Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.
Kentucky woman granted narrow victory in abortion ban challenge
A circuit judge declared unconstitutional part of Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban on May 1, stating it had “conflicting and intertwined definitions” of “human life.” In 2022, after the law took effect, a Jewish woman named Jessica Kalb, along with two others, sued the state. They argued that the abortion ban violated their right to freedom of religion and risked their ability to pursue IVF without fear of criminal prosecution. Only Kalb’s complaint was allowed to advance. Despite this week’s ruling, the ban stands.
Native Minnesotans face outsized maternal mortality rate
The maternal mortality rate among Indigenous Minnesotans is 12 times higher than the state average and nearly 22 times higher than their white peers, a state department of health report found. Black pregnant people also face higher-than-average mortality rates in Minnesota. Discrimination factored into more than 90% of Indigenous pregnancy-related deaths. “I can’t help but feel,” an Indigenous member of the state’s maternal mortality committee told the Sahan Journal, “that this is like a modern-day genocide.”
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Arkansas near-total abortion ban harms pregnant people—lawsuit
An Arkansas lawsuit contends that the state’s near-total abortion ban denies pregnant people life-saving care, USA Today reported this week. The state allows abortion to “preserve the life” of the pregnant person, but several plaintiffs say they were denied termination during emergencies like ectopic pregnancy. Another had to carry a nonviable pregnancy until the fetus died inside her. “What I went through was really traumatic,” she said. “I don’t want anyone else to have to go through that.”
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