the federal government. However, he also added that he would vote for exceptions because he recognized that not everyone shares his viewpoint.  What he said— “I am in favor of laws that protect human life. I do not believe that the dignity and the worth of human life is tied to the circumstances of their conception, but I recognize that’s not a majority position,” Rubio told DeFede.”

Amy Goodman, Trigger Laws Make Abortion Off Limits for Millions; Patients Face "Intolerable" Risk & Uncertainty.  Democracy Now, Aug 26, 2022.  Dr. Bhavik Kumar, a Texas-based abortion provider, and Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, discuss how doctors are navigating the legal environment after the end of Roe v. Wade.

Briahna Joy Grey, 17-Yr-Old Arrested For Abortion After Facebook Hands Over Her Private Messages To Police.  Rising | The Hill, Aug 27, 2022.  

Mary Ziegler, The Next Step in the Anti-Abortion Playbook Is Becoming Clear.  New York Times, Aug 31, 2022.  Fetal personhood in the Fourteenth Amendment.

Alice Miranda Ollstein, Michigan Board Blocks Certification of Abortion Rights Ballot Measure, Throwing It to the Courts.  Politico, Aug 31, 2022. “The panel’s vote comes after abortion-rights activists spent several months gathering more than 750,000 signatures from all 83 counties in the state.”  To avoid a repeat of Kansas. 

Nicole Hemmer, Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s.  Publisher’s Weekly, Aug 2022. See review and interview by Ian Ward, Trump Didn’t Kill Reaganism. These Guys Did.  Politico, Aug 31, 2022.  Christian social conservatives were one of the groups, along with segregation and Confederate nostalgia.

Brendan Pierson and Kanishka Singh, Michigan's 90-Year-Old Abortion Ban Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules.  Reuters, Sep 7, 2022.   

Moira Donegan, Alabama is Jailing Pregnant Marijuana Users to ‘Protect’ Fetuses.  The Guardian UK, Sep 12, 2022.  “But these jailings are not just an Alabama thing: the trend of imprisoning pregnant and postpartum women for supposedly endangering their fetuses is one that’s growing nationwide. Over 32 years, from 1973, when Roe v Wade was decided, to 2005, the United States saw a total of 413 pregnancy prosecutions throughout the whole nation, according to Afsha Malik, a research associate at the reproductive justice group National Advocates for Pregnant Women and the co-author of a recent report on pregnancy criminalization. But over just a 14-year period, from 2006 to 2020, there were more than 1,300 such cases. That steep increase happened while Roe was still in place; now that it’s fallen, pregnancy criminalization is likely to accelerate even more. “We know that we’re going to see more examples of pregnant people being criminalized for behavior that may be [seen as] justified for the general public, like using substances,” Malik told the Nation. “[Other] cases that we’ve seen are going to accelerate, like [for] falling down the stairs, having a home birth, not seeking prenatal care, having HIV, having a self-induced abortion, and experiencing a pregnancy loss.”

Thom Hartmann, Make GOP Vote On Forcing Woman To Carry Skull-less Baby To Term.  The Thom Hartmann Program, Sep 14, 2022.  As Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) advances a bill for a national 15 week abortion ban, one woman in Lousiana got an abortion in NY because LA did not admit acrania as a justification for an abortion.  Acrania is the condition where a fetus has no skull or only part of the skull.  It typically dies within days of birth because passage through the birth canal causes trauma to the brain.  It is often not discovered until the ultrasound reveals it at half-way through the pregnancy.  See also Ramon Antonio Vargas, 

Louisiana Woman Carrying Unviable Fetus Forced to Travel to New York for Abortion.  The Guardian UK, Sep 14, 2022.  “Nancy Davis suffered ‘unspeakable pain’ due to poorly worded law that meant hospital in home state refused to terminate pregnancy.” 

Krystal Ball, GOP Freaks Over Lindsey Graham Abortion Ban.  Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, Sep 15, 2022.  Graham moved without Mitch McConnell’s leadership.  GOP strategists believe that inflation and jobs are the most important issue for the November 2022 elections.  Deep red states want more restrictive bans.  But women and young people in blue states are now motivated to vote Democratic because of Graham’s idea.  

John Iadarola, Lindsey Graham's Hypocrisy Caught In Real Time.  The Damage Report, Sep 20, 2022.  Graham now argues for a federal abortion ban at 15 weeks of gestation.  Previously, he was on the record as arguing that abortion policy should be a matter of states’ rights.

Megan Messerly, Arizona Judge Rules 19th Century Abortion Ban Can Take Effect.  Politico, Sep 23, 2022.  “The state’s pre-Roe law, which prohibits all abortions except to save the life of the pregnant person, was enacted in 1864, before Arizona became a state.”  The law was against poisoning in the days of laissez-faire medicine, which was a statue used by newly licensed doctors to ban “snake-oil salesmen” from selling poisons for abortion, while the licensed doctors performed abortions in their clinics.  See Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American: September 24, 2022.  Letters from an American | Substack, Sep 24, 2022.   

Nicholas Casey, Taken Under Fascism, Spain’s ‘Stolen Babies’ Are Learning the Truth.  New York Times Magazine, Sep 27, 2022.  “Thousands of Spanish children were taken from hospitals and sold to wealthy Catholic families. This is Ana Belén Pintado’s story.”  “The thefts happened during the end of the regime of Francisco Franco, the right-wing dictator who ruled the country until 1975, and even today the disappearances remain a subject of mystery and debate among scholars. According to the birth mothers, nuns who worked in maternity wards took the infants shortly after they were delivered and told the women, who were often unwed or poor, that their children were stillborn. But the babies were not dead: They had been sold, discreetly, to well-off Catholic parents, many of whom could not have families of their own. Under a pile of forged papers, the adoptive families buried the secret of the crime they committed. The children who were taken were known in Spain simply as the “stolen babies.” No one knows exactly how many were kidnapped, but estimates suggest tens of thousands.”

Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Meredith Conroy, Women Have Swung Toward Democrats Since The Dobbs Decision.  FiveThirtyEight, Sep 28, 2022.  Very helpful data analysis.

Chris Hayes, Herschel Walker Abortion Report Lays Bare GOP Hypocrisy.  All In | MSNBC, Oct 4, 2022.  

Texas Paul, Right Wing Radio Host Confesses Abortion Arguments are a Total Lie and Texas Paul Reacts.  Meidas Touch, Oct 5, 2022.  Dana Loesch, former representative of the NRA, comments on the news about Hershel Walker paying for an girlfriend to get an abortion.  She says, “Winning is a virtue,” lies by saying 99% of abortions are for birth control, and insults women who have unintended pregnancies.  She admits she just wants control of the Senate.

Ben Meiselas, Tim Ryan Crushes MAGA Candidate JD Vance in Primetime Debate.  Meidas Touch, Oct 10, 2022.  Ohio GOP Senate candidate JD Vance supports Lindsey Graham’s federal abortion ban at 15 weeks, showing that the right is modifying the “states rights” procedural posture as only tighter than the federal.

David Boyle, Supreme Deceit: How Sam Alito Snuck Medieval State Christianity into the Dobbs Opinion.  Salon, Oct 13, 2022.  For those interested in abortion policy, and the problems with Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion.  It appears that Justice Alito is either bad at history, or bad at law, or both.  David Boyle is a Christian lawyer in California, who submitted a Supreme Court amicus brief on the side of Mississippi in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.  First, Alito omitted a key phrase indicating that his source was church canon law, not civil, common law.  “Page 17 of the Dobbs slip opinion, in footnote 25, cites the legal treatise "Leges Henrici Primi" (or "Laws of Henry I"), which dates to around 1115 A.D.: 

Even before Bracton's time, English law imposed punishment for the killing of a fetus. See Leges Henrici Primi 222–223 (L. Downer ed. 1972) (imposing penalty for any abortion and treating a woman who aborted a "quick" child "as if she were a murderess"). 

Legal historian Leslie John Downer's translation of the original 12th-century Latin text, however, reads, "[I]f she does this [intentionally destroys her embryo] after it is quick [animate], she shall do penance for seven years as if she were a murderess." Alito carefully clipped out the words "she shall do penance for seven years" from the quotation, between "quick" and "as." Why hide those words? Unless he was sleepwalking, Alito understood perfectly well that he was committing a gross material omission, obscuring the fact that the "penalty" in this medieval text was merely religious and penitential, not civil or criminal. Religious "crimes" are not crimes at all, by our modern legal standards.”

Second, Alito misleads again by confusing canon and common law:  “On pages 16 and 17, the Dobbs opinion bookends footnote 25 with, "We begin with the common law, under which abortion was a crime at least after 'quickening'," before moving on to common-law sources like Henry de Bracton and the statement, "English cases dating all the way back to the 13th century corroborate the treatises' statements that abortion was a crime." This all misleadingly implies that the Leges, which is certainly a treatise, criminalizes abortion under common law.”

Third, Alito misrepresents the earliest history of English common law.  “If the Leges Henrici is common law, as Alito presents it, mixed in with common-law sources like Bracton, it's dishonest to say that common law has always criminalized abortion. But if Alito then wishes to backpedal and claim that the Leges, with its penance-penalty, is really canon law (i.e., church law), not common law, then two things follow: Alito falsified his argument by categorizing the Leges with common law, and he more flagrantly snuck Christian state religion into the Dobbs decision. Falsehood, either way.”

Connor O’Brien and Lawrence Ukenye, ‘Outrageous’: GOP Anger at New Pentagon Abortion Policy Could Roil Defense Bill Debate.  Politico, Oct 28, 2022.  “The directive, announced last week, says the Defense Department will now cover travel costs for troops and family members seeking abortions… Republicans on Capitol Hill claimed the administration was politicizing the military by wading into the abortion debate with weeks to go before an election and siphoning money from top national security needs. Now, some GOP lawmakers want to use the Pentagon policy bill to block the post-Roe v. Wade initiative.”

Benjamin Rader et.al., Estimated Travel Time and Spatial Access to Abortion Facilities in the US Before and After the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Decision.  JAMA, Nov 1, 2022.  “In this repeated cross-sectional spatial analysis of 749 abortion facilities and 63 718 431 females aged 15 to 44 years in the US, estimated median and mean travel time to a facility providing an abortion in 2021 (pre-Dobbs period) were 10.9 minutes and 27.8 minutes compared with 17.0 minutes and 100.4 minutes in the post-Dobbs period, when facilities in states with total abortion bans or 6-week abortion bans were considered inactive, which was a statistically significant difference.”

