“This is, as far as I know, the first allegation that someone in a ban state is providing an abortion in direct violation of abortion laws,” said Marc Hearron of the Center for #ReproductiveRights.

In a handful of cases, charges have been brought against people who provided #abortion pills to relatives, either with their knowledge or without.

…The bans on abortions around the country have largely relied on the threat of prosecution, w/few instances in which #criminal cases have actually been filed. #Abortion providers in #Texas & other states w/ abortion bans ceased operations after the decision. #Women seeking abortions have instead had to travel to states where the procedure remains legal or have received abortion medication through the mail.

The stmnt said that she had been “charged with the illegal performance of an abortion,” which has been a second-degree #felony since the state’s near-total #AbortionBan took effect in 2022. She was also charged w/practicing #medicine without a license.

Court records released late Monday indicated that a person who worked w/Ms. Rojas, Jose Ley, 29, was also arrested & charged w/the same offenses.

#KenPaxton, the #Texas AG, said in a statement that the #midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, operated clinics in several towns around Houston, including 2 in Harris County, the state’s most populous county, & one in Waller County, a more rural & conservative jurisdiction where the charges were brought.

“For 2 years, I’ve seen firsthand how our state’s #AbortionBan has harmed my patients, with countless lives & futures changed because politicians thought their views of the right #healthcare was more important than #pregnant people & their #medical providers,” Dr. Eric M Reuss, one of the healthcare providers who brought the lawsuit over #Arizona’s 15-week ban, said in a statement.

#Idaho #doctors, meanwhile, say it remains unclear which #abortions are legal, forcing them to airlift #pregnant women of state if a termination might be part of the standard of care. It’s often unclear in fast-moving emergencies whether pregnancy complications could ultimately prove fatal, doctors said in court documents.

A judge has blocked ID from any #abortion ban enforcement that would change #emergency treatment at the state’s largest #hospital system for now.

The #Biden admin had given similar guidance to #hospitals nationwide in the wake of #SCOTUS’ 2022 decision overturning the right to #abortion. It’s being challenged in other conservative states.

In #Idaho, the state argued that its #law does allow life-saving abortions & the Biden admin wrongly sought to expand the exceptions. The Republican controlled state agrees w/the dismissal, so it does not need judicial approval, #Trump #DOJ attys wrote in court documents.

In his dissent Monday, #ClarenceThomas said lower courts continue to follow Hill despite the court’s repudiation of that ruling in #Dobbs.

“I don’t see what is left” of the 2000 decision, he wrote, adding that the court “declines an invitation to set the record straight on Hill’s defunct status.”

In asking #SCOTUS to take the case from #Illinois, the coalition’s lawyer, Paul Clement, invoked the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn #RoeVWade. In that ruling, known as #Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org, #Alito cited the court’s 2000 decision on buffer zones as an example of an #abortion-related case that had “distorted First Amendment doctrines.”

But that 2014 decision, written by Chief Justice #JohnRoberts Jr., was a narrow one, noting that other state & local govts had found ways to accommodate the rights of those opposed to #abortion & the #women entering clinics.

Mary Ziegler, an abortion #law expert & prof at the UC Davis School of Law, cautioned against reading too much into the majority’s decision not to review the #NewJersey & #Illinois cases.

That decision in Hill v. Colorado upheld a state #law that established 100’ buffer zones outside all #health-care facilities—not just #abortion clinics—& prohibited approaching a person within an 8’ bubble to protest, counsel or hand out materials.

More recently, #SCOTUS unanimously struck down protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics in #Massachusetts as an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.

…At issue before the #SCOTUS in this latest matter were local regulations passed in Englewood, #NewJersey, & Carbondale, #Illinois, to prevent [anti-#abortion] demonstrations outside the entrances & in the driveways of #health-care facilities. Lower courts rejected challenges to both laws, & those decisions were affirmed on appeal.

Justices #ClarenceThomas & Samuel #Alito dissented [of course], w/Thomas writing that the court’s decision not to review the case from Illinois was “an abdication of our judicial duty” that allows constitutional rights to “hang in the balance.”

A divided #SCOTUS on Monday turned away a pair of #FreeSpeech challenges by #abortion opponents to city laws in #NewJersey & #Illinois that restrict #protests directly outside #clinics & #hospitals where abortions are performed.

The court declined to reconsider a 25-yr-old precedent that has allowed local govts to create protest-free buffer zones around #healthcare facilities—a ruling that has long been criticized by some #conservative justices.

#law #ReproductiveRights #WomensHealth #privacy