Latest news with #NationalAbortionFederation
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Colorado abortion clinics report uptick in protesters and trespassing
Abortion rights supporters march in Denver in the wake of a leaked Supreme Court opinion that indicated justices would overturn Roe v. Wade on May 7, 2022. (Kevin Mohatt for Colorado Newsline) When volunteers in Pueblo, Colorado, escort patients to abortion clinics, they have umbrellas on hand to create a visual barrier in case nearby protesters try to intimidate patients. They also play music to 'drown out the harassment and create a calmer atmosphere,' Pueblo ProChoice President Jacquelyn Bernal said. If those deescalation tactics don't work and situations escalate beyond what her organization can control, they contact law enforcement, Bernal said. 'Our first priority is getting the patient inside safely so they can make it to their appointment without interference,' Bernal said in a statement. 'The bubble law is part of Colorado's criminal code, and it's there to protect patients and providers. We just need it to be enforced.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Colorado's 'bubble law' prohibits anyone from approaching people within 100 feet of a health care facility, including abortion clinics. It was crafted to curb the practice of protesters trying to dissuade patients from seeking abortions. Most Colorado abortion providers who participated in research by the National Abortion Federation said they experienced trespassing and protests outside their clinics in 2023 and 2024, according to a recent report. Of the 17 Colorado abortion providers that participated, 65% experienced at least one incident of trespassing, 53% reported protestors outside, 24% experienced an incident of obstruction, and 18% received threats. A spokesperson for the National Abortion Federation said Colorado providers received 216 suspicious, harassing or threatening calls, mail, emails or social media posts, compared with 150 in the previous report covering 2020-2022. A similar number of providers participated in the both reports but not the exact same group. Providers reported 27 instances of trespassing in the most recent report compared with 17 in the previous, 10 instances of vandalism compared with eight, eight instances of obstruction compared with seven, and five threats of death or harm compared with three. Bernal said while Colorado's bubble law exists to prevent 'exactly this kind of intimidation,' law enforcement needs to better enforce it. 'Law enforcement must do their part to protect patients,' Bernal said. 'When federal protections fall short, it's up to our communities and our state to step up. We need to protect each other and uphold the right to seek health care safely.' Providers in Colorado have consistently seen higher numbers of people seeking abortion care and have adapted to meet the new demand after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Every state except New Mexico that borders Colorado has some abortion restrictions. Nearby Texas does, too. About 62% of Colorado voters in November approved Amendment 79, which enshrined access to abortion as a right in the Colorado Constitution. The Colorado Legislature approved a measure implementing the amendment, and also passed several shield laws to protect providers and out-of-state patients. Christie Burkhardt, director of facilities and infrastructure operations at the Boulder Valley Health Center, joined the center's team shortly after the 2022 Supreme Court decision upending national abortion rights to help with the uptick in demand and oversee security. Between Burkhardt's start with the center in July 2022 and October 2024, she said she only reached out to local law enforcement over disruptions twice. Since October 2024, as the presidential election approached and rhetoric on abortion rights grew, she has called law enforcement 17 times for assistance with disruptions at the clinic. She said she has gotten to know the local police department 'very well' in the last six months. The center, which offers the full spectrum of reproductive health care, sees protesters at the public sidewalk next to its parking lot two to three times per week as of fall 2024, Burkhardt said. Small groups of people will try to talk to patients and clinic staff for anywhere from half an hour to full days, she said. Burkhardt said protesters are 'very emboldened' after the Trump administration pardoned protesters convicted under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and halted its enforcement. 'That can get very frightening for folks that have never been approached and have never had to deal with someone protesting what they do and at their work place, so our team has definitely had to learn a little bit on the fly,' Burkhardt said. She said harassing and threatening phone calls also increased at the center, particularly after the Boulder Abortion Clinic — one of the few clinics in the country that offered late-term abortions — shut its doors at the end of April. The center also receives about 10-15 pieces of threatening mail a month. Staff canceled a sex ed summer camp planned for 5th grade to 8th grade students out of safety concerns after the center garnered national attention online from right-wing media and other abortion opponents. Burkhardt said she has weekly conversations with clinic staff about safety, and they've developed new policies to ensure the safety of staff and patients. Karen Middleton, president of Cobalt, which advocates for access to reproductive health care and runs an abortion fund in Colorado, said her organization remains in contact with its partner clinics to gather feedback on their concerns and needs around clinic safety. 'Reports like these really emphasize why states like Colorado must take action on their own to ensure patients and providers are protected now that federal protection is not guaranteed,' Middleton said in a statement. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, which operates about a dozen clinics across the state, declined to comment for this article. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
TimesLIVE
22-05-2025
- Health