Anna Vagianos, Voters Protected Abortion Care in Every State Where It Was on the Ballot.  Huffington Post, Nov 9, 2022.  “In Vermont, California, Michigan and Kentucky, voters elected to protect reproductive rights in their communities through ballot initiatives that sought to either defend or restrict abortion care. Three initiatives — in Vermont, California and Michigan — incorporated reproductive freedom into the states’ constitutions, while a fourth, in Kentucky, was an anti-abortion amendment that would have codified that the state does not recognize a right to abortion. Results in Montana have not been certified yet, but voters appear poised to reject a referendum titled Require Care for Infants Born Alive, a misleading anti-abortion measure that would create more barriers to health care. As of Wednesday afternoon, the measure was losing by nearly 5 points with 86% of the vote reported.”

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Tooning Out The News' Abortion Roundtable.  The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Nov 10, 2022.  Entertaining, embarrassing, informative.

Mehdi Hasan, Blue Wave Sweeps Through Michigan.  The Mehdi Hasan Show | MSNBC, Nov 11, 2022.  Hasan points out that 45% of Michigan voters ranked abortion as their top issue, compared to 29% inflation.  This election also had a large voter turnout.

Matt Zdun, Ally J. Levine and Joseph Ax, How Abortion Rights Fared in the Midterms.  Reuters, Nov 21, 2022.  “This year’s midterms revealed where Americans stand on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court in June handed states the power to decide its legality. The overall outcome of ballot measures and competitive races seemed to suggest that voters of all political stripes are eager to protect abortion access at the state level.” 

Aaron Earls, 7 in 10 Women Who Have Had an Abortion Identify as a Christian.  Lifeway Research, Dec 3, 2022.  “Seven in 10 women who have had an abortion identify as a Christian, according to a 2015 Lifeway Research study sponsored by Care Net, a nonprofit organization supporting pregnancy centers across North America. The 70% of women who’ve had abortions that self-identify as a Christian includes Catholics (27%), Protestants (26%), non-denominational (15%), and Orthodox (2%). Among Protestants, more identify as Baptists (33%), Methodist (11%), Presbyterian (10%), or Lutheran (9%). Far fewer women who’ve had abortion identify as agnostic (8%), atheist (4%), Jewish (3%), Muslim (2%), Hindu (1%), Buddhist (1%), Latter Day Saint or Mormon (1%), or Jehovah’s Witness (1%). Another 3% say “other,” and 7% say they have no religious preference.”

Ewan Palmer, Post-Roe v. Wade Fears Realized As Trump Judge Approves Contraception Suit.  Newsweek, Dec 17, 2022.  Ewan Palmer, Who Is Matthew Kacsmaryk? Trump Judge Challenging Right to Birth Control.  Newsweek, Dec 15, 2022.  

Syliva Silverstone, Woman Sues Her Mom’s Doctor for Being Born, Wins Millions.  Womenio, Dec 23, 2022.  “The case of Evie Toombes, who has a severe condition spina bifida,” who sued her mother’s doctor for allowing her conception:  a wrongful life case.

James Pollard, South Carolina Supreme Court Strikes Down State Abortion Ban.  Associated Press, Jan 5, 2023.  “The South Carolina Supreme Court struck down Thursday a ban on abortion after cardiac activity is detected — typically around six weeks — ruling the restriction violates the state constitution’s right to privacy.  The 3-2 decision comes nearly two years after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed the measure into law. The ban, which included exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest or pregnancies that endangered the patient’s life, drew lawsuits almost immediately.”

Amy Yurkanin, Women Can Be Prosecuted for Taking Abortion Pills, Says Alabama Attorney General.  Alabama.com, Jan 10, 2023.  The debate concerns federal vs. state jurisdiction over interstate commerce and abortion medication.

Poppy Noor, San Antonio Campaigners Bid for Ballot Measure to Buck Texas Abortion Ban.  The Guardian UK, Jan 11, 2023.  Can San Antonio’s city ballot ordinance to stop policing abortion take priority over Texas’ state law?

Lauren Peller, House Republicans Pass 2 Anti-Abortion Measures. ABC News, Jan 11, 2023.  “Chuck Schumer said they were "doomed" in the Senate.”  Abigail Adcox, GOP House Passes Two Anti-Abortion Bills Among First Votes of New Congress.  Washington Examiner, Jan 11, 2023 gives more helpful context to the GOP efforts.  “Democrats have contended that the 2002 Born-Alive Infants Protection Act already guarantees infants' legal rights.  “Let’s be clear: Doctors are already required to provide appropriate medical care by law. This is not how medical care works. It’s wrong, irresponsible, and dangerous to suggest otherwise," said Jacqueline Ayers, the senior vice president of policy, organizing, and campaigns at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.  Several states have already implemented "born-alive" legislation. Last November, voters disapproved of a ballot initiative in Montana that would have required medical care for infants born alive after an attempted abortion, induced labor, or cesarean section. Montana already has a law on the books that makes it a felony to cause the death of a premature infant purposefully, knowingly, or negligently.”  Also, “A number of crisis pregnancy centers across the country were vandalized in the weeks following the Dobbs decision. Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center, a faith-based nonprofit crisis pregnancy group, was attacked by vandals hours after the court's ruling, breaking windows and spraying graffiti on the outside of the building, prompting Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) to condemn the incident.  Roughly 56 pregnancy centers have been vandalized since the beginning of early May, the Catholic News Agency estimates. The FBI has been involved in investigating several of the attacks, offering rewards for information leading to an arrest, though most investigations have been carried out by local authorities.  The Department of Justice, meanwhile, has been largely focused on attacks against abortion clinics, forming a task force earlier this year to coordinate a national investigation and prosecution of incidents against "reproductive health providers, patients, and facilities."

