Reproductive Rights, Women's Health, and Freedom of Choice
Embedded Files
Next Meeting: 02/09/26, 7 PM, Ozark-Dale Library
Focus On the Issues: Women's Reproductive Health, Abortion Denial Versus Pro Choice (Post 2024 Election)
Lawsuit dismissed after Trump admin quietly restored tens of millions to Planned Parenthood
Comment: "The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday dropped its lawsuit against the Trump administration over tens of millions in Title X family planning funds that federal officials had withheld from Planned Parenthood from Planned Parenthood and some other health clinics since last spring, after HHS quietly released the money in December."
"Though the Trump administration is still defending in court for bigger federal cuts to Planned Parenthood that Congress approved last summer, the release of the Title X funds gives the clinics a crucial lifeline. It is also likely to inflame existing tensions between the administration and anti-abortion conservatives who will rally in Washington later this month for the annual March for Life."
Abortion stays legal in Wyoming after state's top court strikes down bans
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwywp4zxd9yo
Comment: "In Wyoming, the case against the state was brought by four women, including two obstetricians, an abortion advocacy group, and the state's only abortion provider, Wellspring Health Access in the city of Casper."
"The state's Supreme Court looked at two laws - one banning abortion in all cases except to protect a pregnant woman's life or in cases involving rape or incest, and another banning abortion pills explicitly. Both laws were quashed on Tuesday."
US woman charged with fetal homicide after allegedly inducing own abortion
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/02/kentucky-woman-arrest-abortion
Comment: "Kentucky state police arrested the woman, Melinda S Spencer, 35, on charges of fetal homicide in the first degree, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence, according to a local Kentucky news outlet. Spencer reportedly ordered medication online to end her pregnancy, then buried the remains of her pregnancy in her backyard."
"It is not clear how far along Spencer’s pregnancy was at the time of her alleged abortion, although police described the fetus as 'developed', the Lexington Herald Leader reported."
Comment: "Kentucky bans doctors from performing abortions any time after conception. However, like the vast majority of states, Kentucky does not outlaw people from inducing – or 'self-managing' – their own abortions. Medical experts widely agree that it is safe to self-manage an abortion using pills in the first trimester of pregnancy."
"The text of Kentucky’s fetal homicide statute also explicitly says the law cannot be used to criminalize 'any acts of a pregnant woman that caused the death of her unborn child'."
Comment: This case seems to pose difficult legal and moral questions. Many citizens have serious moral qualms about aborting a fetus in later stages of a pregnancy, if that was the situation in this case.
Court allows White House to end Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in 22 states
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/31/planned-parenthood-medicaid-funding-ends
Comment: "A US appeals court agreed on Tuesday to allow the Trump administration to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood health centers in 22 states and Washington DC."
"The order from the three-judge panel of the Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals puts on hold an injunction issued by US district judge Indira Talwani. Talwani’s injunction had blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a provision of its massive tax-and-spending bill that blocks Planned Parenthood from receiving reimbursements from Medicaid, the US government’s health insurance program for low-income people, in the 22 states."
"The panel’s decision is only the latest legal volley in the months-long war over the Trump administration’s provision. The appeals court previously lifted another order by Talwani in a separate case, brought by Planned Parenthood, that had also blocked the measure’s enforcement."
Military families hit with bitter blow after Congress strips fertility treatment funding from defense bill | CNN Politics
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/30/politics/military-families-congress-fertility-treatment
‘Trojan horse moment’: anti-rights groups seize chance to fill void left by US aid cuts
Comment: "Ultra-conservative Christian organisations look to reshape global health landscape as new aid agreements open door to demands restricting family planning services"
Anti-abortion group warns against forcing vote to expand Obamacare subsidies
Comment: "The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is warning Republicans against signing onto a new effort to force a floor vote on extending Obamacare subsidies — upping the stakes of a push by GOP moderates to make an end run around leadership on the issue."
"A letter from the influential group landed Wednesday evening, soon after Rep. Brain Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) filed a discharge petition that would compel a vote on his legislation that would extend a modified version of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits for two years."
