Abortion, Every Day (7.6.23)

In the States

Let’s talk Ohio! As Grace told you yesterday, pro-choice advocates delivered nearly double the number of signatures needed to get abortion rights on the ballot. Representatives from Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom called it “a historic day for Ohio and for reproductive freedom.” And coalition member Kellie Copeland said that the 422 boxes of signatures “are filled with hope and love and dreams of freedom, of bodily autonomy, of health, of being able to say, ‘We decide what happens to us.’”

This comes after months of attacks by Republicans and anti-abortion groups, who are intent on ensuring that the voters of Ohio don’t have a say on abortion. In March, for example, anti-choice activists actually sued to try to stop the measure: They claimed that the proposed amendment was actually two different issues and therefore needed to be put to voters in two different ballot measures. (Which would have required pro-choice groups to start collecting signatures all over again, and get twice as many.) Thankfully, that effort failed.

Republicans were able, however, to push through their August special election—an effort to raise the ballot measure standards from a simple majority to 60%. You can learn more about Ohio Issue 1 here, but the important thing to know is that it’s an effort to stop citizens from being able to bring ballot measures at all. For example, if Republicans are successful, groups would be mandated to gather signatures from all 88 counties in the state, as opposed to the current requirement of 44 counties. That means that even if a majority of Ohioans supported an issue, a small amount of opposition from a rural area, for example, could stop a measure from getting in front of voters at all.

From David DeWitt, Editor-in-Chief of the Ohio Capital Journal:

“[State Issue 1] would effectively destroy the ability of grassroots Ohio citizen groups to succeed in getting proposed amendments on the ballot ever again. The only groups that would have even a remote shot of success would be the most wealthy and powerful special interest groups imaginable.”

Anti-abortion groups in Ohio have also launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign against the measure; and because they knew that abortion rights are incredibly popular, they’re relying on anti-trans talking points instead. Conservatives are claiming that protecting abortion rights in the state constitution would give children the right to have gender-affirming surgery without parental consent. In fact, in response to the news that abortion rights groups had collected more than 700,000 signatures, Ohio Right to Life released a statement calling the measure an “extreme anti-parent amendment.”

All of which is to say: Abortion rights activists in Ohio have been working against an avalanche of opposition. And while there’s still a lot of work left to do, turning in that incredible amount of signatures is an incredible victory. So thank you, Ohio activists!

In North Carolina, where a 12-week ban went into effect this week, advocates are struggling with how to ensure that people know that they can still get abortions in those early weeks of pregnancy. Over at Prism, executive director of Pro-Choice North Carolina, Tara Romano, says, “I worry that people may hear “abortion ban” and think they can’t access care at all in North Carolina.” What’s worse is that anti-abortion activists are using that confusion to their advantage:

“They stand outside of clinics and tell people they’re breaking the law, especially if the patients are here from out of state. They spread misinformation all day. This is why helping people understand the details of state abortion laws is critical.”

The same is true when it comes to doctors, Romano says. The anti-abortion movement has been really successful in sowing fear throughout the state’s medical community, and physicians are afraid of losing their license or being brought up on criminal charges. It’s a good reminder that it’s not just the ban itself that limits abortion care—but the entire culture of fear and misinformation around the legislation.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that abortion clinics in Georgia are still seeing patients for abortions before the state’s 6-week cut-off, and that activists and providers are working together to ensure they can help as many people as possible. (It broke my heart, though, to hear about one woman who was turned away because an ultrasound technician found her to be at six weeks and one day.)

I really liked this profile of a father and daughter who used to run abortion clinics in Texas and Oklahoma. After Roe was overturned, they decided to move to neighboring states so they could continue to help women in the South:

Quick hits:

• The Washington Post with a breakdown of states other than Ohio that are working on pro-choice ballot measures, including Florida, Missouri, New York, and Maryland;

• The Maine Senate is set to vote on the expansion of abortion rights today beyond 24 weeks with a doctor’s recommendation;

• Starting today, Arizona pharmacists can dispense hormonal birth control without prescription;

• And a similar law in Utah will also allow pharmacists there to do the same.

In the Nation

A new study looked at Google search trends around self-managed abortion since Roe was overturned and found that—unsurprisingly—searches in anti-abortion states went significantly up. Something I want to flag, though: This study seemed to presuppose that self-managing an abortion would always be unsafe. And as far as I can tell, it didn’t distinguish from searches for ‘herbal’ remedies, for example, and searches for abortion medication.

