Under decades-old Hyde Amendment, millions of Americans already live in a 'post-Roe' world



Nada Hassanein and Eli Marcel Cahan
Fri, June 17, 2022, 

Rachael Lorenzo tried to seek an abortion after doctors found a pregnancy complication that would likely lead to a miscarriage.

But the clinic on the Acoma Pueblo, an Indigenous community in west central New Mexico, didn’t offer abortions. Clinicians said to wait until the miscarriage occurred naturally.

“That experience was incredibly traumatizing,” Lorenzo said, recalling the miscarriage in 2013.

Lorenzo learned that federal funds, such as those that support the agency responsible for Indigenous health care, the Indian Health Service, can’t be spent on abortions.

That’s because of the Hyde Amendment, a provision passed three years after the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that restricts federal spending on abortions. Because of Hyde, millions of people across the U.S. already live in a “post-Roe” world, out of reach of abortion care.

Overturning Roe could make matters worse, experts say. By further amplifying long-standing inequities in reproductive care disproportionately faced by people of color, its reversal would put those who suffer greater maternal health risks in further peril.

Who will be impacted most if Roe is overturned?

Millions of Americans of childbearing age who depend on government support for their health care already face the barriers imposed by Hyde. Indigenous communities like Lorenzo’s. Military service members. Medicaid beneficiaries, who are disproportionately of color and make up the majority of patients at low-income, federally funded community health clinics across the nation.

Most callers to Access Reproductive Care-Southeast, an abortion assistance group, are Black women and birthing people who receive Medicaid or are uninsured. ARC operates in six states in the South, where legislatures are expected to ban abortion if Roe is overturned.

Oriaku Njoku, ARC’s co-founder and executive director, said that even with Roe in place, people still struggle to access care because of the Hyde Amendment’s restrictions.

“Yes, abortion is legal, but it's not accessible for so many people,” Njoku said. “The idea of being able to have $500 on hand to pay for a first-trimester abortion is something that is not accessible or reality for a lot of people.”

Njoku said Roe’s repeal would “make it even more of a burden.”

“The post-Roe reality that folks are afraid of are actually the lived experiences of the South right now,” Njoku said.

Liza Fuentes is a senior researcher at the reproductive health policy research group Guttmacher Institute. She said many communities already “do not have the dignity to have a timely, affordable abortion, because so many restrictions are layered on top of it.”

“Were it not for the Hyde Amendment, their abortion care would be covered,” she said.

Reproductive rights advocates and clinicians have long pressed for reversal of the Hyde Amendment because of its life-threatening and life-altering consequences for women of color.

‘High and dry’: Abortion bans could be riskiest on women in maternal health care 'deserts'

Amid the national reckoning with structural racism, politicians have, too. Recently, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who has led a coalition to repeal the provision, wrote in a Medium post that “now is the moment to dismantle systems of oppression,” like those that “push comprehensive reproductive health care out of reach for our nation’s most vulnerable.”

“I need you to legislate and vote like lives depend on it,” Pressley wrote to her colleagues, “because they do.”

But so far, such efforts haven’t been successful. Hyde has been renewed in federal budgets every year since it passed in 1976.

The Biden administration excluded the amendment from its 2023 federal spending proposal, but Republicans are expected to oppose the move. The administration also tried to eliminate the rider from the 2022 budget but conceded to Republican demands. Biden supported the rider for years but reversed his stance while campaigning for president.

For people on public insurance, the lack of abortion coverage means saddling out-of-pocket costs from about $500 up to $1,000 for the procedure, plus logistical barriers including childcare, travel distance and expenses and time off work.

More: Abortion by pill figures to rise if Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

Low-income moms can find themselves in an economic bind, asking: “Do I pay for my abortion? Or do I go without groceries for a month, or more?” Lorenzo said. The Laguna Pueblo, Mescalero Apache and Chicana mother of two co-founded Indigenous Women Rising, a reproductive care resource group that offers an abortion fund for tribal women.

These obstacles mean women are forced to travel at least 50 miles and are twice as likely to be unable to receive an abortion. More than 20% of women forced to travel more than 100 miles won’t get one. A recent study published in JAMA Network Open found the longer the distance to an abortion facility, the greater the delay in obtaining abortion care and the more likely someone is to not receive one. Most of the study’s participants were Medicaid recipients.

Though 16 states offer their own abortion funding for Medicaid patients, the Hyde Amendment has an impact across more than three dozen states, according to Guttmacher – affecting 7.8 million Medicaid patients of reproductive age. Half are women of color, including Black and Hispanic women, who already experience higher rates of maternal death.

Black Maternal Health Week: 'We have to do better,' support, listen to Black moms, experts and loved ones say

More than 2 million American Indian and Alaska Native people receive health care through the Indian Health Service. The program typically operates the only health facilities for miles near tribal lands.

Native women would often ask Lorenzo, a community leader, why they couldn't get an abortion at their local IHS-run clinics and ask for help. “That involves a lot of political education about the Hyde Amendment and why it pertains to Native people,” she said.

That’s why Lorenzo started the abortion fund at Indigenous Women Rising, educating and advocating for the community's health and reproductive rights. “It’s not like we can just go anywhere.”

Lorenzo said the lack of coverage ignores women’s specific needs and vulnerabilities within circumstances like poverty, which pregnancy can exacerbate.

“We have to take into consideration when we're helping specifically Indigenous people access abortion care, especially since a lot of our folks, unfortunately, live in domestic violence situations, or they’re caregivers of elders, or they're under 18,” Lorenzo said.

How many abortions are actually performed in the US?

Dr. Rebecca Simon, a family medicine physician in a New Mexico IHS facility, said that as a doctor, it can feel as if your hands are tied.

“I’ve been trained to provide abortions, and I want to be that person for my patient, who can allow them to get safe, effective care in the community they live in,” Simon said, “it can be frustrating.”

Ushma Upadhyay, an associate professor in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at University of California, San Francisco, studies abortions and health insurance. In an analysis of pregnancy outcomes among Medicaid patients searching for abortions online, she found that state-level restrictive abortion policies were associated with not getting an abortion at all.

“There are a lot of hurdles,” said Upadhyay, adding that restricting abortion access "can change pregnant peoples’ entire life trajectory.”

The landmark Turnaway Study from UCSF documented harms women experience after abortion denials. They include long-lasting economic hardship and insecurity, remaining with a violent partner, and dangerous pregnancy-related health conditions like hypertension and postpartum hemorrhage, which women of color already disproportionately endure.

Homicide is a leading cause of death during pregnancy. These women are more likely to be killed.

Time and time again, Simon said, she has seen those harms.

