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The week’s news includes the good, the okay, and the really ugly:

We relentlessly cover the three(!) lawsuits against the FDA over abortion pills on @autonomynews.co. Get our weekly roundup in your inbox for free: www.autonomynews.co/south-dakota...

In an active lawsuit against the FDA, the state of Missouri is arguing that access to the abortion drug mifepristone has reduced teen birth rates, thereby harming its political representation in Congress. It’s an argument being made in federal court not just on Fox

Did you know the laws being used to punish people for pregnancy loss and abortion today have roots in the 1600s? “The instruments to punish women with shame and humiliation may have changed, but the instinct to punish has not,” writes @pregnancyjust.bsky.social’s Kulsoom Ijaz in an op-ed:

Trump has been explicit here, telling Republicans in January to be "flexible" on the anti-abortion Hyde Amendment, adding “If we don't win the midterms...I'll get impeached." FDA Commissioner Marty Makary personally intervened to delay the safety review until after the midterms. @autonomynews.co

NEW: A federal judge granted Trump admin's request to pause a lawsuit seeking to end telemedicine prescriptions of the abortion drug mifepristone while FDA does a bullshit safety "review." Does NOT mean access to abortion pills is safe, just that Trump didn't want anything to happen before midterms

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Lawmakers introduced a whopper of a bill that would ban nearly all abortions, explicitly outlaw self-managed abortion, make it a felony to provide abortion-inducing drugs to a pregnant person, designate mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances, and more. Catch up on the latest news:

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Importantly, abortion clinics and providers rely on the National Abortion Federation for security. But NAF's CEO told @garnethenderson.com the organization doesn't yet have a policy on AI use regarding digital security or patient privacy. They have a task force www.autonomynews.co/amid-politic...

Many National Abortion Federation hotline callers say abortion has been their lifeline to escape abuse, per recent patient testimonials shared with Autonomy News. But the unionized hotline staff say that NAF management refuses to commit to not replacing them with artificial intelligence. More:

NEW: Republicans manufactured a one-sided coercion narrative to try to restrict abortion pills—they ignore people coerced into *remaining* pregnant. Now, workers at the country's biggest abortion hotline who help these callers worry they'll lose their jobs to AI @garnethenderson.com @autonomynews.co

NEW: The far right is trying to restrict telemedicine abortion by claiming pills enable abusers. In reality, abortion access is a lifeline for victims. But workers at the nation's largest abortion support hotline—a key part of that lifeline—say bosses won't commit to not replacing them with AI.

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The former has gotten stunningly little attention and as for the latter: The Idaho Fraternal Order of Police opposed the criminal ban because they said it would be difficult for cops to enforce without taking steps that could be considered “invasive and inappropriate.” @autonomynews.co

Plus, Republicans Senators call on the FDA to collaborate with federal agencies to investigate people mailing abortion pills to ban states:

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There's a lot going on but a constitutional amendment to reinstate Missouri's abortion ban this fall is polling at 47-40 because Republicans cynically slapped on a gender-affirming care ban. me in @autonomynews.co

Lawmakers in Missouri are desperate to overturn a 2024 reproductive rights amendment. New polling suggests they may have found a way to trick voters into banning abortion once again: by simultaneously targeting healthcare for transgender minors.

The man also confessed to shooting into a Planned Parenthood clinic in Helena in 2023, when he was just 17. No suspects had previously been identified in that incident. Catch up on all the news in our roundup:

One of the many reasons I'm a fan of @autonomynews.co is they DO NOT SHARE MUGSHOTS or name for people experiencing criminalization for their pregnancy outcomes. We can and often should share the story and sound the alarm, but we don't have to uplift awful, stigmatizing language and imagery.

“If they can violate patient privacy protections for specific types of health care, that doesn't affect just trans people. That affects everyone... ” - QueerDoc founder Dr. Beal bit.ly/4biGtpx @autonomynews.co @garnethenderson.com

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Have you or your child experienced disruptions in gender-affirming care or found it more difficult to find providers since Trump took office? I'd like to speak with you for a story. You can remain anonymous. Find me on Signal at garnethenderson.12

And we also covered the possibility of another reconciliation bill stripping abortion providers of Medicaid reimbursement. What I'm saying is subscribe to @autonomynews.co www.autonomynews.co/south-dakota...

