Healthcare Providers Seek To Block Florida’s 15-Week Abortion Ban
This week, healthcare providers in Florida have been working to block the state’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks, and are requesting that the Florida Supreme Court review the case after meaningful avenues to block the 15-week ban have been repeatedly dismissed in lower courts.
The plaintiffs argue that the ban, which criminalizes essential abortion care and the people who provide it, violates the state constitution and causes irreperable harm to Floridians. In a move that directly contradicted its past decisions, the state court responded that the plaintiffs could not rely on the harm the ban causes to Floridians to block the law. The plaintiffs plan to submit a full brief to the Florida Supreme Court within the next 10 days.
ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project staff attorney Whitney White said in a statement:
“The court’s decision to ignore the harm this ban is causing to people in Florida today is as unconscionable as it is legally unprecedented. The state constitution is clear that women and anyone who needs an abortion have a right to access that health care. To deny them that fundamental right not only ignores long-standing protections under the Florida constitution, it is life-threatening, putting patients’ health, wellbeing, and futures at risk…We hope the court honors its prior precedents and takes up our request to put an end to the nightmare patients in Florida have suffered through for over a month.”
Read more here: Center for Reproductive Rights
How Tech Companies Contribute to Criminal Prosecutions of Abortion
On Tuesday, August 9th, court documents showing the role of tech companies in prosecuting abortion were made publicly available. A 17-year old girl is being tried as an adult along with her mother in Lincoln, Nebraska after the two allegedly carried out an illegal abortion.
According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Facebook handed over private messages between the mother and daughter, who were already facing criminal charges related to the alleged abortion, discussing how to get abortion pills. These charges came before the official overturning of Roe v. Wade, but abortion in Nebraska was already illegal after 20 weeks. The girl, reports say, was more than 20 weeks pregnant.
Experts say cases such as this clearly demonstrate the need for end-to-end encryption to secure user data, and for limiting the amount of user data tech companies such as Facebook can store.
Read more here: The Guardian
For more information on keeping an abortion private, check out this guide we previously shared, by the Digital Defense Fund: Digital Defense Fund: Guide To Abortion Privacy
Spotlight On: National Network of Abortion Funds
This week, we’re bringing you another way to support the fight for the future of abortion in America. If you want to protect abortion access, one way to start is donating to an abortion fund today.
The National Network of Abortion Funds is a grassroots network building power to remove financial, logistical, cultural and political barriers to abortion. Right now, funds are working around the clock to strengthen their contingency plans for providing assistance as access shrinks across the U.S.
Read more here: National Network of Abortion Funds
Indiana Is The First State to Enact A Total Abortion Ban
This week, Indiana lawmakers passed and the Governor signed a near-total ban on abortion making Indiana the first state to draw up and approve new limits on abortion since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
The Indiana bill bans abortion from conception, except in some cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormality or when the pregnany woman faces risk of death or certain severe health risks.
Beyond these limited exceptions, the new law signed by Republican Governor Eric Holcomb will end abortion in Indiana next month.
Read more here: The New York Times & NPR
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