“I’ve had patients who told me they didn’t want to be pregnant but who came back several months later having been unable to get the care they needed," Simon said. “I do worry that the barriers these patients have to overcome can be too big of a burden. It really feels like moving mountains.”

Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Atlanta-based abortion clinic Feminist Women’s Health Center, said her center serves 2,500 to 3,000 abortion patients a year. More than half are Black, and two-thirds are low-income, on Medicaid or uninsured.

“Abortion is carved out as being separate from or different from other kinds of health care,” Jackson said. “Communities of color, who have been harmed by or neglected by traditional health care systems, are also the very ones who are not able to access abortion services in the ways that they need.”

Lorenzo gets calls from several states including Oklahoma, where the governor recently enacted the most restrictive law in the country, banning abortion from fertilization. The advocate wishes policymakers would respect women’s agency, circumstances and lived experiences.

“The ability for them to make decisions about their own bodies is sacred.”

Pregnancy-related deaths could rise 20% or more in states that outlaw abortion, experts say

Nada Hassanein is USA TODAY's environmental and health inequities reporter. Eli Marcel Cahan is a freelance journalist. Both are recipients of the 2022 USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism Impact Fund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hyde Amendment: Millions of Americans already live in a post-Roe world

Meet the Pharmacist Expanding Access to Abortion Pills Across the US

Abigail Abrams
Mon, June 13, 2022


Credit - Courtesy Honeybee Health

On a recent spring evening, Jessica Nouhavandi found herself at the National Abortion Federation conference, surrounded by abortion providers talking excitedly about one key question: how to expand access to medication abortion in more states.

Nouhavandi’s company, Honeybee Health, is a crucial part of that goal. Barely four years old, the online, California-based mail-order pharmacy start-up is already one of the nation’s leading distributors of abortion pills. At some point, one of Nouhavandi’s fellow conference attendees asked if she could have imagined this moment just a few years ago. Nouhavandi remembers shaking her head in disbelief, her voice growing stronger with an unexpected surge of pride. “It was a very emotional moment to think of how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time,” she says.

A few days later, Nouhavandi got emotional for a different reason. On May 2, Politico published a draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Most abortion providers had been expecting the outcome, but the leaked draft confirmed their worst fears and focused the country’s attention on the stakes of the fight that abortion-rights advocates like Nouhavandi have been waging.

If the Supreme Court does overturn Roe, about half of U.S. states are expected to ban or severely restrict abortion. Advocates see medication abortion—a regimen of two drugs that can now be mailed directly to patients’ homes or to another location of their choosing—as key to the future of abortion access in the United States. Nouhavandi, 37, is leading that fight.

Read More: Inside the Effort to Promote Abortion Pills For a Post-Roe America.

Nouhavandi is co-founder and lead pharmacist at Honeybee Health, the first mail-order pharmacy in the U.S. to ship abortion pills. It’s now one of just two American pharmacy companies doing so—six months after the FDA permanently removed a requirement that the pills be dispensed in person and more than a year after the agency said it would stop enforcing the regulation during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Honeybee now operates in 48 states and territories, and works with a wide range of providers, from independent abortion clinics to most of the major abortion telehealth startups, to primary care practices starting to prescribe abortion pills for the first time.

With her signature collection of colorful glasses and broad smile, Nouhavandi has become a familiar face and critical resource as providers and activists scramble to find creative ways to educate patients and clinicians about abortion pills before the Supreme Court’s final ruling, which is expected at some point in June or early July. “Every person should have the choice to do what’s best for them. And that’s not always the case with health care in our country,” Nouhavandi says. “But as long as there are still states that are protecting the right to abortion … we’ll continue to find ways to support people, especially those that need it most.”

New FDA regulations transformed access to abortion pills

When Nouhavandi and her co-founder Peter Wang launched Honeybee Health in 2018, abortion access was not particularly on their minds. They’d been operating a regular community pharmacy outside Los Angeles and thought a new, online, mail-order pharmacy could help lower prescription drug costs by offering generic medications from wholesalers without going through health insurance.

But in 2020, when coronavirus precautions made people want to stay home and orders from Republican state officials temporarily closed some abortion clinics, providers began exploring how they might get abortion pills to patients outside of a traditional office setting. While other medical appointments largely moved online, specific requirements for mifepristone, one of the two drugs involved in medication abortion, prevented clinics from using telehealth appointments or mailing the medication. So medical groups sued the FDA, asking the agency to allow them to mail the pills during the ongoing public health emergency. In July 2020, a federal district court judge in Maryland agreed, and temporarily suspended the in-person dispensing requirement, saying providers could offer telemedicine appointments and then mail the pills to their patients. (The Supreme Court later reinstated the regulation after a challenge from the Trump Administration, but the FDA said it would stop enforcing it last spring and then permanently removed it in December.)

The ruling was transformative for abortion-rights advocates. But for the first several weeks after the judge’s decision, providers weren’t sure how using a pharmacy would work since the FDA still imposed special requirements on the drugs, says Elisa Wells, co-founder and co-director of Plan C, which aims to increase information about abortion pills and advises many abortion providers.

“Everyone was working from home, so the providers we had been working with were getting [the pills] shipped to their homes, which were then their offices,” Wells says. “They were packaging them up themselves, and they were figuring out how to print labels. All this stuff that a pharmacy would normally do for you.”

One day, Wells was on a webinar where an ACLU lawyer said the court ruling should allow providers to contract with online pharmacies. A number of providers had already been in touch with Nouhavandi, and they started more serious discussions about how Honeybee could help. “It wasn’t even a question,” says Nouhavandi, who has long had an interest in reproductive health and access. “It was yes, absolutely, let’s figure out how to do this.”

Honeybee had to figure out every detail from scratch: how they would receive prescriptions, what directions to patients should say, what information pharmacists needed if patients called Honeybee with questions instead of their own clinician. Nouhavandi brought in abortion providers to help educate her staff.

The process wasn’t easy. For starters, few people knew about abortion pills. When Nouhavandi texted her group chat of college-educated friends that she was starting this new project, her peers said they’d never heard of medication abortion. Even in pharmacy school, Nouhavandi says, “it’s just not something that is extensively taught. So pharmacists must go out of their way to get up to speed.”

This lack of information was due in part to the restrictions that the FDA has put on mifepristone since the drug was first approved in 2000. Most notably, the FDA required it to be dispensed in a clinic, doctor’s office or hospital. Providers are also required to get specially certified to prescribe the medication, must counsel patients on the risks, and then have the patient sign a form confirming they’ve been told that same information. These steps, while each relatively small, collectively created regulatory barriers that providers argue are not medically necessary and do not exist for even some highly addictive drugs.

