PLANNED PARENTHOOD

A new government report suggests U.S. abortions may be inching up after a long decline.

For two months, providers have had to work in a sort of limbo as they wait to see if the new law passes the Supreme Court's review.

For two months, providers have had to work in a sort of limbo as they wait to see if the new law passes the Supreme Court's review.

COVID-19 and state abortion restrictions like a near-ban that took effect in Texas in September have people with unwanted pregnancies increasingly considering getting abortion pills by mail.

A conservative Christian university in Alabama has withdrawn an invitation for Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham to speak during inaugural activities for its new president.

Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson is responding after singer Billie Eilish denounced Texas' abortion law at her recent concert in the state.

"This Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right," the order from Judge Robert Pitman reads.

Keeping abortion secret from family and friends only adds to the stigma associated with the procedure, a Planned Parenthood organizer said.

By Reese Oxner, The Texas TribuneThe Texas Supreme Court denied a request Monday from Planned Parenthood to resume its lawsuit, filed in a state district court, that challenges the state’s near-total abortion ban. The panel of five judges stopped the cases from continuing at the request of Texas Right to Life, a prominent anti-abortion organization that helped draft Texas’ abortion restrictions. The suit filed by Planned Parenthood asked the court to declare the abortion law, which bans the procedure as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, unconstitutional. In that case, the court temporarily blocked Texas Right to Life from being able to sue Planned Parenthood for potential violations of the abortion law. Texas Right to Life applauded the Texas Supreme Court’s decision.

Health and Human Services announced the rule change on Monday.

The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday its new regulation, which will go into effect Nov. 8, will restore clinics' ability to refer women seeking abortions to a provider.

The Biden administration is reversing a ban on abortion referrals by federally funded family planning clinics.

Health and Human Services announced the rule change on Monday.

A panel of five judges indefinitely blocked the lawsuits last week upon the request of an anti-abortion group.

Republicans have accused Dilawar Syed, President Biden's nominee as deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, of being anti-Semitic, but Jewish groups have countered that the claims are anti-Musliim.

Abortion providers in Texas say they have seen a sharp drop in patients in the two weeks since the nation’s strictest abortion law took effect.

Abortion providers in Texas say they have seen a sharp drop in patients in the two weeks since the nation’s strictest abortion law took effect.

Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe is putting words into his opponent’s mouth.

The Justice Department sued Texas on Thursday over its new law restricting abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, initiating the first federal challenge to...

Current Texas abortion laws say women have to make a decision within the first six weeks of their pregnancies, a time when many do not even know they are pregnant.

Three out of San Antonio's four abortion facilities have temporarily stopped offering the procedure in the wake of Texas' new abortion law, one of the...

The facilities had a responsibility to patients who needed other reproductive services, said Jeffrey Hons, CEO of Planned Parenthood of South Texas.

The site gained attention when abortion rights supporters began sending in fake tips to spam the site over the weekend.

Texas now bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Texas abortion law a “radical expansion” of who can sue whom, and an about-face for Republicans on civil lawsuits.

Under the order, the anti-abortion rights group is banned from "instituting private-enforcement lawsuits" against Planned Parenthood itself, as well as its doctors, staff and patients.

A state judge has shielded, for now, abortion clinics from suits by Texas Right to Life, under a new state abortion law. The order was in response to a request from Planned Parenthood.

A state judge has shielded, for now, Texas abortion clinics from lawsuits by an anti-abortion group under a new state abortion law.

The group hopes this will prevent lawsuits under Texas' new abortion law.

Senate Bill 8, which allows anyone to sue anyone who performs or aids in an abortion, marks an unprecedented change to who has standing to bring a lawsuit. The tactic is also an emerging trend in Republican-dominated states that may compromise constitutional rights, some legal experts said.

St. Mary’s University School of Law Professor Al Kauffman spoke with KSAT about the legalities of the state’s newest abortion law.

Planned Parenthood clinics in San Antonio ceased performing abortion procedures Wednesday as a strict new anti-abortion law took effect.

