#abortion-rights

#abortion-rights

Vice President JD Vance delivered an address at the March for Life in Washington D.C. today, attacking abortion rights and LGBTQ+ equality as existential threats to the nation. Blocks away, a white supremacist group showed their support. Meanwhile, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has rescinded LGBTQ-inclusive guidance about what workplace harassment looks like, and a Maryland judge has ruled that Trump's DOJ can't have trans youth hospital records.

On a gray Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C., with the nation's capital bracing for a forecast snowstorm expected to arrive Sunday and local officials urging residents to prepare for possible disruptions, Vice President JD Vance stood on a stage near the National Mall and delivered a blistering address attacking abortion rights and LGBTQ+ equality as existential threats to the nation.

But recent polling indicates that Democrats may not be able to count on the issue in their efforts to drive votes in the 2026 midterms, after making abortion rights the centerpiece of their pitch to voters in the elections that followed the fall of Roe v Wade. In 2024, 55% of Democrats said abortion was important to their vote, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

In 2026, the biggest battles over abortion will not be at the polls. There will be a few contested measures on state ballots. Next year, Nevada's government will ask residents to approve constitutional protection for abortion rights for the second time, as required by state law. The same measure passed in 2024 with just over 64% of the vote. Virginians will likely see a similar ballot initiative.

All three of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who sought reelection Tuesday will get another term, ensuring Democratic jurists keep their majority on the presidential battleground state's highest court - one at the center of pivotal fights over voting rights, redistricting and elections. The result shapes the makeup of the seven-member court through the next presidential election in 2028. The three justices had been elected as Democrats, and voters were deciding whether to extend the court's Democratic majority.

When the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade more than three years ago, unleashing a wave of state-level abortion bans, the justices catapulted abortion rights to the top of US voters' minds. The issue has dominated every election cycle since and 2025 is no different. The gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia could have sweeping consequences for abortion access in two states that have become havens for women fleeing abortion bans. In Pennsylvania, what should have been a relatively sleepy judicial-retention election has evolved into the most expensive race of its kind in nearly 50 years, largely due to heated fighting over abortion.

Nigel Farage has been urged to explain why a US anti-abortion advocacy group helped arrange a meeting in London with Trump administration officials and diplomats. The meeting, first reported by the New York Times, took place in March between Farage and a delegation from Trump's state department, which it said was overseen by the US embassy and brokered by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) group. The meeting was said to have discussed abortion rights, free speech and online safety laws. ADF, which supports free speech and religious freedom, has worked in Britain to help challenge the prosecutions of Christians who were arrested for praying silently outside abortion clinics, breaching buffer zones.

In 2017, The New York Times investigative journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey co-authored a bombshell story on sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Their Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage spawned a book, 2019's She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement (Kantor's second, following 2012's The Obamas). More recently, Kantor investigated the Supreme Court's decision to eliminate the right to an abortion.

I do think a lot of what is happening in terms of the structure of the system itself is dangerous. I think that the hour is late in many ways. My view is that a lot of people who embrace alarm don't embrace what I think obviously follows from that alarm, which is the willingness to make strategic and political decisions you find personally discomfiting, even though they are obviously more likely to help you win.

"We know there's an outrageous, horrific rise in violence against women, sexual crimes and rape," she said. "Now there's the rise of incel culture and the likes of Andrew Tate pushing ideas of men's power and what they're entitled to. It's really sad that those pushing the anti-trans narrative don't realise that's exactly what they're playing into."

"I have a long history of being pro-life," Hanaway told reporters Tuesday, after Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe announced her as the state's new attorney general. She asserted that while she's " empathetic" to people struggling with infertility, she "believe[s] in the sanctity of human life." (Rich words coming from the party whose policies have driven the state's bottom-ranking maternal/infant mortality rates into obscurity.)

The subpoenas demanded extensive records including 'letters, emails, texts, social media posts, phone conversations, transcripts, videos, and even calendar entries.'

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld West Virginia's law banning FDA-approved medication abortion, marking the first federal court to sanction such a ban and undermining the FDA's regulatory authority.

Since the Dobbs decision in June 2022, the number of abortions in the US has risen, alongside increased support for reproductive rights and a surge in voluntary sterilizations.

Dr. Meera Shah's book, "You're the Only One I've Told," compiles testimonials from those seeking abortions, revealing varied reasons for their choices.

The Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade made Trump anxious. He expressed concerns that abortion could endanger his political prospects after the 2022 midterms.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the 1849 abortion law does not ban abortions, allowing the procedure to continue in the state, following years of litigation.

A coalition of 21 attorneys general reaffirmed the requirement for hospitals to provide emergency abortion care under EMTALA, despite recent federal policy changes.

According to a new study, intimate partner violence increased by about 7-10% in U.S. counties with near-total abortion bans, leading to an estimated 9,000 additional incidents.

The Ipsos poll indicates alarming trends among young men’s views on abortion, with only 46% supporting legality in all or most cases, reflecting a significant cultural shift.

Sir Sadiq Khan is urgently advocating for the lifting of TfL's ban on BPAS adverts, emphasizing the need to amplify voices affected by current abortion laws.

The decision to ban pro-decriminalisation adverts on the Underground by TfL raises concerns over whose voices are being heard in the political debate surrounding abortion.

The Republicans' reconciliation bill includes provisions to cut Medicaid funding for abortion services, marking a shift in their approach to reproductive rights.