LINCOLN, Neb. – Limiting women’s access to abortion and other reproductive health care can have a devastating impact on state economies.

According to new data from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, restrictions on books in Nebraska cost the state $ 1 billion a year in lost income, productivity and state revenues.

Andi Curry Grubb, Nebraska State Director for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said women who cannot get care face economic challenges that can last a lifetime.

“Having access to a safe and legal abortion, as well as contraception and comprehensive sexuality education, all of these things together really make people better plan their futures and take control of their lives,” said Grubb.

Nationally, abortion bans and other restrictions are estimated at $ 105 billion per year.

Grubb pointed out that while Nebraska doesn’t yet look like Texas on paper – where abortions are now banned after six weeks, before most women even realize they’re pregnant – the impacts of restrictions enacted by lawmakers over the past decade have undermined a woman’s right to access reproductive health care.

Nicole Mason, chief executive officer of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said states with laws restricting access to abortion, by imposing waiting periods or outright bans, are having an impact disproportionate over low-income women and women of color.

She explained that the restrictions hurt women by reducing their participation in the labor market, reducing their income and increasing turnover.

“Loss of income for women, women who have to cross state borders to access services,” Mason explained. “For women, especially low-income women, who may not have access to paid sick leave, or even health insurance, it also adds to the economic cost to them.”

Grubb noted that since the Texas law came into effect, people across Nebraska have spoken out in favor of the right to a safe and legal abortion.

“And we know that most Americans, including most Nebraskans, support access to this type of care,” said Grubb. “It’s health care, that’s all.”

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CONCORD, NH – Reproductive health advocates are calling on Gov. Chris Sununu to meet with them over the 24-week abortion ban, which is currently featured in the Senate and House versions of the state budget.

A coalition of groups staged a protest outside the State House before delivering a letter to the governor, asking him to join a forum at a time and place of his choosing, before signing the budget.

Josie Pinto, co-founder and executive director of the Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire, which helps patients who struggle to access abortion get the funds they need, said the budget was not the place to be. prohibit abortion.

“I just think this law is one more hurdle that’s going to stand between a person and potentially life-saving medical care, and it just shouldn’t be for a politician to make that decision,” Pinto said. “It’s a decision that has to be made between the doctor and a patient, which is why we want to talk to him.”

Abortions added by Pinto after 24 weeks are extremely rare, difficult to obtain and expensive. She noted that one appeal the fund received was for a 24-week abortion and the price listed was $ 8,800.

Dr Nick Perencevich, a retired Boston surgeon, shared his experience at the State House event as a trained physician in the 1970s, caring for patients with complications from unsafe abortions that weren’t legal before Roe v. Wade.

“Criminalization does not stop abortions,” said Perencevich. “They’re going to happen. They’re just going to happen in a very dangerous environment. Abortions go away with good family planning, not with restrictive legislation that penalizes doctors and patients.”

Pinto added that a majority of Granite Staters support access to abortion. Over 65% of New Hampshire residents believe it should be legal in all or most cases.

“I think unfortunately a lot of people don’t know this is happening right now, and I think if they did we would see a lot more vocal opposition,” Pinto argued. “So I’m really trying to educate people on what’s going on, and through our state budget, about all things.”

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla .– Lawmakers in Congress have reintroduced a bill they say would ensure access to safe abortions nationwide, just as abortion rights are being challenged with a tough Mississippi law that will be reviewed by the United States Supreme Court in 2022.

The Women’s Health Protection Act would allow abortions in all states without restrictions that are not medically necessary. United States Representative Lois Frankel, D-Fla,., Who co-introduced the bill, said unnecessary restrictions include waiting times or the need to travel a long distance for care. due to clinic closures.

“These restrictions are designed to control and criminalize women and / or their providers,” Frankel said. “They are robbing women of the ability to make the important and life-changing decision of starting a family and when. And that is a violation of their rights and their basic humanity.”

In a survey released in January, 68% of those polled said they believed the constitutional right to abortion should be protected. And a study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research noted that there would be more Florida women in the workforce if the restrictions were lifted. As of Tuesday, no GOP lawmaker is a co-sponsor of the bill.

From 2007 to 2016, pregnancy-related deaths were two to three times more common among black women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Danielle Hurd-Wilson, Acting Deputy Director of Field and Programs at Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, said access to reproductive care is also about racial and economic justice.

“Young people – and black people, indigenous people of color – should be able to get abortion care without unnecessary restrictions, such as mandatory ultrasounds, wait times and others that shame, stigmatize and deny us. confidential and timely abortion care, ”said Hurd-Wilson.

Over the past decade, nearly 500 state laws restricting abortion have been passed in legislatures across the country.

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ST. LOUIS – Lawmakers in Congress are reintroducing the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would guarantee a pregnant person’s right to access – and a doctor’s right to perform – abortions without adding medically unnecessary restrictions.

Angie Postal, vice president of education, policy and community engagement with the Advocates for Planned Parenthood in the St. Louis and Southwest Missouri area, said Missouri has 44 regulations on abortion services. A patient is forced to make two appointments, three days apart. Since Planned Parenthood in St. Louis is the state’s sole abortion provider, the rule requires finding transportation, child care, and time off not once, but twice.

“The Women’s Health Protection Act would protect these people from these medically unnecessary political restrictions that have nothing to do with human health,” Postal said.

A recent Hart Research Associates poll showed that more than 60% of voters nationwide support a national safeguard against abortion bans and medically unnecessary restrictions. This includes almost 80% of black voters and over 65% of Latino voters.

Black, brunette and Indigenous women are more likely to face health risks during pregnancy and childbirth, largely due to racial disparities in the medical system. Danielle Hurd-Wilson, acting deputy director of the field and programs at Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, said each person should be able to make their own decisions about whether and when to become a parent.

“The violent legacy of restrictions on reproductive health care perpetuates white supremacy and anti-black racism,” said Hurd-Wilson. “It hinders bodily autonomy and worsens the harm done by members of communities who have historically encountered barriers to health care.”

The bill’s reintroduction comes as the Supreme Court plans to hear a case next year over a Mississippi state law that prohibits abortion after 15 weeks, a period during which women may not know they are pregnant. It’s a case that is seen by many as yet another challenge to the standards set in 1973 in the Roe v Wade decision.

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