SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
By denying and restricting access to abortion to millions of people since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 with the Dobbs decision, the United States is failing to comply with its international human rights obligations and standards to ensure pregnant people have access to abortion, according to a new report published by Amnesty International today.
The report, Abortion in the USA: The Human Rights Crisis in the Aftermath of Dobbs, shares stories from individuals across the country who have been harmed by restrictive laws and practices in their states, putting a human face on the multitude of the ways in which people are harmed when denied the human right to abortion.
In addition to abortion bans and restrictions in 21 states, barriers for emergency medical care and efforts to criminalize abortions that threaten pregnant people and healthcare workers alike have all led to the current human rights crisis. The spread of false information and stigmatization of abortion in addition to provision of unqualified care by so-called crisis pregnancy centers – often run by activists who oppose abortion – is also contributing to the crisis, according to the report.
“These barriers and bans to abortion create a scenario where an individual’s access to abortion care depends on where they live and what resources they have,” said Jasmeet Sidhu, senior researcher with Amnesty International USA.
“Access to reproductive care, including abortions, must not depend on the state in which somebody lives, or the ability an individual does or does not have to travel to another state. The current landscape leads to some people not being able to access abortion care, which is not how human rights are supposed to work.”
These barriers and bans to abortion create a scenario where an individual’s access to abortion care depends on where they live and what resources they have.
Jasmeet Sidhu, senior researcher with Amnesty International USA.
Dr. Amna Dermish is an OBGYN from Texas with a specialty in complex family planning. In the report, she said: “It felt like for the longest time that, every day I could show up to this clinic and see patients, I was winning. And then Dobbs just felt like it took that away. I’m still not over it. It was horrible. I was having panic attacks every day. No health care provider should ever be in that situation. And more importantly, no patient should ever be in a situation where their healthcare provider is able to provide them care and is held back by the government.”
It felt like for the longest time that, every day I could show up to this clinic and see patients, I was winning. And then Dobbs just felt like it took that away. I’m still not over it. It was horrible.
Dr. Amna Dermish is an OBGYN from Texas with a specialty in complex family planning.
What we went through was torture that no one else should ever have to face.
Anonymous woman in Tennessee with complications who could not get an abortion in Tennessee.
The report brings light to the widespread harm and discrimination people are experiencing across the U.S. by including pieces of in-depth interviews from pregnant people, families, advocates, public health experts and health workers in states with abortion bans. The harrowing stories drive home the point that all pregnancies are different, and that each pregnant person must have the right to decide whether to have an abortion without government interference.
Examples throughout the report include people who travelled hundreds of miles to obtain an abortion and others who could not afford to travel, so were forced to carry their pregnancy to term against their will. Other stories include people who were forced to carry their pregnancies to term despite situations of childhood rape, serious foetal anomalies, and health risks to the pregnant person.
“It was the ugliest feeling having to explain to the doctor that [my teenage daughter] was raped, and then him having to tell you he can’t do anything to help,” said one mother in Mississippi who had to travel more than seven hours to an abortion clinic in Illinois and pay $1,595 for her daughter’s abortion and almost $500 for a hotel.
It was the ugliest feeling having to explain to the doctor that [my teenage daughter] was raped, and then him having to tell you he can’t do anything to help.
Mother in Mississippi who had to travel more than seven hours to an abortion clinic in Illinois.
Some pregnant people avoided seeing a doctor when they miscarried due to fear they would be wrongly criminalized. Others could not find a doctor or treatment due to lack of emergency care and fear from healthcare providers that they would too be criminalized for providing necessary care to a patient.
Taylor from Texas said she was navigating her health care through “random” internet searches. “Even doing the searches made me nervous. The case of a Texas woman being arrested and jailed for taking medication abortion pills was fresh in my mind…I was scared to call my doctor in case there was mandatory reporting,” she said.
Amnesty’s Jasmeet Sidhu said: “Some of these laws are utterly confusing and nearly impossible to navigate. The current landscape is an assault on the rights of pregnant people, creates fear and stigma, puts healthcare workers in awful situations, and ultimately contributes to pregnant people not getting the care they need. We are in an unprecedented crisis.”
The current landscape is an assault on the rights of pregnant people, creates fear and stigma, puts healthcare workers in awful situations, and ultimately contributes to pregnant people not getting the care they need.
Jasmeet Sidhu, senior researcher with Amnesty International USA.
They make this out to be like people that seek abortions are horrible, horrible people, and murderers, and all this stuff. That could not be further from the truth.
Jennifer, Idaho, who was forced to travel out of state to seek an abortion.
This was the most traumatizing experience of my life and one that was made so much worse, unnecessarily, because of these illogical and dangerous laws.
Latina woman in Texas pregnant with twins learned at 12 weeks that one of the twins had been diagnosed with a fatal condition in utero.
