reproductive rights

Lawyer volunteers line up as N.Y. abortion providers seek out advice

Abortion rights protesters hold a youth rally in Washington Square Park in anticipation of Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision in New York City, U.S., June 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

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  • About 50 New York law firms have expressed an interest in staffing a new hotline
  • The initiative is being spearheaded by New York Attorney General Leticia James

(Reuters) – A new hotline staffed by volunteer lawyers in New York is fielding a stream of inquiries from reproductive healthcare providers in the state worried about how the end of nationwide abortion rights protections could affect their operations, organizers said this week.

“Unfortunately, what we have received is what we expected,” said Claudia Hammerman, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which is coordinating law firm participation in the effort.

The New York hotline is the centerpiece of a month-old abortion rights initiative spearheaded by state Attorney General Letitia James in conjunction with law firms and reproductive rights organizations responding to the U.S. Supreme court last month overturning the constitutional right to abortion.

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After two weeks, the hotline

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July 20, 2022 by LAW

The Lawyers in the Abortion Trigger-Law Trenches

The Lawyers in the Abortion Trigger-Law Trenches
The Lawyers in the Abortion Trigger-Law Trenches

Front row (from left): Astrid Ackerman, Nancy Northup, Hillary Schneller, Genevieve Scott, Caroline Sacerdote, and Kulsoom Ijaz. Back row: Adria Bonillas, Cici Coquillette, Michelle Moriarty, Jenny Ma, Alice Wang, Meetra Mehdizadeh, Jessica Sklarsky, Nicolas Kabat, Jen Rasay, and Rabia Muqaddam.
Photo: Tina Tyrell

Amid a terrible week for reproductive rights, there was a small reprieve: On June 27, days after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a Louisiana judge blocked a spate of so-called trigger laws designed to outlaw abortion in the state as soon as Roe fell. Similar injunctions followed in Utah, Kentucky, and Florida, while in Texas a judge blocked a ban that had been on the books before Roe. Together, these rulings are temporarily keeping abortion legal in those states and signaling that there may be a way to jam up the new anti-abortion regime.

The injunction in Louisiana took many in the media by surprise, but it’s the product of years of spadework by the Center for Reproductive Rights, whose lawyers co-authored the suit challenging the trigger laws. “We started publishing ‘What If Roe Fell?’ ” — a state-by-state report on the consequences of overturning Roe — “in 2004 because we

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July 6, 2022 by LAW

Large U.S. law firms mostly quiet on abortion ruling, are walking a ‘tightrope’

June 26 (Reuters) – The largest U.S. law firms did not take a public stance following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade on Friday, diverging from the approach of some major companies that have made statements on the closely watched abortion case.

The high court’s 6-3 Dobbs decision upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Many states are expected to further restrict or ban abortions following the ruling.

Reuters on Friday asked more than 30 U.S. law firms, including the 20 largest by total number of lawyers, for comments on the Dobbs ruling and whether they would cover travel costs for employees seeking an abortion.

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The vast majority did not respond by Saturday afternoon, and only two, Ropes & Gray and Morrison & Foerster, said they would implement such a travel policy.

Morrison & Foerster, with nearly 1,000 attorneys, was the only large firm to issue a public statement by Saturday afternoon.

The firm’s chair, Larren Nashelsky, said Morrison & Foerster would “redouble our efforts to protect abortion and other reproductive rights.”

The Dobbs decision has been expected since a

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June 30, 2022 by LAW
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