Here is a roundup of recent abortion- and pro-life-related news:
U.S. government reproductive rights website shut down
A federal government website promoting abortion has been taken down following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Reproductiverights.gov, launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, went offline around the time of the inauguration on Jan. 20. Based on archived pages, the site was available just days before Trump’s inauguration.
The website formerly detailed information about accessing abortion and birth control via insurance providers.
Pro-life physicians support challenge to FDA abortion pill safeguards
A coalition of pro-life physicians shared its support of a recent decision granting three states access to challenge the FDA’s chemical abortion policies.
A federal judge in Texas ruled on Jan. 17 that three other states — Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri — can join a case challenging online prescriptions of the abortion pill mifepristone.
Dr. Christina Francis, board-certified OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), criticized the FDA’s lack of safeguards in a statement shared with CNA.
“For years the FDA has failed to provide basic protections for women and girls to lessen the serious health risks of abortion drugs,” Francis said. “The physicians of AAPLOG believe that women deserve better care than this. Reinstating the original safeguards, including requiring in-person medical care, is a step towards protecting women from these dangerous drugs.”
Virginia Senate backs abortion
The Virginia Senate passed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to establish a right to abortion in the Virginia Constitution.
The Senate vote followed the House of Delegates, which passed its own version of the resolution. This is among the beginning steps of a long legislative process to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot in Virginia. The legislation must pass in both the House and Senate twice in two years, with an intervening election before the two sessions. Following this, the referendum can be put on the ballot for voters to decide.
Both the Virginia Senate and House have a slim Democratic majority, while Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is a staunch Republican.
Republicans warned that the amendment could undermine current abortion-related laws in Virginia, including Virginia’s parental consent laws for minors seeking abortions. Abortion is currently legal in Virginia for the first and second trimesters of pregnancy as well as in the third trimester if the mother’s life or health is at serious risk, as verified by three physicians.
The Virginia Senate also passed a resolution to repeal a now-defunct law defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
Texas defendant pleads guilty after vandalizing pregnancy clinic
A Texan man who vandalized two pregnancy resource clinics in May 2022 recently pleaded guilty to a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
Ethan Skorick, 23, vandalized two Texas pregnancy resource centers with spray paint shortly after the leak of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. The two clinics, the Loreto House and Woman to Woman, serve pregnant women in need in Denton, Texas. According to court documents, Skorick defaced the clinics with graffitied phrases including “NOT A CLINIC,” “FORCED BIRTH IS MURDER,” and “PRO BIRTH [does not equal] PRO LIFE.”
Skorick pleaded guilty to a violation of the FACE Act, which has been used in the past to allegedly target pro-life activists for blocking clinic entrances. The FACE Act prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a Jan. 16 statement that the DOJ “will enforce the FACE Act to protect all providers of reproductive health services and their patients.”
Birth rate in South Korea rises for first time in 9 years
South Korea has the world’s lowest recorded fertility rates, but the birth rate in that country has risen for the first time in nine years.
The number of newborns from January 2024 to November 2024 rose 3% from a year earlier, according to monthly government data. South Korea’s government last year encouraged young people to get married and have children. The now-impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a “national demographic crisis” and put forth a plan to create a new ministry to address low birth rates.
