Kimya Forouzan

Navy blue text says, "Which states have enacted shield laws? 22 states and DC have shield laws for reproductive health or gender-affirming care, and 8 of these states protect telehealth provision." A map of the US shows states with shield laws in yellow and states with shield laws that extend to out-of-state telehealth in orange.

New analysis: Guttmacher experts Anna Bernstein, @kimyaf.bsky.social & @emmas-e.bsky.social examine how the anti-abortion campaign against state shield laws is part of longstanding efforts to ban abortion nationwide and criminalize patients and providers. gu.tt/3HTgU2t

Attacks on Shield Laws Are the Next Step in Criminalizing Abortion Care

I worked with my colleagues @anna-berns.bsky.social & @emmas-e.bsky.social to highlight the recent attacks on shield laws & why defending them is essential to repro freedom.
Learn more from our latest @guttmacher.org analysis:
www.guttmacher.org/2025/09/atta...

Unsurprisingly, anti-abortion policymakers are using all levels of government to target shield laws and go after abortion patients, providers and support networks.
And recent cases in Louisiana and Texas have the anti-abortion movement’s weaponization of the US legal system on full display.

Currently, 22 states and Washington, DC have shield laws in place.
8 states extend these protections to care via telehealth, allowing clinicians to provide care to patients in states with total bans and/or other severe restrictions, typically by mailing them abortion pills.

Shield laws are designed to minimize legal risks for patients, providers and others assisting those seeking abortion care by preventing state officials from cooperating with out-of-state prosecutions and extraditions.

Attacks on Shield Laws Are the Next Step in Criminalizing Abortion Care

Shield laws have become a lifeline for abortion patients and providers in the US post-Dobbs, which is precisely why conservative policymakers are turning to the courts, Congress, and state legislatures to attack this critical method of care. 🧵
www.guttmacher.org/2025/09/atta...

The bills in Texas’ special session represent a coordinated effort to further restrict medication abortion through civil penalties, criminalization and surveillance.  
 
Anti-abortion policymakers want to criminalize people rather than ensuring they can access basic health care.

LABOR Loves Cool J

The most commonly-cited "moderate" positions here are 1) requiring all female athletes from kindergarten through college be subjected to sex testing and 2) replace the best medical judgment of your family pediatrician with Bill Maher's opening monologue

Out-of-state patients drove Kansas abortion numbers up in 2024, study finds Expanded clinic capacity and an influx of people traveling from other states fueled the increase in abortions, according to researchers.

Guttmacher's new data show that 71% of abortions in Kansas were provided to out-of-state patients in 2024. Our Principal State Policy Adviser @kimyaf.bsky.social spoke w/ @npr.org about shifts curtailing abortion access in the South & Southeast, making states like KS critical for care. gu.tt/42sLK89

I don’t believe Alito was not actually misreading “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” at focus in Mahmoud v. Taylor as the character being against gay marriage; very much a purposefully oblivious line of questioning so he could argue the book “promotes” gay marriage from the bench

We have had nearly two decades of panic about Free Speech on Campus and not a single case, not even the ones they made up, were as bad as what's happening now

Truly one of the most terrifying weeks to exist as a person of color in America; feels truly dystopian to just be going forth at our jobs like everything is normal

just profoundly disturbed by the kidnapping and disappearing of people right off the streets of this country. hard to think about much else—and there’s so much else.

Not the biggest deal in the world, but it’s kinda wild how with the greater attention to the various holidays minority groups celebrate, nobody ever considers Norooz. I somehow always have things scheduled on the holidays and like more work and responsibilities than usual on my one main holiday lol

Not to be overly dramatic given the state of the world, but the (even greater) push to return to office led by the Trump admin, but validated by workplaces over the years, is such a bummer. People were getting precious time w/ their kids, the ability to go see family in other states more easily

Struggling with the fact that everyone talks about the need to stand up to fascist forces in our country, but we’ve also built a hierarchical society where people are deeply afraid to stand up to *anyone* in their lives, even in very minor ways

In red states, GOP lawmakers revive an "incredibly regressive" push to treat abortion as murder In more than 10 states, Republican lawmakers have proposed treating people who obtain abortions as murderers

Here’s me in Salon talking about the horrific agenda to criminalize and punish pregnant people, anti-abortion lawmakers ignoring their constituents, and my own careful optimism. Love to be beside @guttmacher.org
@kimyaf.bsky.social & @pregnancyjust.bsky.social

www.salon.com/2025/02/27/i...

It actually gives me so much comfort in life that we are all beginners in so many fields. We’ve only tried a small fraction of what’s out there. There’s so much we can still try for the first time, so much life out there

I really do believe that connecting to each other and community and civil society is a major way to combat the loss of democratic values in this country, but our society is so built against that. Nothing that hasn’t been said before, but we’re forced to live for individualism & work

Honestly hate when people are like in my hometown this much snow wasn’t a big deal. Like yeah your home town had more advanced snow infrastructure, it wasn’t the people being better lol, you will fall on black ice in any state love

I think people are so used to thinking that the one thing they interact with someone on is their sole stress, meanwhile we’re all juggling a million things !!!

Having time off between Christmas and new years feels truly like a necessity as opposed to a perk, and also feels like a drop in the bucket to relieve all of the ongoing stress everyone deals with

State Policy Trends 2024: Anti-Abortion Policymakers Redouble Attacks on Bodily Autonomy

Super proud of our work on @guttmacher.org’s state policy team! Read our year end state policy trends report here: www.guttmacher.org/2024/12/stat...

Up First’s Sunday Story re: people being denied SSI claims is so important. Representing clients fighting for those benefits was truly one of the (many at this point) times when the cruelty of this country was laid so bare to me

Society is like deeply obsessed with everyone fitting a cookie cutter life trajectory when it comes to marriage and childbirth, to the point that people will make SUCH rude and condescending comments to you, because they want women to hurry up & become invisible

It makes me so sad how sexist people have been in their comments since I’ve gotten engaged 🙃 do you guys hear yourselves omg

As a life long Dancing With the Stars fan, I’m laughing so much about how the show used to be popular among 60 year olds but recently got popular among young people. Literally me. I’m both 60+ and 20 years old

As a Pennsylvanian, I was never a fan of Bob Casey, but man what a heartbreak to have a republican senator

What can you say anymore? These appointments are pretty much exactly what the campaign promised they'd be, and people voted for them. A government run by people who broke their brains on facebook