Abortion

Since 1973, women have had the legal right to decide whether or not to have an abortion  yet, even today, numerous barriers threaten women’s ability to exercise this central right.. We’re working to ensure that women have access to abortion care by protecting and advancing this fundamental right.

Highlights

Fact Sheet | 2013 State Level Abortion Restrictions at Mid-Year: An Extreme Overreach into Women’s Reproductive Health Care

September 17, 2013

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion. Yet, anti-abortion state politicians continue to relentlessly attack this right, in the hopes of overturning Roe and preventing women from obtaining abortions. In the first 6 months of 2013, state lawmakers enacted 43 restrictions on abortion, including outright bans.   This is the second highest number of enacted restrictions at the mid-year mark, and equal to the total number of restrictions enacted in 2012.  These state restrictions are a dangerous overreach into women’s personal medical decisions.

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Fact Sheet | Requiring Crisis Pregnancy Centers to Disclose Limits on Care Is Part of a Long Tradition of Protecting Women’s Decision-making and Access to Reproductive Health Care

April 9, 2013

Women face many obstacles to receiving comprehensive, affordable, quality health care, including when individuals and institutions refuse to provide health care services.   Some even go so far as to refuse to inform women about their health care options or even to notify women that there are certain services or information that they will not provide.  This prevents women from participating fully in their own medical decision-making.  Not only are their rights compromised, their health may be harmed.

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Fact Sheet | Roe v. Wade and the Right to Abortion

January 18, 2013

The long-standing, well-established constitutional right to privacy places limits on the government’s ability to interfere with a person’s most basic, personal decisions – including the decision whether and when to bear children.  The right to abortion was first recognized four decades ago, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed its central holding, yet this fundamental constitutional right is under ever-increasing attack.

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Fact Sheet | Even More Than Abortion: The Constitutional Importance of Roe v. Wade and the Right to Privacy

January 18, 2013

Roe did far more than establish the right to abortion; it solidified and expanded the constitutional “right to privacy,” which has also been described as the right to autonomy or to be let alone.  This right to privacy is part of the right to liberty protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which state that no person shall be deprived of “life, liberty or property, without due process of law.”

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More Resources

Fact Sheet | 2013 State Level Abortion Restrictions at Mid-Year: An Extreme Overreach into Women’s Reproductive Health Care

September 17, 2013

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion. Yet, anti-abortion state politicians continue to relentlessly attack this right, in the hopes of overturning Roe and preventing women from obtaining abortions. In the first 6 months of 2013, state lawmakers enacted 43 restrictions on abortion, including outright bans.   This is the second highest number of enacted restrictions at the mid-year mark, and equal to the total number of restrictions enacted in 2012.  These state restrictions are a dangerous overreach into women’s personal medical decisions.

 Read more...

Fact Sheet | Congress Must Lift the Ban for Abortion Services at Military Facilities

September 05, 2013

Members of the military and their dependents are currently prohibited from receiving abortion services at military hospitals except in cases where a woman’s life is endangered or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.  Senator Kristin Gillibrand and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter have introduced legislation, the Military Access to Reproductive Care and Health (MARCH) for Military Women Act, to repeal this unfair and unsafe law.   This bill would ensure women have access to abortion care – paid for with their own funds – no matter where they are stationed.

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Reports & Toolkits | Shut That Whole Thing Down: A Survey Of Abortion Restrictions Even in Cases of Rape (August 2013)

August 15, 2013

One year after Todd Akin’s infamous  false remarks about rape and pregnancy, anti-abortion lawmakers are still determined to enact such views into law.  This report documents abortion restrictions that have been introduced and enacted at the state and federal levels in the first six months of 2013 and that fail to protect women who are pregnant due to rape.

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Fact Sheet | LGBT Americans and the Affordable Care Act

August 06, 2013

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals have long faced barriers to obtaining necessary health care. Thankfully, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains many provisions to help LGBT individuals obtain the health care they need and begin to address the profound health disparities faced by this community. This fact sheet explains some of the ways in which the ACA will benefit LGBT individuals.

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Fact Sheet | State Bans on Insurance Coverage of Abortion Endanger Women’s Health and Take Health Benefits Away from Women

August 05, 2013

The health care law goes a long way toward improving women’s health and addressing the discrimination women have faced in the health insurance market. Unfortunately however, the health care law explicitly allows states to pass laws banning private insurance coverage of abortion in any exchange set up in their state.  State politicians who want abortion to be illegal have wasted no time pushing bans on insurance coverage of abortion, making abortion unaffordable and interfering with a woman’s ability to make her own health care decisions.

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