- TimesLIVE
Family powerless as brain-dead pregnant woman kept alive in US
Shortly afterward, Adriana was declared brain-dead. Despite her condition, Georgia's 'heartbeat' abortion law requires that she remain on life support to carry the foetus, now around 22 weeks, to term. The law which was signed by governor Brian Kemp in 2019, bans abortion after a heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks and well before many women even realise they are pregnant. While the law includes limited exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies, it does not explicitly address scenarios where the mother is already legally brain-dead. 'It's torture for me. I come here and I see my daughter breathing on the ventilator. She's not there, and I'm touching her,' said Newkirk. Newkirk said she continues to bring Adriana's young son to visit her. She voiced concern about the baby's future health, as doctors warn that the foetus may suffer severe complications due to Adriana's condition and the lack of oxygen during the trauma. 'She's pregnant with my grandson, but my grandson may be blind, may not be able to walk, may be wheelchair bound. We don't know if he'll live once she has him,' she said. For Newkirk, the most heartbreaking part is not just her daughter's condition but the loss of agency over Adriana's care. 'It should have been left up to the family. I'm in my 50s. Her dad is in his 50s. We're going to have the responsibility with her partner to raise her sons,' she said. 'I'm not saying that we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy. What I'm saying is we should have had a choice,' she said. Georgia is one of several states that enacted restrictive abortion bans after the US Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade. The state has at least 11 abortion providers, according to the National Abortion Federation. Similar 'heartbeat bills' have been passed in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Ohio. This case has ignited renewed debate over abortion rights, patient autonomy and how states interpret medical decisions in cases involving brain death and pregnancy. Advocates warn that laws like Georgia's fail to account for the complexities of real-life medical crises.
TimesLIVE
21-05-2025
- Health
- TimesLIVE
Family powerless as brain-dead pregnant woman is kept alive
A 30-year-old woman declared brain-dead in Georgia is being kept on life support against her family's wishes because she is pregnant. This complex and painful situation is because of one of the strictest abortion laws in the US. Adriana Smith was nine weeks pregnant when she began experiencing severe headaches in February. According to her mother, April Newkirk, Smith sought medical help at a hospital but was allegedly sent home with medication and no further testing. 'They gave us some medication. But they didn't do any tests. Didn't do any CAT scans. If they did, they would have caught it,' Newkirk told NBC News. The next morning, Adriana's boyfriend realised something was terribly wrong as she was gasping for air and appeared to be choking, likely on blood. She was rushed to Emory Decatur Hospital and later transferred to the facility where she worked as a registered nurse. Doctors there discovered extensive blood clots in her brain. 'They did a CAT scan and she had blood clots in her head. They asked if they could do a procedure to relieve them, and I said yes. Then they called me back and said they couldn't do it,' said Newkirk said. Shortly afterward, Adriana was declared brain-dead. Despite her condition, Georgia's 'heartbeat' abortion law requires that she remain on life support to carry the foetus, now around 22 weeks, to term. The law which was signed by governor Brian Kemp in 2019, bans abortion after a heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks and well before many women even realise they are pregnant. While the law includes limited exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies, it does not explicitly address scenarios where the mother is already legally brain-dead. 'It's torture for me. I come here and I see my daughter breathing on the ventilator. She's not there, and I'm touching her,' said Newkirk. Newkirk said she continues to bring Adriana's young son to visit her. Newkirk voiced concern about the baby's future health, as doctors warn that the foetus may suffer severe complications due to Adriana's condition and the lack of oxygen during the trauma. 'She's pregnant with my grandson, but my grandson may be blind, may not be able to walk, may be wheelchair bound. We don't know if he'll live once she has him,' she said. For Newkirk, the most heartbreaking part is not just her daughter's condition but the loss of agency over Adriana's care. 'It should have been left up to the family. I'm in my 50s. Her dad is in his 50s. We're going to have the responsibility with her partner to raise her sons,' she said. 'I'm not saying that we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy. What I'm saying is we should have had a choice,' she said. Georgia is one of several states that enacted restrictive abortion bans after the US Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade. The state has at least 11 abortion providers, according to the National Abortion Federation. Similar 'heartbeat bills' have been passed in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Ohio. This case has ignited renewed debate over abortion rights, patient autonomy and how states interpret medical decisions in cases involving brain death and pregnancy. Advocates warn that laws like Georgia's fail to account for the complexities of real-life medical crises.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Your Guide To Becoming An Abortion Clinic Escort
