Tag Archives: rape

North Dakota GOP Approves Near-Total Abortion Ban After Rejecting Free School Lunches

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“Mandating birth is state responsibility. Helping feed those kids is not,” is how Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom summarized the Republican position.

By Kenny Stancil. Published 4-25-2023 by Common Dreams

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Photo: North Dakota National Guard/flickr/CC

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota on Monday signed one of the nation’s most draconian abortion bans into law, just weeks after the state’s GOP lawmakers shot down a proposal to provide free school lunches to low-income students.

The new forced pregnancy law, which takes immediate effect, prohibits abortion care in nearly all cases. Abortion is allowed in cases of rape or incest, but only during the first six weeks of pregnancy—before many people realize they are pregnant. Abortion is also allowed without gestational limits if terminating a pregnancy could prevent the pregnant person’s “death or a serious health risk.”

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South Carolina Bill to Execute People Who Have Abortions Gets Support From 21 Republicans

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“Executing women is not fringe GOP,” said one human rights lawyer. “It’s your horrifically mainstream ‘pro life’ GOP.”

By Julia Conley.  Published 3–14–2023 by Common Dreams

Protestors in front of the Supreme Court on June 24, the day of Roe v. Wade’s overturn. Photo: Ted Eytan/CC BY-SA 2.0.

A new pro-forced pregnancy proposal in the South Carolina General Assembly that would make people who obtain abortion care eligible for the death penalty was portrayed as coming from the fringes of the Republican Party by one GOP lawmaker—but with 21 state Republicans backing the legislation, critics said the idea is representative of the party’s anti-choice agenda.

Proposed by state Rep. Rob Harris, the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023 would amend the state’s criminal code to give a zygote, or fertilized egg, “equal protection under the homicide laws of the state”—meaning obtaining an abortion could be punishable by the death penalty. Continue reading →

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Surging Number of US Teen Girls Face Sexual Violence and Extreme Sadness: CDC

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“Young people in the U.S. are collectively experiencing a level of distress that calls on us to act,” reads the study.

By Julia Conley  Published 213-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: rawpixel (Public domain}

Child development experts and other advocates said Monday that new federal data regarding the struggles of adolescents in the United States should serve as an urgent call to action, as teenage girls reported facing rising levels of sexual violence as well as suicidal thoughts and depression in a survey taken by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which was given to 17,000 teenagers at public and private high schools across the U.S. in 2021, found that nearly 1 in 3 adolescent girls seriously considered suicide that year—representing an increase of 60% over the previous decade. Continue reading →

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99% of House GOP Just Showed They Support Forcing Children to Birth ‘Their Rapist’s Child’: Pascrell

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Despite Republican opposition, Democrats passed a bill to affirm the right to cross state lines for abortion care in response to attempts by anti-choice lawmakers to ban such travel.

By Jessica Corbett  Published 7-15-2022 by Common Dreams

Abortion Rights Rally in response to Supreme Court Roe vs Wade Reversal Decision at Washington Square Park in NYC on Friday evening, 24 June 2022. Photo: Elvert Barnes/flickr/CC

While reproductive rights advocates and many Democrats on Friday welcomed the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of a bill protecting the right to travel for abortion care, Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. called out GOP lawmakers who opposed the legislation.

“Today 99% of House Republicans made clear they support forcing raped children to give birth to their rapist’s child,” declared the New Jersey Democrat after the House approved the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act in a 223-205 vote. Continue reading →

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New GOP Laws ‘Will Devastate Abortion Access Across Large Parts of the Nation’

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“Florida has been a critical haven for abortion access in the South, and this ban will decimate abortion access for Floridians and the entire region,” one group said after the governor’s signature.

By Jessica Corbett  Published 4-14-2022 by Common Dreams

Photo: Adam Fagen/flickr/CC

After Florida’s GOP governor on Thursday signed a 15-week abortion ban inspired by a contested Mississippi law that could soon reverse Roe v. Wade, pro-choice advocates warned of impacts across the region, given that the Sunshine State has long been “an oasis of reproductive care in the South.”

