In the states…
North Carolina’s near-total abortion ban might have a chance of passing: Axios reports that Democratic Rep. Tricia Cotham might switch parties—which would give Republicans the votes they need to override a veto from Gov. Roy Cooper. A total nightmare.
This is the kind of ad that Wisconsin voters have been seeing in the lead-up to today’s state Supreme Court election. The race has been the most expensive of its kind in history, and will impact abortion rights in the state and democracy across the country: Between voting rights, gerrymandering and the 2024 presidential election, the state is a critical battleground. (NPR has a short segment on the race, if you’d like a quick explainer on why it’s so important.) The good news is that turnout has been huge, which everyone is taking as a positive sign—so fingers and toes crossed.
Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried and Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book were arrested last night while protesting the passage of a 6-week abortion ban that will deprive millions of their right to bodily autonomy and life-saving healthcare. Earlier in the day, Sen. Book said on the Senate floor, “No one is going to save us but ourselves.” (Planned Parenthood has a video of the arrest if you’d like to watch it.) Compare that with what Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia said yesterday to protesters in the public-viewing gallery who were yelling that the bill would kill people: “You shut up.” That’s exactly what they’d like us to do. Not going to happen.
Anti-abortion activists in Ohio continue their efforts to stop a pro-choice ballot measure from getting to voters this November. You probably remember that they’re suing the state Ballot Board, arguing that the amendment—which would protect people’s rights to make their own reproductive decisions, including abortion—should be split into multiple ballot measures:
“Anti-abortion activists contend that abortion has been recognized as being ‘inherently different’ and a ‘unique act,’ saying it is separate from reproductive decisions. The Ohio Ballot Board ‘failed to even consider the particular language of the proposal and what actually falls (or may fall) within the ambit of being ‘one’s own reproductive decisions,’’ relators said in this recent merit brief they filed Friday.”
So they’re not just trying to stop the ballot measure, they’re working hard to argue that abortion isn’t part of reproductive healthcare and is different (aka bad and wrong). Whenever they have the chance to stigmatize abortion, they’ll take it!
You know that Utah passed a law recently requiring abortions be performed in hospitals—effectively banning abortion clinics in the state. Yesterday, Planned Parenthood asked a judge to block enforcement of that law based on the state constitution’s right to privacy, religious freedom and bodily integrity. The lawsuit is before Judge Andrew Stone, who issued a block on a different abortion ban in the state last year because of the “seismic change in women's health treatment.” Planned Parenthood is arguing that the judge should block this newer law for the same reason, pointing out in the suit that “because licensed abortion clinics provide over 95% of the abortions in Utah, and because Utah hospitals provide abortions only in narrow circumstances, HB 467 will functionally ban abortion…”
Sarah Stoesz, president of the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Utah, told the Associated Press, “Honestly, there are no realistic alternative locations for Utahns to continue to get this really essential health care. This law wouldn’t just ‘shift care’ to hospitals—as some politicians are cynically maintaining. In fact, it would functionally eliminate access to abortion in Utah, putting the lives and health of people at risk.”
The suit also points out that the law has “factual and legal overlap” with the trigger ban that the judge blocked—which is another way of saying Republicans decided to try a sneaky new way of passing a law that’s already been blocked.
Louisiana’s Republican Senate President Page Cortez says the legislature isn’t going to have time for abortion-related bills, like adding in rape and incest exceptions, because they’re just too busy with other stuff. Two Democrats have introduced legislation to add exceptions to the ban for sexual violence victims, and another is proposing an exception for those with cancer—so that patients can get the chemotherapy they need. These are the kinds of bills Republicans don’t have time for.
Tennessee has lost millions in Title X funding from the federal government after refusing to comply with a mandate that anyone seeking care at a federally-funded clinic be given all their pregnancy options, including abortion—even if it’s presented as an out-of-state option because of an existing abortion ban. Last year, the state received more than $7 million in Title X funding, so it’s a huge loss for the people who rely on that care—and a further sign of things to come in anti-abortion states whose ability to provide maternal and reproductive care is on a steep decline.
And just a reminder that no matter how radical their abortion bans are, Texas will always find a way to take things further: More than 100 abortion ‘abolitionists’ gathered at the state Capitol this weekend to call on Republicans to pass legislation that punishes women for having abortions.
In some much less horrific news, Washington officials have stockpiled 30,000 doses of mifepristone. Gov. Jay Inslee called the move “an insurance policy” in case the medication is banned in the coming days, or if the pill becomes otherwise unavailable. Gov. Inslee also said that the University of Washington obtained an additional 10,000 doses. In total, they expect the pills would last the state about four years if necessary.
Quick hits:
In Indiana, a federal court upheld a second-trimester abortion ban, ruling against the ACLU’s lawsuit;
The Colorado House advanced a bill banning deceptive advertising practices from anti-abortion centers yesterday;
An Oregon House committee advanced legislation to protect abortion providers and patients from out-of-state prosecution;
More on the New Mexico state Supreme Court decision prohibiting local anti-abortion ordinances in the pro-choice state;
And a Minnesota prosecutor who appealed a judge’s decision ruling that the state’s abortion restrictions were unconstitutional has failed.
