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Trump and Vance join March for Life anti-abortion activists in celebrating the movement's gains

Trump and Vance join March for Life anti-abortion activists in celebrating the movement's gains
Hi, more than one in eight voters say abortion is the most important issue to them in the presidential election. Two years since the Dobbs decision, new state restrictions, Supreme court rulings and ballot measures continue to evolve but the headlines can be overwhelming and confusing. So let's stick to the facts about what Americans need to know about abortion access want it. Now, abortion is out the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling on Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which essentially eliminated the constitutional right to an abortion led to an immediate array of bans and restrictions across the United States. Currently 21 states have either *** ban or restriction on abortion, but that wasn't the only outcome in response to trigger laws that took effect almost immediately after the ruling. The Department of Health and Human Services instructed hospitals to comply with the Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act or mal *** the 1986 statute requires doctors to stabilize or treat anyone who comes to *** hospital in an emergency that could include providing an emergency abortion to *** pregnant woman if it would mean saving her life or preventing her further harm. The Biden administration's HHS went on to say that when *** state law prohibits abortion, it does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person. That state law is preempted Idaho disagreed and its challenge has made it all the way to the US Supreme Court. In April, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Idaho and Moyle, the United States, which questions whether the federal government can pre-empt state law. In the case of abortions counsel, the problem we're having right now is that you're sort of putting preemption on its head. The whole purpose of preemption is to say that if the state passes *** law that violates federal law, the state law is no longer effective. Attorney Josh Turner, arguing on behalf of Idaho said that the state law protects doctors ability to make subjective decisions based on good faith medical judgment. As long as it's within the confines of state policy, including allowing an emergency abortion to save the pregnant person's life. There is *** life saving exception under *** but when justice is asked what if the pregnant person wasn't near death but their health was in peril. Would abortion be allowed just since the point which is they will present with *** serious medical condition that doctors in good faith can't say will present death but will present potential loss of an organ for serious medical complications for the woman. They can't perform those abortions if that hypothetical exists. Idaho law does say that abortions in that case aren't allowed. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prilo further illustrated what was at stake today. Doctors in Idaho and the women in Idaho are in an impossible position if *** woman comes to an emergency room facing *** grave threat to her health, but she isn't yet facing death. Doctors have to delay treatment and allow her condition to materially deteriorate or they're airlifting her out of the state so she can get emergency care that she needs key points of the argument went on to discuss how Idaho would determine if it were possible to stabilize the patient's condition and the health of the quote unborn child. Have you seen abortion statutes that use the phrase unborn child? Doesn't that tell us something under B one, if *** woman goes to hospital with an emergency medical condition, that's the phrase, the hospital must either stabilize the condition or under some circumstances transfer the woman to another facility. The term emergency medical condition is defined to include *** condition that places the health of the woman's unborn child in serious jeopardy. So in that situation, the hospital must stabilize the threat to the unborn child. And it seems that the plain meaning is that the hospital must try to eliminate any immediate threat to the child. But performing an abortion is antithetical to that duty note justice Alito's use of the term unborn child instead of fetus. *** fundamental marker of the pro life movement is to establish fetal personhood. The justices will continue to grapple with this argument until they deliver their decision, which is expected to come down in June. In the meantime, doctors of Idaho's largest medical system, Saint Luke's health have been forced to airlift patients to neighboring states for emergency pregnancy terminations. Six women in three months. This is justice show up here. I love watching in Florida. The questions around abortion access are equally fraught. Just before the US Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments regarding Idaho, the Florida Supreme Court made two major decisions. It allowed Florida's abortion ban to be reduced from 15 weeks to six weeks. *** ruling that not only impacts people in Florida but also delivers *** massive blow to abortion providers in the South. According to the Agency for Health Care Administration, Florida provided more than 84,000 abortions in 2023 including 8000 abortions for patients from neighboring states. Now, patients seeking an abortion after six weeks will have to go as far as North Carolina or Virginia to seek care. Although the law makes exceptions for victims of rape, incest and life threatening conditions. It criminalizes prescribing abortion pills through telehealth or sending pills in the mail. According to the CDC, 60% of abortions in Florida from 2018 to 2023 were medicated abortions. Florida's six week ban went into effect May 1st. However, the Florida Supreme Court also allowed an abortion amendment to be on the ballot in November, Floridians will get the chance to vote for amendment four. If they would like to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. The amendment states 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 health care provider. As states debate abortion rights in the courts, our understanding of maternal mortality has also changed. *** new study released by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology questions. The maternal mortality rate reported by the CDC in 2021. The US ranks high in maternal mortality rate for *** developed nation. There are 10.4 deaths per 100,000 births and the maternal mortality rate for black women is significantly higher. Black patients are three times more likely to die from pregnancy related deaths. Even though 84% of maternal deaths are preventable. Women's health care and abortion are deeply linked and the impact of the Dobbs decision will likely be felt in the polls. This fall knowledge is power. What you do with it is your choice.
