Posts by Melissa Fowler
House Passes Cruel Reconciliation Bill
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 3, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, [email protected] Statement from NAF President & CEO Brittany Fonteno on how the passing of the reconciliation bill will impact reproductive health access: What is abundantly clear to abortion providers and advocates is that the Trump administration and its allies have used the reconciliation bill as yet another tactic for achieving…
Read MoreWisconsin’s Pre-Civil War Ban Invalidated
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 2, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, [email protected] Statement from Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation, on Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to strike down 1849 law: I am heartened by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision affirming that abortion is legal in the state and rejecting the use of an archaic 19th-century statute to…
Read MoreSupreme Court Rejects Planned Parenthood’s Challenge to South Carolina Restriction
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 26, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, [email protected] Statement from NAF President & CEO Brittany Fonteno on Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic: Low-income and uninsured people in South Carolina already face disproportionate barriers to accessing health care as a result of abortion bans and systemic racism. These are the people who will most acutely feel the…
Read MoreHouse Advances Bill to Repeal FACE Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 10, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, [email protected] The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act is a federal law enacted in 1994 in response to escalating violence targeting abortion providers, including large-scale blockades and the murder of NAF member Dr. David Gunn in 1993. The legislation imposes federal penalties for using force, threat of force,…
Read MoreTrump Rescinds Guidance on Emergency Abortion Care
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 3, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, [email protected] Today, the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rescinded guidance on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a decades-old federal law requiring hospitals to provide stabilizing care for all patients in emergencies, including for women and people who are…
Read MoreThree Years Post-Dobbs, Abortion Providers Experience High Levels of Violence & Disruption
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 23, 2025 CONTACT: Carina Pacheco, [email protected] The National Abortion Federation released their 2023/2024 Violence & Disruption Report showing the barrage of harassment, intimidation, and violent attacks abortion providers experience daily NATIONAL—Today, the National Abortion Federation (NAF) released its Violence & Disruption report with data from 2023 and 2024. The report shows there has been…
Read MoreTrump Reinstates Global Gag Rule
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 24, 2025 CONTACT: [email protected] Today, President Trump reinstated the Global Gag Rule. Originally authored during the Reagan Administration, the Global Gag Rule prohibits international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. government funds from using their own private funds to provide abortions. The policy also prevents NGOs from lobbying their own government for a change…
Read MoreWyoming Abortion Bans Struck Down
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 19, 2024 CONTACT: [email protected] On Monday, a Wyoming judge struck down the state’s overall abortion ban, including its explicit ban on medication abortion. Statement from Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation I am encouraged by Judge Owens’ ruling overturning the state’s abortion ban, as well as its explicit ban on…
Read MoreAbortion Access at Risk Under Second Trump Administration
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 6, 2024 CONTACT: [email protected] Statement from Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation Today, our hearts are heavy and our thoughts are with abortion providers and every person who cares about abortion access—these results are a devastating blow to the movement for reproductive freedom. Black and Brown communities, immigrants, and LGBTQ+…
Read MoreStatement on heartbreaking death of Josseli Barnica
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 30, 2024 CONTACT: [email protected] Statement from Brittany Fonteno, President & CEO of the National Abortion Federation Josseli Barnica should be alive today. Just like Candi Miller and Amber Thurman in Georgia, Josseli was a mother who died an entirely preventable death because of an extreme and dangerous abortion ban that denies people essential, emergency…
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