Skip Joslin’s Post

Citizens are initiating state constitutional amendments to protect or ban abortion across the United States. Our new brief examines citizen-initiated abortion ballot initiatives in progress in nine states and legislatively referred abortion initiatives in four states ahead of the 2024 elections. While these ballot measures put abortion rights directly before the voters, it is not an option in every state. In fact, 15 states lack a pathway for citizens to place these amendments on the ballot because they currently have abortion bans or early gestational limits on the books. In those states, the legislature controls the process.  Still, in most of the states where this is an option, advocacy groups on both sides of the issue are seeking to use abortion-related constitutional amendment as a powerful tool to address the legality of abortion in their state. Since the SCOTUS Dobbs decision in 2022, six states have voted on abortion related constitutional amendments.

The question of LIFE or ABORTION will be major issues in upcoming elections. Donald Trump (who is personally pro-life) has just declared that abortion should be the decision of the States, and not the Federal government. As a result, he has taken flak from all sides. https://lnkd.in/gjQRBcTp I tend to agree with his position, even though I am also unapologetically pro-life myself. Here's why. In the past, we have tried to decide a few issues via top-down mandates, with some really bad results. Slavery and prohibition were decided, but at the cost of lives and freedoms. It took a Civil War and countless deaths and casualties to outlaw slavery. And prohibition created a black market, Al Capone's murderous crime syndicate and widespread disobedience of the law, and it was repealed. I believe that the question of LIFE must first be an issue of hearts and minds. While laws can be passed to limit, outlaw or criminalize elective clinical abortion, many will disagree and disobey. Laws do not change hearts nor create compliance. Our American system of #Federalism is mode of political organization that unites separate States within an overarching political system that allows each to maintain its own integrity. In other words, the 50 States are an 'R&D lab' where diverse people can try things that either succeed or fail, via elections, according to their unique needs and cultures. If enough people in enough States find an idea (like LIFE or ABORTION) to be good, fair and workable, it can be adopted at the Federal level. Or not. Only time will tell. HERE'S MY POINT. I would love and support a system where ALL unborn children and their mothers are shown kindness and compassion; given hope, supported, loved, protected, educated and trained in self-sufficiency. And I would support a major portion of Federal abortion funding being re-allocated to this purpose. BTW - if you are reading this, you were conceived, became a fetus, then an unborn child, and after a period of pregnancy inside of your mother, you were given the opportunity of life by your mother. I'm glad that happened, and hope you will consider others - both born and unborn - just as valuable as you are.

New Post: Arizona House votes to overturn century-old abortion ban, paving way to leave 15-week limit in place -Rebecca Noble/Getty Images Abortion rights supporters demonstrate at the Arizona House of Representatives in Phoenix on April 17, 2024. CNN  —  The Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn the state’s 160-year-old abortion ban, setting the stage for a repeal that would leave the state’s 15-week restriction on the procedure in place. The vote... Rebecca Noble/Getty Images Abortion rights supporters demonstrate at the Arizona House of Representatives in Phoenix on April 17, 2024. CNN  —  The Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn the state’s 160-year-old abortion ban, setting the stage for a repeal that would leave the state’s 15-week restriction on the procedure in place. The vote comes after two failed attempts by state House lawmakers to bring the bill to the floor last week. Arizona GOP candidates in competitive races have been scrambling to distance themselves from the state Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that Arizona must adhere to the 1864 law that bars all abortions except in cases when “necessary” to save a pregnant woman’s life. The law also carries a prison sentence of two to five years for abortion providers. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is expected to sign the repeal legislation – which would also require passage in the state Senate – if lawmakers advance it to her desk. If a repeal fails, the 1864 law could take effect as early as June 8, making Arizona one of more than a dozen states that bans abortion at virtually all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions. If it succeeds, Arizona’s 15-week restriction on abortions will continue to be state law. In March 2022, months before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law the state’s 15-week limit, which has no exceptions for rape or incest. That legislation stated explicitly that it did not overrule the 1864 law. The Civil War-era abortion ban dates to before statehood, when Arizona was a territory, and it was codified in 1901. It remained in effect until 1973, when it was blocked by a court injunction after Roe v. Wade created a federal constitutional right to an abortion. Abortion rights advocates are currently working to place a constitutional amendme

