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 | Final HHS Rule Threatens Women's Access to Health Care Information and Options, Poses Serious Risks to Women's Health

June 09, 2008

The final HHS rule, issued on December 18, 2008, significantly limits patients’ access to health care and important information about their health care options. The final rule gives specific and detailed guidance to health care providers about a myriad of ways in which they can refuse to provide care to patients. Yet, it offers almost no guidance to ensure patients can get access to the care and information they need, and no guidance to health providers about how they can meet their patients’ needs in the face of employees’ refusals.

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Fact Sheet | HHS Rule Ignores Success of Existing Federal Protections for Religion in the Workplace

June 09, 2008

Workers who wish to assert a religious objection to a job assignment currently have protection under the federal law prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of religion, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII has been applied in many cases involving the religious rights of health care workers, the very same issue that the proposed rule seeks to address. Yet, the rule fails to mention the success of Title VII in allowing employers the flexibility to respect employees’ religious beliefs while crafting solutions that allow timely access to health care services for customers and patients.

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Fact Sheet | Reproductive Health Care and Health Reform

June 09, 2008

Women’s reproductive health is too often segregated from women’s health care in general, and women’s reproductive needs have come to be seen as a secondary set of concerns rather than an integral part of their health and wellbeing. Yet, reproductive health is a key determinant of overall women’s health. To be truly comprehensive, health care must include women’s reproductive health needs.

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Fact Sheet | The Bush Administration's Recent Attack on Women's Health: Frequently Asked Questions

June 09, 2008

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed a damaging new rule— which follows an earlier draft made public several weeks ago—which would significantly undermine patient’s access to vital health services and information by greatly expanding existing laws intended to govern the right to refuse to provide abortion care.

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Fact Sheet | The HHS Rule on Providers' Right to Refuse to Provide Health Care: Reaching Even Further Than Family Planning and Abortion Services

June 09, 2008

While attention has been given to the proposed HHS rule’s possible damage to family planning and abortion, the proposed rule has an even broader reach. It has the potential to limit information on and access to the entire range of health care services – including treatment of infertility, depression, drug addiction, HIV, and more.

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