Read More: Republican States Crack Down on Access To Abortion Pills As Supreme Court Decision Looms.

Abortion-rights activists, doctors, and researchers have spent years amassing data that shows medication abortion is safe and pushing for the government to treat it like other drugs with similarly low risks. They applauded the FDA’s December decision to remove the in-person dispensing requirement, but many were frustrated the agency didn’t go further. The FDA left the other requirements in place and added a new one: that pharmacies like Honeybee have to get certified to distribute mifepristone.

The FDA told TIME that after reviewing data and published literature about mifepristone, it concluded it was safe to get rid of the in-person requirement “provided all the other requirements of the [drug safety program] are met, and pharmacy certification is added.”

But the new certification requirement “came out of left field,” Nouhavandi says. One major wrinkle was that no certification process currently exists. Mifepristone’s manufacturers are working with the FDA to get a procedure approved, but that process could still take months.

In the meantime, the FDA has still paused enforcement of the in-person dispensing requirement during the pandemic public health emergency, and is allowing mail-order pharmacies to ship the pills as Honeybee has been doing. Amidst this confusing regulatory landscape, other larger pharmacies have not jumped to enter the market. TIME asked the five biggest pharmacy companies in the U.S. about whether they planned to seek certification, and most did not respond or declined to comment. CVS told TIME that retail pharmacies are not currently allowed to distribute mifepristone, and said it would review any changes from the FDA in the future.

Nouhavandi says she expects that some of the larger companies are “probably not wanting to touch this subject.” That’s been a boon to Honeybee’s business, which increased its revenue from just $27,000 when it launched near the end of 2018 to more than $14 million in 2021. But Nouhavandi says that as she has embraced distributing medication abortion, it’s been “disappointing” to see hesitancy from some investors. While her board and current investors are very supportive, she says, others she meets with—including people who say they support women’s health—are “skittish” about helping startups that work on abortion. And while Honeybee Health is based in a state that has moved to protect abortion rights, not all companies are in the same position. “We’re both supportive and outspoken regarding abortion rights,” Nouhavandi says. “But not all of our pharmacist colleagues have that level of support in their local environment.”

Preparing for the next shoe to drop

Despite the regulatory hurdles and the looming ruling on Roe, Nouhavandi feels energized. “I’ve never been more focused and excited as I have been in the last year,” she says. Which is good, because these days the business is crazier than ever. Since the Supreme Court leak, Honeybee has seen an 80% increase in demand for abortion pills, which now now make up roughly 30% of the company’s orders. Honeybee has grown to nearly 75 employees. A self-described coffee fiend who was never very good at work-life balance, Nouhavandi now regularly works 14-hour days packed with six to 10 meetings—often with investors, regulatory advisors, and lawyers. When we spoke, she was working out of a coworking space in Las Vegas, where she’d gone to consult with a provider interested in using telehealth to prescribe abortion pills.

If Roe is overturned, not that much will change for Nouhavandi. Already 19 states effectively outlaw mailing abortion pills, and Honeybee only ships to states where doing so is legal. “We have to stay within the law to ensure that we can continue to doing this work. Because this is the first time pharmacy is doing this, the scrutiny on us is even more,” she says.

Some abortion telehealth companies and clinics work with patients who drive from states where abortion pills are restricted to a state with more permissive laws, in order to take their telehealth appointment and pick up pills. Others know that patients might give pills to a friend in a state with more restrictions once they secure the medication themselves. Honeybee can’t control what happens to the medication once it’s in patients’ hands, but Nouhavandi emphasizes that the company is determined to abide by local laws. “We understand that we’re part of a bigger fight,” she says. “And so we can’t just go rogue and push the boundaries, because it really jeopardizes the whole movement.”

As the potential end of Roe draws closer, Honeybee has put more information about medication abortion up on its website, and Nouhavandi says that she knows disseminating accurate information, and countering misinformation, will be one of the major fights ahead. Right now, she’s trying to help more providers get certified to prescribe mifepristone, while positioning her own company to grow if demand requires it. “If that volume increases significantly, we’re totally prepared,” she says.

Honeybee Health is not a panacea, Nouhavandi acknowledges. Every patient can’t use medication abortion, and Honeybee Health can only mail the pills to states in which abortion is legal. But by working to make the pills widely available, the company can help offload demand, allowing the shrinking number of clinics to handle the expected influx of people traveling to get procedural abortions across state lines.

And that, Nouhavandi says, will remain her focus even in a post-Roe America. The goal, she says, is to make it “as easy as possible for patients and providers alike to get access” to abortion—now and in the future.

North Central Planned Parenthood workers file for union election

Bella Carpentier, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.

Jun. 12—ROCHESTER — North Central States Planned Parenthood workers filed with the National Labor Relations Board on May 26, 2022, for election to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa.

This came after the Planned Parenthood North Central States executive team decided against voluntarily recognizing the unionization of its workers, according to Jon Lutz, a health educator with Planned Parenthood in St. Paul.

"When we filed, we already had the majority of our colleagues in our five state area agree that they wanted to unionize and now all we have to do is prove it," Lutz said.

Lutz has been teaching sex education since 2013 and decided to work with Planned Parenthood in 2018, even though it meant taking a pay cut.

"I wanted to be a part of the organization that was doing the best sex ed in Minnesota. I wanted to learn from colleagues I've met in the sex education community who I really respected," Lutz said.

According to Lutz, he saw these colleagues who loved the work at Planned Parenthood having to leave because of financial reasons or work multiple jobs. With patient demand for care through Planned Parenthood high, Lutz said he started hearing about people having to take double shifts or skip breaks because of short staffing.

"I want this great job to continue to be a great job, and that's why for me, it's so important to to get unionized," Lutz said.

On May 2, news broke of the Supreme Court drafting an opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade.

If the ruling is overturned, Minnesota Planned Parenthood locations would likely see an upswing in the number of people coming in from out of state, as North Dakota and South Dakota have trigger laws that would outlaw abortion almost immediately while Wisconsin and Iowa are at-risk states.

"Every day, my coworkers and I provide the safe, quality reproductive care that our communities need and deserve. As everyone is aware, our right to provide this care is constantly under attack," Sadie Brewer, a registered nurse working at Planned Parenthood's Vandalia Street Clinic in St. Paul, said in a news conference on May 26. "What we need most at this critical time is as much protection as we can get — and a union will give us just that."

According to Lutz, he has noticed his students seem worried from about the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

"Something I would want any teenager I talk to to know is that abortion remains safe and legal, and even when Roe v. Wade falls, as it seemingly will, it will remain safe and legal in Minnesota," Lutz said. "We at Planned Parenthood are ready to help. We are not going anywhere."

