Abortion, Every Day (7.13.23)

In the States

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is expected to sign the newly-passed abortion ban into law tomorrow at a major conservative Christian conference, the Family Leadership Summit. (Most of the Republican presidential candidates will also be at the conference tomorrow, so Reynolds is looking for a showy moment. Angling for a VP spot, perhaps?) The law has been passed against the wishes of Iowa voters, 61% of whom want abortion to be legal in all or most circumstances.

Unless the legal challenge brought yesterday by the ACLU is successful in convincing a judge to temporarily block the law as their suit makes their way through the courts, the law will go into effect immediately.

Democratic State Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell says, “If this bill becomes law, women will die in Iowa.” We know how this will happen, too. We’ve seen what the consequences of similar laws in places like Texas have been—where abortion care for critically ill women has been delayed or denied again and again.

This is something I mentioned on Twitter today, but I’m repeating it here because it’s incredibly important: Iowa Republicans say their law has an exception for miscarriages—a claim that’s being repeated in mainstream media outlets—but that’s just not true. Miscarrying women will only be able to get care if their fetus’ heartbeat has stopped; the distinction is critical because doctors waiting for fetal demise is exactly how women have gone septic in other states with similar laws.

This is a huge part of the Republican agenda on abortion: make their laws sound as if they do something that they absolutely do not. That’s why it’s so important that we’re covering the legislation correctly and pressuring publications to do the same. Republican lawmakers are counting on mainstream media simply taking their word for it on the law’s ‘exceptions’—but reporters need to realize how these laws actually play out in real life. At CNN, for example, Iowa OB-GYN Dr. Francesca Turner explained how the law’s ‘exceptions’ actually end up putting women’s lives at risk.

Rita Bettis Austen, legal director of the ACLU of Iowa, says they’re seeking to block the law “because we know that every day this law is in effect, Iowans will face life-threatening barriers to getting desperately needed medical care—just as we have seen in other states with similar bans.”

Ms. magazine also offers this important reminder: in reality, “six-week” bans are really more like two-week bans because by the time a person has missed their period, they’re already four weeks along. That means someone would only have two weeks to legally obtain an abortion.

PBS NewsHour has a really good short segment about the ban if you’d like more information on some of the legislative context and the inevitable consequences if the law goes into effect. They spoke to Erin Murphy, Des Moines Bureau chief of The Gazette, and Sarah Varney of KFF Health News:

And one last thing in Iowa: A really interesting read from law professor Mary Ziegler on why the state’s Republican appointed state Supreme Court may refuse to uphold the 6-week ban. Ziegler argues that in a climate where abortion is winning ballot measures in places like Kentucky and in the wake of Wisconsin’s resoundingly pro-choice election for state Supreme Court, “voting for abortion rights might strike [Iowa justices] as both constitutionally correct and politically wise.” The justices are also well-aware that in 2010, Iowa voters removed three judges from the state Supreme Court after they recognized the right to same sex marriage.

“It’s not hard to imagine something similar happening in the future, but this time, voters might be angry at judges who refuse to recognize a right to abortion,” Ziegler says. Really appreciated this piece, especially for the bit of hope it gave me!

Grace told you yesterday that abortion providers in Indiana are at capacity right now, with a ban set to go into effect on August 1st. Rebecca Gibron, the chief executive officer of the regional Planned Parenthood, says that healthcare “has been so severely politicized and stigmatized that people must flee their homes or be forced to remain pregnant.”

Gibron also points out that the maternal mortality rate in Indiana has more than doubled over the last ten years, numbers that are only going to get worse as the law takes effect. Indiana’s ban is expected to impact not just women in the state—but throughout the entire region, as the state loses its abortion safe haven status.

This piece from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the outsized role ultrasound techs play in Georgia, where abortion is banned at 6-weeks, is a must-read. The publication spoke to two techs, one who works at an abortion clinic and one who works at an anti-abortion center. (I bet you can guess which one I want you to read!) The clinic worker, who chose to remain anonymous, talked about how heavy and difficult it is to be the person who has to determine whether or not a person can legally get an abortion in the state—and have to deliver the news. It was this anecdote that really stuck with me:

“There was one particular girl (before Georgia’s law took effect). She had just turned 13. It was a sexual assault (victim). She was 10 weeks…How could I turn that baby away? I walked out of that room and cried. I cried because we were going to be able to help her, and I cried because I knew Roe was going to be overturned and it would become much more difficult to provide abortion care to others like her.”