Obviously, we want to ensure that those in anti-abortion states are getting the safest, most accurate information possible—and we want them to have legal access to abortion! But as researchers start to look at the inevitable increase in self-managed abortion, there needs to be a contextual understanding of what ‘self-management’ really means. (Especially in a moment when the anti-abortion movement is so desperate to paint abortion medication as unsafe.")

This piece from Scalawag Magazine about abortion rights, surveillance, and incarceration is really worth a read. Writer Gabrielle A. Perry gets into the lack of abortion access for incarcerated people—and the lack of activism on their behalf—and how criminalization plays into our post-Roe world. The whole piece is important, but it was this paragraph in particular that really struck me:

“When your body is at the mercy of a patriarchal set of beliefs codified into the law, ensuring any choice made is life-threatening, is that not imprisonment? What choices remain for the people housed in America's correctional facilities whose freedom has already been taken from them? What do you do when the body itself is a prison?”

Quick hits:

• The 19th on how Republicans are suddenly open to making diapers more accessible;

• Fast Company on the nonprofit Plan C and how they’re helping people obtain abortion medication post-Roe;

• A new study from researchers at the School of Public Health at University of California, Berkeley shows that Reddit has become an emerging source of information on birth control for Americans;

• And Politifact takes on Mike Pence’s assertion that U.S. abortion policy is “more aligned with China and North Korea than with Western nations in Europe.”

Republican Strategy: Anti-Abortion Centers

In the wake of Roe being overturned, Republicans are leaning heavily on the idea that that they’re supporting women and families by giving money to anti-abortion centers. I wrote about this a bit earlier this week around what’s happening in Louisiana—where the state-funded centers we’re being told will help deal with the post-Roe fallout refuse to even talk about birth control. But every day brings a new reminder of conservatives’ (very transparent) strategy.

Yesterday, when Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds called for a special legislative session with the sole intent of passing an abortion ban, she made sure to say that she wasn’t just fighting against abortion—but that she would “also remain committed to supporting women in planning for motherhood, promoting fatherhood and parenting, and continuing policies that encourage strong families.”

Reynolds is likely referring to her massive funding increases for anti-abortion centers. Again, the idea is to reframe abortion bans and the stripping away of women’s rights as a move to somehow help women and families. All they’re really doing, of course, is funneling taxpayer money to evangelical Christian organizations.

Today, Orlando Weekly has a really good investigation on this exact issue in Florida, where the state is funding clearly religious groups that don’t do shit to help anyone but themselves. (Remember, even their claims of offering diapers and baby clothes are nonsense—they often require ‘earning’ the items through Bible study classes.) And as a representative from Abortion Access Front said in the article, these are well-funded, powerful groups:

“I think there’s a misconception that these are like small little charities in communities opening up just trying to talk to people. They don’t understand this is a global network.”

They’re also, for lack of a better work, scary. A young woman told Orlando Weekly that after visiting an anti-abortion center in St. Petersburg for a free ultrasound, she felt cornered by the staff and unnerved when she realized that she wasn’t in a real medical clinic. She said the pregnancy test looked like it came “straight from Dollar Tree.”

She said wanted an abortion, but felt shamed by the people at the center. Even worse: The staff called her for weeks after her appointment to ask her if she had an abortion. Even when she asked them to stop calling her, they refused. It was only when she told them that she would go through with the pregnancy that they left her alone.

All of this is why it’s more important than ever that we’re pushing back against messaging that says these are places that help women. (And certainly why we can’t let them go with their latest new bullshit name: ‘maternal wellness centers’)

Listen Up

A few weeks ago, I linked to this report from Illinois public radio state WBEZ about the way that Chicago hospitals are seeing a huge increase in out-of-state patients with dangerous pregnancies. These are patients who were denied abortion care in their home states despite the risk to their health and lives (and despite their state’s likely ‘exception’ for such cases). There’s now a podcast episode dedicated to the issue, if you’d like to hear more from reporters, medical experts and a high-risk pregnancy patient themselves:

You Love to See It

I’m not going to lie, this made me so happy. You probably know that one of the lines I repeat most often here is that pregnancy is too complicated to legislate. It’s become my go-to. So I was downright thrilled to see that North Carolina OBGYN Dr. Amy Bryant used that language when she introduced Vice President Kamala Harris for her speech on the anniversary of Roe being overturned. I can’t think of a better compliment. (And thank you to Dr. Bryant for letting me know!)