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(7) Texas is Fabricating Abortion Data - by Jessica Valenti

Texas doctors have been required to submit patients’ private medical information into a state-run website without their knowledge or consent—adhering to a mandate that forces them to report women as suffering from abortion complications even when they’re not.

This rarely reported on section of Texas law lists 28 medical issues as abortion complications—conditions that reproductive health experts point out often have nothing to do with abortion. Still, doctors are required to tell the state about any woman who develops one of these issues if she happens to have had an abortion at any point in her life.

Doctors who don’t make these reports can be fined for each ‘violation’; after three violations, they could lose their license.

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The overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction is an affront to women | Moira Donegan | The Guardian

Perhaps what is most telling about the post-#MeToo persistence of misogynist myths about rape is in the judges’ reasoning itself. Indeed, part of the reason why the New York court of appeals’ decision to overturn Weinstein’s conviction is so humiliatingly hurtful for American women is the rationale on which four of the court’s seven justices based their decision: they said that too many women who said they had been assaulted by Weinstein had been allowed to testify at his criminal trial.

The prosecution had used these women, whose assaults were not at issue in the case, to establish a pattern and a motive for Weinstein’s conduct. It was the same tactic that so many women used in #MeToo, both in the movement writ large and in attempts to expose the violence of individual men. For women taking on the terrifying risk of coming forward about rape, there was supposed to be safety – and credibility – in numbers. But the judges of the majority found the sheer number of Weinstein’s accusers unfair to him; they thought it was excessive, too much.

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Honduras referred to UN human rights committee over total abortion ban

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Honduras-based Centro de Derechos de la Mujer (Center for Women’s Rights, CDM) filed a petition with the UN human rights committee this month on behalf of a woman known as Fausia, who underwent a forced pregnancy after being raped and denied an abortion under Honduras’ draconian laws.

Honduras is one of five Latin American countries – along with Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic – where abortion is prohibited in all circumstances, even in cases of rape, incest, or when the pregnant woman’s life is at risk. Until last year, it was also the only country to outlaw emergency contraceptives.

Women who have an abortion or medical professionals who perform one can face up to six years in prison. The ban was reinforced by a constitutional amendment in 2021, which raised the threshold of votes needed for congress to modify the abortion law.

This strict ban is now being challenged for the first time via an international body. The organisations backing Fausia’s complaint want the UN committee to rule that the total abortion ban is a violation of women and girls’ fundamental rights, and recommend that Honduras regulate access to abortion as an essential health service.

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Harvey Weinstein sex crime conviction overturned and new trial ordered | CNN

The New York Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned the sex crimes conviction against Harvey Weinstein, the powerful Hollywood producer whose downfall stood as a symbol of the #MeToo movement, and ordered a new trial.

The court, by a 4-3 vote, ruled the testimony of “prior bad acts” witnesses should not have been allowed because it “was unnecessary to establish defendant’s intent and served only to establish defendant’s propensity to commit the crimes charged.”

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Urged by Cortez Masto, CVS and Walgreens begin dispensing abortion pill in Nevada - The Nevada Independent

Almost a year after major pharmacy chains began waffling at the prospect of filling mifepristone prescriptions, Walgreens and CVS began dispensing the abortion pill in Nevada during the last few weeks.

The decision comes after a concentrated push by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), who called on the chains to follow through with Food & Drug Administration (FDA) guidance updates finalized in 2023 allowing mifepristone to be dispensed and sold at pharmacies.

Now the most common means of terminating a pregnancy, mifepristone is the first of a two-pill drug regimen that patients can take within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute estimates that medication is now used for more than half (54 percent) of all abortions.

Mifepristone is available in Nevada via mail or at clinics, but abortion rights advocates say the pharmacy option will make access as simple as patients visiting their regular doctor’s office (which often are not certified to stock the abortion pill), obtaining a prescription and then picking it up at their local pharmacy.

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What's at stake as the Supreme Court hears case about abortion in emergencies : Shots - Health News : NPR

Under Idaho's abortion law, the medical exception only applies when a doctor judges that "the abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman." (There is also an exception to the Idaho abortion ban in cases of rape or incest, only in the first trimester of the pregnancy, if the person files a police report.)

In a filing with the court, a group of 678 physicians in Idaho described cases in which women facing serious pregnancy complications were either sent home from the hospital or had to be transferred out of state for care. "It's been just a few months now that Idaho's law has been in effect – six patients with medical emergencies have already been transferred out of state for [pregnancy] termination," Dr. Jim Souza, chief physician executive of St. Luke's Health System in Idaho, told reporters on a press call last week.

