We’re excited to bring you U.S. Repro Matters, your go-to source for the latest updates on reproductive health and rights in the United States. This week, Idaho dismisses concerns of pregnant women, a new anti-abortion House speaker, and other news on U.S. reproductive rights.

Repro News This Week: November 3

Idaho seeks to dismiss lawsuit by women denied abortion care.

The State of Idaho asked a court on October 31 to dismiss a l awsuit filed by four women who were denied abortion care despite severe pregnancy complications that endangered their health and lives. An OB-GYN, a family medicine physician, and the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP) are also plaintiffs in the case, Adkins v. State of Idaho, which was brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“The state of Idaho doesn’t care about pregnant people,” said lead plaintiff Jennifer Adkins about Idaho’s request.

Officials in Lubbock County, Texas are attempting to restrict travel along their roads to prevent people from accessing abortion care.

Lubbock County is the largest of four Texas counties that have adopted such measures, which would be enforced through lawsuits filed by private citizens against those who help people obtain abortions.
Commissioners in the county, which has highways running to New Mexico—where abortion is legal—adopted the measure at a meeting on October 23.

Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the House, wants to ban abortion nationwide.

Johnson, of Louisiana, once served as senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom—the anti-abortion group behind the lawsuit against the FDA that seeks to remove medication abortion from the U.S. market.
He has supported efforts to ban abortion nationwide and is currently the cosponsor of at least three bills to do so.

Did You Know?

U.S. infant deaths increased by 3% from 2021 to 2022, marking the first significant increase in infant mortality in more than two decades, according to new data released by the National Center for Health Statistics. The country’s overall infant mortality rate is 5.6 infant deaths per 1,000 births. Black infants have the highest mortality rate, at 10.86, and Native Americans and Alaska Natives have a rate of 9.06.

“The spike is a somber manifestation of the state of maternal and child health in the United States,” notes The New York Times.

“The reason I am suing my state is to make sure this doesn’t happen again to me or to others. The humane response would be for Idaho officials to acknowledge the harm these laws are causing and to expand the exceptions in their abortion ban. Instead, the Attorney General is literally trying to dismiss me and the other women in this case. It’s degrading and insulting. The state of Idaho doesn’t care about pregnant people.”

- Jennifer Adkins, lead plaintiff, Adkins v. State of Idaho

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The Center for Reproductive Rights uses the power of law to advance
reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world.

Center for Reproductive Rights
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New York, NY 10038
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