SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
June, 24 2022, 02:05pm EDT
Contact:
NARAL Pro-Choice America Condemns U.S. Supreme Court Decision Overturning Roe v. Wade
In the wake of the Court’s decision, roughly half of the states in the country are at risk of banning abortion.
WASHINGTON
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision to uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and ending the constitutional right to abortion in the United States as we know it.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement in response:
"The Supreme Court made it clear: They are overturning Roe and Casey. This is the end of our constitutionally-protected right to abortion. The impact on the real lives of real people will be devastating. The Supreme Court has given the green light to extremist state lawmakers who will waste no time springing into action to put in place total bans on abortion. And they won't stop there--the anti-choice movement and its political allies have already made it clear that they want to enact a nationwide ban on abortion. This decision is the worst-case scenario, but it is not the end of this fight. The 8 in 10 Americans who support the legal right to abortion will not let this stand. There is an election in November, and extremist politicians will learn: when you come for our rights, we come for your seats."
**ADVISORY: NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju will be available to speak with press about this decision today, June 24, at 1:00 PM EST. In order to attend this event, press must RSVP at this link.**
The Supreme Court's decision in the Jackson Women's Health case will have a sweeping and devastating impact. Now that Roe has been overturned, roughly half of the states in the country are at risk of banning abortion. Of those, 13 have "trigger bans" in place to ban abortion automatically. The people who will be hurt most by the Supreme Court's decision are those who already face barriers to accessing abortion care--including women; Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; those working to make ends meet; the LGBTQ+ community; immigrants; young people; those living in rural communities; and people with disabilities.
Leading up to the Supreme Court's decision and emboldened by the Court's anti-choice supermajority, extremist state lawmakers doubled down on their attacks on reproductive freedom in an orchestrated effort to undermine our fundamental right to make our own decisions about abortion without political interference. Anti-choice lawmakers have already filed over 500 restrictions on abortion this year, including bans on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy, bans before most people know they are pregnant, bans modeled after Texas' vigilante-enforced ban on abortion, total bans on abortion, and medically unnecessary restrictions on medication abortion care.
With the legal right to abortion in jeopardy in over half the states in this country and the Supreme Court's decision making clear that we cannot rely on the courts to protect our fundamental rights, electing candidates who will fight for our freedom to decide is more urgent than ever. NARAL Pro-Choice America and our millions of members are already ramping up our work to elect candidates up and down the ballot who will take bold action to safeguard and expand abortion rights.
In May, NARAL, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and EMILY's List announced a partnership to collectively spend a historic $150 million on the 2022 midterms to ensure the election of reproductive freedom champions up and down the ballot. The stakes are higher than ever, and NARAL's members will be mobilizing from now until Election Day and beyond to ensure that our leaders reflect the values of the 8 in 10 Americans who support the legal right to abortion.
For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.
202.973.3000LATEST NEWS
Leaked DHS Memo Reveals ICE Claiming Expansive New Warrantless Arrest Powers
"This memo bends over backwards to say that ICE agents have nothing but green lights to make an arrest without even a supervisor’s approval," said one former ICE official.
Jan 31, 2026
An internal legal memo obtained by the New York Times reveals that federal immigration enforcement agents are claiming broad new powers to carry out warrantless arrests.
The Times reported on Friday that the memo, which was signed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons, "expands the ability of lower-level ICE agents to carry out sweeps rounding up people they encounter and suspect are undocumented immigrants, rather than targeted enforcement operations in which they set out, warrant in hand, to arrest a specific person."
In the past, agents have been granted the power to carry out warrantless arrests only in situations where they believe a suspected undocumented immigrant is a "flight risk" who is unlikely to comply with obligations such as appearing at court hearings.
However, the memo declares this standard to be “unreasoned” and “incorrect,” saying that agents should feel free to carry out arrests so long as the suspect is "unlikely to be located at the scene of the encounter or another clearly identifiable location once an administrative warrant is obtained."
Scott Shuchart, former head of policy at ICE under President Joe Biden, told the Times that the memo appears to open the door to give the agency incredibly broad arrest powers.
"This memo bends over backwards," Shuchart said, "to say that ICE agents have nothing but green lights to make an arrest without even a supervisor’s approval."
Claire Trickler-McNulty, former senior adviser at ICE during the Biden administration, said the memo's language was so broad that "it would cover essentially anyone they want to arrest without a warrant, making the general premise of ever getting a warrant pointless."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, noted in a social media post that the memo appears to be a way for ICE to "get around an increasing number of court orders requiring [US Department of Homeland Security] to follow the plain words of the law which says administrative warrantless arrests are only for people 'likely to escape.'"
