Abortion, Every Day (10.27.23)

New GOP Speaker worked for an anti-abortion van targeting pregnant women

Click on section headers to skip ahead in the newsletter: In the States, all about Ohio, Missouri, and other ballot measure news. Mike Johnson’s Anti-Choice Record is worse than you think. In the Nation, more on the battle between Yelp and anti-abortion centers. We say goodbye to a feminist artist in Rest in Power. Some quick hits for you in The Care Crisis. More on the #WeCount data in Stats & Studies. And Missouri reproductive healthcare goes mobile in You Love to See It.

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In the States

If I could pick one word to capture Ohio Republicans’ tactic on the pro-choice ballot measure Issue 1, it would surely be ‘bullshit’. After months of trying to keep voters from having the right to weigh in on the measure at all, anti-abortion activists and conservative lawmakers have been spreading lies about the amendment—claiming it would eradicate parental rights and allow for abortion ‘up until birth’.

But it’s not just extremist organizations pushing these lies: Associated Press reports that one of the major sources of misinformation on Issue 1 is actually a government website. The state Senate blog, “On The Record,” contains articles claiming all of the above lies and more—including a piece that says the amendment would allow for “the dismemberment of fully conscious children.”

But wait, there’s more. Because “On the Record” is a government website, it’s being prioritized when people do online searches for Issue 1.

Laura Manley, executive director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, says, “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

We know why Republicans are so nervous about the amendment. It’s polling really well, pro-choice campaigners have far out-raised conservatives, and every recent ballot measure where abortion is put directly to voters has come down on the pro-choice side. Still, it’s absolutely chilling that this kind of deception is legal.

More in Ohio GOP bullshit: Recently, Republicans and anti-abortion activists have been telling voter they don’t need to support Issue 1 because abortion is already legal. (They conveniently leave out the fact that the state passed a near-total ban that is currently blocked.)

Even Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has gotten in on the action, telling voters last week that they should oppose Issue 1 and then later “we can come up with a law in Ohio that the majority of Ohioans will feel comfortable with in regard to abortion.” And this week, DeWine said he supports coming up with a different ballot measure on abortion rights that “reflect[s] where the majority of people are in Ohio.”

But here’s the thing: most voters in the state support the pro-choice measure on the ballot! That majority is already there. But for Republicans, it’s not about what voters want—and it never will be.

The fact that the governor is telling voters not to worry about abortion—that lawmakers will take care of it—would be laughable if it wasn’t so dark. Because once your state denies a 10 year-old rape victim an abortion, you’ve pretty much lost the right to tell voters to just ‘trust you’.

Also in Ohio: a fact-check of Gov. Mike DeWine’s recent ad opposing (lying about) Issue 1; New York Magazine on how Republicans in the state are lying about Issue 1 and ‘partial birth’ abortion; and a law professor writes at The Columbus Dispatch about the biggest lies around Issue 1 in Ohio. (Are you sensing a theme??)

The attacks on democracy don’t stop in Ohio: Missouri Republicans are still trying to stymie proposed pro-choice amendments by drafting incendiary and false summaries to trick voters. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has done it before! The language was so false and absurd that a judge actually had to intervene, rewriting the summaries for six pro-choice measures. (Abortion rights activists have been pushing forward several versions of an amendment while they finalize which one they want to use.)

Now Ashcroft is giving the same treatment to the ‘compromise’ measures proposed by a Missouri Republican strategist. I’ve told you about Jamie Corley before: she drafted a handful of amendments, framed as middle ground proposals, to restore abortion rights in the state. Some would only allow abortions until 12 weeks into pregnancy, or would permit abortions for sexual violence victims—but only if they report the attack to a crisis hotline.

You know how I feel about all of this: Exceptions aren’t real, nor are 12-week ‘compromises’. And the notion of the ‘center’ on abortion needs to disappear into the wind forever.

Corley has said that compromising “is the only way that we are going to expand abortion rights in our state.” But Ashcroft’s summaries prove exactly what I’ve been arguing for months! Republicans will never, ever agree to meaningful abortion access. Going along with the farce of a compromise just enables extremists—allowing them to say that they’re conceding something when they never really will.

Besides, there’s no ‘middle ground’ on our freedom.

In better ballot measure news: The pro-choice amendment in Colorado has moved forward, setting the title for the amendment. That means that abortion rights activists can work on a petition format; once the secretary of state signs off on it, activists can start collecting signatures.

Colorado is already a pro-choice state, but the measure would lift the ban on abortion coverage for state and local government employees. And, as has been the case in other pro-choice states pushing or passing ballot measures, it would add another layer of protection for reproductive rights.

New York Magazine’s Ed Kilgore writes about Republicans’ abortion strategy in Virginia—and how it will quickly become the national plan should the Virginia GOP win this November. “If Youngkin fails,” Kilgore says, “then the forced-birth lobby may have to go back to the drawing board.”

Finally, speaking of test cases: Pennsylvania Democrats see the state Supreme Court election as a sign of what’s to come for their abortion rights strategy.

Quick hits:

• WABE with info on legal challenge against Georgia’s abortion ban;

• The Texas Observer on the state’s latest—and biggest—county to adopt an anti-abortion travel ban;

• Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff is in Florida today to talk about abortion rights;

• More info on Connecticut’s expanded access to reproductive rights; 

• Anti-abortion legislation is being introduced in Delaware’s next session;

• And how the origins of citizen-led ballot initiatives started with a socialist priest.