Americans United, Missouri legislators using Christian language in Missouri HB 126 abortion ban. Twitter thread, Jan 19, 2023. Almighty God is the author of life and gives embryos a right to life.

Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei, Abortion Was Once Common Practice in America. A Small Group of Doctors Changed That. NPR, Jan 19, 2023.  Dr. Horatio Storer falsified a letter from the President of the American Medical Association to every Governor of the States.  “The birth rate for Protestant white women had been declining over the course of the 19th century. So he had fears of what were commonly - what was commonly referred to as race suicide, that the Anglo stock wasn't going to replenish itself fast enough to keep up with the swells of new immigrants to the United States.”  He also slandered midwives as unsanitary and unskilled, promoting licensed AMA doctors.

Peter Zeihan, Demographics Part 6: The Orthodox Predicament.  Zeihan on Geopolitics, Jan 26, 2023.  Zeihan looks at Orthodox-influenced Eastern Europe and their demographics.  One of the major contributors to demographic decline -- and presumably other health issues -- is the Orthodox Christian attitude towards birth control, which is a theological and ethical concern.  The number one method of birth control in these countries is abortion.  Seven out of ten pregnancies are terminated by abortion.  A woman who procures an abortion is more likely to face pregnancy complications the next time she tries to become pregnant, and the risks increase with each successive abortion. 

Noah Lanard, Minnesota Becomes First State to Pass Bill Enshrining Abortion Rights Post-Dobbs.  Mother Jones, Jan 29, 2023.  “After more than 14 hours of debate, the Minnesota Senate passed a bill on Saturday that would establish a “fundamental right” to abortion in the state. Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, has said he will sign the Protect Reproductive Options Act, known as the PRO Act, into law. The move makes Minnesota the first state to pass a law guaranteeing the right to abortion in the wake of the Dobbs decision, according to Minnesota Public Radio.”  But it was very close:  “The PRO Act passed the state Senate 34-33 on a party line vote. Democrats rejected numerous Republican amendments.”

Arleigh Rodgers, Indiana Justices Won't Hear 2nd Abortion Case for Now.  Associated Press | MSN, Jan 30, 2023. “The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed the lawsuit in September on behalf of those residents — who hold Muslim, Jewish and other faiths — after Republican state lawmakers enacted the ban last summer... Indiana's ban, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, goes against those residents’ religious values regarding when they believe the treatment is acceptable, the lawsuit argues. Earlier in January, the state Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by abortion clinic operators. The court has maintained a block on the abortion ban while it considers the case, after a county judge in September initially found the law likely violated privacy protections under the state constitution. While Indiana’s ban is blocked, abortion will remain legal in the state up to 20 weeks post-fertilization.”

Mary Kekatos, What to Know About Texas Ruling That Could See Abortion Drug Taken Off the Market. ABC News, Feb 8, 2023.  The FDA approved mifepristone more than 20 years ago, but Texas is trying to pull it off the market nation-wide.

ABC News, Missouri AG On Mailing Abortion Pills: 'This Is Not About Prosecuting Women’.  ABC News, Feb 7, 2023.  Video; ABC News’ Linsey Davis spoke to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey about the latest legal challenges over sending so-called abortion pills through the mail.  ABC News, Missouri AG: Allowing Abortion Pills to Be Mailed a 'Flawed Reading' of Federal Statute.  ABC News, Feb 7, 2023.  Twenty attorneys general are warning pharmacies against mailing abortion pills.

Amanda Marcotte, "Patients Would Come 9 or 10 Times": What We Can Learn from the First Time Abortion Was Banned.  Salon, Feb 28, 2023.  “Author Jennifer Wright on how abortionist Madame Restell got rich in the 1800s — before she was driven to suicide”.  Important stats that abortions were so common that 1 in 5 or 1 in 4 pregnancies ended in abortion.  Info on cultural beliefs and conflicts, including opposition by Anthony Comstock.  Wright believes the urban legend that Restell obtained a corpse and faked her own death and escaped to Paris.

Alice Miranda Ollstein, Walgreens Won’t Distribute Abortion Pills in Some States Where They Remain Legal. Politico, Mar 2, 2023.  “The decision is the latest to demonstrate how widely abortion access can vary state to state in a post-Roe America.”

Politifact, The Top Claims About Abortion, Fact-Checked.  Politifact, Mar 2, 2023.  Lots of great discussion and sources linked to the following claims:  “Abortion is dangerous.”  "Abortion can cause infertility."  "First-term fetuses can feel pain."  "Most Americans support abortion."  "Abortion causes breast cancer."  "Plan B is a form of abortion."  "More access to contraception increases abortion demand."  "A ‘fetal heartbeat’ can be detected at six weeks gestation."  "Women routinely have late-term abortions."  "The treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is abortion."  

Stephen Nuekam, South Carolina GOP Lawmakers Propose Death Penalty for Women Who Have Abortions. The Hill, Mar 13, 2023. “The bill being considered in South Carolina, dubbed the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023, would redefine “person” under state law to include a fertilized egg, giving it at the point of conception equal protection under the state’s homicide laws, including the death penalty.”

Ellen Ioanes, Wyoming Banned the Abortion Pill. Some States Are Trying to Go Even Further.  Vox, Mar 19, 2023.  “With abortion access already limited, some states are trying to impose extreme penalties for the procedure.”

