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Healthcare Across Borders

@hcaborders.bsky.social
120 followers 172 following 105 posts

Healthcare Across Borders (HCAB) is an initiative to ensure everyone has full access to essential reproductive, sexual, and gender-affirming care regardless of zipcode. healthcareacrossborders.org

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Representative Becca Balint @balint.house.gov · 12/03/2025
Here's an update from Congress on the fight to protect abortion access across the country. Today, @smith.senate.gov and I reintroduced the Stop Comstock Act. Right wing strategists have been foaming at the mouth for years to abuse antiquated laws to take women back to the 1800s.
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Tina Smith @smith.senate.gov · 12/03/2025
Doesn’t take a detective to uncover that Republicans are enacting Project 2025 – just last night they began dismantling the Dept. of Education. Everything points to them misusing the Comstock Act to ban abortion even in states where it’s legal. Today, I’m re-introducing a bill to stop them.
Text: This is what Heritage thinks a GOP president should do, as aid out in Project 2025: reviving the nineteenth-century Comstock Act as a federal (abortion) ban.
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Jodi Jacobson @jljacobson.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Biden should pardon everyone who might be considered by the incoming Trump admin to have violated the Comstock act’s abortion provision, despite the fact that threats to enforce Comstock are based both on an erroneous reading of the act and an approach long rejected by federal courts.
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Jodi Jacobson @jljacobson.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Critically important contribution to the pardons discussion in @nytimes.com, as well as the Biden administration's unfinished tasks on abortion and contraception, from @dsc250.bsky.social, @greerdonley.bsky.social, and @rebouche.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | How Biden Should Spend His Final Weeks in Office
The president can still do a lot before he leaves the White House.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 31/10/2024
The Comstock Act is 151 years old, but the far-right could use it TODAY to block access to abortion meds and birth control. @sentinasmith.bsky.social takes on the ghost of Comstock himself in a new video from @abortionfront.bsky.social!
youtu.be
Debate of the Century: Senator Tina Smith vs. Anthony Comstock!
Welcome to a debate that transcends time, space, and common sense! Actual US Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) squares off against THE (reanimated zombie) Anthony Co...
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 30/10/2024
Horrific story that also illustrates we’re still in the dark on how many people have died from abortion bans—including the Texas law in effect for *months* before Roe fell. Josseli died in September 2021, soon after the Supreme Court let Texas bounty hunter ban, SB 8, take effect
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 29/10/2024
Louisiana declaring mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances could harm people experiencing miscarriages—or bleeding out in childbirth. It’s the first U.S. law to target abortion pills this way, but we can count on more states introducing copycat bills in 2025. Me in Refinery29:
refinery29.com
A Louisiana Law Could Kill Women Giving Birth & Other States May Copy It
That’s the thing about restrictions on reproductive healthcare — they can affect anyone with a uterus, even people who think they’d never have an abortion.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 29/10/2024
"They claim decreased births constitute 'a sovereign injury to the state in itself,' and causes downstream injuries like 'losing a seat in Congress'" It’s never been about being pro life, it’s about controlling women. ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...
ballsandstrikes.org
Republican AGs Issue Unsettling Demand For More Pregnant Teens
A group of Republican AGs asserted an unsettling right to pregnant teens in a new filing in their ongoing mifepristone lawsuit.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 17/10/2024
"Voters in 10 states will vote directly on abortion in November. But out of all those states, Florida is the only one where a 60 percent supermajority is required to pass a constitutional amendment." 19thnews.org/2024/10/flor...
19thnews.org
Of 10 states with abortion ballot measures, only one requires 60 percent support to pass
Here’s what people in the state say about its chances and the stakes.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 16/10/2024
Despite SCOTUS overturning Roe v. Wade, the number of abortions continues to climb — with medication abortion now accounting for nearly 2/3 of them. But even where medication abortion is legal, state restrictions make accessing care difficult for many. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/inter...
washingtonpost.com
Are abortion pills legal in my state? Here’s what you need to know.
Even where medication abortion is legal, state restrictions make it difficult to access care.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 15/10/2024
Telemedicine provides a lifeline for thousands of people seeking abortion services in states with abortion restrictions or bans. Stand with us for and support equal access to healthcare, regardless of where you live. secure.actblue.com/donate/abpil...
secure.actblue.com
Donate to the Abortion Pill Sustainability Fund!
