“I look forward to a new future in North Dakota and hope our lawmakers will finally give up on their crusade to force pregnancy on people against their will,” said one advocate.
Tammi Kromenaker, director of Red River Women’s Clinic. Photo: Senator Tina Smith/X
Two days after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trumpclaimed that “every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative” wanted the federal right to abortion care to be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, a North Dakota judge became the latest on Thursday to strike down a state-level abortion ban, saying it violated residents’ constitutional rights.
“The North Dakota Constitution guarantees each individual, including women, the fundamental right to make medical judgments affecting his or her bodily integrity, health, and autonomy, in consultation with a chosen healthcare provider free from government interference,” wrote Judge Bruce Romanick, a District Court judge. “This section necessarily and more specifically protects a woman’s right to procreative autonomy—including to seek and obtain a previability abortion.”
“By passing this amendment, we can end Missouri’s total abortion ban and ensure that Missourians regain access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare,” said one organizer.
Organizers with Missourians for Constitutional Freedom rally on May 3, 2024 in Jefferson City, Missouri. (Photo: @Missourians4CF/Twitter)
Voters in at least eight U.S. states will now be able to vote on constitutional amendment ballot measures regarding abortion rights in the November elections, and in Missouri on Tuesday, organizers celebrated as they learned their initiative to place a history-making referendum on ballots had succeeded.
Missouri voters will have the opportunity to vote “yes” on the Right to Reproductive Freedom initiative, which, if passed, would make Missouri the first state to reverse its strict abortion ban through a vote by citizens.
The ballot initiative was officially certified by the Missouri secretary of state on Tuesday, three months after organizers with Missourians for Constitutional Freedom delivered more than 380,000 signatures to the state Capitol.
“This effort is a lifeline for Missourians who are now living under a senseless and cruel abortion ban passed by politicians who are deeply out of touch with voters in the state,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which helped to fund and assist Missourians for Constitutional Freedom’s signature-gathering campaign. “Missourians want and need to make their own healthcare decisions without government interference. Today, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom moved voters one step closer to securing reproductive rights, and we are proud to stand with them.”
Missouri’s abortion ban is one of the most extreme in the nation, with the procedure prohibited in almost all circumstances “except in cases of medical emergency.” The 2019 policy went into effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In addition to reversing the ban, the Right to Reproductive Freedom initiative would establish that Missouri residents have the right to make their own decisions about reproductive healthcare, including abortion, contraception, and miscarriage care.
Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said the campaign’s gathering of nearly 400,000 signatures from all 114 counties in Missouri is a testament to voters’ commitment to reversing the abortion ban.
“As we turn our attention to the November ballot, it’s clear Missourians overwhelmingly support reproductive freedom and will have the chance to make their voices heard at the ballot box. We are ready to fight so all Missourians can take back the freedom to make their own healthcare decisions,” said Sweet.
As numerous state bans have gone into effect in 2022, reproductive health clinics in bordering states that allow abortion care have been flooded with patients from other states, delaying care for Missourians, who even before the overturning of Roe frequently crossed state lines to get care. A hospital in Joplin, Missouri denied a patient an emergency abortion last year, in violation of a federal statute, because doctors were concerned that providing care would break the state law.
“Missourians have been suffering under a total abortion ban with no exceptions, leaving women and families in unimaginable circumstances,” said Margot Riphagen, vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Action. “This cruel and unjust ban has put countless lives at risk and denied people the fundamental right to make their own healthcare decisions. By passing this amendment, we can end Missouri’s total abortion ban and ensure that Missourians regain access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare.” “It’s time to put control back in the hands of individuals,” added Riphagen, “and protect the health and dignity of our communities.”
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom said it would hold canvassing kickoff events on August 17 and 18 to urge people to vote “yes” on the Right to Reproductive Freedom ballot question.
On Monday, organizers in Arizona also celebrated as the state formally certified their proposed ballot measure to establish the right to abortion care in the state constitution.
