A few days before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, a woman who described herself as an anti-abortion activist showed up in the waiting room of Dr. Marissa Lapedis, a family-medicine doctor who performs the procedure in Atlanta.

But she wasn’t there to protest—she had an appointment.

“She talked about being in marches, and said she had spent a lot of time volunteering in crisis pregnancy centers—you know, showing patients the ultrasound image and explaining what happens,” Lapedis, a fellow with the group Physicians for Reproductive Health, told The Daily Beast. “She said she had been anti-abortion her whole life, and that her whole family was like her—and yet she was so appreciative of the care she received from us. She literally was like, ‘I’m so grateful that I’m able to make this choice for myself.’”

Lapedis’ experience is remarkable in part because she resides in a state with a looming ban on the procedure after six weeks—though the law has so far been held up in court.

“You sometimes have anti people who are like, ‘Promise me no one’s going to find out, my boss cannot know,’ [because] they work in the Republican legislature or something. Which has happened—but this patient was so appreciative.”

Abortion providers across the country are reeling from the fall of Roe, and some face the prospect of legal reprisal from law-enforcement in their own state or even other states where patients need help. Almost inevitably, they are reflecting on the many patients they’ve seen who came in for a service they claimed to fervently oppose—and in some cases actively protested against.

“All of us who do abortions see patients quite regularly who tell us, ‘I’m not pro-choice, but I just can’t continue this pregnancy,’” said Dr. Sarah Prager, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington. “We’ve even seen people coming into the clinic off the protester lines to get their abortion, then return to protesting outside the clinic.” And to be clear, she added, “these are not people who turn anti-choice after having an abortion, but who simply access this essential service when they need it in spite of their personal beliefs about abortion in general.”

According to Prager, the phenomenon is so common that abortion providers have a name for it: the Me Exception.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-women-who-leave-anti-abortion-picket-lines-to-get-abortions

“We in the movement often say people believe abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest and ‘me,’ meaning whatever reason is relevant for that person,” she said. And yet, she noted, of the many surveys describing how Americans view abortion, virtually none reflect that reality.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday pardoned a former inmate who received a life sentence when she was a teenager for killing her former pimp.

It's the final step in an official redemption that has spanned more than a decade and three governors of both political parties.

Hers was among nearly three dozen such pardons and clemencies Friday that also affected older and younger offenders. They included 82-year-old Henry Pachnowski, who was born to Polish parents who were later imprisoned in Nazi labor camps in World War II.

Sara Kruzan was 16 when she killed George Gilbert Howard in a Riverside motel room. She was 17 when she was sentenced to die in prison for the 1994 murder of the man she said had sexually abused her and trafficked her for sex starting when she was 13 years old.

She served 18 years in prison until Newsom's predecessor, then-Gov. Jerry Brown, allowed her release in 2013.

Brown's predecessor, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, had commuted her sentence to life with the possibility of parole just before he left office in early 2011.

By then Kruzan had become something of a cause célèbre for state lawmakers and reform groups seeking to soften harsh life sentences for those who committed their crimes as juveniles.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Woman-who-killed-pimp-pardoned-by-California-17280465.php

Nearly 850,000 people signed a petition demanding that Justice Clarence Thomas should be booted from the Supreme Court following Roe v. Wade ruling

Thousands of people have signed a petition to impeach Justice Clarence Thomas.
About 841,016 people have signed the Move On petition as of Saturday.
The calls to remove Thomas were heightened after SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade.'

Hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition demanding the removal of Justice Clarence Thomas from the Supreme Court following the reversal of Roe v. Wade, The Hill reported.

Last week, the highest court's conservative justices repealed the landmark ruling that legalized abortion across the United States, prompting protests nationwide. Now the petition created by Move On, an advocacy group, has nearly 850,000 signatures calling for Thomas to be impeached.

"The right-wing rigged Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week, effectively taking away the right to privacy and bodily autonomy that's been considered legal precedent for the past 50 years," the petition said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/nearly-850-000-people-signed-a-petition-demanding-that-justice-clarence-thomas-should-be-booted-from-the-supreme-court-following-roe-v-wade-ruling/ar-AAZ7cqW

https://news.gallup.com/poll/394202/record-low-extremely-proud-american.aspx

Record-Low 38% Extremely Proud to Be American
BY MEGAN BRENAN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

38% are "extremely" and 27% "very" proud to be Americans

Extreme pride at new lows for Republicans (58%), independents (34%)

Democrats' 26% extreme pride near record low

Inside the Extreme Effort to Punish Women for Abortion
Abortion “abolitionists” are the outer edge of the anti-abortion movement. They’re looking to gain followers after the decision to overturn Roe, unsettling mainstream anti-abortion groups.

Hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week, a man with a wiry, squared-off beard and a metal cross around his neck celebrated with his team at a Brazilian steakhouse. He pulled out his phone to livestream to his followers.

“We have delivered a huge blow to the enemy and to this industry,” the man, Jeff Durbin, said. But, he explained, “our work has just really begun.”

“Even the states that have trigger laws,” which ban abortion at conception without exceptions for rape or incest, did not go far enough, Mr. Durbin, a pastor in the greater Phoenix area, said. “They do not believe that the woman should ever be punished.”

Resistance to “the question of whether or not people who murder their children in the wombs are guilty,” he said, “is going to have to be something we have to overcome, because women are still going to be killing their children in the womb.”

Even as those in the anti-abortion movement celebrate their nation-changing Supreme Court victory, there are divisions over where to go next. The most extreme, like Mr. Durbin, want to pursue what they call “abortion abolition,” a move to criminalize abortion from conception as homicide, and hold women who have the procedure responsible — a position that in some states could make those women eligible for the death penalty. That position is at odds with the anti-abortion mainstream, which opposes criminalizing women and focuses on prosecuting providers.

***********


About one in three American adults believe that, if abortion is illegal, women who have the procedure should serve jail time or pay a fine or do community service, according to a Pew Research Center study conducted in March. Men, white evangelicals and Republicans are among the most likely to believe that a woman should be punished, the study found.


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/us/abortion-abolitionists.html8

https://twitter.com/mamakin1963/status/1543082413051371520

Child abuse victim, 10, who was six weeks pregnant is forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for an abortion after home state outlaws it under Roe v Wade ruling

A child abuse victim, 10, travels out of state to get an abortion after her home state of Ohio barred the procedure following the Roe v. Wade ruling
Ohio enforced a six week ban on abortion following the overturn of the 1973 landmark Supreme Court case
The child was six weeks and three days pregnant, making her ineligible to get an abortion in Ohio
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an OBGYN, assisted the minor after she traveled to Indiana for the procedure
Bernard has seen an increase of women coming from out of state to receive an abortion as restrictions in neighboring states are strongly enforced

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10974467/Ohio-child-abuse-victim-six-weeks-pregnant-forced-abortion-state.html

Dr. Katie McHugh, an OBGYN in Indiana, has witnessed 'an insane amount of requests' from women in Ohio and Kentucky seeking an abortion.

McHugh said she receives between five to eight patients per day that come from out of state with some clinics assisting about 20 women per day.

Abortion limits in Arizona put pressure on clinics in Southern California

California
Paul Sisson - The San Diego Union-Tribune (TNS) Jul 1, 2022 Updated 15 min ago


SAN DIEGO — Suspension of most abortions in Arizona is already putting significant pressure on medical clinics in San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties.

Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, which operates 19 health centers in those three counties, said Wednesday that Arizona women have scheduled 175 appointments at its various locations since the U.S. Supreme Court last week overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion after almost 50 years.

It’s a massive increase given that just 13 abortions were scheduled by Arizona women during the corresponding four-day period one week earlier.

The influx of appointments from Arizona has increased the overall number of abortions to be performed by the Planned Parenthood Southwest clinics by 77%.

_________

Some, the physician said, are starting to arrive without appointments. One woman, she said, arrived at a local clinic close to the San Diego International Airport from Arizona.

“She had done all of her research and looked at abortion clinics that could serve her closest to an airport,” Marengo said. “She came very humbly and said, ‘I understand that I have the means to travel by air, I’m able to take the time off work, I’m able to pay for this abortion, and I see the gravity of knowing that so many folks don’t have that option.’”

https://www.starbeacon.com/region/abortion-limits-in-arizona-put-pressure-on-clinics-in-southern-california/article_31884f00-4c33-555b-8482-707b35596f8e.html