Healthcare Across Borders reimburses clinicians who provide abortion pills to clients in states where abortion is restricted or banned.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 07/10/2024
The Supreme Court lets stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate Texas ban
apnews.com
Supreme Court lets stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate Texas ban
The Supreme Court has let stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate the law in Texas, which has one of the country’s strictest abortion bans.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 03/10/2024
Republicans have a plan to ban abortion nationwide & they won’t need a single vote in Congress to do it. Join the #CancelComstock Coalition & the Progressive Caucus Action Fund on Oct. 10 for a briefing on the Comstock Act — the 150+ year old law at the center of it all. RSVP➡️ bit.ly/ZombieComstock
Zombie Law: The Comstock Act and the Future of Health and Rights on Thursday Oct. 10 featuring Jodi Jacobson from Healthcare Across Borders, Rep. Becca Balint (VT, At-Large), Nicole Regalado of UltraViolet Action, Sarah Lipton Lubet of Take Back the Court Action Fund, Pamela Merritt of Medical Students for Choice, and Chenelle Hammonds of the Progressive Caucus Action Fund
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Joe Sudbay @joesudbay.bsky.social · 02/10/2024
“We don’t need a federal ban when we have Comstock on the books,” said Jonathan F. Mitchell, the legal force behind a 2021 Texas law that found a way to effectively ban abortion in the state before Roe v. Wade was overturned. “There’s a smorgasbord of options" www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/u...
nytimes.com
Trump Allies Plan New Sweeping Abortion Restrictions
His supporters are seeking to attack abortion rights and abortion access from a variety of angles should he regain the White House, including using a long-dormant law from 1873.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
A judge ruled earlier today that Georgia’s six-week abortion ban is unconstitutional. Banning abortion is a human rights violation & a blow to public health and individual lives — we won’t stop fighting until everyone can access the care they need, regardless of zip code. apnews.com/article/geor...
apnews.com
Judge strikes down Georgia ban on abortions, allowing them to resume beyond 6 weeks into pregnancy
A Georgia judge has struck down the state’s abortion law, which took effect in 2022 and effectively prohibited abortions beyond about six weeks of pregnancy.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 26/09/2024
Happy World Contraception Day! Contraception is freedom. Contraception is health care. On World Contraception Day we celebrate our right to birth control. We won't let anyone take these freedoms from us. #ProtectProtection
World Contraception Day
September 26th
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 25/09/2024
A new study found that the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased 56% from 2019 to 2022, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period. “These patients are asking for help. The state of Texas has failed women.” www.nbcnews.com/health/women...
nbcnews.com
A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban
Exclusive analysis finds the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased 56% from 2019 to 2022, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
Right-wing extremists are threatening to use the 150+ year old Comstock Act to bypass Congress and ban abortion nationwide. We commend Rep. Becca Balint for meeting this moment by introducing the Stop Comstock Act to eliminate this threat and protect our reproductive rights.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 20/09/2024
These are the costs right-wing extremists *knew* people would pay when they overturned Roe v. Wade and enacted barbaric bans in state after state. Real peoples’ lives are at stake and we must do everything we can to protect our reproductive rights — starting with repealing the Comstock Act.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 20/09/2024
Amber Thurman & Candi Miller should be alive today. Instead they both lost their lives after GA’s abortion ban made it impossible for them to receive life-saving abortion care.
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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 11/09/2024
Trumpers, right-wing are attempting to gaslight their way through the election season hoping they can get their enact de facto federal abortion ban in the books if they get back in power. Why it's imperative for Schumer/Sen Dems to put the Rs on the record on Comstock and call a vote this fall.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 11/09/2024
“It’s not enough for Democrats to fundraise & campaign on the existential threat a 2nd Trump presidency poses to abortion,” that’s why we’ve joined a dozen advocacy orgs in calling on Sen. Schumer to vote on the Stop #Comstock Act. From @kylietcheung.bsky.social: www.jezebel.com/abortion-rig...
jezebel.com
Abortion Rights Groups Ramp Up Pressure on Dem Leaders, Chuck Schumer to Repeal Comstock - Jezebel
Since 2007, Jezebel has been the Internet's most treasured source for everything celebrities, sex, and politics...with teeth.