Those delays and transfers can have consequences. For example, Dr. Emily Corrigan described a patient in court filings whose water broke too early, which put her at risk of infection. After two weeks of being dismissed while trying to get care, the patient went to Corrigan's hospital – by that time, she showed signs of infection and had lost so much blood she needed a transfusion. Corrigan added that without receiving an abortion, the patient could have needed a limb amputation or a hysterectomy – in other words, even if she didn't die, she could have faced life-long consequences to her health.

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(7) Breaking: Arizona House Repeals 1864 Ban

This afternoon, the Arizona House voted to repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban. While Republicans have a majority in the state Senate, there’s a good chance they move ahead with the repeal, too. (Remember, Democrats had enough GOP votes last week in favor of a repeal; it was the House holding them up.) Obviously, if it passes the state Senate, Gov. Katie Hobbs will sign the legislation.

The ban, which has been the center of a tremendous amount of controversy, is a reminder of what Republicans’ end goal really is: pushing women back to a time when we had zero choices. About anything.

In the end, though, it appears that conservative politicians couldn’t take the backlash. U.S. Senate candidate and failed gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake has been lobbying legislators to repeal the ban, as has Donald Trump—who didn’t want fury over the 160-year old law messing with his campaign.

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Live updates: Supreme Court arguments on emergency room abortions

In today's Supreme Court hearing on a Biden administration challenge to aspects of Idaho’s strict abortion ban, US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar put forward arguments seeking to appeal to conservative justices who just two years ago ruled that states should have the ability to prohibit the procedure.

The dispute, stemming from the Justice Department’s marquee response to the high court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, turns on whether federal mandates for hospital emergency room care override abortion bans that do not exempt situations where a woman’s health is in danger but her life is not yet threatened.

Prelogar argued that there was a real conflict between Idaho’s law and the federal statute, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, but she painted its as a narrow one. She stressed that, in this case, the administration is not trying to interfere with Idaho’s ability to criminalize abortions outside of the medical emergencies addressed by EMTALA.

Key votes: To prevail, the Biden administration will need the votes of two members of the court’s conservative bloc, and with Justice Brett Kavanaugh signaling sympathies towards Idaho, the case will likely come down to the votes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett.

The two justices had tough questions for both sides of the case. The court’s far-right wing, perhaps in attempt to bring those swing justices to their side, framed the case as a federal overreach into state power.

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Abortion bans and domestic violence: Homicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant people.

Are there any numbers that show how the Dobbs decision has impacted any of these things, either the homicide rate for pregnant women or reproductive coercion?

The National Domestic Violence Hotline said that there was a 98 percent increase in reports of reproductive coercion the year after Dobbs, compared to the year before—more than 2,400 callers, the year after, reporting experiencing some form of reproductive coercion, compared to about 1,200 callers the year before that decision.

Were people referencing the law?

Some of the callers were saying that their abusers were referencing the abortion ban in their state. And this is also, broadly, a tactic that experts expect to increase. Basically, when the state hands down these abortion restrictions, it can wind up enabling abusers because it suggests that the state has no interest in giving them access to abortion and supporting their reproductive autonomy. So, it’s something that an abuser can also restrict. And it does sound like, from the anecdotes that I heard, sometimes this is what people are reporting.

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Reproductive rights elusive 1 year after Japan’s approval of abortion pill

Wider access to abortion in Japan has largely remained elusive a year after the historic approval of medical abortion pills.

In April last year, lawmakers approved the use of the two-step abortion pill — MeFeego Pack — for pregnancies up to nine weeks. Before that, women in the East Asian nation could only receive a surgical abortion in private clinics by designated surgeons that often charge as much as $370.

Financial strain aside, women were often required to provide proof of spousal consent to receive an abortion, making it nearly impossible for them to make the decision on their own. Reports showed that even for single women, doctors still asked for permission of a male partner before agreeing to perform such surgeries.

Despite the approval of the abortion pill, only 3% of all clinics with abortion services in Japan provide them a year after the pill’s approval, according to Kumi Tsukahara, independent researcher of reproductive health and rights, "and none of them have a Maternal Body Protection Law (MBPL) designated doctor," Tsukahara told VOA News.