A Texas law banning virtually all abortions after six weeks went into effect Wednesday at midnight after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a request...

One abortion provider said it was “engulfed” in treating more than 100 patients at one clinic before the law took effect Wednesday.

Texas can limit access to the most common procedure used to end a pregnancy in the second trimester, an appeals court ruled Wednesday, in a...

The ruling is yet another blow to reproductive rights advocates after Texas passed a law this year that goes into effect Sept. 1 banning abortions as early as six weeks. That law is also currently being challenged in court.

Planned Parenthood is hosting a Clinica Festival sidewalk health fair on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon in Harlingen at 712 N 77 Sunshine Strip Suite 18.

The state’s “fetal heartbeat” law going into effect Sept. 1 is considered one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation.

In her new book, "Lifelines," former Planned Parenthood president Dr. Leana Wen says she got pushback when emphasizing non-abortion healthcare.

The huge disruption to the outside world prompted many people to look inward and examine who they really are.

Missouri lawmakers have been trying since the 1990s to stop Planned Parenthood from receiving public dollars.

No surgical abortions are happening in Missouri now. So why defund Planned Parenthood’s cancer screenings and birth control? From Melinda Henneberger:

The House passed the critical tax renewal Wednesday less than half a day before Parson’s deadline.

A federal judge has blocked a new Indiana law that would require doctors to tell women undergoing drug-induced abortions about a disputed treatment for potentially stopping the abortion process.

Iowa's high court said Wednesday that the state may refuse to allow Planned Parenthood to conduct sex education programs funded by federal grants, reversing a judge's ruling last year that found the law unconstitutional. The Iowa Supreme Court found the 2019 law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature is constitutional, rejecting Planned Parenthood of the Heartland's complaint that the law violated its right to equal protection and that the law served no rational legitimate government interest. State court Judge Paul Scott ruled in May 2020 that Planned Parenthood would likely prevail at trial on its equal protection claim and he blocked the law’s implementation.

A House committee passed renewal of a Medicaid-funding tax with little opposition.

A Washington school district sent flyers home with eighth grade students that contained information on abortions without parental consent and outlining age of consent laws for students as young as 11 years old.

Republicans are still trying to block the provider from Medicaid, which could land the state in a fight with the Biden administration.

After a tumultuous week, Missouri senators voted overwhelmingly to renew a tax crucial to funding Medicaid without other controversial provisions.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson said Missouri is leading the nation in fighting abortion “and it’s like we’re almost looking for a problem to create.”

The Republican senator from Lake St. Louis has only one more year left in the Missouri Senate.

Some senators want to limit Medicaid coverage of contraceptives like Plan B and IUDs when they renew a tax to fund Medicaid.

Why a special session to renew a tax to fund Medicaid has become about birth control and Planned Parenthood.

The special session call appears to reflect demands of the state Senate’s hardest-right Republicans.

Republican governor says lawmakers trying to move goalposts now will “own” the devastation. He gave them 20 more hours to reach a deal.

Republicans have reached agreement over banning coverage of birth control, but are at odds over Planned Parenthood.

Local activists are hosting a rally against Texas'

A federal appeals court panel has blocked Missouri from enforcing a sweeping state abortion law that bans the procedures at or after eight weeks of pregnancy.

A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday blocked Missouri from enforcing a sweeping state abortion law that bans the procedures at or after eight weeks of pregnancy. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis heard arguments in September in the legal battle over the 2019 law. The measure also would prohibit a woman from having an abortion because the fetus has Down syndrome.

Planned Parenthood sued to block the "sanctuary city for the unborn" ordinance, passed by voters in May, but a federal judge said he didn't have jurisdiction to hear the case. The ordinance went into effect June 1.

Abortion rights supporters on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging Arkansas' near-total ban on the procedure that's part of an effort by conservatives to force the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Roe v. Wade decision. The American Civil Liberties Union and Planed Parenthood asked a federal judge to strike down the new law, which takes effect July 28, and bans all abortions except those to protect the life of the mother. The groups filed the lawsuit on behalf of Little Rock Family Planning Services, a Little Rock abortion clinic, and Planned Parenthood's Little Rock health center.