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Trump and Vance join March for Life anti-abortion activists in celebrating the movement's gains
President Donald Trump vowed to support anti-abortion-rights protesters in his second term as tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in Washington on Friday for the annual March for Life.“We will again stand proudly for families and for life,” Trump declared in a pre-recorded video address.Protesters had come to the capital for decades to call for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which affirmed a constitutional right to an abortion. Now, with the repeal of Roe in 2022, they are now on the inside rather than the outside. With Trump's return to the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, the activists want to build on their victories.“Our country faces the return of the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes," Vice President JD Vance told the crowd in his in-person speech.Vance hailed Trump’s previous actions on abortion, saying the president “delivered on his promise of ending Roe" and appointed hundreds of anti-abortion judges.Abortion was largely absent from the stack of dozens of executive actions in Trump’s first days of office. But he has already made quieter moves on abortion, including pardoning several right to life activists and using wording related to fetal personhood in an executive order rolling back protections for transgender people.House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated these moves as evidence “this new White House is already showing its resolve.”“It is a new golden age for America,” Johnson told the crowd.Despite frigid weather, a festive atmosphere surrounded the event as activists showed up with multicolored hats and signs declaring “Life is our revolution” and “MAGA: Make Abortion Gone Again.”“This is a significant moment in history,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group. “Yes, we have a march every year but this one is pretty special. We have just been through the first presidential election since the Dobbs decision. There is a trifecta of pro-life Republicans in the White House and the House and the Senate.”Kristen Cooper, 21, was among several thousand Students for Life America members attending. She said she was especially excited to be at the march with “pro-life Republicans” in the White House.She said this march was her fourth but the first with a Republican administration. “It’s surreal, actually.”Anna Henderson, a teacher at a Catholic high school near Jackson, Michigan, was also attending her fourth march with a busload of her students.“Just because we have the backing of the administration doesn’t mean the fight is over,” she said. “We still need to change people’s hearts.”The march has been held annually since 1974. It comes after the president pardoned several activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said there is still work to be done, despite the Supreme Court decision. “There’s no silver bullet to ending abortion,” she said. “The march now ends on the backside of the U.S. Capitol to remind our representatives that abortion is not only a state issue, but also a local issue and also a federal issue.”Hawkins added that she’d like to see Trump defund Planned Parenthood and more focus on making sure women with unplanned pregnancies have the resources to have the child, such as paid family leave and expanded child tax care credit.Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which supports abortion rights, said: “We know exactly what is at risk and we know the hate and lies they will spew at the March for Life."The battle over abortion since the 2022 decision, has been in state courts and at the ballot box where voters in seven states approved ballot measures for constitutional amendments on reproductive freedom in November and more states could see ballot measures in coming years.Legislatures have been fighting back already with proposals that could make such measures more difficult to get passed.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the 2024 defeat of an abortion rights amendment on the March for Life stage and boasted about his role in the state-funded campaign against the measure. Voters there supported a state constitutional amendment overturning the ban but Florida requires 60% to pass constitutional amendments in the state. Most states require a simple majority.“Most elected officials will say ‘Look, what’s on the ballot is not their issue — the people can decide,'" DeSantis told the crowd. “And they wash their hands of it and walk away.” He added: "We were not just going to sit around in Florida and do nothing.”Jennie Bradley Lichter, the March for Life president-elect, said in addition to Friday’s march the group plans to be at 17 state capitals across the country in 2025. She said, in an email answer to questions, that the march continues because it provides energy for the movement and signals that the issue of protecting unborn children is not resolved.Supporters of abortion rights spoke up, too."No matter what they said on the campaign trail to win an election, this shows their intentions to continue to attack abortion access,” Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations for the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All, said of abortion-rights opponents.“Each time one of these has taken place since the Dobbs decision, it’s been a day to reflect on how much damage that’s been caused by that decision and the crisis we continue to live in.”Ellie Smeal, president and founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said her group wojld counterprotest.“We want to remind people of the popularity of abortion rights and the importance of this issue, that women and men are supportive of people making their own reproductive health decisions,” she said.The march brings to a close a tumultuous week of protest marches, celebrations of Trump’s inauguration and executive actions by the president, including stopping diversity efforts in the federal government.

President Donald Trump vowed to support anti-abortion-rights protesters in his second term as tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in Washington on Friday for the annual March for Life.

“We will again stand proudly for families and for life,” Trump declared in a pre-recorded video address.

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Protesters had come to the capital for decades to call for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which affirmed a constitutional right to an abortion. Now, with the repeal of Roe in 2022, they are now on the inside rather than the outside. With Trump's return to the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, the activists want to build on their victories.

“Our country faces the return of the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes," Vice President JD Vance told the crowd in his in-person speech.

Vance hailed Trump’s previous actions on abortion, saying the president “delivered on his promise of ending Roe" and appointed hundreds of anti-abortion judges.

Abortion was largely absent from the stack of dozens of executive actions in Trump’s first days of office. But he has already made quieter moves on abortion, including pardoning several right to life activists and using wording related to fetal personhood in an executive order rolling back protections for transgender people.

House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated these moves as evidence “this new White House is already showing its resolve.”

“It is a new golden age for America,” Johnson told the crowd.

Despite frigid weather, a festive atmosphere surrounded the event as activists showed up with multicolored hats and signs declaring “Life is our revolution” and “MAGA: Make Abortion Gone Again.”

“This is a significant moment in history,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group. “Yes, we have a march every year but this one is pretty special. We have just been through the first presidential election since the Dobbs decision. There is a trifecta of pro-life Republicans in the White House and the House and the Senate.”

Kristen Cooper, 21, was among several thousand Students for Life America members attending. She said she was especially excited to be at the march with “pro-life Republicans” in the White House.

She said this march was her fourth but the first with a Republican administration. “It’s surreal, actually.”

Anna Henderson, a teacher at a Catholic high school near Jackson, Michigan, was also attending her fourth march with a busload of her students.

“Just because we have the backing of the administration doesn’t mean the fight is over,” she said. “We still need to change people’s hearts.”

The march has been held annually since 1974. It comes after the president pardoned several activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said there is still work to be done, despite the Supreme Court decision. “There’s no silver bullet to ending abortion,” she said. “The march now ends on the backside of the U.S. Capitol to remind our representatives that abortion is not only a state issue, but also a local issue and also a federal issue.”

Hawkins added that she’d like to see Trump defund Planned Parenthood and more focus on making sure women with unplanned pregnancies have the resources to have the child, such as paid family leave and expanded child tax care credit.

Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which supports abortion rights, said: “We know exactly what is at risk and we know the hate and lies they will spew at the March for Life."

The battle over abortion since the 2022 decision, has been in state courts and at the ballot box where voters in seven states approved ballot measures for constitutional amendments on reproductive freedom in November and more states could see ballot measures in coming years.

Legislatures have been fighting back already with proposals that could make such measures more difficult to get passed.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the 2024 defeat of an abortion rights amendment on the March for Life stage and boasted about his role in the state-funded campaign against the measure. Voters there supported a state constitutional amendment overturning the ban but Florida requires 60% to pass constitutional amendments in the state. Most states require a simple majority.

“Most elected officials will say ‘Look, what’s on the ballot is not their issue — the people can decide,'" DeSantis told the crowd. “And they wash their hands of it and walk away.” He added: "We were not just going to sit around in Florida and do nothing.”

Jennie Bradley Lichter, the March for Life president-elect, said in addition to Friday’s march the group plans to be at 17 state capitals across the country in 2025. She said, in an email answer to questions, that the march continues because it provides energy for the movement and signals that the issue of protecting unborn children is not resolved.

Supporters of abortion rights spoke up, too.

"No matter what they said on the campaign trail to win an election, this shows their intentions to continue to attack abortion access,” Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations for the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All, said of abortion-rights opponents.

“Each time one of these has taken place since the Dobbs decision, it’s been a day to reflect on how much damage that’s been caused by that decision and the crisis we continue to live in.”

Ellie Smeal, president and founder of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said her group wojld counterprotest.

“We want to remind people of the popularity of abortion rights and the importance of this issue, that women and men are supportive of people making their own reproductive health decisions,” she said.

The march brings to a close a tumultuous week of protest marches, celebrations of Trump’s inauguration and executive actions by the president, including stopping diversity efforts in the federal government.