‘It’s absolute chaos’ – abortion rights advocate on post-Roe landscape

Record ID: 1680094

  • Title: ‘It’s absolute chaos’ – abortion rights advocate on post-Roe landscape
  • Date: 7th July 2022
  • Summary: AUSTIN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (FILE - MAY 24, 2022) (REUTERS) UNITED STATES, TEXAS FLAGS ADORNING THE CAPITOL BUILDING SIGN READING (English): “HEARTBEAT DETECTED? WE CAN HELP!” ANTI-ABORTION PROTESTORS OUTSIDE ‘WHOLE WOMAN'S HEALTH OF AUSTIN,’ AN ABORTION CLINIC VARIOUS OF ‘WHOLE WOMAN’S HEALTH OF AUSTIN’ CLINIC SIGN
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2022 19:16
  • Keywords: Roe v Wade U.S. Supreme Court abortion courts legal strategy states
  • Location: Various
  • City: Various
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA005999906072022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Supreme Court’s reversal of the half-century-old Roe v. Wade precedent that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion has resulted in a wave of litigation at the state level across the country.
    Some of these lawsuits are seeking to preserve the ability of women to terminate their own pregnancies; others, to ban abortion by enforcing laws that have been on the books.
    “It’s absolute chaos,” said Andrea Miller, President of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, a New York-based abortion-rights nonprofit organization. “You have patients, people, you know, women and others who need abortions who are having to navigate this complete chaos. And you have health care providers and staff at reproductive health clinics who don't know whether from one day to the next, can they treat people, can they provide care to patients, or do they have to close their doors?”
    In Florida, a law making abortions illegal after 15 weeks of pregnancy went into effect last week after a court order blocking its enforcement was put on hold.
    In Texas, the state’s Supreme Court allowed a century-old abortion ban to take effect last Friday (July 2), reversing a temporary restraining order a judge issued Tuesday (June 27) that allowed the procedure to resume in the state up to the already-restricted six weeks of pregnancy.
    The order, which allows the law to be enforced civilly but not criminally, came the same day the Ohio Supreme Court gave the state the go-ahead to enforce a 2019 ban on abortions at six weeks of pregnancy.
    “It’s this constant ping pong effect,” Miller said. “And so, as a result, now you have several clinics in Texas who've said, ‘We've had to close, we cannot go this back and forth and we do not trust that the courts are going to have our back.'”
    In Louisiana, a hearing on a lawsuit brought by one of the state’s abortion providers challenging the state’s trigger ban is set for Friday (July 8).
    With the power to define the abortion landscape now vested in the hands of state legislatures and courts, abortion-rights advocates like Miller say the upcoming November elections are key.
    “There are governors who are protecting abortion rights who absolutely need to be reelected in places like Michigan and Wisconsin,” she said. “You know, this is a time for people to vote, to talk to their elected representatives, especially at the state and local level.”
    (Production: Maria Alejandra Cardona, Christine Kiernan)
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