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Take Back the Court @takebackthect.bsky.social · 10/09/2024
We won't let far-right extremists weaponize a century-old law to criminalize abortion care. Alongside @hcaborders.bsky.social & 9 other groups, we're urging Sen. Schumer to hold a vote on the Stop Comstock Act.
thehill.com
Advocacy groups urge Schumer to hold vote on repealing Comstock abortion law
A coalition of advocacy organizations sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week urging him to hold a vote on a proposal aimed at guarding against a future Trump admin…
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 11/09/2024
National Right to Life after Trump refused to say in the debate he'd veto a national abortion ban: "a ban won't happen" (left) National Right to Life in January: "we don't need a new ban when we have the Comstock Act" (right) apnews.com/article/abor... www.politico.com/news/2024/01...
Screenshot of Associated Press story published on 9/11/24 with one section highlighted in blue:

Anti-abortion advocates say they don’t believe Trump would sign a ban if it landed on his desk.

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said **her group hasn’t been focusing on a national ban “because it’s not going to happen.** The votes aren’t there in Congress. You know, President Trump said he wouldn’t sign it. We know Kamala Harris won’t.”Screenshot of Politico story published on 1/29/24 with one section highlighted in blue:

*“We believe the Comstock Act should be followed* and abortion pills should not be sent through the mail — certainly that should be enforced,” Carol Tobias, the president of the National Right to Life Committee told POLITICO.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 10/09/2024
Far-right extremists plan to use the 150-year old Comstock Act to ban abortion nationwide—we won’t give them that chance. We sent a letter to Sen. Schumer, along w/ @takebackthect.bsky.social & 9 other orgs, calling on leadership to hold a vote on the Stop Comstock Act. thehill.com/regulation/c...
thehill.com
Advocacy groups urge Schumer to hold vote on repealing Comstock abortion law
A coalition of advocacy organizations sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week urging him to hold a vote on a proposal aimed at guarding against a future Trump admin…
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 05/09/2024
Because it’s also used for abortion, conservatives made it harder for doctors in Louisiana to access Misoprostol, a lifesaving drug used to stop postpartum hemorrhaging. Politicians shouldn’t be dictating what kind of care a pregnant person needs. lailluminator.com/2024/09/03/louisi…
lailluminator.com
Doctors grapple with how to save women's lives amid 'confusion and angst' over new Louisiana law • Louisiana Illuminator
Under a new state law, Louisiana doctors might not be able to quickly access one of the most widely used life-saving medications for pregnant women.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 29/08/2024
"An abortion rights amendment in Florida is polling as high as 69% according to one poll from the end of July...[and] has stronger support in the state than Scott, Florida Gov. DeSantis, & former President Trump." Abortion is popular.
jezebel.com
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 28/08/2024
"We don’t have to wonder how Trump & Vance would govern our reproductive rights because we’ve already seen it. Trump boasts about reversing Roe &...every abortion ban-induced horror story we’ve heard for the last 2 years is a direct consequence of that" buff.ly/4dBTWr2
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 21/08/2024
Donald Trump is a liar, and his own lawyer has already signaled how they plan weaponize this 150+ year old law to enact a federal abortion ban unless our elected leaders move now to #CancelComstock. www.politico.com/news/2024/08...
politico.com
‘It’s not a pro-life position’: Anger after Trump says no to Comstock
Many prominent conservatives and anti-abortion activists were outraged by the remark, calling it “nonsensical” and “cowardly.”
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 12/08/2024
“Two women – one in Florida and one in Texas – were left to miscarry in public restrooms. In Arkansas, a woman went into septic shock and her fetus died after an emergency room sent her home.”
apnews.com
Dozens of pregnant women, some bleeding or in labor, being turned away from ERs despite federal law
More than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away or negligently treated since 2022.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 15/08/2024
The impact of these cruel abortion bans is clear: a study found that infant mortality in Texas rose four times the national average following the implementation of its 6-week abortion ban in 2021. We cannot let anti-abortion extremists continue to put lives at risk. apnews.com/article/abor...
apnews.com
Infant mortality rate rose 8% in wake of Texas abortion ban, study shows
A new study shows the infant death rate in Texas went up in the wake of the state's abortion ban. The analysis published Monday out of Johns Hopkins University is the latest research to find higher in...
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 07/08/2024
We need your help to sustain this critical work. Support the Abortion Pill Sustainability Fund to ensure providers can continue to meet the public health crises created by abortion bans. ⬇️ secure.actblue.com/donate/abpil...
secure.actblue.com
Donate to the Abortion Pill Sustainability Fund!
Healthcare Across Borders reimburses clinicians who provide abortion pills to clients in states where abortion is restricted or banned.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 07/08/2024
Last month we reimbursed telemedicine abortion providers $75,000 for losses incurred while providing thousands of abortion pills at reduced costs to people in states where abortion is restricted or banned!
We reimbursed telemedicine providers $75,000 for abortion pills sent to thousands of patients in banned states in July!
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 05/08/2024
They want to gaslight us about an imminent threat to the health and lives of people across this country, to paint us as “hysterical” for organizing against this threat. They want us to doubt ourselves. They want us to feel intimidated. We won’t let them.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 05/08/2024
“No one is going to ban contraception!” they said. Meanwhile fanatical religious groups are working to do just that. “Brett Kavanaugh will never vote to overturn Roe!!” Welp… we know how that turned out.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 05/08/2024
Right wingers love to openly threaten people’s rights, then tell us we are hysterical when we raise alarms. “Abortion bans won’t increase deaths from pregnancy!” they said. But they do, and are increasing deaths in a number of states.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 05/08/2024
But no conjuring is necessary. Efforts to repeal Comstock are a very rational reaction to what the Trump campaign has told us verbally and in writing: They plan to use the Comstock Act to ban abortion nationwide.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 05/08/2024
Recently the Washington Post featured an op-ed asserting that in seeking to repeal the Comstock Act, “progressives have conjured a new terror.”
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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 23/07/2024
GAME ON. The Harris campaign torches JD Vance's goal to ban abortion. And they are making specific reference to #ComstockAct - the old zombie that Trump/Vance team is planning to deploy under #Project2025 to enact a de facto federal abortion ban. @susanrinkunas.com @melissagiragrant.com
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
There are only two possible explanations for the abortion / EMTALA / Idaho case: 1) The conservatives on the Supreme Court are incompetent: they used an extraordinary procedure then, months later, said "oops" and withdrew it. 2) They're not incompetent; they're partisan hacks.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
"The only way to protect our health and fundamental rights is to #ExpandTheCourt. We must restore evidence and sanity to the justice system.”
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
“The very existence of the Idaho law and other abortion bans is due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by an illegitimate, stolen, and corrupt Supreme Court, beholden to a rabidly anti-democratic and anti-science movement unconcerned with public health."
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
"...that persist in this country, & the negligible value we assign to healthy pregnancies, births, & the needs of individuals & families. The outcome of this case underscores that this isn't a court of justice, but one of rightwing extremism trying to influence elections."
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
“Turning away people who need emergency care for urgent complications of pregnancy is barbaric. The very fact that we're talking about whether pregnant people in emergency situations deserve expedient, medically accurate care reflects the profoundly deep levels of misogyny..."
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
"...Not only does it leave the door open for additional proceedings to ban emergency abortion care down the line, the Idaho law is another example of the decades-long effort by extremists to replace scientific evidence with dangerous ideologies, no matter the costs in lives."
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
“As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writes, this decision ‘is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho.’..."
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
Today, the Supreme Court punted on Idaho and Moyle, et al. v. United States, sending the case back to the lower court to avoid making a decision before the election. Healthcare Across Borders ED Jodi Jacobson, released the following statement in response: healthcareacrossborders.org/news/press-s...
The very existence of the Idaho law and other abortion bans is due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by an illegitimate, stolen, and corrupt Supreme Court, beholden to a rabidly anti-democratic and anti-science movement unconcerned with public health. The only way to protect our health and fundamental rights is to expand the court. We must restore evidence and sanity to the justice system.
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 24/06/2024
"The Comstock Act appeals to them for the same reason it appealed to its namesake. Sweeping and arbitrary power, moral castigation, and most of all, cruelty." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 22/06/2024
Folks not paying attention were shocked when a Trump packed #SCOTUS gutted Roe. Can't afford to be surprised again when Trump & his cronies use Comstock to enact fed. abortion ban. #mustread @michellegoldberg.bsky.social re why Biden/Dems must rally around Tina Smith's bill to #CancelComstock
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Healthcare Across Borders @hcaborders.bsky.social · 20/06/2024
“Repealing Comstock is absolutely critical to protecting reproductive rights and public health writ large. We are grateful to Senator Smith for taking this important step.”
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