Abortion, Every Day (12.8.23)

Missouri bill could make IUDs & emergency contraception 'murder'

Click to skip ahead in the newsletter: In Criminalizing Care, Missouri legislation would allow women to be charged with murder if they had an abortion—or even used the morning after pill. In the States, a Kentucky woman who wants an abortion is suing the state, and Ken Paxton is still trying to stop Kate Cox from obtaining care in Texas. A few quick hits in Stats & Studies. And In the Nation, Graces writes about the latest on the mifepristone case, and Dems push back on abortion misinformation on social media.

---

Criminalizing Care

Missouri Republican lawmakers want to make charge abortion patients with murder. As I said on TikTok earlier today, at least they’re being honest! The Kansas City Star reports that Sen. Mike Moon and Rep. Bob Titus have both pre-filed bills called the “Abolition of Abortion in Missouri Act,” that would treat fetuses as full citizens.

Rep. Titus told The Kansas City Star, “if you’re going to treat babies as humans and people then the penalties for taking an innocent life should be commensurate with that.” The newspaper also points out that Sen. Moon is known for making comments earlier this year suggesting that 12 year-olds should be able to get married. So, charmers all around.

This legislation is part of the anti-abortion movement’s campaign for “equal protection” that I’ve written about before. A few important things to remember: Other Missouri Republicans are going to come out and claim that these legislators are extremists who are on the margins of the party and anti-abortion movement. That’s just not true. We’ve seen bills like this in multiple states, like Iowa, Georgia and South Carolina.

The other vital thing to know about this bill (and others like it) is that it defines personhood as beginning at fertilization. That means that conservatives who believe that IUDs and emergency contraception stop the implantation of a fertilized egg could argue that a woman who uses those forms of birth control should be arrested for murder. The bills could also criminalize anyone who has a miscarriage, if a zealous prosecutor decides that the pregnant person ‘caused’ it in some way.

For more on Republicans’ strategy defining birth control as ‘abortions’, read the first part of my series on contraception:

The GOP’s Plan to Ban Birth Control (Part I)

In more criminalization news, St. Louis Dispatch columnist Aisha Sultan wrote about the woman charged for her miscarriage in Ohio. Sultan spoke to Pregnancy Justice and If/When/How about how Brittany Watts’ case isn’t all that unusual—and the absolute cruelty behind the charges:

“Where did these prosecutors expect Watts to deliver when she was sent home from the hospital after her water broke? Did they expect her to sift through the blood-filled toilet and collect the remains of her stillborn child in the aftermath of the trauma she just endured? It seems inconceivable that instead of having compassion, they chose to charge her with a crime.”

The other thing that Sultan points out that’s important—and something that’s going to become an even bigger issue post-Roe—is that there’s no set “rule” for how you’re supposed to dispose of fetal remains when you lose a pregnancy. Pregnancy Justice points out that they’re found cases where women have been prosecuted after burying the remains, or even bringing them into the hospital. In other words: for many women, there’s nothing that they can do that will protect them from investigations.

What’s also scary is that the more we see cases like Watts’, the more women will be too afraid to seek out care at all. And who can blame them?

In the States

A pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a suit today against the state, arguing that that the state’s abortion ban violates her right to “privacy and self-determination” as protected in the Kentucky constitution.

Jane Doe is 8 weeks pregnant and wants an abortion, but can’t have one because of Kentucky’s total abortion ban. Doe—suing along with Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky and represented by the ACLU of Kentucky—is also seeking class action status, so that other people in the state who want abortions can join the suit.

What I really appreciate about this case is that they are going for it—they’re challenging the entirety of the ban, not just seeking to modify it or add exceptions. Not that there’s anything wrong with lawsuits seeking a more modest goal, like the one in Texas. They’re all important! But it’s invigorating to read a suit laying out the horror of forcing someone into childbirth for any reason:

“Bans and the irreparable harms they inflict are an affront to the health and dignity of all Kentuckians. The inability to access abortion in the Commonwealth forcibly imposes the health risks and physical burdens of continued pregnancy on all Kentuckians who would otherwise choose to access safe and legal abortion.

For many individuals, the Bans altogether foreclose the ability to access abortion, thus forcing them to carry their pregnancies to term and give birth, which carries a risk of death up to fourteen times higher than that associated with abortion. These individuals will be made to suffer the life-altering physical, emotional, and economic consequences of unexpected pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting.”

In a release from the ACLU of Kentucky, Doe says, “This is my decision—not the government’s or any other person’s.” The office of Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron says they’re reviewing the case. I’ll keep you updated as I find out more.

Meanwhile, the cruelty continues on in Texas, where Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the state Supreme Court to reverse a judge’s decision allowing Kate Cox to have an abortion. As you likely know by now, Cox’s pregnancy was diagnosed with a fatal condition and—understandably—doesn’t want to be forced to carry a doomed pregnancy to term. Paxton, however, doesn’t give a shit what she wants.

In an overnight filing, Paxton’s office argued that, “each hour [the emergency order] remains in place is an hour that Plaintiffs believe themselves free to perform and procure an elective abortion.” Please note the word ‘elective’ there, a way to really drive home the idea that Cox is making some sort of willy nilly decision.