The NLRB is in the process of scheduling when the election will be, according to Lutz. What will happen at the election is employees will either vote in favor of or against unionizing, and the majority vote plus one will decide what occurs.

"I'm extremely proud of the organizing work that my colleagues have done across five states (and) hundreds of employees during a pandemic," Lutz said. "We started with a majority and are building towards a super majority. We are going to win this election."

As abortion ruling nears, U.S. Supreme Court erects barricades to the public

"They are trying to insulate themselves from the effects of their actions. Why else would you put a fence up?" 

Fri, June 17, 2022, 
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Encircled by an ominous security fence and off-limits to the public since March 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised in the coming weeks to issue a major ruling that could dramatically curtail abortion rights from behind closed doors with not a single justice in sight.

No members of the public have been allowed in the courthouse since COVID-19 pandemic precautions were implemented in March 2020. The scene at the court has become more tense following protests and threats against some of the nine justices prompted by the May leak of a draft opinion indicating they are set to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

The 8-foot (2.4 meters) tall fencing was erected in the days after the leak as the court ramped up security measures.

While the rest of official Washington, including other government buildings including the White House and Capitol, has reopened its doors to the public at least partially as the pandemic ebbs, the top U.S. judicial body remains in a form of lockdown with what appears to be siege mentality even as it wields huge influence over public policy.

For Guido Reichstadter, an abortion-rights protester camped out in front of the courthouse since the beginning of June, the fencing is a sign of how out of touch the justices - or at least the six conservative ones - are with public sentiment.

"They are trying to insulate themselves from the effects of their actions. Why else would you put a fence up?" Reichstadter asked.

Reichstadter was arrested on June 6 for locking himself to the fence by the neck and spent a night in jail.

"To me it sends a message that they are weak, they are afraid, they are isolated," Reichstadter said of the fence.

Emotions have run high since the Politico news organization published the draft abortion decision authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito on May 2.

Since then, protesters have rallied outside the homes of some of the conservative justices. A California man named Nicholas Roske, carrying a handgun, ammunition, a crow bar and pepper spray, was charged with attempted murder after being arrested on June 8 near Justice Brett Kavanaugh's Maryland residence.

Congress on Tuesday passed legislation to bolster security for the nine justices, though lawmakers did not include protections for the families of clerks and other Supreme Court employees due to Republican opposition.

After the leak, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, known for his criticism of the Roe ruling, said on May 6 at a legal conference in Atlanta that the court should not be "bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want."

Anti-abortion advocates are sympathetic to concerns about the safety of the justices, saying they also have received threats following the leak.

"I would say the court is protecting itself, protecting their employees," said Kristan Hawkins, president of the group Students for Life.

EMERGING SLOWLY

The abortion ruling will come in a case involving a Republican-backed Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that was struck down by lower courts as a violation of the Roe precedent. The court also has 17 other cases to decide, with the term usually completed by the end of June, including rulings that could expand gun rights, favor Christian conservatives and limit the power of the federal government to combat climate change, among other issues.

The court has emerged slowly from the pandemic. It resumed in-person oral arguments last October after holding remote arguments by teleconference for 18 months, but let only court staff, lawyers and some reporters into the courtroom. Since the court completed oral arguments for the term on April 27, outsiders have been kept from the building.

One of the many changes in court practice instituted during the pandemic was issuing rulings only online, with no official court session. That means justices no longer read from the bench summaries of their rulings and dissenting opinions. It was previously an opportunity for justices who strongly disagreed with a ruling to passionately voice their views.

A court spokesperson did not respond to a question on why the justices have not resumed reading announcements from the bench. The court has not said when, or if, such sessions will resume. It has shown no signs of live-streaming audio of opinion announcements in the same way that audio of oral arguments has been provided.

Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, a group advocating for court reform, said there is no reason not to livestream decision announcements, noting it would be the equivalent of President Joe Biden holding a news conference in which he summarized a new executive order.

"It's infuriating they are so resistant to change, but that's kind of what they are known for," Roth said of the court.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

Guest Opinion: Abortion shouldn't be the government's call



James A. Morano

One sure way to perpetuate poverty, high welfare costs and high crime rates in this country is to make sure single women can’t get abortions. Then there will be a plentiful supply of single mothers who can’t work because they have to care for an unwanted child, a child who will grow up in desperate circumstances, drop out of school, get a minimum wage job and ultimately come to the conclusion that robbery, drug dealing and violent crime, pay better.

Some people argue that abortion is the murder of an innocent child and is a violation of “God’s law.” For those who believe, that is certainly a legitimate and sincere concern.

However, unlike some countries — most notably in the Middle East — the United States Constitution was developed, not to adhere to any one of the many understandings of “God’s law”. Its purpose was and is, to devise and implement a system of government that creates a just, free, stable and sustainable society of self-governed people.

Therefore, the laws of the country should be made and enforced with that as a goal and not be evaluated on whether or not they comply with one of the many and varied understandings of “God’s law”. Adherence to “God’s law” is an individual decision, based on one’s belief.

As a people, we have to decide which does more damage to our society: abortion or the cost, suffering, poverty and crime resulting from the prohibition of abortion. A woman has to decide whether or not to abort an unwanted child, based on her belief system, financial means, health, etc. This is never a decision taken lightly, for abortion is at best, unpleasant; at worst, abhorrent.

As in many real-life situations, the choice is not between black and white, good and evil. Sometimes one has to choose the lesser of two evils, a difficult decision to be sure, but a decision that should be made by the individual, not by the government.

James A. Morano lives in New Britain Township.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Guest Opinion: Abortion shouldn't be the government's call

Sun, June 12, 2022

Planned Parenthood builds staff network to help U.S. women navigate abortion hurdles


The Wider Image: With U.S. abortion access in jeopardy, this doctor travels to fill a void

Mon, June 13, 2022,
By Gabriella Borter

(Reuters) - Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups are expanding a network of staff to guide patients through what is expected to become an increasingly complex and expensive process to obtain abortions across much of the United States.

Regional affiliates of Planned Parenthood said they are hiring more "patient navigators," a role dedicated to helping women find abortion appointments and secure money to cover medical, travel and childcare costs.

A sharp increase in patients needing such support is likely should the U.S. Supreme Court strike down the federal right to an abortion, said abortion providers and funds that help cover abortion-related costs. Twenty-six states could move to quickly ban abortion, requiring women in those places to travel potentially hundreds of miles to the closest abortion clinic.

The prospect of a drastically changed U.S. abortion landscape has leading reproductive health organizations rethinking their approach.