Ian Milhiser, Thanks, Obama! The Hilarious Reason Why a Judge Just Blocked Wyoming’s Abortion Ban.  Vox, Mar 23, 2023.  “Wyoming’s amendment, for example, provides that “each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions.”  This was passed by Republicans as an anti-Obamacare measure.  However, “Wyoming district court Judge Melissa Owens’s Wednesday decision temporarily halting her state’s abortion ban is the second time she intervened to prevent this ban from going into effect. Wyoming’s abortion ban is quite strict, although it does provide exceptions for rape, incest, or when either a pregnant patient or the fetus has certain medical conditions.”

Arek Sarkissian, How Florida Uses a Little-Known Law to Punish Abortion Clinics.  Politico, Mar 26, 2023.  

Amy Goodman, Progressive Judge Wins Wisconsin Supreme Court Seat in "Most Important Election of 2023". Democracy Now, Apr 5, 2023. Wisconsin’s abortion law went back to 1849 (Wisconsin became a state in 1848), which is likely to be overturned by the Wisconsin state Supreme Court because Judge Janet Protasiewicz gives liberals a 4-3 majority on the court for the first time since 2008. She defeated Justice Dan Kelly, who had backed Trump and the false electors. Wisconsin’s gerrymandered legislative districts are likely to be challenged.

Chris Hayes, Abortion Pill Case Likely Heads to SCOTUS After Two Judges Issue Conflicting Rulings.  All In | MSNBC, Apr 7, 2023. 

Associated Press of Lincoln, Nebraska and Columbia, South Carolina, ‘This Was Unexpected’: Abortion Bans Blocked in Nebraska and South Carolina.  The Guardian UK, Apr 28, 2023.  “Six-week ban blocked in Nebraska while South Carolina senators reject bill that would have banned nearly all abortions in the state.”

Katy Tur, GOP Lawmaker on Blocking Abortion Ban: 'I'm Not Going to Vote In a Way to Oppress Women’. Apr 28, 2023.  South Carolina State Senator Sandy Senn about blocking a near-total abortion ban in her state.

Selena Simmons-Duffin, ‘I’ll Lose My Family.’ A Husband’s Dread During an Abortion Ordeal in Oklahoma. NPR, May 1, 2023. A partial molar pregnancy necessitated an abortion because it was non-viable and potentially cancerous.

Alison M. McCarthy et.al., Ethical Conflicts for Clinicians under Tennessee Abortion Law. The New England Journal of Medicine. May 6, 2023.

“First, the assessment of benefits, risks, and burdens for a pregnant patient must always incorporate considerations of how pregnancy might create new conditions to be managed or affect management of preexisting medical conditions. Second, fetal benefit and harm are ethically significant, not least because the pregnant patient may attribute considerable weight to fetal benefit or harm in deliberation. Third, in cases in which maternal medical benefit and fetal benefit directly conflict, maternal medical benefit takes priority by default; being pregnant does not mean that the patient’s own life and health become subordinate to those of the fetus. Fourth, only pregnant patients can freely and capably choose to prioritize fetal benefit over their own medical benefit. Pregnant patients may accept risk to their own life and health for the sake of the fetus, but it is their choice that makes it permissible for clinicians to expose them to additional risk. And fifth, the pregnant patient’s perspective is always of ethical importance. Even when medical professionals cannot fulfill a patient’s request, they nonetheless have an obligation to be responsive to the patient’s goals when establishing medically appropriate options.”

Saagar Enjeti and Ryan Grim, Trump's Rambling Nonsense Abortion Answer.  Breaking Points, May 11, 2023.  Trump avoided saying he would sign a federal abortion ban, and put the GOP in the place of defending his SCOTUS picks and Dobbs 2022.

Sravya Chary, Danielle Pacia, and Carmel Shachar, Abortion Miscoding—Legal Risks for Clinicians and Hospital Systems.  JAMA, May 19, 2023.  Examines medical malpractice liability, false claims act liability, and abortion reporting requirements liability.

Krystal Ball and Emily Jashinksy, Revealed: Secret Poll Shows Abortion Crushing Republicans.  Counter Points, May 31, 2023. 

Andrew Perez, The Dark Money Behind Kansas’ Misleading Anti-Abortion Campaign. The Lever, May 31, 2023. “Tax records show how Leonard Leo’s $1.6 billion dark money network is quietly working to eliminate state abortion protections” including the false claim to give women “choice” in Kansas.

Wojciech Kosc, Half a Million March in Warsaw Against Poland’s Ruling Party.  Politico, Jun 2, 2023. “Massive rally was called by Donald Tusk, whose Civic Platform party is bidding to unseat the ruling Law and Justice party.”

More Perfect Union, The Man Who Really Killed Roe V. Wade | The Class Room ft. @FDSignifire. More Perfect Union, Jun 15, 2023. Re: Leonard Leo.

Brittni Frederiksen et.al., A National Survey of OBGYNs’ Experiences After Dobbs. Kaiser Family Foundation, Jun 21, 2023.

“Since the Dobbs decision, half of OBGYNs practicing in states where abortion is banned say they have had patients in their practice who were unable to obtain an abortion they sought. This is the case for one in four (24%) office-based OBGYNs nationally.

Nationally, one in five office-based OBGYNs (20%) report they have personally felt constraints on their ability to provide care for miscarriages and other pregnancy-related medical emergencies since the Dobbs decision. In states where abortion is banned, this share rises to four in ten OBGYNs (40%).

Four in ten OBGYNs nationally (44%), and six in ten practicing in states where abortion is banned or where there are gestational limits, say their decision-making autonomy has become worse since the Dobbs ruling. Over a third of OBGYNs nationally (36%), and half practicing in states where abortion is banned (55%) or where there are gestational limits (47%), say their ability to practice within the standard of care has become worse.