The memo broadens the terms, Reichlin-Melnick added, so that "anyone who refuses to wait for a warrant to be issued" is deemed "likely to escape."
Stanford University political scientist Tom Clark questioned the validity of the memo, which appears to directly conflict with the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which requires search warrants as a protection against "unreasonable searches and seizures."
"So, here’s how the law works," he wrote. "People on whom it imposes constraints don’t get to just write themselves a memo saying they don’t have to follow the law. Maybe I’ll write myself a memo saying that I don’t have to pay my taxes this year."
Keep ReadingShow Less
From Maine to Minnesota and Beyond, Tens of Thousands March to Demand 'ICE Out!'
"We want to show solidarity," said one employee at a worker-owned bakery in Los Angeles. "We've seen historically that strikes work. I hope the violence stops. I want ICE out of our communities."
Jan 30, 2026
Popular outrage over President Donald Trump's deadly campaign targeting immigrants and their defenders sparked a National Shutdown day of protests across the United States on Friday, as people from coast to coast took to the streets demanding an end to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's "reign of terror."
"No school, no work, and no shopping," the National Shutdown said on its website. "The entire country is shocked and outraged at the brutal killings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Silverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr. by federal agents."
"While Trump and other right-wing politicians are slandering them as 'terrorists,' the video evidence makes it clear beyond all doubt: They were gunned down in broad daylight simply for exercising their First Amendment right to protest mass deportation," the campaign continued.
"Every day, ICE, Border Patrol, and other enforcers of Trump’s racist agenda are going into our communities to kidnap our neighbors and sow fear," the protest organizers added. "It is time for us to all stand up together in a nationwide shutdown and say enough is enough!"
BREAKING: For the second week in a row Minneapolis came out in full force for the nationwide shutdown demanding ICE out of everywhere. pic.twitter.com/bOnN8nWEI4
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 30, 2026
One week after an estimated 50,000 protesters marched in downtown Minneapolis for the "ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth and Freedom" rally, at least tens of thousands of people braved subzero wind chill temperatures to protest the ongoing Operation Metro Surge blitz in the Twin Cities.
Rock icon Bruce Springsteen—who this week released a song called “Streets of Minneapolis" to pay tribute to activists fighting Trump's assault on immigrants and American democracy—made a surprise appearance at a benefit concert for the families of Good and Pretti.
Maine Public Radio reported that over 150 businesses, mostly in the Portland area, closed their doors Friday amid Operation Catch of the Day, during which ICE enforcers have arrested hundreds of people in the Pine Tree State.
"Today, the working class of Portland has sent a clear message to those in power: Your power is derived from our labor, and we are not afraid to withhold our labor for the safety of our neighbors," South Portland retail worker Keeli Parker told MPR.
In Chicago—where ICE's Operation Midway Blitz prompted a special commission appointed by Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to recommend the prosecution of federal agents who violate people's constitutional rights—Nick Mayor, co-owner of Brewed Coffee in the Avondale neighborhood, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the cost of closing his business for the day "pales in comparison to the cost of what is happening to other people and their families, with their lives getting taken and torn apart.”
More than 1,000 people packed into Washington Square in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, where protesters chanted slogans including “Power to the people, no one is illegal,” and, “No justice, no peace, we want ICE off our streets!”
Three hundred miles southwest of Salt Lake City in St. George, Utah, dozens of demonstrators rallied in the city center, holding signs reading, "ICE Out" and "the wrong ICE is melting." One disapproving motorist yelled, "Go back to California" while driving by, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
In Los Angeles, Proof Bakery, a worker-owned cooperative in Atwater Village, also shut its doors for the day.
"We want to show solidarity," Proof Bakery worker-owner Daniela Diaz told KABC. "We've seen historically that strikes work. I hope the violence stops. I want ICE out of our communities."
Incredible scene at Brown University as thousands of schools across the country stage walkouts to protest ICE’s reign of terror.History will remember who stood up and who stayed silent against state sanctioned murder.
[image or embed]
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm.bsky.social) January 30, 2026 at 11:26 AM
Hundreds of high school students walked out of their classrooms in Asheville, North Carolina, where sophomore Henry Pope told the Mountain XPress, “We reject the ICE terror that’s sweeping across our communities."
“We reject everything this far-right, billionaire administration stands for, and we need justice to be brought to Jonathan Ross and every other killer ICE agent in this country," Pope added, referring to the officer who fatally shot Good earlier this month.
Kelia Harold, a senior at the University of Florida in Gainesville, rallied on campus with around 100 other students.
“Instead of sitting on my own and being helpless, it really helps to come out here,” she told the New York Times, noting Pretti's killing.
