Abortion

A federal judge on Friday temporary blocked the enactment of Arkansas's new abortion ban, which would prohibit the procedure in most cases after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright granted the preliminary injunction after a request from several abortion-rights groups who filed suit against the law.

The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), one of those groups, praised the decision in a statement. 

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) lashed out at Democrats over the issue of abortion on Monday just minutes after a jury returned a guilty verdict in the high-profile case of an abortion doctor accused of multiple homicides.

A jury found him guilty of delivering live babies at his Philadelphia clinic and then killing them.

Ginsburg said she would have preferred a narrower ruling that didn't cut off the political process of defining abortion limits

Republicans have requested state health agencies provide records of regulators' dealings with abortion clinics since 2008. 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) tried to pass a Senate resolution that would have condemned illegal abortion practices.

Lee asked unanimous consent to pass his resolution on Wednesday in reaction to the case of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortion doctor who is on trial for performing illegal and unsafe abortions.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) objected, saying he’d prefer to pass his own resolution that condemns all illegal and unsanitary medical acts, including abortions. But Lee objected saying he didn’t have time to read the resolution before it was offered.

A House GOP lawmaker called for an "honest" national conversation about abortion Wednesday in an op-ed piece that revealed his mother almost terminated her pregnancy.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), elected in 2010, wrote that his mother became pregnant at 17 and was planning to drive 40 miles one night to obtain an abortion.

"If she had gone to Kalamazoo that night, you wouldn't be reading this today," Stutzman wrote. "I would have been aborted." 

If you want to know how effective Cecile Richards is, just ask her opponents.

The move will likely stir controversy among social conservatives, some of whom view Plan B as a form of abortion.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) is bringing back a bill to ban most abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Franks, a member of the Judiciary Committee, reintroduced the legislation Friday after an almost identical measure failed to pass the House last year under a suspension of the rules.

That procedure requires two-thirds of the chamber to support a bill in order for it to pass.