Roe v Wade has been overturned. How do you feel about that?

[RoseMorninStar]

I am disturbed by a case in Ohio where a woman miscarried, the fetus falling into the toilet and now she is being charged with abuse of a corpse. I had a miscarriage where the fetus fell into the toilet. My pregnancy was earlier than this woman, but it was my first pregnancy and I didn't know what to do. It was a pregnancy I wanted and I can't imagine being charged with a crime. About 1 in every 4 or 5 pregnancies end in miscarriage. It's extremely common. The harshness is so cruel.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

In addition to agreeing to hear the Trump Colorado case today, the SCOTUS also agreed to take on another major abortion case, also on an expedited (but not nearly as expedited) schedule.

Supreme Court lets Idaho enforce abortion ban for now and agrees to hear case

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to let Idaho enforce its near-total ban on abortion in certain emergency medical situations while legal proceedings continue and said it will take up the dispute involving whether the Biden administration can require under federal law hospitals in states that ban abortion to perform the procedure on pregnant patients whose lives are at risk.

The question raised in the case is whether that law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, preempts state laws restricting access to abortion. The dispute, between the Biden administration and the state of Idaho, is one of several involving abortion that has arisen following the Supreme Court's landmark decision unwinding the constitutional right to abortion.

The court said in a brief order that Idaho will be allowed to enforce its abortion ban until it issues a decision in the case. Arguments will be heard in its April session.

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's "campaign has assured some conservative leaders in private meetings that the former president only criticized strict state abortion laws as a means of attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis." Trump told them he'll fully back anti-abortion efforts as president.

This shouldn't be surprising. He said on the record several years ago that women who have abortions should be punished.

[N.E. Brigand]

Abortion rights supporters have submitted enough signatures to put a measure on the ballot in November that would protect the right to an abortion for any reason until viability and afterwards to protect the mother's health. The initiative is being challenged in court on grounds that the wording is too vague. And even if it makes it onto the ballot, 60% of the vote is required for passage. Currently, abortions are prohibited at 15 weeks in Florida, and the state legislature passed a 6-week ban that Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law last year that is on hold pending a legal challenge.

[N.E. Brigand]

I am disturbed by a case in Ohio where a woman miscarried, the fetus falling into the toilet and now she is being charged with abuse of a corpse. I had a miscarriage where the fetus fell into the toilet. My pregnancy was earlier than this woman, but it was my first pregnancy and I didn't know what to do. It was a pregnancy I wanted and I can't imagine being charged with a crime. About 1 in every 4 or 5 pregnancies end in miscarriage. It's extremely common. The harshness is so cruel.

A grand jury did the right thing today and declined to charge her. Of course, it should never have gotten even that far.

[N.E. Brigand]

A new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that in the fourteen states with total abortion bans post-Dobbs, "519,981 completed rapes were associated with 64,565 pregnancies during the 4 to 18 months that bans were in effect". There are lots of caveats, to be sure, but let's suppose that the study is off by 50%, and let's further suppose that 90% of the rape victims wanted to bear those children: that would still mean 3,000 rape victims in less than two years were forced to bear their rapist's children.

I repeat what I've said before on this subject: that's torture, and the Republicans who have enabled that torture should be jailed for it.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I would guess thay the estimate is low, not high, and that much more than 10% of the victims did not want to bear the children. But those are just guesses on my part.

[N.E. Brigand]

Will Florida's Supreme Court prevent an abortion-rights constitutional amendment from getting onto the ballot this fall on the grounds that fetuses are persons whose civil rights would be violated by the measure? Maybe, but despite the questions some justices asked, it doesn't seem too likely.

Even if it gets on the ballot, the measure very well may fail, because Florida Republicans in 2006 did what Ohio Republicans tried but failed to do last year: they got voters to raise the threshold for passage of constitutional amendments to 60%. Ohio's voters overwhelmingly rejected that move in August and then passed an abortions rights amendment in November with 57% of the vote. But it's not entirely impossible: one poll of Floridians conducted in November "showed 62% of respondents in favor of the proposal, including over half of registered Republicans."

I wonder, if this measure is on the ballot: whom will it incentivize more to show up at the polls: Biden voters or Trump voters? As we have seen in many states, voters come out to support women's autonomy. But that doesn't necessarily translate to party affiliation.

[N.E. Brigand]

Reuters: "A scientific publisher has retracted two studies that Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk cited as support for suspending FDA of the abortion pill mifepristone at the request of anti-abortion doctors and medical association."

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the Biden administration's appeal of Kacsmaryk's ruling in April. I wonder what happens now.

[N.E. Brigand]

"The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen, unimplanted embryos qualify as human children under state law. IVF has long been in the crosshairs of the anti-abortion movement, and this unprecedented decision immediately imperils all IVF access throughout Alabama" (source: Mark Joseph Stern).

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile Donald Trump called Saturday for a ban on abortion after the 16th week of pregnancy. This is longer than some Republican-governed states permit (anywhere from zero weeks -- as noted above, Alabama would prohibit abortions even before zero weeks -- to fifteen weeks) but less than 23 states permit -- including my state of Ohio, where voters last year codified the terms of Roe vs. Wade (unrestricted abortion rights until viability, which occurs at 24-28 weeks, and after that point as needed to protect the mother's life or health) into our state's constitution.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile Donald Trump called Saturday for a ban on abortion after the 16th week of pregnancy. This is longer than some Republican-governed states permit (anywhere from zero weeks -- as noted above, Alabama would prohibit abortions even before zero weeks -- to fifteen weeks) but less than 23 states permit -- including my state of Ohio, where voters last year codified the terms of Roe vs. Wade (unrestricted abortion rights until viability, which occurs at 24-28 weeks, and after that point as needed to protect the mother's life or health) into our state's constitution.

