U.S. Repro Watch, April 5

“U.S. Repro Watch” provides periodic updates on news of interest on U.S. reproductive rights. Here are four recent items you won’t want to miss:

1. State legislatures pushed for extreme abortion restrictions.

• North Carolina lawmakers introduced a total abortion ban. Over the last few months, 1,200 doctors in the state have been campaigning against abortion restrictions.
• Idaho passed a first-of-its-kind bill targeting young people and their ability to travel for abortion care. The legislation now goes to the Governor’s desk for signature.
• Florida’s Senate passed a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
• Montana lawmakers are considering three bills that would restrict abortion access.

2. Members of Congress reintroduced the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), federal legislation to create a new statutory right to abortion in the U.S.

• If passed, WHPA will create a new right for providers to provide—and their patients to receive—abortion care throughout the U.S. The Center has been supporting WHPA since it was first introduced in 2013. More about WHPA’s reintroduction here.

3. More Senators moved to protect abortion access at the federal level.

• Almost 40 senators also urged the Defense Department to continue to protect abortion access for service members and their families. Last month, the Pentagon issued abortion policies including funding travel for military members and their dependents to get abortion care out of state.
• Sen. Tammy Duckworth asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate reports over drug distributor AmeriSourceBergen’s refusal to distribute mifepristone to retail pharmacies in certain states.

4. A federal court struck down a key provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), jeopardizing access to reproductive health care nationwide.

• Insurance plans under the ACA must cover certain preventive health services recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, such as breast cancer screenings and STI testing, for free. However, the March 30 ruling from a federal judge in Texas strikes down that provision. An anti-abortion lawyer behind Texas’s vigilante abortion law was also behind the ACA lawsuit.

April 7: World Health Day

• This year’s World Health Day marks the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 75th anniversary.
• WHO has long recognized that the lack of access to abortion care is a “critical public health and human rights issue.” The group issued guidance last year calling for the removal of legal barriers to and full decriminalization of abortion.

April 11–17: Black Maternal Health Week

• Black Maternal Health Week, a campaign founded and led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, aims to build awareness, activism, and community building​ about Black maternal health.
• New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that U.S. maternal mortality rates jumped by 38.2% in 2021, and the rate for Black women was 2.6 times the rate for non-Hispanic white women.

In “Are Abortion Pills Safe? Here’s the Evidence,” The New York Times highlights the safety and efficacy of medication abortion. It reviewed more than 100 scientific studies from around the world, encompassing more than 124,000 abortions and over 30 years’ worth of data, and found that more than 99% of patients who took the medication had no serious complications. The report also debunks several studies cited by anti-abortion groups in a case against the FDA that threatens access to medication abortion in the U.S.

“There may be a political fight here, but there’s not a lot of scientific ambiguity about the safety and effectiveness of this product,” said Dr. Caleb Alexander, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-director of the Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness.