U.S. Repro Watch, January 3
Idaho fails in its efforts to dismiss “medical exceptions” case, women stocking up on abortion pills, and other news on U.S. reproductive rights.
U.S. Repro Watch provides periodic updates on news of interest on U.S. reproductive rights. Here are a few recent items you won’t want to miss:
1. Idaho “medical exceptions” case to continue after court rejects state’s attempt to dismiss it.
- An Idaho court on December 29 rejected the state’s motion to dismiss Adkins v. State of Idaho, which challenges the limited scope of the medical exceptions to Idaho’s abortion bans. The court’s ruling allows the case to proceed. “We’re grateful the court saw through the state’s callous attempt to ignore the pain and suffering their laws are causing Idahoans,” said Gail Deady, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights.
- The Center brought the case on behalf of four women who were denied abortion care despite facing severe pregnancy complications; two Idaho physicians; and the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP).
- Since Idaho’s abortion bans took effect, two hospitals have closed their labor-and-delivery centers. Doctors are fleeing the state, creating maternal health care deserts that require some pregnant patients to drive more than four hours to reach a hospital with a labor-and-delivery unit.
Read more.
Cases: Medical Exceptions to State Abortion Bans
Read about the Center’s work on behalf of women denied abortion care despite facing dangerous pregnancy complications.
2. A North Dakota state court heard arguments on December 20 about whether to block enforcement of the state’s abortion ban against physicians who provide abortion care to preserve the life or health of a pregnant person.
- The Center filed the challenge earlier this year, arguing that the strict exceptions in the ban are too narrow and violate the state constitution. A ruling in the case is expected soon.
3. U.S. women are stocking up on abortion pills.
- Thousands of women in the U.S. stocked up on abortion pills just in case they needed them, according to a research letter published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine. Requests were highest right after news leaked in May 2022 that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. Nationally, the average number of daily requests shot up nearly tenfold after the leak. “People are looking at looming threats to reproductive health access, looming threats to their reproductive rights,” said Abigail Aiken, one of the letter’s authors.
- Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., and anti-abortion advocates have sued the FDA to remove mifepristone, an abortion medication, from the market. The U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue this term in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.
2023 Year in Review: Center Highlights Around the Globe
Highlights of the Center’s work to build, enforce and defend reproductive rights.
Did you know?
During 2023, U.S. state legislators introduced more than 900 abortion bills.
Eighty-two bills were enacted to protect abortion, covering interstate shield protections, state statutory protections, expansion of state public funding and private insurance, and repeal of criminal penalties. Fifty-eight bills were enacted to restrict abortion, including total bans, six- and 15-week bans, cross-border restrictions on abortion care, funding for anti-abortion centers, restrictions on telemedicine and medication abortion, and the addition of criminal penalties.
The findings are part of the Center’s recently published 2023 State Legislative Wrap-up report, which tracked and examined nearly 2,000 bills on abortion, maternal health, and assisted reproduction that were introduced during the year.