SPECIAL EDITION:
Repro Health Watch Year in Review | December 18, 2015
As 2015 comes to a close, we at Repro Health Watch are bringing you highlights from the most defining reproductive health issues we've covered in 2015. Thank you for following Repro Health Watch
and for all that you do to support our efforts to amplify the voices of
advocates across the country and to shine a light on the ever-changing
reproductive health landscape in the states.
ROE AT 42
As we began 2015, which marked the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Repro Health Watch considered the battles ahead for reproductive rights in the states. Advocates this year continued to work to make Roe
"real"; advancing women’s health protections despite attacks by state
legislatures. Guest blogger Cristina Aguilar reflected on the successful
efforts by Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and
Reproductive Rights, including their work to block Amendment 67, which
would have written personhood into the Colorado state Constitution.
 Cristina Aguilar, Executive Director, Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR)
As
a new year begins, we have a lot to celebrate in Colorado. We were able
to defeat, for the third time, an attempt to write personhood into our
state Constitution. But we are already seeing more attempts to limit
access to abortion this year. More »
ABORTION RESTRICTIONS
State legislatures were busy this year, introducing nearly 400 bills
and enacting 47 bills restricting reproductive health in 2015. Many
state-level attacks on abortion access came in the form of anti-abortion
legislation that was disguised and misrepresented as promoting women's
health. Prime examples of these laws, which undermine the
patient-provider relationship, include mandatory ultrasounds, mandatory
delay laws and restrictions on medication abortion. Guest blogger Sue
Frietsche from Women's Law Project in Pennsylvania explained the
significance and insidious nature of these laws, while guest blogger
Maggie Moran from NARAL Pro-Choice Montana provided a closer look at
Montana activists' fight to prevent a ban on telemedicine abortion in
their state.
 Susan Frietsche, Senior Staff Attorney at Women's Law Project
The
most insidious way American politicians attempt to influence the
behavior of private citizens is by quietly passing laws that legislate
doctor-patient communications, going so far as to force doctors to lie
to patients. It's a growing problem. Across the country, politicians
have been passing laws and regulations that either coerce doctors to
mislead their patients or alternatively, gag them from having truthful
conversations about their patient's health. More »
 Maggie Moran, Executive Director, NARAL Pro-Choice Montana
In
Montana, we are two-thirds of the way through our 64th Legislature and
there is no doubt that 2015 is a tough year for reproductive rights.
From bans on telemedicine for early abortion care to fetal anesthesia
requirements for later term abortions, politicians seem bent on making
abortion, at any stage, as difficult to access as possible in our state.
However, upon some much-needed reflection, my optimism allows me to see
bright spots to appreciate. More »
The good news is that advocates across the country are pushing back
against these laws and have achieved significant victories. In June,
the Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on telemedicine abortion as
unconstitutional.
Iowa Board of Medicine Chair Hamed Tewfik said the board does not intend
to appeal a state Supreme Court ruling that struck down a ban on using
telemedicine in abortion services, the Des Moines Register reports. " More »
CLINIC VIOLENCE AND ATTACKS ON PLANNED PARENTHOOD
For the past several months, Planned Parenthood and other abortion
providers have come under severe attack by antiabortion-rights
organizations and lawmakers whose endgame is clear: to ban abortion and
roll back access to reproductive health care. Across the country, states
have attempted to cut Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.
Lawmakers launched politically motivated investigations into Planned
Parenthood health centers across the country, but have found no evidence
of the alleged wrongdoings.
Amid the heightened antiabortion-rights rhetoric, we have witnessed a
sharp increase in harassment and violent attacks on abortion providers
and clinics, including the deadly shooting
at a Planned Parenthood health center in Colorado in November. But
clinic staff and volunteers refuse to be deterred from providing
critical reproductive health services to women. Repro Health Watch
tackled the issue of antiabortion-rights violence, with guest blogger
David S. Cohen describing the violence that abortion providers face and
outlining legal changes that could better protect and support the work
they do.
 David S. Cohen, Professor of Law, Drexel University
In
an ideal world, abortion providers would lead lives just like any other
medical professional. However, in the highly charged environment we
live in, abortion providers’ lives are different. Because of their work,
providers have been murdered, shot, kidnapped, assaulted, stalked and
subjected to death threats. Their clinics have been bombed, attacked
with noxious chemicals, invaded, vandalized, burglarized and set ablaze.
Unfortunately, as the attacks of the past few months show, this kind of
targeted harassment of abortion providers is not a relic of the past. More »
In an opinion piece for the Texas Observer, reproductive-rights
advocate Melissa Arjona describes her experiences volunteering as a
clinic escort for "Whole Woman's Health, the last remaining legal
abortion clinic in the Rio Grande Valley." More »
TEXANS FIGHT BACK
Texas has been a hotbed of attacks on women’s health. Most notably, the Supreme Court in November agreed to hear Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole,
a challenge to parts of an omnibus antiabortion-rights law (HB 2)
passed in 2013 that has already closed half of the abortion clinics in
Texas. Over the course of this year, politicians in Texas have attacked
abortion coverage in insurance plans, passed a bill requiring parental
consent for youth to access abortion care and banned abortion providers
from contracting with the state’s sexuality education program. Local
advocates have pushed back against these restrictions, mobilizing a
strong proactive movement in support of reproductive rights. Guest
blogger Adriano Perez described the efforts by Texas millennials to
stand up to legislative assaults on reproductive health care.
