In a six-month period between October 2018 and March 2019, 21,000 people in the United States reached out to Aid Access, an organization started by Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of the Netherlands-based abortion-pill distributor Women on Web, the Guardian reports. Not everyone who contacts the organization receives the medication—prospective clients must first pass an online consultation. Those who qualify receive Mifepristone and Misoprostol, which, when taken as directed, have been proven to be safe at terminating pregnancy. According to the data reviewed by the Guardian, more than a third (but less than half) of the people who requested the pills in that six month period received them. Notably, most of these requests came from states where abortion access has been severely cut back.

via Thousands in the U.S. Are Now Relying on Mail-Order Abortion Pills

Nevada’s state assembly just passed a bill removing a series of restrictions on abortions, including requirements that a patient be told about the “physical and emotional implications” of having an abortion, that “a physician certify a pregnant woman’s marital status and age before performing an abortion,” and that a provider inform the patient of the “consequences” of having an abortion. The Associated Press reports that under the bill, it would no longer be illegal for a non-physician to dispense abortion-inducing medications.

via Nevada Lawmakers Poised to Remove Series of Abortion Restrictions

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery claims to be a big believer in data. As reported last year, Montgomery has blocked effective, commonsense criminal justice reform proposals from becoming law in part by criticizing them as having “no data to support” them, and as being “pet projects” “based on myths and rhetoric.”

Given this insistence on evidence-based policy, it would be reasonable to assume that Montgomery would happily comply with a public records request seeking exactly the sort of data he wishes folks would utilize. He’s done the exact opposite.

via We’re Suing Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery to Release the Records He’s Hiding From Arizonans. | American Civil Liberties Union

The UK’s move to treat revenge porn as a specific crime was supposed to catch perpetrators who’d otherwise slip through the cracks, but that doesn’t appear to have worked out in practice. The Revenge Porn helpline has collected police data showing that the number of related charges dropped 23 percent between the periods of 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 despite the number of investigations more than doubling over the same space of time. Just 158 people faced charges, the helpline said. The shortfall is pinned on both shortcomings in the law itself as well as a lack of understanding from police.

As revenge porn is treated like a communications crime rather than a sexual crime, victims aren’t guaranteed anonymity. They might be afraid to speak out knowing that the culprit might retaliate, and over a third of victims from the past year have decided against pursuing cases. Police, meanwhile, frequently don’t know how to handle the crime. A 2017 University of Suffolk study showed that 95 percent of officers hadn’t had any training on the subject.

via Victim group says UK’s revenge porn laws aren’t working