“If that could happen to him," she said, "I don’t see why it couldn’t happen to anyone else.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Rights Groups Warn Trump DOJ Is 'Trying to Scare Journalists' With Lemon, Fort Arrests
“The arrests today of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering an anti-ICE protest are a blatant attempt to intimidate others from covering criticism of the administration and its policies," said an Amnesty International official.
Jan 30, 2026
The arrests of two US journalists on Friday over their reporting on a protest at a church in Saint Paul earlier this month sent shockwaves through rights organizations that have long defended reporters around the world from similarly blatant attacks on press freedom.
"The Trump administration cannot send federal agents after reporters simply because they don't like the stories being reported," said Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders North America.
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon, now an independent journalist, and Georgia Fort, an independent reporter based in Minnesota, reported on and filmed a protest organized by local residents on January 18 against a pastor at a church who was also reported to be working as a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.
On Friday morning, federal law enforcement agents took the two journalists into custody, accusing them of a "coordinated attack on Cities Church." The Department of Homeland Security said Lemon was being charged with conspiracy and interfering with the First Amendment rights of worshippers, and cited the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act—a law that prohibits intimidating or using force against people who try to access reproductive health services but also contains provisions covering places of worship.
Local political candidates Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy were also arrested over the protest. Fort was released Friday afternoon.
"I should be protected under the First Amendment," she said upon her release. "I've been advocating for mainstream media journalists who have been brutalized for months. Do we have a Constitution? That is the pressing question that should be on the front of everyone's minds."
Shortly after Georgia Fort's release from federal custody, law enforcement in riot gear cleared out the 1st floor of the US District courthouse in downtown #Mpls, forcing everyone outside. The independent journalist spoke to reporters there. Here is a clip @FOX9 pic.twitter.com/VsAmClM3YY
— Paul Blume (@PaulBlume_FOX9) January 30, 2026
Weimers emphasized that federal authorities had previously filed a criminal complaint against Lemon over the protest, but it was rejected by a federal magistrate judge, which "enraged" Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“Time and time again we are seeing the Trump administration clamping down on free speech rather than upholding human rights. Black and Brown journalists have been particularly targeted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression."
Amnesty International USA also emphasized that the arrests were not just attacks on Lemon's and Fort's rights, but also "a critical threat to our human rights.”
“US authorities must immediately release journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, said Tarah Demant. "Journalism is not a crime. Reporting on protests is not a crime. Arresting journalists for their reporting is a clear example of an authoritarian practice."
“The arrests today of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering an anti-ICE protest are a blatant attempt to intimidate others from covering criticism of the administration and its policies," Demant said, noting that the arrests came as top Trump administration officials and agents on the ground have made clear the White House views people who film ICE agents—an action that is broadly protected by the First Amendment—are "domestic terrorists."
“Time and time again we are seeing the Trump administration clamping down on free speech rather than upholding human rights," she said. "Black and Brown journalists have been particularly targeted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression."
Chip Gibbons, policy director for Defending Rights and Dissent, noted that "journalists have an important role to play in covering protests" like the ones that have been taking place in Minneapolis and all over the country against Trump's deployment of federal immigration agents to detain and deport immigrants and US citizens alike, the majority of whom have had no criminal backgrounds despite the president's claim that the operation is targeting "the worst of the worst."
"Social movements are often vital parts of our nation’s history and it is essential that they be documented in real time," said Gibbons. "By covering the protesters and their message, journalists help to inform our public debates, helping Americans get vital information about sides of an issue that otherwise go ignored."
"It is for precisely this reason that we have repeatedly seen journalists covering protests across the United States being subject to brutality, false arrests, and bogus charges," he added. "The arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are clearly part of that shameful practice... Abusing the legal process to stage retaliatory arrests of a journalist is an attack on our democracy. We call on the charges to be dropped and any public officials involved with pushing them to resign from office immediately."
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law president Damon T. Hewitt also noted that "targeting two acclaimed Black independent journalists for criminal prosecution sends a chilling message at a moment when independent Black media is more necessary than ever."
"Freedom of the press is not optional—it is foundational to a thriving multiracial democracy and is a vital constraint on government overreach," said Hewitt. "This is not just stifling dissent—it’s chilling speech and stifling basic access to information and facts, targeting viewpoints the administration dislikes, and retaliating against law firms, universities, nonprofit organizations, and now reporters who value truth, equality, and justice. This is authoritarianism. And it must not stand.”
Emily Peterson-Cassin, policy director for Demand Progress, said the Trump administration was "trying to scare journalists away from covering the events in Minnesota" by arresting Lemon and Fort.
"The Trump administration, she said, "is clearly waging an ongoing, unconstitutional campaign to intimidate a free and fearless press into submission and must be held accountable.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular