State Legislatures Are Working To Ban Abortion Access During The COVID-19 Pandemic

State legislatures are attempting to stop people from obtaining abortions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Some lawmakers in Texas and Ohio — two states with notoriously anti-choice legislation — are trying to include abortions among the surgeries and medical procedures which have been required to be delayed as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic. This comes immediately after Trump administration officials asked “every American and every American hospital and healthcare facility to postpone any elective medical procedures” sort in attempt to lower the demand for hospital beds and personalized protective equipment.


On March 22, Ohio’s attorney general grouped health care providers in the state to stop all “nonessential and elective surgical abortions,” Vox reported. It was not immediately clear what penalties those in violation of the new sort will face, or how providers would decide which procedures are believed “nonessential.” That battle is still raging on in Ohio, where the state’s abortion clinics remain open, the New York Times reported. In a statement emailed to MTV News, Iris E. Harvey and Kersha Deibel, presidents and CEOs of Offered Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Recommended Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, mentioned they are “complying with the Ohio Department of Health’s group connected with personalized protective tools, which requires hospitals and surgical facilities to stop issuing non-essential surgeries and procedures and take other steps to decrease the use of tools in short supply.”


“PPSWO’s attorney immediately responded to Ohio Attorney General Yost’s letter, assuring him that PPSWO was complying with Director Acton’s order,” the statement read. “Under that group, Proposed Parenthood can still continue issuing key procedures, including surgical abortion, and our health centers continue to provide other health care services that our patients depend on. Our doors remain open for this care.”

On Monday (March 24), Texas’s attorney general Ken Paxton mentioned the only abortions that could be legal to perform must be deemed “medically needed to sustain the life or health of the mother.” According to CBS News, those in violation in Texas will face “penalties of up to $1,000 or 180 days of jail time.”




The states argue that these are inherently aggressive moves in a try to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and free up potential beds for people in need of treatment for COVID-19 complications, the New York Times reports. However most medical professionals don't agree that this is the ideal way to help Americans. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists, the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Academic Specialists Overall Obstetrics and Gynecology, the community of Family member Planning, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine released a joint statement that mentioned, while strategies to slow the spread of the virus include canceling elective and non-urgent procedures, access to abortion should not habitually be included in that strategy.


“Abortion is a crucial component of comprehensive health care,” the statement reads. “It is also a time-sensitive service for which a delay of a few weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it fully inaccessible. The implications of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person’s life, health, and well-being.”


All eight groups mentioned they “do not support COVID-19 responses that cancel or delay abortion procedures. Community-based and hospital-based clinicians should imagine group effort to make sure abortion access isn't compromised while in this time.”


because the Cut notes, abortion is one of the safest medical procedures in the world, and limiting access to abortion care can put vulnerable people in danger.


“Pregnancy-related care, especially abortion care, is crucial. Especially right now as soon as there really is so much insecurity around jobs and food and paychecks and childcare,” Meera Shah, a chief medical officer for Proposed Parenthood in New York, told Refinery29. She added that her clinics are complying with all CDC tips and that patients have instructed her “they were scared that they might not directly have health insurance in the future, that @they could might not directly have the ability to get their appointments, that childcare is becoming more of an allocate right now with all the schools closed.”

You will help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Not each person has the alternative to reside at house, nevertheless in case could, you've got to! Social distancing is the new regular, and we’re here to help.