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April 21 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Kentucky officials from enforcing a sweeping new abortion law that Planned Parenthood said would force abortion clinics to stop offering the procedure until they can meet certain requirements.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings in Louisville issued a temporary restraining order at Planned Parenthood's request a week after the Republican-led legislature overrode a veto by the state's Democratic governor to enact the law. read more

The measure, HB 3, made Kentucky the first U.S. state without legal abortion access since the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade established the right to end a pregnancy before the fetus is viable nationwide, abortion providers say. read more

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed separate lawsuits challenging the law, which calls for a combination birth-death or stillbirth certificate to be issued for each abortion and bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Oklahoma Legislature Passes 6-Week Abortion Bill Modeled on Texas Law
The bill would take effect immediately if signed. It allows civilians to sue doctors who perform abortions or anybody who “aids or abets” one.

By Kate Zernike
April 28, 2022, 5:31 p.m. ET

The Oklahoma Legislature approved a bill on Thursday prohibiting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, a ban that could sharply reduce abortion access not only for women in the state but for those who have been crossing its borders to work around increasingly strict anti-abortion laws across the South.

The bill is modeled on one that took effect in Texas in September. It bans abortion after cardiac fetal activity, generally around six weeks of pregnancy, and requires enforcement by civilians, allowing them to sue any doctor who performs or induces the abortion, or anyone who “aids or abets” one.

Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed a law this month that outlaws abortion entirely except to save the life of a pregnant woman “in a medical emergency,” and makes the procedure a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $100,000 fine.

While that law will take effect in late August, the bill the Legislature sent to Mr. Stitt’s desk Thursday would take effect immediately if signed.



https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/us/o ... ature.html

Ohio Republican lawmaker says pregnancy resulting from rape is an 'opportunity' for the person who was sexually assaulted

Kayla Epstein
Apr 28, 2022, 4:28 PM

An Ohio state legislator said that a pregnancy resulting from rape could be an "opportunity" for the person who was assaulted during a hearing on a bill that would ban abortion in the state should the US Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade this summer.

In a legislative hearing on Wednesday, the bill's sponsor, Republican State Rep. Jean Schmidt, defended the legislation's lack of an exception for victims of rape.

"It is a shame that it happens, but there's an opportunity for that woman, no matter how young or old she is, to make a determination about what she's going to do to help that life be a productive human being," Schmidt said.

The lawmaker was responding to a question by Democratic State Rep. Richard Brown, who asked Schmidt about a hypothetical scenario in which a 13-year-old girl became pregnant due to rape.



https://www.businessinsider.com/ohio-re ... ?r=US&IR=T

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 5:14 pm And Schmidt is a woman.

Amazon to reimburse U.S. employees who travel for abortions, other treatments

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), the second-largest U.S. private employer, told its staff on Monday it will pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses annually for non-life threatening medical treatments including abortions, according to a message seen by Reuters.

The decision makes the online retailer the latest company after Citigroup Inc (C.N), Yelp Inc (YELP.N) and others to respond to Republican-backed state laws curbing abortion access, helping employees bypass them. It shows how companies are eager to retain and attract talent in locations that remain important to their operations despite legal changes impacting employees' health.

Amazon's new benefit, effective to Jan. 1 retroactively, applies if an operation is not available within 100 miles (161 km) of an employee's home and virtual care is not possible, the company's message said. It is open to U.S. employees or covered dependents enrolled in Premera or Aetna health plans, whether they work in a corporate office or a warehouse.

The reimbursements that Amazon announced on Monday are not specific to abortion. They provide for other non-life threatening treatments such as around cardiology, cellular gene therapies and substance-abuse disorder services as well. Separately, Amazon offers up to $10,000 in annual travel reimbursements for life-threatening issues.

Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows
"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled," Justice Alito writes in an initial majority draft circulated inside the court.

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.

The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

The next frontier for the antiabortion movement: A nationwide ban
Advocates and some GOP lawmakers have started mobilizing around potential federal legislation to outlaw abortion after six weeks of pregnancy

Leading antiabortion groups and their allies in Congress have been meeting behind the scenes to plan a national strategy that would kick in if the Supreme Court rolls back abortion rights this summer, including a push for a strict nationwide ban on the procedure if Republicans retake power in Washington.

The effort, activists say, is designed to bring a fight that has been playing out largely in the courts and state legislatures to the national political stage — rallying conservatives around the issue in the midterms and pressuring potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates to take a stand.

The discussions reflect what activists describe as an emerging consensus in some corners of the antiabortion movement to push for hard-line measures that will truly end a practice they see as murder while rejecting any proposals seen as half-measures.

Pelosi, Schumer Joint Statement on Reported Draft Supreme Court Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade
Washington, D.C. – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued this statement following media reports of a draft Supreme Court decision overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling:

“If the report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past fifty years – not just on women but on all Americans.

“The Republican-appointed Justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v. Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.

“Several of these conservative Justices, who are in no way accountable to the American people, have lied to the U.S. Senate, ripped up the Constitution and defiled both precedent and the Supreme Court’s reputation – all at the expense of tens of millions of women who could soon be stripped of their bodily autonomy and the constitutional rights they’ve relied on for half a century.

“The party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has now completely devolved into the party of Trump. Every Republican Senator who supported Senator McConnell and voted for Trump Justices pretending that this day would never come will now have to explain themselves to the American people.”