Comment: One might hope that this anti-abortion group cared as much about the currently living as it does about the unborn. Don't these folks realize that without the subsidies a large number of people will lose health coverage, leading to more deaths.
Mike Johnson strips military IVF coverage from defense bill – report
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/08/military-ivf-coverage-defense-bill-mike-johnson
Comment: "A huge defense policy bill, revealed by US lawmakers on Sunday, does not include a provision that would have provided broad healthcare coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for active-duty members of the military, despite Donald Trump's pledge to strengthen access to the procedure."
"Both the House and Senate previously approved the provision, which was added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as an amendment earlier this year. But Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House and a diehard anti-abortion Republican, worked behind the scenes to strip the provision from the new version of the NDAA, MS Now reported last week."
"Although IVF is extremely popular with the American public, abortion foes often oppose it on the grounds that it creates unused or discarded embryos, which they see as people."
"Advocates for IVF, including Danielle Melfi, the CEO of Resolve: The National Infertility Association, have spoken out about the exclusion."
" 'Failing to include IVF coverage in the NDAA is a dishonor to our servicemembers who make extraordinary sacrifices for our freedoms,' she said in a statement. 'There was bipartisan support for this coverage, and its exclusion fails to advance President Trump’s call to expand IVF access. Military families have waited far too long to access the full range of medical care needed to build their families.' "
Judge blocks Trump from cutting Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood in 22 states
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/02/trump-planned-parenthood-medicaid-funding
Comment: "A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing in 22 states a provision of Donald Trump’s signature tax and domestic policy bill that would deprive Planned Parenthood and local affiliates that perform abortions of Medicaid funding."
"US district court judge Indira Talwani in Boston said a group of Democratic state attorneys general who had challenged the provision were likely to succeed in establishing that the law constitutes an unconstitutional retroactive condition on their participation in the Medicaid healthcare program. The judge, who was appointed by the Democratic president Barack Obama, put her preliminary injunction on hold for seven days to allow the administration to appeal."
The big sticking point in the White House’s health care proposal
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/25/republicans-trump-obamacare-abortion-00669389
Comment: "The White House’s silence on how its health care plan deals with abortion is causing a headache for Republicans on Capitol Hill."
"For many GOP members, an expansion of abortion restrictions in Obamacare is a must-have. But the White House’s decision to leave the issue out of its tentative framework caught Republicans off guard, leaving them in the dark about whether the president would ultimately stake out a position publicly, according to two aides granted anonymity to disclose private discussions."
"The fight over the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funding for abortion, is just one of many landmines that need to be cleared before any health care deal to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies can be reached. It also comes on top of GOP backlash to other aspects of the White House’s health policy framework that leaked Sunday."
" 'No Republican has voted for Obamacare or an Obamacare extension or expansion,' said a senior Senate Republican aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly. 'Asking members to do that and not including Hyde would be impossible for many.' "
Comment: Is this a significant "sticking point," or just an excuse to oppose any viable health care solution.
Report ranks Alabama among worst states for maternal, infant health
How 'defund Planned Parenthood' came to threaten primary care in rural Maine
Abortion is on the ballot in three US states, from supreme court to governor
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/03/abortion-election-state-explainer
For News Articles links from before November 1st, 2025, please go to one of the following, depending on the article date:
https://sites.google.com/view/dem3oldnews/home/old3-reproductive-rights
https://sites.google.com/view/dem2oldnews/home/old2-reproductive-rights
OR
https://sites.google.com/view/demoldnews/home/old-reproductive-rights
There you will find a continuation of the news links & comments from the period prior to November 1, 2025. The article history can be viewed as follows:
www.dalecodemocrats.com (latest)
sites.google.com/view/dem3oldnews/home/ (May 1, 2025 - October 31, 2025)
sites.google.com/view/dem2oldnews/home/ (Nov 2024 election - April 30, 2025)
sites.google.com/view/demoldnews/home/ (Prior to 2024 election)
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