The decision of Ohio’s attorney general to force clinics to stop offering abortion care is unnecessary, opportunistic, and incredibly callous. Governor DeWine’s administration is using this opportunity to continue his extremist anti-abortion agenda, rather than truly looking out for public health and safety. 

Unlike some procedures, abortion is time-sensitive. It can’t simply be delayed. And with social distancing measures expected to last weeks and months, this decision should be called what it is: forced birth for thousands.

This ban is another part of this President’s pattern of othering and ostracizing people of color both within and outside of our borders. For the last three years, we have watched this president fan the flames of hate and bigotry, inciting and turning a blind eye to violence that has forced people of color and religious minorities to live with increased fear.

Advocates for Youth is strongly opposed to South Dakota’s “puberty blocker bill” and similar proposed laws around the nation which ban transgender children and young people from access to hormones which delay puberty, a tool to help affirm identity.

Advocates for Youth condemns in the strongest possible terms the State Department’s new regulation concerning the denial of visas to people who are pregnant or simply appear to be pregnant. It is the purest violation of basic human rights for people to have their bodies scrutinized by officials, their motives for visiting impugned, and their personal testimony that they are not pregnant ignored.

“We’re not surprised to learn that more than 200 Republican members of the United States Congress have signed a letter openly requesting the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.  These politicians have no regard for women’s autonomy, health, and lives.

This morning, the Trump Administration finalized a rule that will take insurance coverage of abortion away from millions of patients. The rule requires that plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges offer separate coverage for abortion. It places burdensome regulations on insurers, dissuading them from offering abortion coverage, and will cause confusion among people who access their health plan through the ACA marketplaces, leading to people no longer having coverage they may need.