The lawsuit was filed against the city of Lubbock over an abortion ban that was approved by voters earlier this month.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas are suing over the West Texas city's “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance.

I wondered how many vulnerable moms this doctor had encouraged to remove their supposedly “imperfect” babies from the gene pool.

A spokeswoman said Chelsea Clinton did not post a tweet circulating online about two prominent Democrats and whether they should receive Communion.

A spokeswoman said Chelsea Clinton did not post a tweet circulating online about two prominent Democrats and whether they should receive Communion.

Lubbock voters on Saturday backed a “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance that tries to outlaw abortions in the city’s limits, likely prompting a lawsuit over what opponents say is an unconstituti[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

‘Our doors are open and we will continue to advocate for our patients, no matter what,’ Planned Parenthood says

The Trump administration's changes to the family planning program resulted in more than 180,000 unintended pregnancies, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Biden administration is beginning to undo a Trump-era ban on clinics referring women for abortions.

About 40% of all abortions in the U.S. are now done through medication — rather than surgery — and that option has become all the more pivotal during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Planned Parenthood cannot stop Texas officials from kicking it out of the state's Medicaid program, a state district judge ruled Wednesday. The decision is the latest in Texas officials’ years-long effort to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. A state district judge granted a temporary restraining order on Feb. 3, delaying the state from kicking Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid. The 2016 notice of termination never took effect, he said; Planned Parenthood has continued to treat Medicaid patients. Abbott, in a tweet deemed “false” by Politifact, has said “innocent lives will be saved” by ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.

South Carolina Gov. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)COLUMBIA, S.C. – A new South Carolina law banning abortions will stay on hold following a judge's order on Friday to extend a temporary restraining order. Lewis initially suspended the “ South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act ” on its second day in effect, following a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood. Federal law supersedes state law. Planned Parenthood has indicated they plan to oppose McMaster's request to take part in the case, according to the governor's attorneys.

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2020 file photo, the Supreme Court is seen in Washington. The Supreme Court will take up challenges to controversial Trump administration policies affecting family-planning clinics and immigrants, even though the Biden administration has announced it is reviewing them. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court said Monday it will take up challenges to controversial Trump administration policies affecting family-planning clinics and immigrants, even though the Biden administration has announced it is reviewing them. Last month, Biden also ordered a review of Trump's restrictions on family-planning clinics that caused Planned Parenthood to withdraw from the funding program, rather than stop abortion referrals. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the rule, in a lawsuit filed by the city of Baltimore.

South Carolina Gov. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s new law banning most abortions was suspended by a federal judge Friday on its second day in effect. AdThe “ South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act " is similar to abortion restriction laws that a dozen states have previously passed. Federal law, which takes precedence over state law, currently allows abortion. AdPlanned Parenthood lawyers noted that South Carolina legislators this year did not change part of state law that said fetuses are considered viable in the 24th week of pregnancy.

South Carolina's governor on Thursday signed a law banning most abortions, one of his top priorities since he took office more than four years ago. The "South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act" is similar to abortion restriction laws that a dozen states have previously passed. The "South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act," like other similar laws currently being challenged, is "blatantly unconstitutional," said Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. Planned Parenthood's lawsuit argues that South Carolina's new law "is in flagrant violation of nearly five decades of settled Supreme Court precedent." The suit says a high rate of women, especially African Americans, die during or immediately after childbirth in South Carolina.

South Carolina Gov. Planned Parenthood immediately sued, effectively preventing the new law from taking effect. The “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, is similar to abortion restriction laws that a dozen states have previously passed. Moments after the Thursday vote, Planned Parenthood announced that it was filing a lawsuit. The South Carolina law, like those of other states that are currently being challenged, is “blatantly unconstitutional,” said Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.