State abortion bans and other restricting policies have a disproportionate impact on the most marginalized communities, who already face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. The report includes numerous stories from pregnant people who are Black, Indigenous, undocumented, LGBTQI+, disabled, rural, and low-income.
“After Dobbs the demand for [Black] doulas definitely went up because people are being forced to give birth,” said D’Andra Willia from the Afiya Center. “We have seen a lot of trauma recently in our community because of COVID and people forced to be at home with their abusers, health complications, economic issues and on top of that being forced into birth while many are still dealing with postpartum and other issues. It is hard.”
We have seen a lot of trauma recently in our community because of COVID and people forced to be at home with their abusers, health complications, economic issues and on top of that being forced into birth while many are still dealing with postpartum and other issues.
D’Andra Willia from the Afiya Center.
A Latina woman in Texas pregnant with twins, who learned at 12 weeks that one of the twins had been diagnosed with a fatal condition in utero that could threaten the other twin’s life, described being forced to travel out of state to save the viable fetus. “This was the most traumatizing experience of my life and one that was made so much worse, unnecessarily, because of these illogical and dangerous laws.”
“These bans are going to make it that much more complicated, taboo and harder to access proper medical care,” she said.
The report includes a robust list of recommendations for state and federal governments –including federally protecting the right to abortion, and steps to ensure equal access to medication abortion and emergency healthcare services – and urges the U.S. to ratify international human rights treaties that would ensure pregnant individuals have access to the care they need.
“Everybody everywhere must be free to exercise their bodily autonomy and make their own decisions about their reproductive health,” said Jasmeet Sidhu. “While we work towards the longer-term goal of ensuring federal protections for the right to abortion, one important step people in some states can take this fall is to vote on ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights in their states.”
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all. Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world - so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity. We have more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions and we coordinate this support to act for justice on a wide range of issues.
In a 5-4 ruling—with Justice Neil Gorsuch joining the liberals in dissent—the court delayed Biden's expansion of Title IX protections to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday denied the Biden administration's emergency request to reinstate parts of its updated Department of Education Title IX rule expanding the definition of "discrimination on the basis of sex" to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and pregnancy status.
The nation's highest court ruled 5-4—with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joining liberal colleagues Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson in dissent—that the Biden administration "has not provided this court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts' interim conclusions that the three provisions found likely to be unlawful are intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule."
Republican attorneys general in more than two dozen states pushed courts to block the Biden administration's updated Title IX rule, which was set to take effect on August 1. The new rule has been on hold pending the outcome of litigation.
In her dissent, Sotomayor wrote: "A majority of this court leaves in place preliminary injunctions that bar the government from enforcing the entire rule—including provisions that bear no apparent relationship to respondents' alleged injuries. Those injunctions are overbroad."
While conservatives welcomed the ruling, LGBTQ+ advocates expressed disappointment.
"All young people deserve to show up to school and get an education without facing the threat of discrimination and bigotry. But five cruel justices on the Supreme Court just put countless LGBTQ+ students' health, safety, and lives in jeopardy," said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of the advocacy group Take Back the Court.
"The hateful right-wing movement with which these justices align themselves constantly invokes 'protecting children' as a false justification for their extremist agenda," Lipton-Lubet added. "But protecting children means keeping them safe from homophobic and transphobic violence; from gun violence; from attacks on equitable education; and from environmental destruction that threatens their futures. This court has failed them time and time again."
The Biden administration's effort to expand Title IX protections came amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ laws enacted in Republican-controlled states in recent years.
More than two dozen states have passed laws banning or restricting gender-affirming healthcare including puberty-blocking drugs, hormone therapy, and surgery for minors. At least 11 states have also passed laws banning transgender students from using school restrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity, and 25 states have banned transgender girls from competing on female scholastic sports teams.
Responding to Friday's decision, an Education Department spokesperson said that "while we do not agree with this ruling, the department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to defend those rules in the expedited litigation in the lower courts."
Friday's ruling is not the last word on the Biden administration's Title IX rule, as the decision merely delays the issue pending further litigation that could ultimately be revisited by the Supreme Court in the future.
"We must double down on our demands ahead of the DNC, where we'll be marching in the streets for the liberation of all," said one campaigner.
Leading up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, calls for the U.S. government to stop arming Israel's devastating assault on the Gaza Strip—widely denounced around the world as genocide—continued to mount on Friday.
"We join the millions of people who've taken action the last 10 months, taxpayers who don't want to pay for genocide and are demanding an immediate arms embargo on Israel," U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) executive director Ahmad Abuznaid said in a statement Friday.
"We know that politicians won't change their unjust policies until it's in their own self-interest to do so," he continued. "We must double down on our demands ahead of the DNC, where we'll be marching in the streets for the liberation of all."
Pro-Palestine protests in Chicago are set to start Sunday, a day before the DNC officially begins. They will continue throughout the week, according to a schedule shared Friday by the Chicago Sun-Times. The March on the DNC is planned for Monday afternoon.