It'sbeenmore than five years since I last stood on the sidewalk, but it still feels like a part of me. For six years, I volunteered as a clinic escort at an independent abortion clinic in northern New Jersey. A clinic escort is a volunteer who supports abortion-seekers by assisting and walking with them past the anti-choice protesters who gather out front. It's a role that theoretically shouldn't be necessary — it should be easy to simply walk into a health care facility without risking harassment, aggression, or even violence. The threat of that violence is even more pointed today. The Trump administration pardoned anti-abortion protesters who were convicted of blockading a clinic — a federal crime since 1994 — allowing them to once again target clinics. One of those protesters even had stolen fetal remains in her possession. The National Abortion Federation, which tracks anti-abortion violence, has noted a surge in violence against clinics in recent years — bomb threats are up 133% and obstructions up by an astounding 538%. Choosing to volunteer as a clinic escort has always been a risk, but perhaps never more so than right now. And yet, as I saw up close, the outside of abortion clinics are often inundated with hostile and aggressive people, committed to making accessing an abortion as painful as possible. Men, standing directly in front of the front doors of the clinic, screaming into a bullhorn, 'Abortion is murder!' 'You're going to Hell!' 'You're still a mother, just the mother of a dead baby!' Self-declared 'sidewalk counselors' have followed patients for blocks, sometimes filming patients' license plates, shoving literature filled with junk science and shaming rhetoric into their hands. I didn't know it when I signed up to be a clinic escort, but I joined a vital and often unseen lineage that spanned back decades to support abortion seekers and make care accessible. In my book 'Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America,' I trace the history of clinic escorts to the late 1970s, when protests outside of abortion clinics began to become more virulent. During the 1980s and 1990s, as clinics were targeted with mass protests and even violence, it was clinic escorts who helped keep the doors open. We're, unfortunately, still needed on the front line to protect those who are seeking an abortion. If you're interested in becoming a clinic escort, here are the steps to take to make it happen: Today, clinic escorting in the traditional sense is no longer possible across vast swaths of the Southeast and Midwest. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, 12 states have total bans on abortion. These states, including Texas with the second-largest population in the country, no longer have any abortion clinics to defend. To learn if abortion is legal in your state, visit the Guttmacher Institute. Traveling out of state to volunteer as a clinic escort is technically legal everywhere, though some states, like Texas, have shown that they are willing to push the boundaries of the law in criminalizing supporting abortion. For more information, contact the Repro Legal Helpline. Perhaps you live in a state where abortion is still legal. Keep in mind — just because abortion is legal doesn't mean it's accessible. There are states where abortion is legal but there aren't any abortion clinics, like North Dakota, for example. It's not just a matter of legality, either. Fake clinics called 'crisis pregnancy centers,' which are run by abortion opponents with the explicit intention of keeping folks from accessing abortion care (through manipulation and sometimes outright lies), are often located near actual abortion clinics and are deceptively named in order to trick abortion seekers. Rather than simply google, go to to find out if an abortion clinic is operating near you. Once you've found the clinic that's nearest you, find their website (if they have one). They may have a specific section dedicated to volunteer opportunities. If they do, fill out the requisite form and submit. If you don't hear back immediately, don't panic and don't bombard the clinic with calls and emails. The clinic will get back to you when it is able to vet and onboard new volunteers. Be patient. If you can't find the clinic's website or they don't have any information about how to volunteer, you can still get involved. There is a vast network of support for abortion access in the United States, and while it's wonderful that you've decided to get involved, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. Plug into the network that already exists! Find your local abortion fund (which funds abortion care) or practical support organization (which provides logistical assistance to abortion seekers) and reach out to them about how to get involved. Some clinic escort programs are run through abortion funds and community organizations, and these folks may know how to help you get involved. Once you've been vetted and approved, you will go through a training process to prepare you to become a clinic escort. Different teams have different ways of training — most likely, your training will not be during a shift but instead a separate session where existing escorts will walk you through what to expect, the norms and expectations, and the reality of what happens during a shift. This job isn't easy — it is hard to remain stoic and focused on the patient while someone screams at you and tries to block your path. Perhaps you've been through the training and are feeling uneasy, or you did your first shift and feel overwhelmed and uncertain. Clinic escorting isn't for everyone, and that's OK. Maybe this isn't the best way for you to support abortion access. Maybe you live in a state where clinic escorting isn't possible because your state has an abortion ban, or your skillset can be used in another way to support abortion access. Reach back out to your local abortion fund or PSO (which operate even in states where abortion is banned, by the way!) and let them know that you want to volunteer. They can help guide you to a task that works for you and for them. We don't have to mindlessly wallow in fear and despair. The feeling of powerlessness, of futility, only serves the interests of those who seek to curtail our most basic rights, including bodily autonomy. Serving as a clinic escort was one of the hardest and most fulfilling things I've ever done in my life. Even though I don't volunteer as a clinic escort anymore, I still hold the patients I served in my heart, and that's what this is all about — serving each other, supporting each other. You have more power than you think you do.
