Abortion:<br
In the News

A number of state legislatures and organizations put barriers between women and abortion care by directly interfering with a woman's medical care. Crisis Pregnancy Centers exist to interfere with women’s access to abortion. They attract women by presenting themselves as medical clinics, but do not provide contraception or abortion services or referrals. Instead, they provide women with false information about the risks of abortion, and attempt to dissuade them from accessing abortion care. Recently, there have been attempts to regulate Crisis Pregnancy Centers and require them to provide information about what they do and do not provide. Unfortunately, these attempts have been struck down by the courts.

Featured Blogs
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
"State Funding Cuts and Anti-Choice Policies Cited for Closure of Four Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Clinics" (Robin Marty, RH Reality Check, 2/18), "North Dakota Attorney General Says Sex Ed Program Can Move Forward" (Jessica Mason Pieklo, RH Reality Check, 2/18) and "State Legislatures Increasingly Provide Tax-Payer Funding of Non-Medical Crisis Pregnancy Centers" (Marty, RH Reality Check, 2/15).

Crisis Pregnancy Centers Gain Sway Within Antiabortion-Rights Movement
Monday, January 7, 2013
Crisis pregnancy centers -- aided by new strategies, state funding and legislative support -- are playing an increasingly influential role in the movement to restrict abortion-rights, the New York Times reports.

Featured Blogs
Friday, December 14, 2012
"Memo to Michigan: Did You Not Hear the Voters on Women's Health?" (Cecile Richards, Huffington Post blogs, 12/12) and "In Rehearing Maryland Crisis Pregnancy Center Cases, the Fourth Circuit Can Reverse Decisions That Threaten Women's Health," (Kelli Garcia, National Women's Law Center's "Womenstake," 12/12).

Federal Appeals Court in Md. Rehears Pregnancy Center Cases
Monday, December 10, 2012
A federal appeals court on Thursday questioned lawyers in two lawsuits claiming that regulations in Baltimore and Montgomery County, Md., requiring crisis pregnancy centers to post disclaimers violate the centers' First Amendment rights, the AP/WTOP reports.

Antiabortion Crisis Pregnancy Center To Open Across From Minn. Abortion Clinic
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Abortion-rights opponents recently received approval to build a crisis pregnancy center in Duluth, Minn., across from the area's only abortion provider, the Women's Health Center, the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reports.

Expand to view all articles on Abortion:<br.

IN THE COURTS

This section provides a brief overview of significant cases impacting reproductive rights and health related to Abortion:<br.

Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Carol E. Ball, M.D. v. Daugaard
Challenge to a South Dakota law that would require a woman to wait seventy-two hours between her initial physician consultation and the abortion, force her to visit a crisis pregnancy center before abortion care, and require abortion providers to tell patients about any possible risk factor that have been published in any medical or psychological journal since 1972, including risks that have been roundly rejected by mainstream medicine.

Expectant Mother Care Pregnancy Centers v. City of New York
A crisis pregnancy center brought suit to enjoin the enactment of a New York City ordinance that regulated information provided by crisis pregnancy centers.

O'Brien v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
Crisis pregnancy centers and Catholic leaders filed a lawsuit against a Baltimore City Council ordinance that required crisis pregnancy centers to disclose whether they provided emergency contraception or abortion services.

MORE INFORMATION

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AT-A-GLANCE

Issues

State by State

ABOUT REPRO WATCH

Repro Health Watch — an exciting new edition of the Women’s Health Policy Report — compiles and distributes media coverage of proposed and enacted state laws and ballot initiatives affecting women's access to comprehensive reproductive health care, as well as litigation in response to those provisions.