Most OBGYNs (68%) say the ruling has worsened their ability to manage pregnancy-related emergencies. Large shares also believe that the Dobbs decision has worsened pregnancy-related mortality (64%), racial and ethnic inequities in maternal health (70%) and the ability to attract new OBGYNs to the field (55%).”

Selena Simmons-Duffin, In Post-Roe Texas, 2 Mothers With Traumatic Pregnancies Walk Very Different Paths. NPR, Jul 4, 2023.

“Halo had anencephaly — her brain and skull did not fully develop. She lived for four hours. Casiano found out about the condition months earlier in her pregnancy, and she learned it is always fatal. Casiano, who lives outside Houston, wanted an abortion but couldn't afford to leave Texas to get one.

Beyond a very narrow exception when a mother's life is in immediate danger, there is no access to abortion in Texas. And doctors who perform an illegal abortion in the state face the possibility of life in prison, fines and the loss of their medical license. They can also be sued for aiding and abetting an abortion.

This is the story of two women who walked those different paths. Lauren Miller was able to leave Texas to abort one of the fetuses in her twin pregnancy, safeguarding herself and her healthy twin. Casiano had to carry Halo until she went into labor at 33 weeks gestation.”

Geoff Mulvihill and Linley Sanders, Few US Adults Support Full Abortion Bans, Even in States That Have Them, an AP-NORC Survey Says. Associated Press | Boston Globe, Jul 12, 2023. “The majority of US adults, including those living in states with the strictest limits on abortion, want it to be legal at least through the initial stages of pregnancy, a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds.”

Amna Nawaz and Shoshana Dubnow, The Link Between a Lack of Reproductive Rights and Domestic Violence.  PBS, Jul 14, 2023.  “National Domestic Violence Hotline is a nearly 100 percent increase in these calls about reproductive coercion alone. The experts there also told me that they have seen more than 20,000 calls related to nonconsensual sex.”

Leo Shane III, Pentagon Abortion Policy Talks Fail to Yield Compromise on Nominees.  Military Times, Jul 19, 2023.

Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, 19 GOP Attorneys General Seek Private Medical Records of Patients Who Obtain Out-of-State Abortions.  Democracy Now, Jul 25, 2023.  They are demanding access to individual medical records, in violation of HIPAA privacy laws.  

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Ohio Overwhelmingly Backs Pro-Choice Amendment. Breaking Points, Jul 25, 2023.

Ben Meiselas, Republicans Utterly Exposed in Most Powerful Ad of the Year. Meidas Touch, Jul 27, 2023. Humorous but telling political ad featuring an old white man as a fictional GOP Congressman taking away birth control.

Andrew Perez and Julia Rock, Trump Judge’s Anti-Abortion Ruling Followed Payments From Group Leading Case. The Lever, Aug 17, 2023.

Jason Horowitz and Ruth Graham, Pope Says a Strong U.S. Faction Offers a Backward, Narrow View of the Church. New York Times, Aug 30, 2023. “In unusually sharp remarks published this week, Pope Francis said some conservative American Catholics wrongly ignore much of the Church’s mission and reject the possibility of change.” “In 2018, in a major document called an apostolic exhortation on the subject of holiness, Francis explicitly wrote that caring for migrants and the poor is as holy a pursuit as opposing abortion. “Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate,” he wrote. “Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned.””

Amy Goodman, Mexico Decriminalizes Abortion in Major Step Forward for Reproductive Rights in Latin America. Democracy Now, Sep 8, 2023.

Ali Velshi, A Warning from Alabama Clinics on Abortion: ‘This is Coming for Blue States’. Velshi | MSNBC, Sep 10, 2023. “Alabama’s Attorney General, in a state that is already enforcing one of the nation's strictest abortion bans that makes no exception for rape or incest, is now asserting his right to criminally prosecute anyone who assists women in traveling to other states for abortions. Whether the abortion would be legal in the state where it's performed would be of no consequence. Legal historian and abortion law scholar Mary Ziegler says nothing like this has been tried since the civil war. “Nobody is safe anywhere,” says Robin Marty, operations director at West Alabama Women’s Center. The fight is in Alabama and southern states now, but “this is coming for blue states.””

Nick Catoggio, ‘Life’ and Death. The Dispatch, Sep 12, 2023. Criticizes the left for not having any gestational limits.

Veronica Stracqualursi, Kristen Holmes, and Kit Maher, Trump’s Republican Rivals Jump on His Abortion Comments. CNN, Sep 21, 2023. Trump criticized Florida’s early abortion ban, but others disagreed in support.

Kelan Lyons, NC Appeals Court: Mom Who Committed Crime While Pregnant Can Lose Parental Rights. North Carolina Newsline, Oct 18, 2023. Judge Murphy justifies decision because ‘life begins at conception’.

NPR Public Editor and Kelly McBride, Explaining the Difference Between 15 and 24 Weeks.  NPR, Oct 7, 2022. “For many people who've been pregnant, the difference between accessing an abortion at 15 weeks and one up to 24 weeks, which was federally protected until last summer when the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, is obvious. Medical tests that detect serious problems with a fetus often cannot be confirmed until closer to 20 weeks. When this detail is left out of stories, it feels like a glaring omission to people who are upset at the idea of requiring expectant parents to continue a pregnancy that they already know will end in suffering.”