"It’s really a big spider web that's being built throughout the country," said Angela Huntington in Missouri. She was hired in September as the first patient navigator at the Planned Parenthood Great Plains affiliate, which operates clinics in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Clinics and funds in places that already limit abortion access have relied often on an informal system of coordination to help patients find the nearest and soonest appointment and cobble together financial aid.

Huntington said the Great Plains affiliate saw the need for a formalized network after Texas enacted a law in September that banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, resulting in more women traveling from Texas to other states for abortions.

Approximately 850 patients sought financial assistance for abortions through the affiliate in September, up from about 150 women in August, she said. The Great Plains organization has now expanded its patient navigation team to seven people, Huntington said.

Other Planned Parenthood affiliates have hired or are planning to hire more patient navigators to help with referrals and funding coordination, according to spokesperson Lauren Kokum.

Those include the South Atlantic affiliate, which currently has one navigator across Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and the Florida affiliates, which have hired three.

PREPARING FOR PATIENT INFLUX

Abortion funds, which have long played a role in helping patients with medical costs and practical support such as booking hotels, also are scrambling to prepare for the expected spike in women traveling for abortions.

The National Abortion Federation (NAF), an organization that represents U.S. abortion providers and offers financial assistance to patients, doubled the size of its case management team two years ago amid a wave of new state restrictions that complicated patients' access to abortion.

As of May, NAF was spending about 80% of its donation-based travel assistance fund on helping patients leave Texas to get abortions because of that state's six-week ban, according to Rachel Lachenauer, the director of patient experience.

With the threat of more state abortion bans that would affect women far beyond Texas, the organization is "in hyperdrive" as it assesses how it can most effectively distribute its travel resources, Lachenauer said.

“You can see how we are really, really quickly going to hit our capacity,” she said.

NAF is planning to concentrate the efforts of its 20 case managers on states such as Illinois, which protect abortion rights and will see an increase in patients from surrounding states with more restrictive laws, she said.

The Chicago Abortion Fund, similarly bracing for a wave of abortion seekers coming to Illinois, plans to expand its team of support coordinators to six from two by the end of June, said Megan Jeyifo, the fund's director.

The coordinators oversee the organization's volunteer case managers and handle patient support such as providing gas and food money for traveling patients, she said.

The Chicago Abortion Fund now communicates with patient navigators at Planned Parenthood's Illinois and St. Louis affiliates almost daily to discuss an increasing number of patient cases requiring assistance, Jeyifo said.

The fund also is building relationships with new abortion providers opening clinics in Illinois to accommodate the heavier patient load.

"We're going to need all of us in this kind of ecosystem to be able to make sure people get the care they want," Jeyifo said.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman)

Galapagos 'fantastic giant tortoise' was believed to be extinct for 100 years — until the discovery of a lone 50-year-old female nicknamed Fernanda


Kelsey Vlamis
Sat, June 11, 2022

Fernanda, a more than 50-year-old "fantastic giant tortoise" of the Galápagos Islands.Lucas Bustamante/Galapagos Conservancy

For a century, biologists have been intrigued by a species of Galápagos tortoise thought extinct.

But a tortoise recently discovered on a volcanic island belonged to that species, a new paper says.

DNA analysis showed the newly found tortoise came from the same lineage as one found in 1906.

A single giant female tortoise was discovered in 2019 on Fernandina Island, an active volcano in the Galápagos Islands that's considered by some to be the largest pristine island on earth.

Scientists have confirmed the tortoise, nicknamed Fernanda, belongs to a species thought extinct for over a century, according to a paper published this week in the journal Communications Biology.

"The significance of the find is huge," Evelyn Jensen, a lecturer in molecular ecology at Newcastle University, told Insider.

Jensen was the co-first author of the paper along with Stephen Gaughran, a postdoctoral research fellow in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University.

"To find that a species of Galápagos tortoise that was thought to be extinct for over 100 years is not in fact extinct, but lives on, was truly amazing," Jensen said.

The first specimen of Chelonoidis phantasticus, also called "the fantastic giant tortoise," was discovered on Fernandina Island in 1906 and collected by explorer Rollo Beck. The specimen differed from other Galápagos tortoises due to the shape of its shell, which flared out along the edge, and prominent "saddlebacking," or a raised, saddle-like shape, towards the front.

But another "fantastic giant tortoise" was never found, with the species long considered extinct — that is, until Fernanda.

Fernanda, who researchers believe is at least 50 years old, was discovered in 2019 on an isolated patch of vegetation that was cut off from the main vegetated area of the island by lava flows. Her growth was stunted, which the researchers said could explain why her physical traits weren't quite as pronounced as the specimen found in 1906.

Fernanda the "fantastic giant tortoise" at the Santa Cruz Giant Tortoise Breeding Center in Galapagos.Galapagos Conservancy

Fernanda was collected and placed in captivity at the Galápagos National Park Tortoise Center. Researchers sequenced the genomes of both Fernanda and the 1906 specimen, which was part of the California Academy of Sciences collection.

Their analysis indicated the two tortoises were genetically distinct from other species of Galápagos tortoises and are from the same lineage.

"That Fernanda was found at all was a huge surprise," Jensen said. "We really did not expect that there were any tortoises living on Fernandina Island, although there were rumors of signs of tortoises there over the decades."

Once she was found, researchers thought Fernanda may have been native to a different Galápagos island and somehow ended up on Fernandina. While tortoises don't swim, they can float or be transported during storms.

Though another "fantastic giant tortoise" has not been found since Fernanda, there have been encouraging signs, like tracks and feces, suggesting 2 to 3 other tortoises may be on the island.

There are believed to be 15 species of Galápagos tortoises, according to the nonprofit Galápagos Conservancy. The Galápagos Archipelago is well known for its distinct species, which were studied by Charles Darwin and helped contribute to his theory on evolution.

"This also shows the importance of using museum collections to understand the past," Adalgisa Caccone, the senior author of the study and a lecturer in ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, said in a statement.

"The finding of one alive specimen gives hope and also opens up new questions as many mysteries still remain," Caccone said, posing questions about whether there are more tortoises on Fernandina Island, whether they can be recovered through a breeding program, and how they got there in the first place.