I cannot begin to imagine how difficult that job is.

It looks like ‘ban’ isn’t the only word that conservatives want to stop using: apparently even saying ‘abortion’ has become a no-no. Over at Rolling Stone, Tessa Stuart reports that North Carolina lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson—currently running for governor—won’t say the word abortion. Just days after the abortion ban went into effect in North Carolina, Robinson told the audience at a campaign event that he wants the state to become a destination for ‘life’:

“Now notice what I said: I said ‘life.’ I did not say the A-word. The A-word. Everybody wants us to say the A-word… No sir.”

This is the man, by the way, who said that when a woman is pregnant, “it’s not your body anymore.”

In anticipation of Ohio’s special August election seeking to increase standards on ballot measures, a Democratic group has released a new ad targeting voters in the state:

Finally, I really loved this piece from Florida public media about the reproductive rights activists trying to get abortion on the ballot. Floridians Protecting Freedom have already collected over 300,000 signatures and are still going. Abortion rights advocates in the state report an incredible amount of enthusiasm for the effort: Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (who Abortion, Every Day interviewed back in March) says, “You have women organically coming together to work alongside Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the other groups working to make this happen to collect petitions. She says that women have been throwing petition parties in their homes, and that even her mother-in-law is out there “handing out petitions to her book club.” Love to see it!

Quick hits:

• A California doctor is urging lawmakers to expand shield laws in the state;

• The Los Angeles Times editorial board blasts Ohio Republicans’ efforts to “subvert democracy” with their special election to make ballot measures harder—if not impossible—to pass;

• The Guardian with more information on the legal challenge to Idaho’s ‘abortion trafficking’ law that blocks interstate travel with minors;

• Montana passed new laws to make home birth easier;

• And Prism interviews Jenice Fountain, executive director of Alabama’s Yellowhammer Fund, on how “people treat us like the throwaway state.” Definitely a must-read.

In the Nation

All eyes are on the Defense bill right now: Republicans caved to ultraconservatives by including amendments on abortion and gender-affirming care that put the entire bill in jeopardy. Essentially, Democrats aren’t likely to support the bill if it (among other things) rescinds the Pentagon’s abortion policy, which allows travel reimbursements for service-members who need to leave their state for abortion care. The vote is expected to be super tight; I’ll update you as I find out more.

Speaking of the Pentagon’s abortion policy, President Joe Biden said today that Sen. Tommy Tuberville is “jeopardizing U.S. security by what he's doing.” (Tubverille has been holding up military promotions over the policy.) Related: CNN did a fact check of Tuberville’s common claim that the Pentagon policy would increase the number of abortions eligible for coverage by thousands a year. The result? False.

Led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrats are pushing for an end to judge shopping. In a letter to the Judicial Conference, which sets rules for federal courts, Schumer wrote that “based on geography, some plaintiffs are able to guarantee that their claims will be heard before a specific judge whereas others are left to chance, and this inconsistency undermines Americans’ faith in our judicial system.”

Calling it a “complete perversion of the intent of the judiciary,” Schumer called out the Northern District of Texas, in particular, as an “egregious example of this practice in action.” As you likely know by now: judge shopping is how we ended up with activist Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk making decisions about mifepristone—he was hand-selected by the anti-abortion movement.

Democrats have also written a letter this week to Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging the Justice Department to protect patients’ abilities to travel out-of-state for abortion. From the letter, which comes in the wake of laws like the one in Idaho, which criminalize taking a teen out-of-state for an abortion:

“Given the work of many of our states to protect access to abortion care no matter whether a patient comes from the state or travels from another, we are alarmed by efforts in other states to curb interstate travel, which may present an unprecedented attack on Americans’ rights.”

HuffPo reports that the Democratic Senators who signed onto the letter include Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Mazie Hirono, and Kirsten Gillibrand.

VICE reports that the National Domestic Violence Hotline had a 99% increase in calls in the year since Roe was overturned. The group’s chief external affairs officer, Crystal Justice, says, “When you have laws that come along that are now stripping survivors of their bodily autonomy and right to control their own lives and health—which is exactly what abusive partners are trying to do—it is taking the harm even further.” Justice says they’ve seen how abusers have become “emboldened and justified in their use of reproductive coercion to control the survivor, which in many cases includes survivors being forced to become pregnant.”