In the nation…
POLITICO has a piece about a division in the abortion-rights movement: Those who want to restore Roe, and those pointing out that Roe was never enough. This has especially come up around ballot measures, and coming to agreements about the language of the amendments. Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, says, “You’ve got to meet voters where they’re at.” But Pamela Merritt, executive director of Medical Students for Choice (and former Feministing writer, if you’re an old-school reader!), told POLITICO, “We would never advocate for a false or politically determined limit on abortion.” Merritt points out something incredibly important, that the notion of ‘viability’ is completely arbitrary:
“It’s a legacy of Roe that we don’t need to resurrect. And we know the language of viability can be manipulated by state legislatures, just as they are already trying to redefine what a child is or what rape is.”
The concern among other advocates is that by not implementing restrictions in the language of ballot measures, they’re giving the anti-choice movement ammunition to go after them. Kellie Copeland, who is working with Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, the coalition of groups pushing the Ohio ballot measure, says, “People have asked, does this allow abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason? That answer is, no. It doesn’t.” She says, “But it does allow for people to be able to get the care that they need.”
But here’s the thing, no matter what kind of language we use, or limitations we put in our policies, anti-abortion activists will find a way to argue around it or outright lie. Today in Newsweek, for example, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America wrote an op-ed claiming the Ohio ballot will allow abortions up until birth. Marjorie Dannenfelser argues it doesn’t matter that the amendment says abortion is only protected until viability because it “conveniently leaves it to the abortionist to determine whether the child is viable.” It doesn’t matter if we put in restrictions, they’re just going to lie about it!
And just in case Dannenfelser is taken to the mat about her misrepresentation of the proposal, she changes the goalposts, writing that the amendment would “legalize aborting unborn children past the point at which they can feel the pain.”
So I just don’t know why we would ever frame our work based on what these people will do.
If you want to know another reason why an incremental approach isn’t the way to go, consider reading this terrific New York Magazine piece from Irin Carmon, who gets into something we’ve been discussing at Abortion, Every Day quite a bit: The relationship between the attacks on abortion rights and the assault on trans rights. Irin points out the similarity in the conservative arguments against both, as well as the connections between the organizations on the forefront of limiting these rights. But it was this section that really stuck out to me:
“We used to hear a lot more from the political center about how if only radical pro-abortion forces moderated, a rational compromise could be reached. One of the bleak consequences of the Dobbs decision is that almost no one seriously suggests that anymore. Roe is dead, and it’s harder to accuse advocates of hysterically exaggerating the threat when emboldened state legislators are openly talking about executing abortion patients. The accusation of going too far too fast has now been aimed at supporters of trans rights.”
I will always defer to state and local leaders on what’s best—and what’s possible—for their communities. But it seems clear to me that being moderate on abortion didn’t protect us, and that it never will. Pregnancy is too complicated to legislate. Ever. At all.
And I can’t believe we live in a country where this kind of thing is necessary, but Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace introduced a bill today that would classify death penalty sentences for women who have abortions as “cruel and unusual punishment.” After filing the Women’s Healthcare Anti-Death Penalty Construction Act, Mace said, “Executing women goes directly against” the belief that life is sacred. (Someone should clue in Mace to how little her Republican colleagues give a shit about hypocrisy.)
Quick hits:
A new study shows the link between anti-abortion politics, ‘men’s rights’ and white supremacy;
More on the study showing that prospective college students are choosing schools based on a state’s politics and abortion policies;
And this is an absolute must-read from The Guardian about a mother who was charged with murder after having a stillbirth (I’m going to write something longer about the case in the coming week).
Listen up…
Morning Edition at NPR has a segment about abortion providers in Montana and how they continue to do their work, even in the face of ever-increasing threats and violence.
What conservatives are saying…
They’re working overtime to make themselves look like the victims. I’ve written a little about this before: How anti-abortion centers being tagged with graffiti has been labeled as ‘violence’, even as abortion clinics and providers are facing increased real threats and violence. But the latest example is just peak bullshit. Leaders from the radical anti-choice group Students for Life were interrupted by protesters at Virginia Commonwealth University and the conservative response has been insane. I’ve seen at least three Fox News articles and segments about the disruption, and a ton of other conservative media coverage.
Most amazingly, they are calling these students ‘anti-fa’, and Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins herself is trying to bank on anti-trans bigotry by posting videos with headlines like, Antifa & Transgender Activists Use Violence & Volume Against Pro-Lifers. Hawkins is also trying to paint her group as some kind of family-friendly non-threatening organization, saying that they’re being attacked “simply for helping women who courageously choose life.”
What she—or any of the conservative news outlets covering the protest—fail to mention is that Students for Life wants to make birth control illegal. So maybe the students they’re trying to force into pregnancy have a right to be a little pissed off?
You love to see it…
Abortion funds in Texas are resuming their work helping people obtain out-of-state abortions after a court ruling that shields the organizations (at least somewhat) from prosecutions. The Lilith Fund’s interim executive director Neesha Davé says, “Even though no one should have to leave home for healthcare, it means everything to us to support Texans who have been forced to travel to access abortion care.”
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