Amanda Terkel and Juachuan Wu, Abortion Rights Have Won in Every Election Since Roe v. Wade Was Overturned.  NBC News, Aug 9, 2023.  “Abortion has been on the ballot in seven states since June 2022. In each instance, anti-abortion groups have lost.”

Melissa Brown, Three Women Sue Tennessee Over Abortion Law They Say Causes ‘Catastrophic’ Risk.  Nashville Tennessean, Sep 12, 2023.  “Three Tennessee women who say the state's abortion law endangered their lives sued on Monday, arguing the law is too restrictive and vague about when doctors can legally terminate a pregnancy with serious complications.”

Margery A. Beck, Nebraska Mother Gets Prison For Giving Abortion Pills To Pregnant Daughter.  HuffPost, Sep 22, 2023. “The woman was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for assisting her teen daughter with an abortion and helping to conceal it.”

Jennifer Doudna, CRISPR's Next Advance Is Bigger Than You Think.  TED, Sep 27, 2023.  Using gene editing not just in individual organisms but microbiomes like in the human gut.  

Julianne McShane, Pregnant With No OB-GYNs Around: In Idaho, Maternity Care Became a Casualty of its Abortion Ban.  NBC News, Sep 30, 2023.  “After an Idaho hospital closed its obstetrics department, pregnant women in the county have been left without nearby care. Their OB-GYNs fled the state.”

James Bickerton, Republican Pushes to Overturn Ohio Election Result.  Newsweek, Nov 9, 2023. Writing on X, formerly Twitter, North Dakota State Representative Brandon Prichard argued Tuesday's Issue 1 vote in Ohio should be ignored.

Brian Tyler Cohen, Republicans’ Entire 2024 Strategy Suddenly Blows Up in Their Faces.  Brian Tyler Cohen, Nov 13, 2023.  Abortion policy is at the center.  One day after the November 2023 elections, where abortion rights won in red states by Republican voters, the GOP presidential candidates at the third debate argued further to the right.  Cohen argues that they are pandering to the Christian evangelical base, who does not allow them to moderate their position.

Margot Sanger-Katz and Claire Cain-Miller, How Many Abortions Did the Post-Roe Bans Prevent?  Washington Post, Nov 22, 2023.  “The first estimate of births since Dobbs found that almost a quarter of women who would have gotten abortions carried their pregnancies to term.”

David Schraub, Liberal Jews and Religious Liberty. New York University Law Review, Nov 2023. “The Supreme Court’s new religious liberty jurisprudence has dramatically expanded the circumstances in which religious objectors can claim exemption from general legislative enactments. Thus far, most of the claimants who’ve taken advantage of these doctrinal innovations have been conservative Christians seeking to avoid liberal policy initiatives (on matters like COVID-19 restrictions, vaccines, or LGBTQ inclu- sion). This emerging jurisprudence, as well as the rhetoric from legal and political elites regarding religious liberty, has generally acceded to the conflation of religiosity with conservatism. Liberal Jews challenge this conflation, as they offer an example of a religious community whose spiritual commitments tend to align with progressive rather than conservative politics. Nominally, the new religious liberty doctrine should also provide protections to more liberal Jewish denominations that may seek relief from conservative statutory enactments, such as restrictive abortion laws following Dobbs.”

Leo Shane III, Defense Bill Drops Disputed Abortion Provisions in Final Compromise.  Military Times, Dec 7, 2023. 

Joe Gould and Anthony Dragma, Inside the GOP Pressure Campaign to Lift Tuberville’s Military Blockade. Politico, Dec 9, 2023. 

Chris Hayes, Bombshell New Report on the Supreme Court’s Abortion Leak.  All In | MSNBC, Dec 15, 2023.  Fascinating account of the conservative maneuvering on SCOTUS.

More Perfect Union, The Hidden Reason Abortion Clinics Are Disappearing | The Class Room.  More Perfect Union, Jan 5, 2024.  Many private insurers do not support abortion.  The Hyde Amendment prevents public funding from being used for abortion.  Private clinics often depend on privately donated funds.  By 1989, 86% of abortions were happening in clinics because hospitals didn’t want the protests or the controversy or funding snafus.  Then, TRAP (targeted restrictions on abortion providers) laws took effect, creating maternal health deserts.

Samuel L. Dickman, Kari White, David U. Himmelstein, et al., Rape-Related Pregnancies in the 14 US States With Total Abortion Bans.  JAMA, Jan 24, 2024. 

Megan Lebowitz, 64K Women and Girls Became Pregnant Due to Rape in States with Abortion Bans, Study Says.  NBC News, Jan 24, 2024. The research letter, published by JAMA Internal Medicine and headed up by the medical director at Planned Parenthood of Montana, estimated that nearly 520,000 rapes were associated with 64,565 pregnancies across 14 states, most of which had no exceptions that allowed for terminations of pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape  Texas topped the list, with 45% of the rape-related pregnancies occurring within the state, researchers estimated. Ninety-one percent of the estimated rape-related pregnancies took place in states without exceptions for rape, according to the researchers. "Few (if any)" of the women and girls who became pregnant because of rape "obtained in-state abortions legally, suggesting that rape exceptions fail to provide reasonable access to abortion for survivors," the research letter said.

Selena Simmons-Duffin, Raped, Pregnant and in an Abortion Ban State? Researchers Gauge How Often it Happens. NPR, Jan 24, 2024. “To arrive at the figure of nearly 65,000 rape-caused pregnancies, researchers first estimated the number of rapes that occurred in the states with abortion bans, while those bans were in effect — time periods that vary state-to-state. "We used the best available research and data that we're aware of to come up with the fraction of women of reproductive age who are survivors of — and the terminology here is horrible — completed vaginal rape," Dickman explains. "The foundation was a survey that the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] conducted that we think is probably the most accurate estimate of not just the sexual assaults that were reported to law enforcement, but also those that weren't reported to law enforcement." They then used Bureau of Justice Statistics data on criminal victimization and FBI Uniform Crime Reports to assess the number of vaginal rapes of women, ages 15-45, that happened in those 14 states while abortion bans were in effect. The number they arrived at is approximately 520,000 rapes. Finally, they calculated that 12.5% of those assaults would result in a pregnancy, based on CDC data. "These are hard numbers to come up with — there's no kind of systematic collection at the level of health care providers to be able to answer this question of what's the pregnancy rate among people who have been victims of a completed vaginal rape," Dickman acknowledges. "This is kind of the best we could do." Their total estimate of pregnancies due to rape in states with abortion bans is 64,565.”

Emily Jashinsky and Krystal Ball, Alabama Supreme Court Rules Embryos Are Kids, Trump Team Plots [16 week] Abortion Ban. Counter Points | Breaking Points, Feb 21, 2024.

Emily Shugerman, Oklahoma Pols Want a Database of Everyone Who Has an Abortion. Daily Beast, Feb 20, 2024. “The so-called Oklahoma Right To Human Life Act, authored by state Rep. Kevin West, passed out of the Public Health Committee last week and moves to a full House vote next month. The bill would require the Oklahoma State Department of Health to create a database in which each patient is identified by a “unique patient identifier” to track how many abortions a patient has and when. That information and the identity of the patient could be released to authorities under a court order. Oklahoma already outlaws all abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother, without exceptions for rape or incest.”

Mike Hixenbough, Alabama Justice Who Ruled Embryos Are People Says American Law Should Be Rooted in the Bible. NBC News, Feb 22, 2024.

Emma Vigeland, Alabama’s Right-Wing Supreme Chief Justice Shares His Insane Worldview. The Majority Report, Feb 23, 2024. Tom Parker, Alabama justice, believes in the seven mountain dominionism of Christian Nationalism. Parker used the “image of God” from Genesis 1:26 - 28 and Jeremiah 1:5 to argue for human personhood from the moment of conception.

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Trump Panics: Endorses IVF, Urges Alabama Law Change. Breaking Points, Feb 26, 2024. Both the policy and politics of stopping IVF. Only 7% of Americans believe in restricting IVF, but 125 GOP Congresspeople support a ban.

Kavitha Surana, Their States Banned Abortion. Doctors Now Say They Can’t Give Women Potentially Lifesaving Care. ProPublica, Feb 26, 2024.

Mary Ziegler, Why Are Anti-Abortion Activists Going After Sex Education? Boston Globe, Mar 19, 2024. After Dobbs, they needed a new goal to maintain their political organization, and fetal personhood in education also addressed the need to persuade young people.

Alex Wagner, Judge Shopping Scheme Backfires on Anti-Abortion Activists with 'Embarrassing' Case in Supreme Court. Alex Wagner | MSNBC, Mar 27, 2024. Arguments against abortion medication mifepristone heard by the Supreme Court today bordered on the absurd, but because the activists who brought the case specifically sought out rogue judges in lower courts the Supreme Court had to endure the embarrassment of hearing them. “Doctors won’t have enough time to wash their hands.” Jessica Valenti, writer of "Abortion, every day," Dahlia Lithwick, author of "Lady Justice," and host of the Amicus podcast, and Carrie N. Baker, professor of American Studies at Smith College, discuss with Alex Wagner. 

Michael Popok, Supreme Court Smacks Down Latest MAGA Lawsuit. Meidas Touch, Mar 28, 2024. The Abilene, Texas-originating lawsuit to ban, nationwide, women’s use of the drug mifepristone, used since 2000. There was no Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine prior to this suit, which was formed only to bring this suit under conservative Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk and the Fifth Circuit Court. The suit is brought by lead lawyer Erin Hawley, wife of Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO).

MSNBC, Disastrous Timing for Trump to Put Abortion Video Out: Tim Miller Weighs in on Arizona Ruling. MSNBC, Apr 10, 2024. On April 9, Trump put out a video advertisement saying that he overturned Roe v. Wade and that states should decide the abortion policy for the state. Then on April 10, Arizona’s all male, all Republican Supreme Court decided that an 1864 law banning all abortions which was in place before Arizona became a state (and was a territory including Las Vegas) would become the law of Arizona.

Suri Crowe, Trump Instantly Hit With the Wrath of American Voters. Meidas Touch, Apr 11, 2024. Crowe also covers the politics of Arizona’s abortion policy. She includes important testimonies and statistics about miscarriages, which occur in 1 in 4 pregnancies, requiring a D&C procedure to clean a woman’s uterus of fetal parts so that she would not be at risk for sepsis and death.

Leeja Miller, They're Coming for Contraception Next. Leeja Miller, Apr 24, 2024. Miller focuses on which groups are behind state laws that are restrictive on abortion access. Christian nationalists are primary.

Daniel K. Williams, Why Is the Abortion Rate Increasing? Anxious Bench | Patheos, Apr 23, 2024.

Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American: May 1, 2024. Letters from an American | Substack, May 2, 2024. The day Florida’s six week abortion ban went into effect, Richardson wrote a good summary update, including campaign promises regarding reproductive rights.