South Carolina Rep. David Hiott, R-Pickens, says a prayer as the House votes on a bill that would ban most abortions in the state on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021 in Columbia, S.C. The “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act,” like other similar laws currently being challenged, is “blatantly unconstitutional,” said Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that abortion is legal until a fetus is viable outside the womb — months after a heartbeat can be detected, Black noted. State bills to restrict or ban abortion “are plainly absurd,” Black said. The abortion ban would fall hardest on low-income women, who wouldn't be able to travel to a nearby state where abortion is still permitted, the suit says.

Greg Abbott to reverse a yearslong effort to boot Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program, saying it jeopardizes thousands of low-income Texans’ ability to access nonabortion health services. Their plea comes just days after a state district judge temporarily stopped the state from excluding Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, a government health insurance program for the poor. Planned Parenthood has donated fetal tissue for research, which is legal. State health officials granted a 30-day grace period that was slated to end Feb. 3. Escobar and the other congress members have asked Abbott to allow Planned Parenthood to remain as a provider.

Planned Parenthood on Wednesday said it filed an emergency lawsuit to stop Texas from kicking it out of Medicaid, in a last ditch effort to keep providing non-abortion services to some 8,000 low-income patients. AdIn Texas, Medicaid primarily provides health insurance for children, and those who have a disability, are pregnant or are parents. Planned Parenthood on Wednesday said it filed an emergency lawsuit to stop Texas from kicking it out of Medicaid, in a last ditch effort to keep providing non-abortion services to some 8,000 low-income patients. AdIn Texas, Medicaid primarily provides health insurance for children, and those disabled, pregnant or who are parents. A lower court blocked the state from removing Planned Parenthood from Medicaid in 2017.

Credit: Stephen Spillman for The Texas TribuneSign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday voided rulings from lower courts that upheld a ban on most abortions in Texas early in the coronavirus pandemic. The high court vacated two rulings from the lower U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with Texas GOP officials arguing that Gov. The executive order ended over the summer, allowing abortions in the state to resume, but Planned Parenthood has said leaving the lower court rulings on the books would set harmful legal precedent for abortion rights advocates. Disclosure: Planned Parenthood has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors.

Lisa, an anonymous HPV patient living in a Houston hotel to escape domestic abuse, navigates the uncertainties of Planned Parenthood being withdrawn from Medicaid coverage. The state’s health commission gave Planned Parenthood's Medicaid patients until Feb. 3 to find new doctors. Lisa is one of more than 8,000 Medicaid patients, many of them women of color, who were seen at Planned Parenthood clinics across Texas in 2019. A lower court blocked the state from cutting off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood in 2017, but the conservative 5th U.S. Greg Abbott, who pushed to expel Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, did not respond to a request for comment.

Thousands of low-income Medicaid recipients who rely on Planned Parenthood for non-abortion services like cancer screenings and birth control will have until Feb. 3 to find new health care providers, according to a letter sent from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission to the women’s health provider Monday. Texas has a shortage of Medicaid providers in part because of the low reimbursement rates, the organization said. The court case stemmed from a debunked video released in 2015 that suggested abortion providers at Planned Parenthood sold fetal tissue for profit. Planned Parenthood has donated fetal tissue for research, which is legal. Disclosure: Planned Parenthood has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors.

A nurse with a patient at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Austin. Planned Parenthood is asking Texas to delay kicking the women’s health provider out of Medicaid in an effort to secure medical coverage for more than 8,000 Medicaid patients who rely on the group. The allegations in the video, made by anti-abortion advocates, have been categorically denied by Planned Parenthood, and investigations into the video have been unable to prove any wrongdoing. Following last month’s ruling, Planned Parenthood said removing them from the Medicaid program was a “blatantly political attack” by the state of Texas. Disclosure: Planned Parenthood has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors.