In better news…

In the year since Roe was overturned, pro-choice states have offered a small bit of light as leaders there demonstrate best practices for how to defend and expand abortion rights. Today, the Center for American Progress looks at eight ways that state attorneys general, in particular, have worked to lessen some of the harm of abortion bans—including establishing dedicated taskforces and legal hotlines, publishing consumer advisories about anti-abortion centers, and protecting patient data.

And the FDA has finally approved an over-the-counter birth control pill. It couldn’t have come at a better time—easy access to contraception is more important than ever, and experts say that this move will make it easier for young people, in particular, to stay protected. (More on this news in today’s Told Ya So section on how anti-abortion groups are reacting to the approval.)

Quick hits:

• The executive director of the Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice writes at Ms. magazine about the anti-abortion attacks on immigrant communities;

• NPR on the abortion ‘abolitionists’ who want to classify abortion as homicide and punish women who end their pregnancies accordingly;

• Stat News on why maternal mortality is going to get harder to track (and how dangerous that is in a post-Roe world);

• And Science finds that the brain drain continues in anti-choice states, who are now losing academics and unable to recruit new ones.

The Care Crisis

One of the things we cover here often is how overwhelmed abortion providers in pro-choice states are—and how bans are making it near-impossible for OBGYN residents to get the abortion training they need. That combination has made for a massive crisis in care across the country, no matter what the abortion laws are in a particular state. Everyone, everywhere is being impacted.

Some pro-choice states are trying to lessen the load on doctors by expanding who is allowed to provide abortions. But training still remains an issue. That’s why I was so thrilled to see this comprehensive (and sometimes heart-breaking) piece in Jezebel about the largest-ever abortion training conference for midwives—and the role that Black midwives are playing in training a new generation of providers. From Michelle Drew, of the Ubuntu Black Family Wellness Collective in Delaware:

“For Black midwives, this has always been a necessity and an act of resistance. As a Black midwife, I had an obligation to continue to be part of that resistance to make sure that Black women had access to abortion the same way that my grandmother did, the same way that my great-grandmother did. And the way so many Black midwives did, at the risk of their own personal safety for 400 years.”

(The article is also a good reminder of how important it is to train midwives, nurses, doctors and more in manual vacuum aspiration abortion.)

Meanwhile, the new president of the American Medical Association (AMA), Dr Jesse Ehrenfeld, says that the group plans to support any doctors who refuse to comply with their state’s anti-abortion ban—but doesn’t say what that ‘support’ will entail. Legal representation? Financial help? The Guardian points out that when Indiana went after abortion provider Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the AMA provided an ethics expert to testify on her behalf, which is great! But I’d love to hear more about what the organization—and others—can do to help doctors in anti-abortion states.

Listen Up

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush spoke to St. Louis NPR about her legislation, the Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act.

Told Ya So

It’s looking like this is going to become a regular section in the newsletter! Last month, I predicted that conservatives were going to start to go after Plan B vending machines on college campuses by conflating emergency contraception with abortion.

From the 6.9.23 newsletter:

“[A]nti-abortion groups are seeking to confuse the issue. They want Americans to not understand the difference between emergency contraception and abortion medication. I predict that soon we’ll see people claiming that the vending machines do sell abortion pills, or that emergency contraception is an abortifacient. (Something activists already claim.)”

Lo and behold, two headlines this week: Fox News warns that “Abortion-by-vending-machine is much worse than it sounds”; and Life News writes that “Abortion Vending Machines are Appearing on College Campuses.” You will not be surprised to know that this effort is being led by Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life—a woman who wants hormonal birth control made illegal, yet is still somehow quoted in the mainstream media without ever being questioned on that fact.

The question is: will anyone start to question these groups—and the lawmakers who support them—now? They want to stop college students from preventing pregnancy. Is anyone going to call them on it?

Hawkins also came out against the new hormonal birth control approved by the FDA for over-the-counter status this week. Not surprising, given the groups’ opposition to contraception altogether, but the framing of her objection is relevant:

“Who knew that sex abusers had such a powerful lobby at the FDA, which has abandoned all medical ethics by making it easier for criminals to cover up their sexual abuse and statutory rape crimes.”

You can see where this is going: Conservatives and anti-abortion groups have been focusing heavily on ‘parental rights’ over the last few months, but their rhetoric is getting more and more QAnon-ish every day. That’s not a coincidence; these groups know that feigning interest in protecting kids from sexual abuse is bound to get a lot of attention from the kinds of people who spend an awful lot of time online spreading misinformation and scare tactics. It’s the same reason that their messaging against emergency contraception is focusing on college campuses—they’re going to glom onto anything that has to do with young people.