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 U.S. This week, more women joined the Center for Reproductive Rights' lawsuit against Texas, voters in the U.S. continued to show their support of abortion rights, and other news on U.S. reproductive rights.

Repro News This Week: November 17

Seven more Texas women joined a Center for Reproductive Rights lawsuit against the state after being denied abortion care despite facing severe and life-threatening pregnancy complications.

Since the Center filed the lawsuit against Texas in March, several more women have come forward to tell their stories about being denied abortion care. The case, Zurawski v. State of Texas—now with 22 plaintiffs—seeks to clarify the scope of Texas's "medical emergency" exception under its extreme abortion bans.
Read the new plaintiffs' stories here.

"The Conservative Supreme Court Vision That Means Inequality for Women," an essay in The New York Times, discusses the link between the Court's cases on gun rights and abortion rights.

In the Times essay, Melissa Murray, NYU law professor, and Kate Shaw, contributing writer, argue that the Court's focus on upholding "history and tradition" in recent cases like Dobbs causes it to disregard other constitutional values—such as women's equality and equal citizenship.
"There does not seem to be a consensus around articulating a more reasonable constitutional test," wrote the authors days after the Court heard arguments in the gun rights case, U.S. v. Rahimi. "Instead, the court seems determined that these battles take place on a landscape marked by a history that men made."
U.S. v. Rahimi centers around whether perpetrators of domestic abuse can be temporarily disarmed. The Center's amicus brief in the case, cited in the essay, argues that allowing domestic violence perpetrators to carry guns would exacerbate the U.S.'s already colossal maternal and reproductive health and rights crisis.

A federal court in Idaho blocked a state law that would have made it more difficult for young people to access abortion care.

The law, blocked November 8, would have made it a crime to help a pregnant minor obtain a legal abortion. In her ruling, the judge wrote that Idaho cannot "craft a statute muzzling the speech and expressive activities of a particular viewpoint with which the state disagrees under the guise of parental rights."

Did You Know?

Voters across the United States are showing support for abortion rights, as evidenced in the recent results in Ohio, where voters enshrined abortion rights in their state constitution. "Americans want to preserve or restore Roe-like protections. In contest after contest... voters decisively chose abortion rights over limitations—even in deep-red pockets of the country," reports Politico.

In response to their losses on this issue, anti-abortion groups are ramping up efforts to restrict the ability to vote directly on abortion rights ballot measures.

"This lawsuit started with five women and has grown continuously as more women come forward with their traumatic experiences. The numbers will continue to grow until the state of Texas gives doctors clarity on who they can help and when. Yet, the Texas government is doubling down on these laws that continue to risk the lives and health of every pregnant person in Texas."

- Molly Duane, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights

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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
United States
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