Advocates in Montana and Nebraska have submitted signatures for similar initiatives and are awaiting approval.
This work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Lawmakers in southern U.S. states accused of demonstrating “a chilling commitment” to state-sponsored murder alongside “a callous intent to invest resources in the taking of human life.”
The number of executions worldwide hit a nearly 10-year high in 2023 thanks to a surge in state killings by Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and the United States.
A new global report published by Amnesty International documents that the death penalty was imposed on 1,153 people last year, though the total is believed to be significantly higher due to the secrecy surrounding China’s penal system. The international human rights group believes “thousands” of people were executed by the Chinese government, but the exact figure is not known.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service is thumbing its nose at the Endangered Species Act and letting wolf-hating states sabotage decades of recovery efforts,” said one conservation leader.
A pair of conservation coalitions on Monday made good on their threats to sue the U.S. government over its denial of federal protections for gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, where state killing regimes “put wolves at obvious risk of extinction in the foreseeable future.”
The organizations filed notices of their plans for the lawsuits in early February, after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that Endangered Species Act protections for the region’s wolves were “not warranted.” The Interior Department agency could have prevented the suits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana by reversing its decision within 60 days but refused to do so.
Native rights groups were among those applauding a decision by the Montana Supreme Court late Wednesday as four voting restrictions, passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, were struck down as “unconstitutional.”
The sweeping 2021 laws had ended same-day voter registration, eliminated the use of student ID cards as a form of identification for voters, banned the distribution of absentee ballots to teenagers who would turn 18 by Election Day, and prohibited third parties from collecting ballots and returning them on behalf of voters.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger with Governor Brian Kemp. Photo: Brad Raffensperger/Facebook
They may be the most important government officials you can’t name. Their decisions have the potential to alter election results. Scholars have referred to them as the “guardians of the democratic process.”
As of Friday, Florida residents and groups fighting for a state constitutional amendment to limit government interference with abortion care have collected enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot this November.
The proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution states that “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”
A new analnysis shows how “abortion bans, extremist harassment, and the financial realities of operating community-based clinics make it increasingly difficult for independent clinics to stay open.”
Stop Abortion Bans Rally in St Paul, Minnesota May 2019. Photo: Lorie Shaull/flickr/CC
Scores of independent reproductive health centers have been forced to close or stop offering abortion care, with 14 states now having no abortion clinics, a report published Tuesday revealed.
Abortion Care Network (ACN) released its annual Communities Need Clinics report, which details how “abortion bans, extremist harassment, and the financial realities of operating community-based clinics make it increasingly difficult for independent clinics to stay open” after the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court canceled half a century of federal abortion rights in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization a year-and-a-half ago.
“As fires rage in the West, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s ruling in Montana is a game-changer that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet,” said one attorney representing 16 young plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs in Held v. State of Montana. Photo: Our Children’s Trust
Climate advocates on Monday expressed hope that an unprecedented ruling by a state judge in Montana, siding with 16 young residents who argued the state violated their constitutional rights by promoting fossil fuel extraction, will mark a sea change in the outcomes of climate lawsuits.
In Held v. State of Montana, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that rights of the plaintiffs—who range in age from 5 to 22— have been violated by the Montana Environmental Policy Act because the law has prevented the state from assessing the climate impacts of mining projects.
The Stillwater County, Montana sheriff’s office said it was a “great stroke of luck” that none of the train cars were carrying oil that would have polluted the Yellowstone River.
A freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed on a bridge in Stillwater County, Montana on June 25, 2023. (Photo: @MontanaFWP/Twitter)
A freight train derailment and the collapse of a bridge over the Yellowstone River in Montana on Saturday raised alarm as several cars carrying asphalt and molten sulfur tumbled into the river, prompting officials to take emergency measures at nearby water plants.
The incident also brought to mind for some critics the Biden administration’s plan to move forward with a railway project along the Colorado River—one that could place the drinking water of 40 million people at risk as trains transport crude oil from eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin to national rail lines.
