The fall of Roe v. Wade leads to new anti-abortion bans enacted in Idaho, Tennessee and Texas, which already had strict abortion restrictions.
Near-total bans on abortion went into effect in Idaho, Tennesee and Texas overnight on Thursday, bringing the number of states where abortion has become illegal or been severely restricted to 14 since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
So-called trigger bans are state laws that were created to automatically ban abortion if Roe fell at the federal level. Many such bans, including in Kentucky, Louisiana and South Dakota, automatically went into effect as soon as Roe was repealed in late June. Others required 30 days or further certification from the state’s attorney general before they could go into effect.
“Today, millions more people lost abortion access across the nation as bans went into effect in Texas, Tennessee and Idaho. Vast swaths of the nation, especially in the South and Midwest, are now abortion deserts that, for many, will be impossible to escape,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.
Read more here: The Huffington Post
Texas trigger law making abortion a felony goes into effect
Performing an abortion is now a felony punishable by up to life in prison in Texas after the state’s trigger law, which has only narrow exceptions to save the life of a pregnant patient, went into effect Thursday.
The law was “triggered” when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its judgment in Dobbs v. Jackson, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to set their own laws about abortion.
The trigger law criminalizes performing an abortion from the moment of fertilization unless the pregnant patient is facing “a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy.” The statute specifically prohibits prosecuting a pregnant patient who undergoes an abortion.
Violations of the law are punishable by up to life in prison. The statute also says that the attorney general “shall” seek a civil penalty of not less than $100,000, plus attorney’s fees.
Read more here: The Texas Tribune
Idaho judge bars state from enforcing abortion ban in medical emergencies
A federal judge in Idaho barred the state from enforcing a strict abortion ban in medical emergencies over concerns it violates a federal law on emergency care.
In Idaho, the ban makes performing an abortion in any “clinically diagnosable pregnancy” a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Much of Idaho’s law will still go into effect on Thursday, but US district judge B Lynn Winmill ruled the state cannot prosecute anyone who is performing an abortion in an emergency medical situation.
Abortions in those cases appear to fall under a federal healthcare law requiring Medicare-funded hospitals to provide “stabilizing treatment” to patients, Winmill said.
That includes cases when the health of a patient is in serious jeopardy, when continuing the pregnancy could result in a serious impairment to bodily functions, or a serious dysfunction of any organ or part.
The pause on enforcement in Idaho will continue until a lawsuit challenging the ban is resolved, the judge said.
Read more here: The Guardian
BATTLEGROUND wins more film festival selections in the U.S.
We’re so excited to announce that BATTLEGROUND was featured at the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, AL this week, followed by a q&a with co-producer Steffie van Rhee, film-contributor Samantha Blakely and moderated by Alabama journalist Abbey Crane. Stay tuned for our next festival screening at the Milwaukee Film Festival in Wisconsin in September!
Read more about Sidewalk here.
Read more about Milwaukee here.
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