As Common Dreamsreported earlier Friday, a coalition of progressive and legal groups and individuals expressed "grave concerns" about recent moves by the Chicago Police Department and the city to stop protests and vowed to take legal action as needed.
The Uncommitted National Movement's Not Another Bomb campaign is also planning a nationwide day of action for Sunday.
The movement formed when Democratic President Joe Biden was still at the top of the ticket throughout the presidential primary process; hundreds of thousands of voters across the country selected "uncommitted" or took similar action, depending on the options for each state's ballot, to send the administration a message that they don't support giving Israel any more military aid.
After a disastrous debate performance against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, Biden dropped out of the race and passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has already secured the party's nomination via an online process and announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Biden, Harris, and Walz are all set to speak at the convention.
"USCPR calls on the Biden-Harris administration, the Harris-Walz campaign, members of Congress, and the DNC to stop arming Israel now, as the Democratic Party currently has the power to end the genocide by cutting off the endless weapons supply to Israel," the group said Friday.
Since last week, Not Another Bomb has been gathering online signatures for a petition urging Harris "to shift away from President Biden's disastrous policy on Gaza, and pledge to enact an immediate arms embargo on Israel's assault and occupation against Palestinians as a material step towards a permanent cease-fire."
"Consider the overwhelming sentiment among your constituents: 86% of Democrats support the proposed cease-fire deal in Gaza," the petition notes. "This is the mainstream view of our party's base, as evidenced by a recent poll that reveals that 52% of Americans and 62% of Biden/Harris voters agree with halting arms sales to Israel. In addition, 70% of Democratic voters support withdrawing U.S. military funding to Israel if Israel rejects the proposed cease-fire deal, as Israel has continuously done."
Polling released this week shows that Democratic and Independent voters in three key swing states—Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania—would be more willing to vote for Harris in November if she supported cutting off weapons to Israeli forces. However, one of her advisers recently made clear that "she does not support an arms embargo on Israel."
March on the DNC spokesperson Hatem Abudayyeh toldReuters on Friday that coalition group leaders met after Biden bowed out of the contest to discuss whether they should revise their strategy if Harris became the Democratic nominee.
"There was absolute consensus," Abudayyeh said. "She represents the policies of the administration and it's full steam ahead."
The Biden-Harris administration and current Congress have provided Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance as well as diplomatic support on the world stage, including multiple vetoes of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions.
Fresh calls have come this week not only in anticipation of the convention but also since the Biden administration on Tuesday approved roughly $20 billion in additional U.S.-made weapons for Israel's military as the official death toll in Gaza neared 40,000. Local officials said Friday that at least 40,005 Palestinians have been killed and another 92,401 have been wounded.
Thousands more remain missing amid the rubble in Gaza and the vast majority of the Palestinian enclave's 2.3 million residents have been forced to relocate, many of them multiple times. Israeli forces on Friday issued yet another evacuation order for areas in central and southern Gaza—including "safe zones"—leaving Palestinians with "nowhere to go."
"Outside group spending this year is almost double the rate of any prior year," noted one critic. "Not a good thing."
Empowered by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling allowing unlimited independent financial contributions to support political campaigns, outside spending during the current election cycle has hit a record $1 billion, according to a report published Thursday by the watchdog group OpenSecrets.
"Super PACs and other outside groups that can raise and spend unlimited sums of money have poured about $1.1 billion into 2024 federal elections as of August 15—nearly twice what similar groups spent over the same period in the 2020 presidential election cycle when independent expenditures hit an all-time record," OpenSecrets said.
"More than half of all outside spending during the 2024 cycle— about $585.8 million—has gone into the presidential election, which saw an especially expensive Republican presidential nominating contest," the group added.
"The largest spender, by far, is former President Donald Trump's flagship super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.," the report notes. "To date, MAGA Inc. has spent about $125.1 million boosting Trump in the presidential election, including nearly $33.2 million attacking his GOP rivals and more than $65.6 million opposing President Joe Biden."
"Future Forward and American Bridge 21st Century, the first and second-largest Democratic hybrid PACs, have spent a combined $74.7 million on the presidential race as of August 15," the publication adds. "Both super PACs pivoted to supporting Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden suspended his campaign last month."
Other key findings in the report include:
AIPAC—which vowed to spend $100 million on 2024 elections—played a key role in defeating Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) and Cori Bush (Mo.) in recent primaries. The group has come under fire for attacking Black and brown members of Congress and for supporting Republicans who took part in Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
In an effort to curb the flood of dark money and other outside spending, House Democrats led by Reps. Adam Schiff (Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Dean Phillips (Minn.), and Jim McGovern (Mass.) last year
proposed a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
" Citizens United was one of the most egregious enablers of special interest money, but it was only the latest in a long line of Supreme Court cases that opened the floodgates," Schiff's office said at the time. "To truly rein in dark money, we must amend our Constitution."