#VoteBlue up and down the ticket for democracy, women's reproductive rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, Social Security, Medicare, Veterans Pact Act, infrastructure, Chips and Science act, lowest unemployment in 50 years, higher wages, 13 million new jobs, a good education, and a lot more. ‘No help here’: Florida abortion ruling leaves women with few options The law allowed to go into effect by Florida’s Supreme Court will affect more people seeking abortions in the first trimester than any other ban to date More than 80,000 women get an abortion in Florida in a typical year — accounting for about 1 in 12 abortions in the country. Now, most of those women will need to find somewhere else to go. With the Florida Supreme Court’s decision Monday night upholding an existing 15-week ban and allowing a strict new six-week ban to take effect in 30 days, the court has cut off nearly all abortion access across the South, where all other states have either implemented similar bans or outlawed abortion entirely since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The new law will affect more women seeking abortions in the first trimester than any other single abortion ban to date, upending an already precarious new landscape for abortion access that has developed in the wake of the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The Florida justices issued a separate ruling Monday that greenlighted an initiative to put abortion on the ballot in November. Anya Cook, who nearly died after she was denied an abortion under Florida’s existing 15-week ban in 2022, had a message Monday for women in the Sunshine State who now encounter pregnancy complications after the six-week mark. “Run,” she said. “Run, because you have no help here.” https://lnkd.in/gqcMNekj

from DR. HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: “…Today, Florida’s ban on abortions after six weeks—earlier than most women know they’re pregnant—went into effect. The Florida legislature passed the law and Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed it a little more than a year ago, on April 13, 2023, but the new law was on hold while the Florida Supreme Court reviewed it. On April 1 the court permitted the law to go into operation today. The new Florida law is possible because two years ago, on June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the constitutional right to abortion. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the modern court decided that the right to determine abortion rights must be returned “to the people’s elected representatives” at the state level. Immediately, Republican-dominated states began to restrict abortion rights. Now, one out of three American women of childbearing age lives in one of the more than 20 states with abortion bans. This means, as Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, put it in The Daily Beast today, “child rape victims forced to give birth, miscarrying patients turned away from emergency rooms and told to return when they’re in sepsis.” It means recognizing that the state has claimed the right to make a person’s most personal health decisions. Until today, Florida’s law was less stringent than that of other southern states, making it a destination for women of other states to obtain the abortions they could not get at home. In the Washington Post today, Caroline Kitchener noted that in the past, more than 80,000 women a year obtained abortions in Florida. Now, receiving that reproductive care will mean a trip to Virginia, Illinois, or North Carolina, where the procedure is still legal, putting it out of reach for many women. This November, voters in Florida will weigh in on a proposed amendment to the Florida constitution to establish the right to abortion. The proposed amendment reads: “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 healthcare provider.” Even if the amendment receives the 60% support it will need to be added to the constitution, it will come too late for tens of thousands of women….”

New Post: Arizona House votes to overturn century-old abortion ban, paving way to leave 15-week limit in place -Rebecca Noble/Getty Images Abortion rights supporters demonstrate at the Arizona House of Representatives in Phoenix on April 17, 2024. CNN  —  The Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn the state’s 160-year-old abortion ban, setting the stage for a repeal that would leave the state’s 15-week restriction on the procedure in place. The vote... Rebecca Noble/Getty Images Abortion rights supporters demonstrate at the Arizona House of Representatives in Phoenix on April 17, 2024. CNN  —  The Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn the state’s 160-year-old abortion ban, setting the stage for a repeal that would leave the state’s 15-week restriction on the procedure in place. The vote comes after two failed attempts by state House lawmakers to bring the bill to the floor last week. Arizona GOP candidates in competitive races have been scrambling to distance themselves from the state Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that Arizona must adhere to the 1864 law that bars all abortions except in cases when “necessary” to save a pregnant woman’s life. The law also carries a prison sentence of two to five years for abortion providers. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is expected to sign the repeal legislation – which would also require passage in the state Senate – if lawmakers advance it to her desk. If a repeal fails, the 1864 law could take effect as early as June 8, making Arizona one of more than a dozen states that bans abortion at virtually all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions. If it succeeds, Arizona’s 15-week restriction on abortions will continue to be state law. In March 2022, months before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law the state’s 15-week limit, which has no exceptions for rape or incest. That legislation stated explicitly that it did not overrule the 1864 law. The Civil War-era abortion ban dates to before statehood, when Arizona was a territory, and it was codified in 1901. It remained in effect until 1973, when it was blocked by a court injunction after Roe v. Wade created a federal constitutional right to an abortion. Abortion rights advocates are currently working to place a constitutional amendme

New Post: Arizona House votes to overturn century-old abortion ban, paving way to leave 15-week limit in place -Rebecca Noble/Getty Images Abortion rights supporters demonstrate at the Arizona House of Representatives in Phoenix on April 17, 2024. CNN  —  The Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn the state’s 160-year-old abortion ban, setting the stage for a repeal that would leave the state’s 15-week restriction on the procedure in place. The vote... Rebecca Noble/Getty Images Abortion rights supporters demonstrate at the Arizona House of Representatives in Phoenix on April 17, 2024. CNN  —  The Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn the state’s 160-year-old abortion ban, setting the stage for a repeal that would leave the state’s 15-week restriction on the procedure in place. The vote comes after two failed attempts by state House lawmakers to bring the bill to the floor last week. Arizona GOP candidates in competitive races have been scrambling to distance themselves from the state Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that Arizona must adhere to the 1864 law that bars all abortions except in cases when “necessary” to save a pregnant woman’s life. The law also carries a prison sentence of two to five years for abortion providers. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is expected to sign the repeal legislation – which would also require passage in the state Senate – if lawmakers advance it to her desk. If a repeal fails, the 1864 law could take effect as early as June 8, making Arizona one of more than a dozen states that bans abortion at virtually all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions. If it succeeds, Arizona’s 15-week restriction on abortions will continue to be state law. In March 2022, months before the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law the state’s 15-week limit, which has no exceptions for rape or incest. That legislation stated explicitly that it did not overrule the 1864 law. The Civil War-era abortion ban dates to before statehood, when Arizona was a territory, and it was codified in 1901. It remained in effect until 1973, when it was blocked by a court injunction after Roe v. Wade created a federal constitutional right to an abortion. Abortion rights advocates are currently working to place a constitutional amendme