This filing to the state Supreme Court came just hours after Paxton sent a letter to three hospitals in Houston, threatening them with criminal charges if they provide or assist in giving Cox an abortion.

Marc Hearron, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that Paxton was “misrepresenting the court’s order.”

“He attacks the judge who rules against him as an ‘activist judge’. He is trying to bulldoze the legal system to make sure Kate and pregnant women like her continue to suffer.”

Related: NowThis News has video of the moment that the judge told Cox she’d be signing the emergency order, which absolutely made me burst into tears.

While Republicans in Missouri try to pass legislation to make abortion punishable as a homicide, pro-choice activists are trying to get an abortion rights ballot measure in front of voters in 2024. St. Louis Public Radio has a piece this week looking at how that campaign is going: in a word, “tortuous.” (For background on how Republicans held up the democratic process in Missouri for months, click here.)

In other ballot measure news, Axios has a piece on the effort in Montana to protect abortion rights in the state constitution—in part as as protection against the Republican governor’s constant attacks on abortion. Also interesting: Apparently the new pro-choice group launched by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker may make “a financial and strategic investment” in the state effort. Pritzker and Think Big America have already donated millions to the ballot measure campaigns in Ohio and Nevada.

Speaking of Ohio: Issue 1 is now in effect, which means abortion rights are protected in the state constitution. But anti-choice laws still have to be repealed one-by-one through the courts—which means that doctors aren’t feeling comfortable quite yet. OBGYN Dr. Jeanne Corwin told the Statehouse News Bureau that there hasn’t been any clear guidance to doctors. “We don’t want to become felons, end up in jail or lose our medical license so we will continue to follow all of the rules and laws that we have always followed,” she said.

One of the big reasons they’re not willing to take any risks? One of the leaders on the Ohio State Medical Board is none other than Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. So essentially, abortion is protected but doctors know that their livelihoods still depend on the whims of an anti-choice maniac.

If you missed yesterday’s newsletter, I went over the legal brief filed by anti-abortion activists trying to convince the state Supreme Court that the amendment should be repealed. Definitely make sure to check it out.

Also in Ohio: The 19th also looks at how Republicans in the state have tried to stymie the democratic process; and the Ohio Capital Journal reports what abortion rights advocates in the state are planning to do next.

Quick hits:

• Axios on the religious freedom challenge to Indiana’s abortion ban;

• Teen Vogue on New Hampshire’s proposed 15 day abortion ban;

• A new study released this week shows that abortion rights gave Pennsylvania Democrats an advantage in the 2023 election;

• And the disinformation campaign against Florida’s proposed abortion rights amendment is growing.

Stats & Studies

• The brain drain in anti-choice states continues: A new study published in Population Research and Policy Review found that people were less likely to want to move to states with abortion bans and restrictions.

• Out-of-state patients traveling to Minnesota for an abortion tripled between 2020 and 2023.

• Abortions have tripled in New Mexico since Roe was overturned;

• And 65% of Kansas abortion patients are from out-of-state. Zachary Gingrich-Gaylord of Trust Women clinic says they’re getting an average of 3,000-4,000 phone calls a day: “We have capacity for around 40 to 50 appointments per clinic day.”

In the Nation

The Supreme Court discussed the possibility of taking up the mifepristone case today, though didn’t make any announcements about whether they’d be hearing it. If you need a refresher, check out the Abortion, Every Day explainer on the case. The very short version is that anti-abortion groups want to undo the FDA’s approval of the abortion medication, and have been using conservative judges to further their case despite having no real standing or evidence to do so.

Meanwhile, Sens. Joe Manchin and Mike Rounds introduced legislation today to seek backpay for the military officials impacted by Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s months-long block of military promotions. The Military Personnel Confirmation Restoration Act of 2023 retroactively seeks to help the hundred of military families whose careers were put in jeopardy by Tuberville’s hold. (Tuberville’s ‘protest’ of the Pentagon’s abortion policy stopped earlier this week.)

And this is interesting: House Democrats on the Oversight Committee called on Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and X’s (formerly known as Twitter) Elon Musk to deliver briefings on the spread of abortion misinformation on their platforms. The committee, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (from Maryland), points to the constant barrage of “dangerously inaccurate medical information and false content about abortion” that sow doubt and put people’s health and safety at risk for the sake of profit. They’re asking that Zuckerberg and Musk reply by December 14th. From Rep. Jasmine Crockett:

“At a time where Republicans in Congress and state legislatures across the country are doing all they can to restrict women’s reproductive rights, we need companies to do the right thing and enforce their community guidelines and terms of service to ensure people looking for information about reproductive care get accurate information. Not radical, pro-forced birth propaganda that jeopardizes the lives of women and girls.” 

For more data on abortion mis- and disinformation on social media, Media Matters has research showing how much Facebook profits from running false anti-abortion ads with millions of views.

Quick hits:

• Sarah Jones at New York Magazine writes about Nikki Haley’s “gender trap”;

• The New York Times and The Washington Post look back at the Maude abortion episode;

• In VICE, a Netherlands-based writer says there’s no such thing as a “stigma-free” abortion, even in progressive countries;

• And the interim president of EMILY’s List wrote an op-ed at Fox News asking Republicans if they’d listen to the will of the people on abortion.

If you missed today’s livestream, consider signing up to be a paid subscriber so you can join in next time around!