Sky backs £100mn climate investment fund

Daniel Thomas in London

Sun, June 12, 2022, 

British media group Sky will back a £100mn investment fund set up by Brent Hoberman’s Founders Factory to support start-ups focused on climate-related technology. The new fund will be chaired by Sir Ian Cheshire, former Kingfisher boss and chair of Channel 4, and will bring together a board including climate scientists such as Professor Richard Templer and Professor Cameron Hepburn to help with its investment strategy. The group will raise £100mn to back early-stage climate start-ups but will be launched with an existing portfolio of stakes in about 25 start-ups that have been backed in the past by a previous Sky venture fund.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_UK

Sky UK - Wikipedia 

It is a subsidiary of Sky Group and from 2018 onwards – part of Comcast. It is the UK's largest pay-TV broadcaster with 12.7 million customers as of end of 2019 ...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/26/rupert-murdochs-sky-reign-to-end-as-fox-sells-all-shares-to-comcast

Rupert Murdoch's Sky reign to end as Fox sells all shares to Comcast 

Sep 26, 2018 ... Rupert Murdoch's three-decade reign at Sky TV is to end after his company 21st Century Fox announced it would sell all of its shares in the ...

Neo-Nazi Founder Among 31 Patriot Front Members Arrested Near Idaho Pride Event

LINDSAY WHITEHURST and SAM METZ / AP

After the arrest of more than two dozen members of a white supremacist group near a northern Idaho pride event, including one identified as its founder, LGBTQ advocates said Sunday that polarization and a fraught political climate are putting their community increasingly at risk.

The 31 Patriot Front members were arrested with riot gear after a tipster reported seeing people loading up into a U-Haul like “a little army” at a hotel parking lot in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, police said.

Among those booked into jail on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot was Thomas Ryan Rousseau of Grapevine, Texas, who has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the 23-year-old who founded the group after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. No attorney was immediately listed for him and phone numbers associated with him went unanswered Sunday.

Also among the arrestees was Mitchell F. Wagner, 24, of Florissant, Missouri, who was previously charged with defacing a mural of famous Black Americans on a college campus in St. Louis last year.

Michael Kielty, Wagner’s attorney, said Sunday that he had not been provided information about the charges. He said Patriot Front did not have a reputation for violence and that the case could be a First Amendment issue. “Even if you don’t like the speech, they have the right to make it,” he said.

Patriot Front is a white supremacist neo-Nazi group whose members perceive Black Americans, Jews and LGBTQ people as enemies, said Jon Lewis, a George Washington University researcher who specializes in homegrown violent extremism.

Their playbook, Lewis said, involves identifying local grievances to exploit, organizing on platforms like the messaging app Telegram and ultimately showing up to events marching in neat columns, in blue- or white-collared-shirt uniforms, in a display of strength.

Though Pride celebrations have long been picketed by counterprotesters citing religious objections, they haven’t historically been a major focus for armed extremist groups. Still, it isn’t surprising, given how anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has increasingly become a potent rallying cry in the far-right online ecosystem, Lewis said.

“That set of grievances fits into their broader narratives and shows their ability to mobilize the same folks against ‘the enemy’ over and over and over again,” he said.

The arrests come amid a surge of charged rhetoric around LGBTQ issues and a wave of state legislation aimed at transgender youth, said John McCrostie, the first openly gay man elected to the Idaho Legislature. In Boise this week, dozens of Pride flags were stolen from city streets.

“Whenever we are confronted with attacks of hate, we must respond with the message from the community that we embrace all people with all of our differences,” McCrostie said in a text message.

Sunday also marked six years since the mass shooting that killed 49 people at the Orlando LGBTQ club Pulse, said Troy Williams with Equality Utah in Salt Lake City.

“Our nation is growing increasingly polarized, and the result has been tragic and deadly,” he said.

Authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are investigating a possible hate crime after a group of men allegedly shouted homophobic and anti-LGBTQ slurs during a weekend Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Lorenzo Library on Saturday. No arrests have been made, no one was physically harmed, and authorities are investigating the incident as possible harassment of children.

In Coeur d’Alene on Saturday, police found riot gear, one smoke grenade, shin guards and shields inside the van after pulling it over near a park where the North Idaho Pride Alliance was holding a Pride in the Park event, Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said.

The group came to riot around the small northern Idaho city wearing Patriot Front patches and logos on their hats and some T-shirts reading “Reclaim America,” according to police and videos of the arrests posted on social media.

Those arrested came from at least 11 states, including Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Virginia, and Arkansas.

Though there is a history of far-right extremism dating back decades in northern Idaho, White said only one of those arrested Saturday was from the state.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Sun, June 12, 2022

Fox News Regulars and the Far Right Freak Out Over Fox Trans Teen Segment

Zachary Petrizzo
Sat, June 11, 2022,

Fox News

A Fox News segment highlighting a California family’s story of accepting their son’s transgender transitioning story has caught the ire of some Fox News regulars as well as the far-right fever swamps.

“California transgender teen, family hope to be an inspiration to others,” read the title of the video report from correspondent Bryan Llenas, as posted to Fox’s website. Fox News anchor Dana Perino introduced the segment on-air during her Friday morning show as part of “America Together LGBTQ+ Pride Month.”

The freakout was almost immediate.

“I have appeared on Fox News many times. I appreciate the platform they’ve given me. If what I’m about to say ruins that relationship, so be it,” tweeted The Daily Wire podcaster Matt Walsh, a Fox News regular and right-wing firebrand behind an anti-trans documentary that attempted to dupe trans teens into participating under false pretenses. “We have to call this evil lunacy out wherever we see it. Especially on our own side.”

He continued his rant, claiming that “I know for a fact that many people at Fox do not approve of this and never would have agreed to air radical far left trans propaganda,” adding that “Everyone involved should be fired immediately.”

The Daily Wire honcho Ben Shapiro, also a Fox News regular who is often approvingly cited by the network’s opinion personalities, similarly whined with a tweet: “This would be absolute despicable insane lunacy if I saw it on CNN or MSNBC. To see it on Fox News is a complete betrayal of anything remotely resembling conservatism or decency.” He also called on Fox to “terminate whomever is responsible for this agitprop abomination.”

As of Saturday morning, Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform and Telegram were also buzzing with anger.

“Fox News is cool with toddlers taking hormones,” Gavin McInnes, a hate-group leader that founded the Proud Boys, wrote on Telegram. Elsewhere both Stew Peters, a far-right shock-jock, and Lauren Witzke, a failed Delaware Republican Senate candidate, encouraged followers to spam Fox News with emails over airing the segment and moreover being “disgusting,” “satanic,” and “demonic.” “Turn Fox News OFF,” the extremist social media platform Gab further wrote.

“Fox News is DONE!” former Trump administration official and ex-Fox News contributor Sebastian Gorka wrote on Truth Social. “Fox and Twitter joining forces,” The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon added.

A Fox News spokesperson did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment.

Filipino trans man Van Vincent Go documents his gender transition on YouTube to inspire others



Ryan General
June 10, 2022·3 min read

Van Vincent Go, a 29-year-old transgender man from the Philippines, is seeking to empower the local trans community by sharing details about his own transition on YouTube.