Under the MBPL, the controversial requirement for spousal consent before a doctor can prescribe oral abortion medication still exists — it’s the same condition for gaining permission for a surgical abortion.

"Unfortunately, there are no signs of change with regard to either," the expert said.

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Biden moves to shield patients’ abortion records from GOP threats - The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/04/22/abortion-medical-records-patients-biden-hipaa/

The Biden administration on Monday announced new rules intended to protect the privacy of patients seeking abortions, and the health workers who may have provided them, from Republican prosecutors who have threatened to crack down on the procedure.

The rules strengthen a nearly 30-year-old health privacy law — known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA — to offer more robust legal protections to those who obtain or provide reproductive health care in a state where it is legal to do so. The final policy prohibits physicians, insurers and other health-care organizations from disclosing health information to state officials for the purposes of conducting an investigation, filing a lawsuit or prosecuting a patient or provider. It covers women who cross state lines to legally terminate a pregnancy and those who qualify for an exception to their state’s abortion ban, such as in cases of rape, incest or a medical emergency.

Under previous rules, organizations were allowed to disclose private medical information to law enforcement in certain cases, such as a criminal investigation. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said they had heard from patients and providers who were confused about their legal risks or had even deferred care amid GOP threats in the nearly two dozen states with abortion restrictions.

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Indiana attorney general pushes to disclose terminated pregnancy reports

Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt released an informal opinion last December stating the information gathered by Terminated Pregnancy Reports, or TPRs, could be used to identify patients — “especially in smaller communities.”

Attorney General Todd Rokita released an advisory opinion Thursday that said the decision to not disclose the individual reports complicates enforcement of Indiana law.

Rokita said the reports have been publicly available since the 1970s, but there was “an abrupt change” in policy following the public access counselor’s opinion.

However, with fewer patients receiving abortions following the near-total abortion ban, the Indiana Department of Health raised concerns that releasing the full individual reports could violate patient confidentiality — especially with increased reporting requirements added in 2022.

Britt’s opinion said the statute requires IDOH to provide aggregated data in quarterly public reports, which suggests the individual forms are “non-public.”

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‘I was unashamed’: Yumi Ishikawa on fighting sexism in Japan

It was meant to be just one of her regular, mundane musings about life as a woman in Japan. But Yumi Ishikawa’s life changed with a tweet she posted on January 24 this year: “Someday I want to get rid of the practice of women having to wear heels and pumps at work.”

The 32-year-old actor was working as an usher in a funeral parlour at the time, a job that involved eight-hour shifts in heels measuring 5cm-7cm. Her comment went viral; it has been retweeted 29,000 times, helping her become the face of the #KuToo movement — a play on the Japanese words for shoes (kutsu), pain (kutsuu) and #MeToo.

Encouraged by the response, Ishikawa, who is also a freelance writer, launched a petition for a ban on high-heel stipulations by employers in Japan. When she submitted her petition to the health ministry in June, it had been signed by nearly 19,000 people and has now collected more than 31,500 signatures.

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Kansas law will require ID to view acts of 'homosexuality'

The governor of Kansas vetoed n anti-LGBTQ+ bill while simultaneously letting a law pass requiring ID to view "acts of homosexuality."

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly issued vetoes Friday against a ban on gender-affirming care for minors as well as two anti-abortion measures. She also let pass without her signature a law requiring age-verification to view content "harmful to minors."

Under Kansas criminal law, material "harmful to minors" includes nudity and "sexual content," which is defined in part as "acts of masturbation, homosexuality, or sexual intercourse."

The law, which will go into effect on July 1, requires users to share their government-issued identification in order to view adult content. Websites can be fined up to $10,000 for each instance a minor accesses their content, and parents are allowed to sue for damages of at least $50,000.

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GOP Leaders in Arizona accidentally leaked abortion strategy to Dems

Republican lawmakers are considering options to defeat a citizens’ ballot initiative this fall that enshrines the right to abortion access in the state constitution.

The strategy includes referring separate abortion measures to the ballot that could potentially split or dilute support for the Arizona Abortion Access Act that more than 500,000 voters have signed.

The details were revealed in a PowerPoint presentation that was supposed to be circulated among Republicans only but was accidentally sent to Democratic lawmakers.

“The document presents ideas drafted for internal discussion and consideration within the caucus. I’ve publicly stated that we are looking for options to address this subject and this is simply part of that,” Republican House Speaker Ben Toma said.

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