 Adriano Perez, Campus Organizer (University of Texas at El Paso), Texas Freedom Network
Everything
is bigger in Texas, and Texas legislators have proposed more
anti-abortion legislation -- at least two dozen bills -- than
legislators in any other state. That's why a coalition of progressive
organizations across the state including Texas Freedom Network, NARAL
Pro-Choice Texas, ACLU of Texas and many others -- have come together to
launch "Trust. Respect. Access." More »
In this excerpt, Texas Rep. Jessica Farrar (D) condemns the lawmakers
trying to impose additional abortion-rights restrictions while
simultaneously refusing to approve legislation designed to support
families and breastfeeding women.
CRIMINALIZING PREGNANCY
Other attacks on reproductive rights took the form of laws targeting the
rights and health of pregnant women. Throughout the year, we have
continued to see an increase in the number of states that criminalize
pregnant women for drug use and use feticide laws to prosecute women
based on pregnancy outcomes. Guest blogger Farah Diaz-Tello from
National Advocates for Pregnant Women explained the dangerous
repercussions of these policies.
 Farah Diaz-Tello, Senior Staff Attorney, National Advocates for Pregnant Women
By
now, most reproductive rights, health and justice activists have heard
of Purvi Patel, the Indiana woman sentenced to decades behind bars after
what she maintains was a miscarriage. Her case is still being fought in
the courts, but supporters have recognized it as a wake-up call about
what a post-Roe America might look like, with bedside interrogations and trials that pry into emotional responses to pregnancy loss. More »
In this map, the National Conference of State Legislatures pinpoints
which states have enacted feticide laws and at what stage of pregnancy
they take effect. These laws are increasingly being used to prosecute
women based on the outcome of their pregnancy.
TAKING A STAND
Abortion-rights supporters pushed back in 2015, filing lawsuits against
abortion restrictions; proposing legislation aimed at bolstering women's
reproductive rights; and standing strong against antiabortion-rights
rhetoric, harassment and violence. Repro Health Watch
highlighted the work of reproductive health, rights and justice
advocates across the United States, with guest bloggers commenting on
how advocates are fighting to change the landscape in their states.
Guest blogger Allison Glass described the growth of Healthy & Free
Tennessee’s network of support in the face of dozens of state bills
aiming to increase barriers to abortion care, while guest blogger Chavi
Koneru tackled the repercussions of a 72-hour mandatory delay law in
North Carolina and guest blogger Tiffany Pryor detailed the restrictions
on young people’s reproductive freedom in Illinois.
 Allison Glass, State Director, Healthy & Free Tennessee
Tennessee
has some of the strongest protections for personal privacy in the
country. Unfortunately, last November we lost Amendment 1, a ballot
question that was designed to make it easier for politicians in
Nashville to push for abortion restrictions. This has now created
questions around what protections still exist for people seeking
abortion care in Tennessee. More »
 Chavi Koneru, Policy Director, NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina
On June 5,
with the stroke of a pen, Gov. Pat McCrory (R) restricted the rights of
North Carolina women by signing a bill imposing a 72-hour mandatory
delay on abortions. For some lawmakers, it's easy to support a
restrictive bill from afar and justify it as "protecting women's
health." They should walk a day in a woman's shoes -- a woman dealing
with economic and social pressures -- a woman making a hard choice -- a
woman who is now being emotionally attacked and economically punished
just because she made a decision that was right for her and her family. More »
 Tiffany Pryor, MSW, Executive Director of the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health
My
heart dropped when I heard the news on July 13th, 2013. In just one
month, a youth-targeted abortion law was going to be enforced ...
requiring that medical providers of youth under 18 notify a parent or
guardian at least 48 hours before providing an abortion. Fortunately,
the ACLU had already set up a judicial bypass process that could spring
into action for youth seeking an abortion, and we were ready to
spearhead a movement to repeal this dangerous law. Since that day, it
hasn't been easy. More »
PROACTIVE AGENDA
Despite these uphill battles, Repro Health Watch was proud to
share the stories of advocates in a number of states who pushed
proactive measures aimed at protecting abortion rights. This proactive
agenda in state legislatures aims to shift the fight for women’s
reproductive health and rights by promoting policies that improve access
to abortion, contraception and other health services. Guest blogger
Jaime Miracle from NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio details the ambitious effort
underway in Ohio.
 Jaime Miracle, Deputy Director, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio
Last
month, pro-choice Ohioans and legislators gathered outside the
Statehouse as we have done time and again. But this time something was
different. We weren’t there to talk about the myriad attacks on access
to abortion pending in the Ohio General Assembly. Instead we were there
to talk about a new proactive agenda -- one that would remove barriers
to abortion in our state. More »
Two measures introduced in Texas "would protect the patient-provider
relationship from inappropriate political interference in personal
decisions that should be [made] by women and their trained health care
providers," family physician Bich-May Nguyen writes in a Houston Chronicle opinion piece. More »
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed a bill (HB 3343) requiring insurers to
cover a 12-month supply of contraception in a single dispersal, the Huffington Post reports. More »
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill (AB 775) that aims to
prohibit crisis pregnancy centers from disseminating certain misleading
information, the Sacramento Bee reports. More »
LOOKING AHEAD
We know the attacks on reproductive health care are likely to continue in 2016. However, at Repro Health Watch,
we are inspired by the men and women across the country that have
rallied around proactive measures in state legislatures and fought back
against any and all restrictions on reproductive health care.
Whatever the next year brings, Repro Health Watch will be there to deliver the stories and analysis you need to stay informed and engaged.
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