Go began detailing his transition on his YouTube channel VandomVincent back in 2014. His videos document the gradual changes in his body, including the surgical removal of his breasts, development of a more masculine chest, growth of facial hair and the deepening of his voice.

Go revealed in an interview with Rappler in January that he first learned the term “transgender” on YouTube as he was trying to discover more about himself.

“I’ve always seen myself as a boy, as early as 4 years old,” Go was quoted as saying. “It was only when I was about 18 years old when I realized that I was transgender all this time.”

Coming from an all-girls school where a number of his friends were “butch lesbians,” Go initially thought he was the same as them.

“As we grew older, I was getting really uncomfortable with my body, and I was asking myself why [I felt that way] when the rest of them didn’t have any issues with the changes during puberty.”

According to Go, he discovered that he was transgender after watching hundreds of YouTube videos on the transgender experience and SOGIE (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression).

That was when he decided to undergo the transition medically. While his mother “didn’t really take it well” when he first revealed the news, he said he was “already ready with whatever reaction she would give me.”

So far, Go has undergone top surgery and has been taking hormones through intramuscular injections.

Go highlighted the importance of finding the right medical professionals as such procedures aren’t widely supported in the Philippines.

In 2014, he co-founded the very first trans man support group in Visayas and Mindanao to address the issue by creating a directory of medical professionals who are trans-friendly.

He also advised people who are thinking about following in his footsteps to prepare for the processes both financially and mentally.

“Other people think that once they transition, they’d automatically be accepted by everyone else in their environment,” Go said. "That’s not really true. It depends on who you’re with. It’s not a guarantee that people are going to look at you differently, because you’re still the same person, and the people around you who do not really believe in these things are still the same people.”

In November last year, Go was selected to be part of YouTube’s NextUp program, which provided him and other creators with training and support in growing and improving their channels. He is now committed to using what he learned to continue inspiring others in the trans community by developing better content on the transgender experience.



“I’m working on making a series of educational videos about our trans community – with updated information,” Go shared. “Our experts find new information every now and then, and our politically correct terms keep evolving, so it’s nice to be aware of all these things.”

Featured Image via VandomVincent

Dubai and UAE should be blacklisted and face sanctions for sheltering oligarchs and 'dirty money', activists say: report


Jyoti Mann

BUSINESS INSIDER

Oligarchs have put assets such as superyachts in Dubai.

Getty Images

A growing number of politicians and activists are calling for Dubai to be blacklisted: The Observer.

8 European Parliament members signed an open letter to a European Commissioner demanding sanctions.

The Financial Action Task Force watchdog put Dubai on its 'gray' earlier this year.

Politicians and activists are calling for Dubai and the United Arab Emirates to be blacklisted over its failure to observe sanctions against Russian oligarchs and stem the flow of dirty money flowing through the UAE.

Western countries including the US and UK hit Russia with stringent sanctions in February after Russia invaded Ukraine. This prompted some oligarchs to flee to Dubai and buy properties in the UAE.

"Dubai has long been a safe place for dirty money. It should now be put on financial blacklists and its leaders shouldn't be welcome [in Britain]," Bill Browder, a campaigner and critic of Vladimir Putin, told Britain's The Observer newspaper.

Browder joins a growing list of politicians and activists who have called for sanctions against the UAE. Last month a group of European Parliament members signed an open letter to European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness calling for the UAE to be blacklisted.

"How many scandals will it take before Dubai gets on the EU money laundering list?" asked Kira Peter-Hansen, one of the MEPs to sign the open letter, in a tweet on May 11.

The letter came after news reports that the UAE is a safe haven for Russian oligarchs who took their private jets and yachts to places such as Dubai in an attempt to escape western sanctions.

"It is clear that the UAE facilitates money laundering at a grand scale," the letter stated. "This is highly damaging to the EU and cannot be tolerated."

The Financial Action Task Force, a global financial crime watchdog, placed the UAE on a "gray" list in March to monitor its activities and encourage stronger action against money laundering.

An investigation and data leak in Mayt from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in May exposed how sanctioned individuals have poured money into Dubai.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

BOURGEOIS ECONOMICS WITHOUT BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY

The rise and fall of Secoo: how China's top luxury retailer fell off the catwalk after glory days of US$140 million Nasdaq IPO

Sun, June 12, 2022

The spectacular fall from grace of China's top luxury retailer Secoo offers a cautionary tale about how many companies which were once seen as rising stars in a high-growth market are now facing the harsh reality of increased competition and weak consumer spending in a slowing economy.

Secoo, started by Chinese entrepreneur Richard Rixue Li and enthusiastically backed by private equity capital, rose from a second-hand handbag shop into China's largest luxury goods exchange for individuals with a 2017 initial public offering on Nasdaq raising US$140 million.

However, since then the luxury platform has lost its way. Although its main digital app remains in operation, a plethora of complaints from consumers and vendors on social media, combined with a now-withdrawn bankruptcy filing, have crippled the company's public image.

In a 17-year-old shopping centre in Shanghai, Secoo's brand new offline store can be seen perched on the fourth floor, with sections including menswear, womenswear, children's clothing, handbags, authentication services and others.

But few customers could be seen when the South China Morning Post visited the store on two separate occasions earlier this year, before Covid-19 lockdowns hit large swathes of Shanghai. The outlet is one of 300 offline spaces that were planned by the company in the country through direct franchises and joint partnerships in late 2021. So far, only two of them - in Shanghai and Chongqing - have materialised.

A customer service reply to a question sent via the company's app said that the Shanghai outlet is currently undergoing a "refurbishment upgrade" whereas the Chongqing space is undergoing an "adjustment".

Secoo's new store in Shanghai opened its doors last October. Photo: Yaling Jiang 

A review section for one of its stores on a third-party app is filled with customer complaints. "It doesn't deliver, doesn't return, when I called, it always says 'system upgrade', what a con company", one of the negative reviews states.

Multiple calls to Secoo by the Post to get its comment on questions raised in this article were unanswered as of publication.

Long Zheqing, a consumer based in China's central Changsha city, has been waiting for a refund from the e-tailer, which sells both new and used luxury goods, for more than half a year.

After paying over 30,000 yuan (US$4,466) for a total of eight items during China's Singles' Day shopping festival around November 11 last year, she waited for her delivery for a month before complaining and asking for a refund. The average speed for China's e-commerce deliveries is typically one to three days.

