Advocates of abortion recognize that the public opinion, both in America and around the world, that has been moving against their ideology for decades, has recently become a pro-life tsunami as abortion clinic closings mount in the U.S. Although, a lone judge temporarily halted some clinic closings in Texas, most there have already closed, as has been the case in Ohio. In response, abortionists are strategizing to perpetuate their deadly sacrament in the absence of traditional clinics.
For background, read Abortion Clinic Closings Set Record; Abortionists Admit Defeat and are now Forced to Risk All in Supreme Court
Also read that Abortion Advocates Shun Label 'Pro-choice' due to Negative Connotation
-- From "The Dawn of the Post-Clinic Abortion" by Emily Bazelon, New York Times 8/28/14
In June 2001, under a cloud-streaked sky, Rebecca Gomperts set out from the Dutch port of Scheveningen in a rented 110-foot ship bound for Ireland. Lashed to the deck was a shipping container, freshly painted light blue and stocked with packets of mifepristone (which used to be called RU-486) and misoprostol. The pills are given to women in the first trimester to induce a miscarriage. Medical abortion, as this procedure is called, had recently become available in the Netherlands. But use of misoprostol and mifepristone to end a pregnancy was illegal in Ireland, where abortion by any means remains against the law, with few exceptions.
Gomperts is a general-practice physician and activist. She first assisted with an abortion 20 years ago on a trip to Guinea, just before she finished medical school in Amsterdam. Three years later, Gomperts went to work as a ship’s doctor on a Greenpeace vessel. . . . She did some legal and medical research and concluded that in a Dutch-registered ship governed by Dutch law, she could sail into the harbor of a country where abortion is illegal, take women on board, bring them into international waters, give them the pills at sea and send them home to miscarry. . . .
Gomperts no longer works from a boat. Eight years ago she started Women on Web, a “telemedicine support service” for women around the world who are seeking medical abortions. . . . .
Almost 40 percent of the world’s population lives in countries, primarily in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Persian Gulf, where abortion is either banned or severely restricted. . . .
Gomperts designed her program — based on the radical idea of providing abortions without direct contact with a doctor — for women in countries where abortion clinics are nonexistent or highly restricted. But her model is invigorating abortion rights activists in the United States, where the procedure is simultaneously legal and increasingly hard to access. In their eyes, medical abortion, delivered through a known, if faraway, source, could be a transformative response: a means of access that remains open even when clinics shut.
. . . The F.D.A. approved mifepristone through the seventh week of pregnancy. Many doctors, though, prescribe the medication off label through 10 weeks, based on recent research showing it remains effective. Medical abortion now accounts for approximately a third of all abortion through that period in this country. Ohio and Texas require abortion providers to follow the more restrictive F.D.A. protocol; a similar law will go into effect in Oklahoma in November.
. . . A number of clinics have explored the option of allowing women, particularly those who live in remote areas, to receive the drugs without seeing a doctor in person. . . .
Just as abortion rights supporters have come to appreciate the potential of mifepristone and misoprostol to increase access to abortion, anti-abortion activists have come to grasp the threat it poses. In the last four years, 15 states have blocked medical abortion via telemedicine, requiring doctors to be physically present when patients take their pills. Advocates for laws that limit access to medical abortion, which they call “chemical abortion,” say that the procedure should be restricted to protect the safety of women.
. . . Self-administered abortion is increasingly getting attention in states where clinics are closing, especially in Texas. . . .
To read the entire VERY LONG article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read American Kids Killed by Chemical Weapons: Abortion
From "In Texas, New Doctor-Restrictive Abortion Law Could Kick In Monday" by Carrie Feibel, KUHF posted at Kaiser Health News 8/28/14
The Texas law that passed in 2013 requires doctors who perform abortions to first obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. Many clinics, especially rural ones, found it difficult to comply with that rule by the November deadline. The number of Texas clinics that perform abortions has dropped from 41 to 20.
Now the law’s final rule requires doctors’ offices to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, including an array of rules that govern hallway widths, the presence of showers and lockers, heating and cooling specifications. The rules also require conformance with other construction codes that can cost millions of dollars.
Planned Parenthood’s [Rochelle] Tafolla said only eight clinics in Texas would meet the newest requirement, and they’re all in the major cities: two are in Houston (including Planned Parenthood Gulf Cost), two in San Antonio, two in Dallas, and one each in Fort Worth and Austin.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Federal judge strikes down key part of restrictive Texas abortion law" by Maria L. La Ganga & Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times 8/29/14
[U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, in a 21-page decision,] late Friday struck down two provisions of a Texas law that has already forced the closure of half the state’s abortion clinics, granting at least a temporary reprieve to nearly a dozen more facilities that would have otherwise gone out of business Monday.
Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott immediately filed a notice that he would appeal Yeakel’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which has upheld abortion restrictions.
Jonathan Saenz, president of a conservative Austin-based group called Texas Values, said he was disappointed but not surprised, given Yeakel’s record. And he said he was confident that the decision would eventually be overturned by the conservative 5th Circuit.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Texas Abortion Rate Plunges, Liberals Fume
Besides Texas, read how Democrats Restrict Abortion in Louisiana and South Carolina
From "How many abortion clinics does Ohio have?" by Chrissie Thompson, Cincinnati Enquirer 8/29/14
Ohio started 2013 with 14 abortion clinics, but that number started to dwindle once new Republican-authored regulations took effect last fall. The state currently has eight outpatient clinics performing abortions: three in Northeast Ohio, two in Southwest Ohio, one in Toledo and two in Columbus.
The Enquirer reported a ninth clinic last week: Cleveland's Surgi-Center has met the regulatory requirements to perform abortions, but is looking for a new location. So it's not offering abortions, and we won't count it among operating clinics from now on.
Of the remaining eight clinics in Ohio, three are in jeopardy: the two Southwest Ohio facilities, which are seeking approval to stay open, and the one in Toledo, which is in a court battle with the health department.
At issue is a controversial state law, which was updated last year. Abortion clinics in Ohio now must have agreements with private hospitals willing to take abortion patients in an emergency. Many private hospitals are religious and have declined to form the agreements, leaving the clinics seeking an exception to the state law.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Ohio Shuts Down Last Abortion Clinic in Toledo
CBS News reports on clinic closings
