What Happened in 2017?

New York state based Fidelis Care refuses to cover abortion, sterilization, and most forms of birth control.

Trump’s new head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, E. Scott Lloyd, instituted a new policy requiring undocumented minors to get his permission before they can do anything related to accessing abortion care.

Male Democrats floated the idea of moving to the right on abortion as an electoral strategy.

Nancy Pelosi said that abortion is “fading as an issue” for voters; Bernie Sanders said “you just can’t exclude people who disagree with us on one issue” (guess which issue).

Trump reinstated and drastically expanded the Global Gag Rule, preventing women around the world from accessing information on safe abortion care.

Texas become the latest state to mandate the burial or cremation of fetal remains, which is pretty cruel shit.

The government of Quebec committed to making the abortion pill available for free for all residents. Quebec’s health minister, who is a man, said this: "We would have gone forward with this decision even if the price was on average a higher cost than the regular surgical procedure… because we believe, again, that women in this province do have a choice and this is a choice.” Imagine!

Being pro-choice is not a litmus test for Democrats, according to the chairman of the DNCC.

Texas passed a law prohibiting insurance companies from covering non-life threatening abortion care, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Look at these smiling slimeballs.

Oregon passed the United States’ most progressive abortion rights legislation.

Demonstrators invaded three clinics around the country, physically forcing their way in and refusing to leave.

A seventeen-year-old undocumented girl sought Lloyd’s permission to leave her shelter to obtain an abortion. He said no, though she had raised the funds to pay for it and arranged transportation to the clinic herself.

Ohio Republicans floated a total abortion ban and criminalized the abortion of fetuses with Down syndrome.

“And now the Lord has answered -- this is the last remaining abortion mill, not only in Louisville, but also in Kentucky." Ugh

The seventeen-year-old sued and successfully obtained an abortion. Her statement is worth reading.

In Illinois, low-income women can now use their Medicaid insurance to access abortion care. Baby Steps, America!

The Trump admin asked the Supreme Court to allow them to block other undocumented women from accessing abortion (and to discipline the ACLU attorneys who defended the seventeen-year-old).

Republicans included rights for the unborn in their tax plan.

The number of protestors at North Carolina’s busiest abortion clinic was more than enough to drop its full Saturday roster to less than half.

Trump’s Health Department declared life begins at conception.

CDC received a list of forbidden words including “evidence-based,” “science-based,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” and “fetus.”

An El Salvador woman miscarried and was sentenced to thirty years in prison. A judge rejected her appeal. She is one of many Latin American women in countries with total abortion bans who have been convicted of murder after miscarrying.

More states prohibited insurance coverage for abortion care, with varying degrees of cruelty. Poor women suffered most, per usual.