"Victims who are close to the Beijing headquarters may have gone there in person to get their refunds much faster, but it's hard for people like me who are far away," Long told the Post via messaging platform WeChat. Even though she is still waiting for the refund, Secoo's customer service continues to call her up for promotional seasons, she said.

In another sign of trouble for Secoo, the Beijing parent firm was forced to pay up to 17.4 million yuan (US$2.6 million) of debt to Shanghai Secoo E-commerce, one of its subsidiaries, by a Beijing court in May 2022, according to business intelligence platform Tianyancha.

The current state of affairs is a dramatic turnaround for a company that once rode the crest of China's e-commerce and second-hand luxury sales wave. Founded in 2008 by Li and Huang Zhaohui as a trading company, it pivoted towards luxury e-tailing in 2011, attracting an array of well-heeled investors in its early years, including IDG Capital and Bertelsmann Asia Investments.

Li said that with strong partners Secoo would be able to "expand and deepen its market presence not only in China, but across the globe", in a statement in 2018.

Former employees the Post spoke with for this article, talked about their experiences with the company in terms of "before" and "after" the Nasdaq IPO.

One former employee, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, who joined Secoo's Italy office a few months before it went public, said the team in Italy grew to around 40 people at its largest. "The company was growing at high-speed in 2018, we had money, people and know-how," she said, adding that they built a platform for European vendors to support the buyers boutique business and helped over 100 boutiques sell on Secoo.

According to Secoo's financial results, the company as a whole experienced high growth in revenue and the number of active customers doubled almost every quarter in mid 2018 and early 2019 until the growth gradually slowed in late 2019.

By the end of 2019, although the number of orders remained largely the same, the Italy team felt that it was proving tough for Secoo's China team to prove it could deliver payments to European vendors and brands, the employee said.

Another former employee of the Italy office, who also requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said Secoo still owes her around 9,000 euros (US$9,500) representing two months' salary, severance pay and meal ticket subsidies from last year. She quit and took up a new job offer after Secoo stopped paying her.

Meanwhile, a third former employee who was part of Secoo's branding team based in Beijing who also requested anonymity due to fear of reprisals, said he felt issues in 2019 over "management and inventory matters".

Compared to fellow e-tailers like Farfetch and Net-a-Porter, Secoo had fewer direct partners, and goods sourcing mainly relied on parallel imports and a large network of buyers, which meant expenses were higher.

The anonymous former Beijing employee said Secoo relied on physical stores in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, for stable cash flows, but the sudden disruption caused by the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic across China in early 2020 hindered operations. The three physical stores have all since closed.

In the first quarter of 2020, growth in active customers and gross merchandise value both dropped from over 50 per cent to 12 per cent, according to exchange filings. Growth further declined to single digits until 2021, when after publishing first half results, the company stopped releasing any financial records at all.


Under its 180-day grace period, which ends on June 15, the company will be officially delisted if its closing bid price is not above US$1 per share or higher for at least 10 consecutive business days. As of publication, the company has not yet met this requirement.

Meanwhile, after several domestic media outlets in January reported that the company had filed for bankruptcy in Beijing, Secoo retracted the petition, according to information on China's national enterprise bankruptcy information disclosure platform. Secoo also announced in January a plan by its founder to take the firm private at a price of US$3.27 per share. The proposal was withdrawn on May 20, according to an exchange filing.

But how did it come to this? Analysts attribute the company's problems to several factors, some beyond its control and some not.

Secoo enjoyed rapid growth before global luxury e-commerce platforms Farfetch and Net-a-Porter entered the market in 2017 and 2019 respectively, and before global luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci opened up official e-commerce channels via WeChat mini-programs and Tmall. Secoo also launched before home-grown luxury resellers such as Ponhu and Red Plum were founded. Alibaba Group Holding, which operates Tmall, also owns the Post.

After the pandemic further reduced physical shopping, reluctant luxury brands finally caved in to the e-commerce surge. For example, Gucci chief executive Marco Bizzarri, who once warned that the Kering-owned brand did not want to "certify counterfeiting" in a reference to e-commerce channels, changed course. Domestic competition also increased.

"In recent years, tech giants including Alibaba and JD.com have doubled down on the luxury sector, and with the further digitalisation of luxury brands, the market change has taken a heavy toll on luxury e-tailers like Secoo," said Mo Daiqing, director of the online retail department of e-commerce consulting firm 100ec.cn.

Covid-19 has hastened the convergence of the online-to-offline sales model, said Cai Jinfeng, executive director at Frost & Sullivan's Greater China office. "Due to Covid-19, many physical stores could not operate, which pushed brands to develop online channels to reach consumers," said Cai.

A luxury store in Shanghai, China, on Wednesday, June 1, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

But Secoo has also made several business decisions that deviated from its original mission, which was to sell second-hand luxury online.

It invested heavily in live streaming (with a 7,000-square-metre facility and a dedicated team), it tapped into the Hainan duty-free gold rush, vowed to disrupt the luxury resale sector with blockchain-empowered authentication services, and expanded into categories outside fashion, such as its partnership with high-end liquor brand Kweichow Moutai.

Moving from a low capital intensive model to a higher-cost one has meant that Secoo has struggled to meet payments to vendors and consumers, according to analysts.

Despite owning what it called "first-in-the-industry" blockchain-empowered authentication services since 2018, Secoo has been accused of selling counterfeit goods. Secoo has either denied these allegations or declined to comment on the matter when speaking to local media.

"For luxury e-tailers, counterfeit and trust issues have always been the industry's pain points, once controversies over products occur, it can cause huge harm to the credibility of the platform," said 100EC.com's Mo. "With the fierce market competition and many other challenges, it will be hard for it to bounce back."

In March, Shanghai's social retail sales dropped 20 per cent amid the city's lockdowns, while wearable goods sales plunged 30 per cent, the lowest of all categories. In April social retail sales for the same category fell 38 per cent. Although Shanghai is gradually reopening after a two-month citywide lockdown, a recovery in consumer sentiment is uncertain.

Secoo's shares closed at about 26 US cents on Friday, meaning the company only has a few days left to avoid a delisting after June 15. Over the past month, Secoo's stock has dropped over 20 per cent, and it is now around 97 per cent below its highest point in 2018.

A Beijing-based customer using the handle Yuanyuanlian on social e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu who requested a refund from Secoo after running into a similar problem as Long, is certain that she is not going back.

Despite securing a refund from Secoo after calling 315, China's official consumer complaint hotline, Beijing's resident service line, the municipal consumer association, online complaint platform Black Cat and the science and technology commission of Miyun County, she remains upset.

"I will not use the platform again, credibility is very important in online shopping," she said in a message via the social e-commerce app. "I would trust official websites and physical stores more."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.