Abortion

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday finalised a rule change that allows women seeking abortion pills to get them through the mail, replacing a long-standing requirement that they pick up the medicine in person. The Biden administration implemented the change last year, announcing it would no longer enforce the dispensing rule. Tuesday's action formally updates the drug's labelling to allow women to get a prescription via telehealth consultation with a health professional, and then receive the pills through the mail, where permitted by law. Still, the rule change's impact has been blunted by numerous state laws limiting abortion broadly and the pills specifically. Legal experts foresee years of court battles over access to the pills, as abortion-rights proponents bring test cases to challenge state restrictions. For more than 20 years, the FDA labelling had limited dispensing to doctor's offices and clinics, due to safety concerns. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA ...

Meta (formerly Facebook) has reportedly told its employees not to discuss sensitive issues like abortion, gun control, pending legislation and vaccine efficacy at workplace

The Biden administration is still actively searching for ways to safeguard abortion access for millions of women, even as it bumps up against a complex web of strict new state laws enacted in the months after the Supreme Court stripped the constitutional right. Looking to seize on momentum following a midterm election where voters widely rebuked tougher abortion restrictions, there's a renewed push at the White House to find ways to help women in states that have virtually outlawed or limited the treatment, and to keep the issue top of mind for voters. In reality, though, the administration is shackled by a ban on federal funding for most abortions, a conservative-leaning Supreme Court inclined to rule against abortion rights and a split Congress unwilling to pass legislation on the matter. Meanwhile, frustration on the ground in the most abortion-restricted states is mounting. This is not going away anytime soon," said Jen Klein of the Biden administration's Gender Policy Council.

US President Joe Biden said Monday that Democrats still lack the votes needed to codify abortion rights into law despite his party's stronger-than-expected performance in the midterm elections. He said Republicans were likely to take control of the House, putting them in position to block any such legislation. Although Democrats will maintain, or even expand, their narrow majority in the Senate, some members of his party are unwilling to sidestep filibuster rules to pass an abortion law. I don't think they can expect much of anything, Biden said at a press conference during the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia when asked what voters might see on abortion. The US Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion earlier this year.

Differences over abortion have pitted one large batch of US states against another one group imposing sweeping bans, the other intent on preserving access to abortion. To a remarkable extent, that's also the case in America's southern neighbour, Mexico. Ten of Mexico's 32 states have decriminalized abortion most of them in just the past three years. Even in some of those 10 states, for example Oaxaca, abortion-rights activists say they face persisting challenges in trying to make abortion safe, accessible and government-funded. Two other Latin American nations Argentina and Colombia recently legalized abortion nationwide. But in Mexico a federal republic each state has its own laws and criminal codes. The resulting divisions and uncertainties in Mexico mirror those that have emerged in the US since its Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion in June and instead enabled the 50 state governments to set their own policies. Since that ruling, more than a do

The Supreme Court of India has agreed to examine the validity of the age restriction of 35 years on women's reproductive rights for conducting pre-conception and pre-natal diagnostic tests

The Indiana Supreme Court issued an order on Wednesday that prevents the state from enforcing a Republican-backed abortion ban while it considers whether the ban violates the state constitution. The court said in the order that it was taking over appeals of a judge's decision last month that blocked the law a week after it took effect. It denied a request from the state attorney general's office to set aside the preliminary injunction and scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit filed by abortion clinic operators for January 12. Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon blocked the law from being enforced, writing that there is reasonable likelihood that this significant restriction of personal autonomy offends the liberty guarantees of the Indiana Constitution and that the clinics will prevail in the lawsuit. The ban was approved by the state's Republican-dominated Legislature on August 5 and signed by GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb. That made Indiana the first state to enact tighter abortion restriction

The Supreme Court has extended the benefits of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act to minors who engage in consensual sexual activity by exempting doctors from disclosing their identity to the local police. In a landmark verdict, the top court had included unmarried women for abortion between 20-24 weeks of pregnancy under the MTP Act, saying limiting the provision to cover only married women will render it discriminatory and violative of Article 14. It has also held that the meaning of the words "sexual assault" or "rape" under the rules of the MTP Act includes a husband's act of sexual assault or rape committed on his wife. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, A S Bopanna and J B Pardiwala said to ensure that the benefit of Rule 3B(b) is extended to all women aged below 18 who engage in consensual sexual activity, it is necessary to harmoniously read both the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the MTP Act. "For the limited purposes of providing

TMS Ep271: Free foodgrain, engineering workforce, crypto, abortion law

Was it prudent to extend the free foodgrain scheme? Which states produce India's engineering workforce? Are crypto markets in trouble? What is SC's ruling on abortion law? Answers here

What is the significance of the SC ruling on abortion law?

The Supreme Court of India recently ruled that all women, irrespective of their marital status, are entitled to legal abortion as permitted under Medical Termination of Pregnancy rules. Here's more

The court also for the first time recognised marital rape under the MTP Act

A judge on Wednesday struck down Michigan's 1931 anti-abortion law, months after suspending it. Judge Elizabeth Gleicher of the Court of Claims said the law, long dormant before US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, violates the Michigan Constitution. Separately, the Michigan Supreme Court still is considering whether to place a proposed amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot that would add abortion rights to the state constitution. The 1931 law makes it a crime to perform abortions unless the life of the mother is in danger. A law denying safe, routine medical care not only denies women of their ability to control their bodies and their lives it denies them of their dignity, Gleicher wrote. Michigan's Constitution forbids this violation of due process. Gleicher suspended the law in May with an injunction.

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Central government on a plea challenging abortion of foetus, due to various reasons, violated right to life of the yet-to-be-born

A decisive statewide vote in favour of abortion rights in traditionally conservative Kansas was confirmed with a partial hand recount, with fewer than 100 votes changing after the last county reported results on Sunday. Nine of the state's 105 counties recounted their votes at the request of Melissa Leavitt, who has pushed for tighter election laws. A longtime anti-abortion activist, Mark Gietzen, is covering most of the costs. Gietzen acknowledged in an interview that it was unlikely to change the outcome. A no vote in the referendum signalled a desire to keep existing abortion protections and a yes vote was for allowing the Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban abortion. After the recounts, no votes lost 87 votes and yes gained 6 votes. Eight of the counties reported their results by the state's Saturday deadline, but Sedgwick County delayed releasing its final count until Sunday because spokeswoman Nicole Gibbs said some of the ballots weren't separated into the correct ...

Hundreds of Google employees are petitioning the company to extend its abortion healthcare benefits to contract workers and to strengthen privacy protections for Google users searching for abortion information online. Google parent company Alphabet had pledged to pay travel and other health care costs for employees seeking an out-of-state abortion and to help some workers relocate after the US Supreme Court repealed the constitutional right to an abortion. The June decision overturning 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling has paved the way for severe abortion restrictions or bans in nearly half of the U.S. states. The benefits for abortion services offered by Google and other tech companies don't cover contract workforces, which are common in the tech industry and often get paid less and have fewer perks than full-time employees. A letter signed by more than 650 employees and sent this week to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other Alphabet executives calls for the inclusion of contractors in thos

Insisting on a forward-looking approach, Supreme Court has opined that discrimination between married and unmarried women in respect of medical termination of pregnancy violates her personal autonomy

Indiana on Friday became the first state in the nation to approve abortion restrictions since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade

Crossing state lines to get abortions has become an increasing issue since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for new restrictions on abortion at the state level

Kansas is holding the nation's first test of voter feelings about the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade, with people statewide