We covered the two previous voluntary dismissals on @autonomynews.co: PP in February and Maine Family Planning in January. www.autonomynews.co/kentucky-wom...

NEW: The last remaining lawsuit challenging Trump's one-year "defunding" of large abortion providers like Planned Parenthood is no more. A coalition of 22 states and DC dropped their suit against HHS following a December loss at the First Circuit. GOP may try to extend the defund in another bill

Plus, some states are trying to rein in anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers—but even more are looking to give them additional protections against regulation.

Once again asking folks to support @autonomynews.co with a one-time tip or a paid sub. We do real independent journalism that gets edited before publishing rather than rushing to blog and make videos on the latest news. The algo loves rage content, so we need your help: www.autonomynews.co/support/

This is actual reporting on a pregnancy criminalization case, and we all deserve better than breaking news blog posts on this topic—including and most importantly the people being prosecuted. Please support @autonomynews.co today:

According to a police report obtained by Autonomy News, both the witness and the “reporting person” who participated in this investigation are identified as white women.

"The law does not make it a crime to take misoprostol, and the law hasn't changed. It is still not a crime to take misoprostol." It appears it’s too much to ask for police not to file wrongful charges, but a DA dismissed a case almost exactly like this one. State law requires them to do it again.

NEW: Georgia cops arrested a woman for murder after a hospital said she had an abortion with misoprostol. But in a disturbingly similar 2015 case, a prosecutor said state law prohibits criminal charges—and @ifwhenhow.bsky.social tells @autonomynews.co the law hasn't changed. Both women are Black.

It somehow gets worse: Georgia prosecutors dropped murder charges in a disturbingly similar 2015 case against another Black woman after determining that state law prohibits criminal charges. @ifwhenhow.bsky.social tells me the law hasn't changed. Read @autonomynews.co:

The case is strikingly similar to a 2015 arrest of another Black woman where prosecutors later dropped the charges. As the legal director of @ifwhenhow.bsky.social told Autonomy News, “the law hasn't changed. It is still not a crime to take misoprostol.”

🎂

"What about HIPAA?" Sadly, due to a gaping loophole in the healthcare privacy law, it’s not a violation for a healthcare worker to report a patient to the police if they believe a patient committed a crime. @autonomynews.co readers know this. But more reporters need to treat these stories with care

Horrific. Georgia police charged a woman with murder after she allegedly used misoprostol. Hospital may have reported her. @pregnancyjust.bsky.social calls it “an unprecedented murder charge for an alleged abortion, even though no law in the state of Georgia permits such a charge." bit.ly/46W2Ezb

The DOJ sent subpoenas to 20+ providers of gender-affirming care. At least 7 of these have been successfully challenged in federal court. The DOJ has appealed most of these decisions, but it only asked to expedite one: The sole case where its opponent is a small practice without in-house legal.

@autonomynews.co is one of the only outlets that covered this hearing about a federal SUBPOENA seeking patient MEDICAL RECORDS. Please support our paywall-free, worker-owned publication! www.autonomynews.co/support/

Almost as if our rights our intertwined

The DOJ is suggesting that gender-affirming care providers may be engaging in "conspiracy" because they're prescribing medications off-label. That poses danger for an important backstop in the event old restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone are restored:

NEW: In the first appeals court hearing over one of the subpoenas it sent to gender-affirming care providers, Trump's DOJ advanced legal arguments that cast an ominous shadow over the future of access to medications the administration doesn't approve of, including abortion pills.

Plus, two court filings that lay out how the FDA could restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone, the abrupt closure of a Utah adoption agency accused of helping create a “human marketplace,” and a secret state list of trans people in Kansas:

Mark Lee Dickson is a pastor who helped end abortion in Texas before the fall of Roe v. Wade and he's intent on reviving a 19th-century anti-vice law as a federal ban. Read the first excerpt of Amy Littlefield's book, Killers of Roe: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Abortion Rights

....the FDA just reminded everyone it has a lot of power to restrict access to mifepristone, which it could conceivably wield after the midterms www.autonomynews.co/trump-is-pla...

Here's FDA filing in Louisiana case from late January. A third mifepristone lawsuit, filed in Texas, seeks to revoke mifepristone's approval entirely, so can expect similar response from FDA there: pause or dimiss the case But abortion pills are NOT safe because