Did he publicly "call" for a 16 week ban, or is it reported that he privately supports such a ban?

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile Donald Trump called Saturday for a ban on abortion after the 16th week of pregnancy. This is longer than some Republican-governed states permit (anywhere from zero weeks -- as noted above, Alabama would prohibit abortions even before zero weeks -- to fifteen weeks) but less than 23 states permit -- including my state of Ohio, where voters last year codified the terms of Roe vs. Wade (unrestricted abortion rights until viability, which occurs at 24-28 weeks, and after that point as needed to protect the mother's life or health) into our state's constitution.

Did he publicly "call" for a 16 week ban, or is it reported that he privately supports such a ban?

Good catch. Thanks for that correction. I misread reports that Trump's support was described on the exceedingly centrist Meet the Press television program as him acting like a mature politician by "moving to the center" and incorrectly assumed that he wouldn't be described as moving unless he'd actually said something in public. I thought it was ridiculous to say the "center" position involved taking away the abortion rights from women in 23 states. Your correction only makes it worse that Trump's ploy would be described that way!

[N.E. Brigand]

"The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen, unimplanted embryos qualify as human children under state law. IVF has long been in the crosshairs of the anti-abortion movement, and this unprecedented decision immediately imperils all IVF access throughout Alabama" (source: Mark Joseph Stern).

A lot of Republicans who praised the Dobbs decision in 2022 are upset by the political position that this decision, which repeatedly cites Dobbs, puts them in.

[RoseMorninStar]

I keep wondering how long it will take before they come after contraception and same sex marriages.

[N.E. Brigand]

Last year, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have protected IVF.

[N.E. Brigand]

And there's this:

[N.E. Brigand]

In the very red state of South Dakota, abortion is banned in almost all situations (even cases of rape and incest) after a pre-existing "trigger law" went into effect when Dobbs was decided in 2022. Pro-choice activists have crafted a ballot measure that will restore most of the protections of Roe.

The proposed measure would amend South Dakota’s constitution to effectively codify the access available under the original Roe v. Wade decision. It would prevent the state from regulating abortion in the first trimester (weeks 1 to 13 of pregnancy); during the second trimester (14 to 26 weeks) the state could regulate it “only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.” Beyond that point, after a fetus is viable, South Dakota could regulate or prohibit abortion, except when a doctor deems the procedure necessary to preserve their patient’s “life and health.”

The vast majority of abortions in the United States occur during the first trimester. In 2020, 93 percent occurred before 13 weeks, according to the CDC, with an additional 6 percent occurring between 14 and 20 weeks.

Though South Dakota is a solidly conservative state, voters have rejected near-total abortion bans on ballot measures twice before — in 2006 and 2008 — and in the last decade, activists have won progressive voter referendums on other issues, including campaign finance, payday lending, medical and recreational cannabis, and most recently, Medicaid expansion.

To get on the November ballot, organizers will need to submit at least 35,017 valid petition signatures by May 7. Signatures are being collected by a grassroots group — Dakotans for Health — which also helped lead the ballot measure campaign for Medicaid expansion in 2022.

“We’re on track and feeling very bullish,” Adam Weiland, a leader with Dakotans for Health, told Vox. “We’ve got well over 50,000 signatures signed, sealed, and delivered, but we’re still collecting because we know they’re going to throw the kitchen sink at us.”

But the new ballot measure faces obstacles not only from the right but from the left, because it doesn't go far enough for the state's Planned Parenthood chapter, which is declining to support it. They would prefer a law that confirms that "abortion is health care". It is! But a bill that would have decreed it so died in the South Dakota legislature.

[RoseMorninStar]

Alabama GOP lawmakers, who have declared that frozen embryos are children, are now trying to blame the closure of clinics & services of said clinics--as if the lawmakers had nothing to do with it and it is all the fault of the clinics.



One comment:
"Every IVF patient should be filing paperwork to sever their parental rights to their frozen children. The state will have to take responsibility for finding adoptive homes for those children."

Yeah.

[N.E. Brigand]

Last year, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have protected IVF.

And they're about to do it again:

Politico: "Senate GOP poised to block IVF protection bill."

Senate conservatives are signaling they’ll block Wednesday’s planned Democratic bid to enshrine protections for in-vitro fertilization into federal law – and they’re calling IVF a states-rights issue.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) is planning to seek unanimous consent to pass her proposal to federally protect IVF, which means any one senator can easily block its passage. This isn’t the first time she’s brought up her bill — Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) objected when Duckworth tried to pass it unanimously in 2022.

But Duckworth’s bill is surging back to the forefront as Republicans face uncomfortable questions about an Alabama Supreme Court ruling restricting IVF.

Hyde-Smith’s office did not respond when asked if she would object again to Duckworth’s bill, and the GOP senator ignored Capitol hallway questions from reporters, as is her usual practice. Other Republicans are already expressing reservations about the bill, though – meaning its chances at slipping through the chamber are slim, at best.

“I don’t see any need to regulate it at the federal level,” said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), an OB-GYN by trade, who would not say whether he’d block the bill. “I think the Dobbs decision puts this issue back at the state level, and I would encourage your state legislations to protect in-vitro fertilization.”

“It’s idiotic for us to take the bait,” said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who clarified he was referring not to Duckworth’s bill on its face but to Democrats’ attempts to use the proposal as an IVF messaging tool. Vance said he’s not yet reviewed the actual bill.