AuthorLisa Needham

Eight days after the U.S. Supreme Court let S.B. 8, the most restrictive abortion ban to date, go into effect in Texas, the Department of Justice has sued the state, with Attorney General Merrick Garland announcing in a press conference Thursday, “The act is clearly unconstitutional under long-standing Supreme Court precedent.” The case was filed in the federal district court in...

Last week, the U. S. Supreme Court let stand a Texas law that is the most restrictive abortion law in the nation. With that green light, other states are lining up to pass similar laws, and at this time, there isn’t much way to stop them.  Anti-choice legislators in four states — Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina, and South Dakota — have already stated they will follow Texas’s lead...

The Supreme Court’s decision on abortion wasn’t a decision at all. Instead, the court let a highly restrictive, highly unusual Texas law go into effect by simply doing nothing.  Earlier this year, Texas passed a so-called “fetal heartbeat” bill, which acts as a six-week ban on abortion. That’s because what Texas and other conservative states call a...

Mississippi has taken its unconstitutional previability abortion ban all the way to the Supreme Court, but it’s long since left behind the health of the women at the heart of the matter.  During the Supreme Court term that begins in October, the court will hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case about whether Mississippi can prohibit abortion before fetal viability...

Last week, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Texas’ ban on the most common second-trimester abortion method. Losing access to this procedure will profoundly affect people seeking abortions in Texas.  The state’s ban on the use of the method, known as dilation and evacuation, or D&E, effectively acts as 15-week ban, since it is used in nearly all second...

During the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the use of telemedicine became very widespread, and consumers want to keep it that way. Telemedicine use also expanded for medication abortion, but that expansion also seems to be fueling increased attacks on telehealth access. The Trump administration went all the way to the Supreme Court seeking to block the FDA from suspending in-person...

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, 12 states used the crisis to ban or severely limit access to abortion. South Dakota wasn’t one of those states, but its abortion access was already so fragile the pandemic created an effective ban. Now, new data shows that hundreds of people were affected and sought abortions in other states during 2020.  Only one clinic performs abortions in South...

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Arkansas blocked four anti-abortion laws only a few hours after they had taken effect. It’s the latest ruling in a case that has stretched on for three years, as the state seeks to impose drastic restrictions on the constitutional right to obtain an abortion.  The ruling is likely only a temporary respite. Ultimately, this case could end up with the United...

The anti-choice policies pushed by Donald Trump and Mike Pence will likely soon be a thing of the past, but the outgoing administration is going to do as much damage to reproductive freedom as it can before Jan. 20.  The latest attack comes in the form of one last change to Title X, which is supposed to provide money for family planning services for low-income people. Title X funds used to go to...

Tennessee keeps trying — and failing — to impose an unconstitutional waiting period for people in the state who need abortions. A federal judge just handed the state another loss, ruling that he won’t let the waiting period go into effect while the case makes its way through the courts.  In October 2020, Judge Bernard Friedman struck down Tennessee’s 48-hour waiting period, the first...