My latest (free to read!) for Bloomberg Law: The #Arizona Supreme Court ruling this week reestablishing a Civil War-era abortion law shifts the fight for #abortion rights in the state to a pending initiative on the ballot this fall, an effort that could ultimately face its own legal challenges. Organizers behind a proposed constitutional amendment in Arizona to establish a “fundamental right” to abortion before viability—roughly 24 weeks of pregnancy—say the proposal is more pivotal than ever after the state’s top court ruled April 9 that an 1864 law criminalizing nearly all abortions could take effect. That law, which makes aiding or performing most abortions a felony punishable with two to five years of prison time, is expected to put abortion care on hold throughout the state. Democrats have so far been successful in mobilizing voters to approve abortion rights measures in states like #Ohio and #Michigan, and are hoping to build on the success this year in Arizona, #Florida, and as many as 11 other states. But legal analysts say abortion rights votes are likely to see legal challenges from anti-abortion groups that argue embryos and fetuses should have the full rights of persons under the law. More here: https://lnkd.in/evJdvVpy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - July 1, 2024 / Biden/Harris Talking Points - Elon’s Wrong. Trump Will Ban Abortion Nationwide. Maybe Elon should try Google? Elon Musk, who is in discussions for a role in a Trump d̶i̶c̶t̶a̶t̶o̶r̶s̶h̶i̶p̶ White House, is using the platform he overpaid for to lie to Twitter followers (yeah, we ain’t calling it X). If he wins, Donald Trump will ban abortion nationwide: Donald Trump has both publicly and privately supported a national abortion ban. His record is clear: He brags about being “proudly the person responsible” for overturning Roe and calls abortion bans “a beautiful thing to watch.” Trump promised to be “leading the charge” in banning abortion nationwide. His Project 2025 allies want to “go far beyond proposals for a national ban” on abortion and create a Department of Life to crack down on abortion. His allies have laid out a comprehensive strategy to restrict reproductive health care access in all 50 states without going through Congress or the courts. Trump has said that women should face “punishment” for having an abortion. Trump supports allowing states to prosecute women and doctors, as well as monitor pregnant women. Trump refuses to rule out signing a national abortion ban or legislation that could rip away access to IVF. Trump said he was “looking at” policies to restrict access to contraception. Biden-Harris 2024 Spokesperson James Singer released the following statement: “Elon Musk can Google it: Donald Trump wants to ban abortion nationwide, allow his allies to ban medication abortion and contraception, and use the power of the government to harass and punish women. This election is a choice between codifying Roe and protecting women’s fundamental rights, and allowing extreme politicians to interfere with medical decisions and rip away freedoms.” ###

Proud of my former org Arizona Right to Life for leading this lawsuit against the radical 9-month pro-abortion Prop. 139. Attorneys Jennifer Wright and Tim LaSota laid out the arguments - their petition signature gatherers were caught on video MANY times flat out lying about Prop. 139. Some of them said all abortion was currently illegal in Arizona, even to save the life of the mother (abortion is illegal after 15 weeks except for rare circumstances like that). Most of them said Prop. 139 would only legalize abortion for up to 15 weeks or slightly more. One said that women must currently go to Mexico to get abortions. 🤡🤡🤡🤡 And the summary on the petitions was so incredibly misleading that AZRTL is asking to get it kicked off the ballot. Would all those voters have signed the petition if they knew it made our laws as radical as California's, legalizing partial-birth abortion? “The Ballot Measure Proponents have a right to advocate for unregulatable right to abortion in the State of Arizona. However, that right does not include the ability to draft an Amendment and a misleading 200-word description of purported principal provisions because they do not want to tell would-be signers that the Amendment codifies an absolute right for anyone of any age to obtain an abortion on demand, up to natural birth. … The Amendment purports to create a qualified right to abortion when in reality, it provides unfettered access to abortion with illusory limitations.” There is significant case law that says they can't do this. The Arizona Supreme Court is receiving arguments this week so a decision should come soon. https://lnkd.in/gR_uTzKg