With Gov. Ron DeSantis’ support, Florida’s law is set to take effect this summer. His signature came after Republican state legislators in Kentucky on Wednesday overrode their Democratic governor’s veto of a similar bill and GOP Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday signed a near-total abortion ban. Continue reading →

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‘Worse Than Texas’: Extreme Anti-Choice Bills Advance in Multiple States

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“These attacks on our rights are coordinated and connected,” noted Planned Parenthood Action.

By Brett Wilkins.  Published 3-17-2022 by Common Dreams

Reproductive rights defenders march during the Rally for Abortion Justice in Washington, D.C. on October 2, 2021. (Photo: Kisha Bari/Women’s March/Twitter)

As anti-choice policymakers across the country seek to severely restrict reproductive freedom—and as the fate of Roe v. Wade hangs in the balance pending a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision—Republican lawmakers in at least four states this week advanced bills banning or limiting abortion access.

The Idaho Legislature on Monday became the first in the nation to approve a bill modeled after a Texas law that empowers citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks. Continue reading →

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Texas Governor Signs ‘All-Out Assault on Reproductive Health’ Into Law

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“This forced pregnancy act will drive women back into the [pre-Roe] shadows,” warned one Democratic lawmaker in the state.

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-19-2021

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt Pro-choice demonstration in front of SCOTUS in 2016. Photo: Jordan Uhl/flickr/CC

“Abhorrent” and “unconscionable” were words used Wednesday by women’s health and rights advocates to describe the latest extreme ban on abortion care as Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a measure that bans the procedure after six weeks and allows virtually any private citizen to attempt to penalize abortion providers in the state.

The law, which provides no exceptions for survivors or rape or incest, is set to take effect in September. Continue reading →

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On 18th Anniversary of Iraq Invasion, Activists Renew Calls for US Reparations

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“Americans owe a debt to the people of Iraq that can never be repaid in full. However, it is incumbent and imperative that we try.”

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-19-2021

On route 27 near An Nu’ maniyah, Iraq during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Photo: Public Domain

Human rights and anti-war activists marked the 18th anniversary of the second of three American-led invasions of Iraq by renewing calls for the U.S.—this time the Biden administration—to pay reparations for 30 years of nonstop aggression against the Iraqi people.

“Eighteen years after the United States invaded Iraq on a patently false basis, we uplift the work of Iraqi activists, civil society, and their partners building local and transnational social justice movements under extremely precarious conditions,” the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said in a statement. Continue reading →

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Human Rights Watch Urges Biden to End Trump’s ‘Devastating’ Remain In Mexico Policy

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The policy under Trump, and made only worse under the pandemic, “has needlessly and foreseeably exposed children and adults to a high risk of violence and other harm.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-6-2021

Screenshot: ABC News

Human Rights Watch in a new report Wednesday urged President-elect Joe Biden to “quickly and decisively” end a two-year-old policy under which tens of thousands of asylum seekers have been forced to stay in squalid and often dangerous makeshift shelters in Mexico.

The report, titled “‘Like I’m Drowning’: Children and Families Sent to Harm by the U.S. ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program,” includes interviews with several children and adults who have faced abduction, extortion, rape, and other violence—often at the hands of immigration officers or Mexican police—under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), commonly called “Remain in Mexico.” Continue reading →

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Ruling Against Rape Victim in Alabama, Say Critics, Shows Stand-Your-Ground Laws ‘Not Created for Women’

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Brittany Smith’s attorneys plan to appeal the decision.

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-4-2020

A judge in Alabama rejected a woman’s “Stand Your Ground” defense regarding the shooting of her alleged rapist. (Photo: Lori Shaull/Flickr/cc)

A woman in Alabama could face life in prison after losing her “Stand Your Ground” hearing in spite of testifying she shot a man in her home in January 2018 because he raped her and attacked her brother.

Brittany Smith was charged with first-degree murder after killing Todd Smith, her acquaintance, but sought immunity from prosecution citing Alabama’s Stand Your Ground law. The state is one of 25 with laws that ostensibly permit the use of deadly force in the case of self-defense in the case of a burglary or the threat of violence. Continue reading →

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