DENVER – Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they will not seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing three people and injuring nine others at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado in 2015. The move comes about a year after Dear was charged in federal court after his prosecution in state court stalled. The decision not to seek the death penalty follows the resumption of federal executions under the Trump administration and as the Justice Department continues to seek the death penalty in other cases in the administration's waning days. The death penalty has usually been taken off the table in cases in which mental illness is a factor, such as in the Unabomber case, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Prosecutors who are not seeking to pursue the death penalty for political reasons need to consider whether they are likely to succeed in convincing a jury to impose the death penalty in expensive and complicated death penalty cases prone to appeals, he said.

While it expressly reversed decisions in Texas and Louisiana, it also affects Mississippi, which is under 5th Circuit jurisdiction. Opponents of legal abortion have long sought to deny federal Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reverses an earlier ruling by a three-judge appellate panel that blocked Texas from enforcing its ban on Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood. It also expressly reversed a ruling in a separate case blocking Louisiana from banning Planned Parenthood funding. Investigations by 13 states into those videos have concluded without criminal charges, and Planned Parenthood officials have denied any wrongdoing.

A vast swath of West Texas has been without an abortion clinic for more than six years. That law led to the closure of more than half the state’s 41 abortion clinics before the Supreme Court struck down key provisions in 2016. Women in Lubbock faced a 310-mile (500-kilometer) drive to the nearest abortion clinic in Fort Worth. Texas is one of several red states where Planned Parenthood has sought to expand abortion access. Missouri, for example, bars the use of telemedicine for abortion services, a policy that has sharply limited the number of medication abortions.

Today is Friday, Oct. 16, the 290th day of 2020. On Oct. 16, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba. In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a group of 21 men in a raid on Harpers Ferry in western Virginia. In 1901, Booker T. Washington dined at the White House as the guest of President Theodore Roosevelt, whose invitation to the Black educator sparked controversy. In 1995, a vast throng of Black men gathered in Washington, D.C. for the “Million Man March” led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

WASHINGTON – The nation's largest doctors' group on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to strike down a Trump administration rule that's had a far-reaching impact on family planning by prohibiting taxpayer-funded clinics from referring women for abortions. But the changes to Title X, as the federal family planning program is known, are already in effect — and getting much less attention. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden promises to rescind the Trump administration's family planning rule and also supports allowing federal programs to pay for abortions. But the AMA says regardless of who wins the election, it believes the Supreme Court should address the issue and overturn the Trump administration rule. “We can't afford to walk away from that progress.”Joining the AMA's petition are the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, and Essential Access Health, which administers the Title X family planning program in California.

Greg Abbott used the pandemic as a guise to limit access to abortion. Greg Abbott of using the coronavirus pandemic as a guise to end abortion access in Texas. During the month-long period when Texas was shut down, top state officials and the courts effectively banned nearly all abortions. Circuit Court of Appeals largely sided with state officials throughout the legal back and forth. In the initial weeks of the pandemic, a number of states including Texas tried to ban abortions as part of emergency orders.

WASHINGTON A federal judge in Baltimore on Friday struck down a Trump administration rule that abortion rights advocates called a maneuver to restrict access but officials defended as merely following the law. The judge's ruling means insurers can continue to make the charge for abortion coverage a line item on their monthly bill, or just give policyholders notice that it's included. Abortion opponents cried foul, saying separate bills should be mandatory because that would clearly reflect the intent of the law. The Trump administration, which takes its lead on social issues from religious conservatives, agreed. They argued that the requirement to send separate bills could prompt insurers to drop coverage for abortions and would create confusion for policyholders.

(Al Drago/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON Building ramparts of secrecy around a $600 billion-plus coronavirus aid program for small businesses, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has moved from delay to denial in refusing outright to disclose the recipients of taxpayer-funded loans. About 10 weeks after the program was launched, the SBA says it has processed 4.5 million loans worth $511 billion. While the SBA administers the program, Mnuchins Treasury Department has ultimate control over it. We believe that thats proprietary information, and in many cases, for sole proprietors and small businesses, is confidential information, Mnuchin said during the hearing by the Senate Small Business Committee. Praise for the small-business loan program flowed to Mnuchin and Carranza at the hearing from senators from both parties, who cited the positive economic impact across the country.