The Guardian
24-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
US supreme court rejects anti-abortion challenges to clinic ‘buffer zones'
In a loss for abortion opponents, the US supreme court on Monday declined to take up two cases involving 'buffer zone' ordinances, which limit protests around abortion clinics and which anti-abortion activists have spent years trying to dismantle. The two cases dealt with buffer zone ordinances passed by the cities of Carbondale, Illinois, and Englewood, New Jersey. In filings to the supreme court, which is dominated 6-3 by conservatives, anti-abortion activists argued that these ordinances ran afoul of the first amendment's guarantees of free speech. They also asked the justices to overturn a 2000 ruling called Hill v Colorado, which upheld a buffer zone law in Colorado. The justices didn't explain why they declined to hear arguments in the cases, but far-right justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have preferred to take them up. In a dissent outlining his desire to take the Carbondale case, Thomas wrote that he believes Hill 'lacks continuing force', in part due to recent rulings such as Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v Wade and abolished the federal right to abortion. 'I would have taken this opportunity to explicitly overrule Hill,' he wrote. 'Following our repudiation in Dobbs, I do not see what is left of Hill. Yet, lower courts continue to feel bound by it. The court today declines an invitation to set the record straight on Hill's defunct status.' The Illinois case involved a 2023 ordinance that limited people from getting within 8ft of another individual if that individual is within 100ft of a healthcare facility, such as Carbondale's multiple abortion clinics. In the wake of Roe's demise, Carbondale's clinics had become a haven for people fleeing the abortion bans that now blanket much of the US south and midwest. The anti-abortion group Coalition Life sued over the ordinance, vowing to keep up the court fight even after Carbondale repealed it. The 'gamesmanship' over the ordinance, the group argued, only proved that 'Hill will continue to distort both the first amendment and public debates about abortion unless and until it is overruled'. The New Jersey case, meanwhile, was brought by an anti-abortion protester named Jeryl Turco, who asked the justices to strike down a 2014 ordinance. That ordinance bans people from coming within 8ft of the entrances of certain healthcare facilities in Englewood – including abortion clinics – unless they are patients, employees or passersby. Abortion providers and their supporters have spent years defending the idea of buffer zones, pointing to the high rates of violence and harassment that occur in and around US abortion clinics. Over the last half-century, clinics have weathered more than 40 bombings, 200 arsons and 300 burglaries, according to the National Abortion Federation. Anti-abortion activists have also killed at least 11 people. Abortion clinics have also long relied on the protections of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or Face, a federal law that is meant to penalize people who vandalize reproductive health clinics or who threaten, obstruct or injure the individuals trying to enter those clinics. But after Donald Trump took office in January, his justice department vowed to significantly curtail investigations into alleged Face violations. Trump also pardoned several anti-abortion activists who had been recently convicted for violating Face. In the years since it overturned Roe, the supreme court shown hesitation around newer abortion cases. In 2024, the justices rejected an attempt to limit access to mifepristone, a common abortion pill – but left the door open for a lower court to continue the case. The justices also punted on a case that questioned whether federal law requires hospitals to provide emergency abortions. That case is also continuing in a lower court. Still, the supreme court is set to rule in at least one abortion case this term. In April, the high court will hear arguments in a case over whether South Carolina can cut the abortion provider Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid funding.
