Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

States Introduce Bills Banning Fetal Tissue Research

Politico (Oct. 2, 2015) Planned Parenthood critics have new targets - universities, by Brett Norman:

Officials of the nation’s leading universities have watched with dread as the fallout from the Planned Parenthood sting videos has threatened to engulf labs that depend on fetal tissue for research. 

Now the abortion wars are raging on their doorsteps as lawmakers in Wisconsin and Ohio try to ban such research and other states limit access to the tissue. More than three dozen of the universities, including Harvard, Yale and Johns Hopkins, have been drawn into the fight despite their traditional deep aversion to an issue that can divide faculties and donors and draw the ire of anti-abortion advocates nationwide.

Politico writes that "at least eight states have introduced bills related to fetal tissue since the Planned Parenthood videos began circulating in July, according to the Guttmacher Institute." Fetal tissue experiments are important for vaccine development, developing treatments for many diseases and the study of cognitive disorders and congenital heart defects.  Opponents argue that the experiments violate human dignity.  Others disagree, Politico quotes Dr. Edward Halperin chancellor and CEO of New York Medical College: "This really isn’t about science. . . . This is really people making a point about abortion and it's outrageous.”

 

Is the War on Women Lost?

Mother Jones (September/October 2015): The War on Women is Over - And Women Lost by Molly Redden: 

This is what 2015 looks like: Abortion providers struggle against overwhelming odds to stay open, while women "turn themselves into pretzels" to get to them, as one researcher put it. Activists have been calling it the "war on women." But the onslaught of new abortion restrictions has been so successful, so strategically designed, and so well coordinated that the war in many places has essentially been lost.

Restrictions on the provision of abortion have closed clinics across the nation and create an ongoing struggle for clinics to remain open.  This article discusses how state laws have transformed all facets of how women get abortions and have created severe obstacles to getting one.

 

 

K.C. Becker on the Battle for Women's Reproductive Rights

Daily Camera: Battle for Women's Reproductive Rights Goes on Every Day, by K.C. Becker:

State legislatures across the country have become popular battlegrounds for limiting reproductive freedom for women. Anti-choice activists have been launching well-coordinated assaults in state after state by churning out bills designed to indirectly limit or eliminate a woman's legal right to get an abortion. These new laws shut down clinics by putting new requirements and restrictions on the clinics, doctors, or patients.

Becker predicts that some of these restrictions will eventually be declared unconstitutional.  "But rest assured" she warns, "that they will be coming back, across the country, with new variations on an old theme."  Becker reminds us that the battle did not end with Roe v. Wade.

 

Sarah Weddington Writing Contest for Student Scholarship in Reproductive Rights

Law Students for Reproductive Justice: 2016 Sarah Weddington Prize for Student Scholarship in Reproductive Rights: Law Students for Reproductive Justice (LSRJ), the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), and the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice (CRRJ) at Berkeley Law School have announced details about the 2016 Sarah Weddington Writing Prize. Although the scholarship may be about any reproductive rights or reproductive justice topic, the requested theme for submissions is “Restoring Public Insurance Coverage for Abortion.” This is an excellent opportunity for students to potentially have their scholarship published and/or receive a cash prize if their paper comes in first, second, or third place. Submissions are due by January 18, 2016.