Mike Johnson’s Anti-Choice Record

The new Republican Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, is so much worse than you think on abortion. We already knew that Johnson was an anti-abortion darling with an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and that he defended Louisiana’s abortion restrictions while he was a lawyer. But some of this new intel on his history of extremism is quite…something:

• As recently as 2021, Johnson worked for for a Louisiana crisis pregnancy center that lured women into their “Mobile Pregnancy Unit”—aka a van with a gyno exam table and ultrasound machine. (Most imaging for early pregnancy is done with a transvaginal ultrasound.)

• He blamed abortion for the rise in school shootings, along with “no-fault divorce laws”, and “radical feminism.”

• Johnson compared abortion to “a holocaust” while working for the Alliance Defending Freedom (the group behind the Dobbs decision and the Texas mifepristone lawsuit).

• He penned countless amicus briefs and op-eds calling for the criminalization of gay sex and marriage equality; he also unsurprisingly led hearings opposing gender-affirming care for minors and piloted the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act that attempts to halt discussion with students on gender identity and sexual orientation (aka the federal version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law).

• And as mentioned yesterday, Johnson suggested that women should be forced to give birth to more “able-bodied workers” to stimulate the economy.

In the Nation

In slightly better national news: Sixteen state Attorneys General have signed onto a letter supporting Yelp in their efforts to accurately label anti-abortion centers. Remember, the company has recently started attaching warnings to listings for anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers—making clear that they don’t offer abortion and may not have any real medical professionals on staff. (Which, let’s be honest, is actually a pretty generous characterization of who they are and what they do.)

In response to the consumer warnings, Yelp is being attacked by conservatives—and is being sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. But as the AGs’ letter in support of Yelp points out, the labels “help educate consumers and ensure patients are informed of what services are and are not available at CPCs, which ultimately protects the public health.”

“As a Christian and a pastor, I believe that the kind of terror women are faced with now is barbaric, unnecessary, and against God’s will for pregnant people and their families.” Presbyterian pastor, Rev. Katherine Pater, in Sojourners

Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed this week that “no pro-lifer has ever argued” that women should go to jail for abortion, which is just demonstrably and totally false. DeSantis made the claim while attacking fellow candidate Nikki Haley, whose stump speech includes a refrain about reaching an abortion ‘compromise’ where women don’t go to prison. (You know how I feel about her attempts to redefine the middle.)

Also in 2024 news: a Republican presidential candidate I didn’t know existed has dropped out of the race.

One more note on ballot measures today. Did you know that half of Americans don’t have the ability to support citizen-led initiatives? The Associated Press reports that 167 million people in 25 states aren’t able to participate in that kind of direct democracy. I have to imagine that abortion rights has put an increased pressure on some of those states to get something going..

Quick hits:

• More on Democrats’ plan to stop Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s block of military promotions;

• Axios on the abortion rights language wars;

• The Guardian with a list of states where abortion is on the ballot;

• And a conservative publication claims an anti-abortion Harvard professor is being ‘canceled’—yet neglects to mention one way he’s been censored, or his career damaged. (When will people learn that not being liked isn’t the same as being ‘canceled’??)

Rest in Power

Feminist artist Juanita McNeely, who depicted her illegal abortion, passed away last week at 87 years old.

McNeely’s 1969 painting, Is It Real? Yes, It Is!, was inspired by her experience being denied an abortion in 1967 after being diagnosed with cancer. McNeely had to travel to two different hospitals in two states, being denied again and again—nearly dying as a result. “Nothing was helping me, and nothing would end my misery because the law said you cannot have an abortion,” she said.

The massive 12 feet by 12 feet, nine-panel painting is part of the Whitney Museum’s permanent collection.

Find out more about McNeely’s work and watch an interview with the artist from earlier this year:

The Care Crisis

• Stateline on how mental health conditions are excluded from abortion ban ‘exceptions’;

• The 19th on how sexual and domestic violence experts report an increase in reproductive coercion since Roe was overturned;

• Ms. magazine on how Covid and Dobbs sparked an uptick in abortion medication use;

• And The Philadelphia Inquirer with yet another way that anti-abortion violence and threats hurt patients: in an attempt to limit the number of people in their buildings, some clinics are not allowing in abortion doulas.

Stats and Studies

More on the #WeCount study from the Guttmacher Institute that everyone is talking about: New data shows that the total number of abortions in the U.S. hasn’t decreased since Roe was overturned. The research from #WeCount—the first full-year count of abortions provided nationwide—shows that although abortions severely dropped in states with abortion bans, the national abortion rate increased by about 0.2 percent.

The largest increases came from California, New Mexico, Illinois, North Carolina and Florida—all places that border anti-choice states. Researchers pointed to the expansion of telemedicine and medication abortion by mail, well-funded abortion funds, and the renewed spotlight on abortion access routes as the most significant factors that helped the abortion rate. (It’s no wonder why we are seeing so many attacks on telemedicine, medication abortion, and abortion funds!)

It’s worth noting that these numbers were gathered before Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina passed bans (FL’s 6-week ban hasn’t been enacted yet).

As always, it’s also important to emphasize who is unable to get abortions, despite the national abortion rate, and the severe harms caused by delayed and denied abortions. 

Quick hits:

• NPR’s “Morning Edition” interviewed Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, co-chair of #WeCount and a professor at the University of California, San Francisco;

• New research on how abortion portrayals on television lack the legal, logistical, and financial barriers to abortion access that exist for patients;

• And a new study on how pro-choice company policies help employee recruitment for businesses.

You Love to See It

Um, please check out this mobile vasectomy clinic in Missouri—hilarious! Read more at PBS Newshour about the clinic, and how doctors are meeting the increased demand for sterilization in the state post-Roe.

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Thanks to Abortion, Every Day researcher Grace Haley for contributing the sections on Mike Johnson’s Anti-Choice Record and Stats & Studies.