Abortion, Every Day (1.9.24)

Florida bill would ban abortions for children unless they're about to die

Jan 09, 2024

Republican Extremism

Another day, another batshit crazy abortion ban. Florida Republican Rep. David Borrero has proposed a bill that would ban abortion from the moment of fertilization—a distinction crafted to ban birth control. The legislation also defines ‘abortion provider’ to include anyone who mails or prescribes abortion medication, even if they don’t live in Florida.

And I haven’t even scratched the surface yet.

Before I get more into the nitty gritty, a reminder: it doesn’t matter if this bill doesn’t go anywhere. The point is to slowly normalize extremist legislation. And even if a bill is destined to fail, we still need to look at every detail—these are Republicans’ dream laws! They are giving us a roadmap to exactly what they want for women, so it’s vital that we’re listening.

Let’s look at a few of the key details here:

The bill states that “a person exists from the moment of fertilization.” As you know by now, this is a way that Republicans are laying the groundwork for a ban on birth control. They claim—and rulings like the Supreme Court’s decision on Hobby Lobby bolster this falsehood—that IUDs and emergency contraception stop the implantation of a fertilized egg. Therefore, to Republicans, they’re not ‘contraception’ but ‘abortifacients’.

The legislation would only allow a minor to have an abortion in order to save their life “in a medical emergency.” That means a 10 year-old whose life is endangered—or their small body forever damaged—would be denied care unless that danger was imminent. She would have to wait until she was about to hemorrhage to death; even a fistula or pelvis break wouldn’t be deadly enough to warrant care. I’m sorry to get graphic, but that’s the reality.

There’s no exceptions for ‘fatal fetal abnormalities’, yet the legislation still takes the time to define the term—stating that it’s a condition “incompatible with with life outside the womb and will result in death upon birth or imminently thereafter.” This is a really important bit of language, especially as stories like Kate Cox’s go viral and Republicans turn their attention to what, exactly, constitutes a doomed pregnancy. In this case, the language is vague enough that legislators could argue that a newborn who would live only for a few days doesn’t have a “fatal” condition.

Finally, let’s look at the extraordinarily telling provisions about who can be punished for ‘providing’ an abortion: Not only does the bill state that a doctor who mails abortion medication into Florida would be breaking the law, but so would anyone who “intentionally places an abortifacient into the stream of commerce.” As The Mary Sue points out, that means “it would be illegal for a person or company anywhere to manufacture, sell, or otherwise distribute an abortion pill if there’s a chance that pill could be purchased or used by someone in Florida.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the Comstock Act. They are working to put this thing everywhere. As I wrote yesterday, the Comstock Act and restricting abortion medication have long been a part of anti-abortion strategy—but they’ve gotten even more important to conservatives in the last few months as abortion bans keep failing at the polls and the ballot box.

In the States

Speaking of extremist legislation: The Missouri Independent reports that state Sen. Andrew Koenig has proposed a bill that would make it illegal for employers to help employees get abortions. Post-Roe, we’ve seen businesses offering travel reimbursements and time off to employees who need to leave the state for abortion care, for example. Companies that offer that kind of help in spite of the law would be punished by having any financial benefits from the state stripped away—like tax credits and grants.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas called the bill “uniquely horrifying,” pointing out that the legislation would effectively require tracking female employees’ out-of-state travel: “Women are not slaves to their employers, the state, or their husbands. The proposed bill works hard to make them so.”

Since Roe was overturned, states with abortion bans have faced an OBGYN exodus—doctors fleeing to states where they can practice medicine without fear of arrest. Idaho has been particularly impacted, with half of the OBGYNs in the state reporting that they’re leaving or considering leaving. And at last count, there were only five maternal fetal medicine specialists remaining in the state.

In response, Republicans there claim that they’re seeking to “clarify” the law to put doctors’ minds at ease. (I’ve written at length about the word ‘clarify’ in this context—it’s a term Republicans use to pretend as if their laws are just fine as is, and just need minor tweaking.)

Idaho Republican House majority leader Megan Blanksma said this week, for example, that the state GOP has been holding meetings with anti-abortion groups and doctors because “we want to make sure physicians feel comfortable practicing.”

“We’re looking at what we can do for physician recruitment and retention, ongoing discussions particularly with local hospitals on how we can have that look…We don’t want to lose our docs.”

How a doctor is meant to be “comfortable” when performing an abortion is punishable by five years in prison is beyond me. And remember, Idaho is also fighting for the right to deny women live-saving emergency abortions. So Blanksma’s promises aren’t exactly compelling.

Remember former Florida prosecutor Andrew Warren? He was removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis after making clear that he wouldn’t go after abortion related ‘crimes’. Warren sued over his ousting, but lost his case. Now, Warren says he won’t be running for reelection, because he suspects that DeSantis would simply remove him from office again.

This case has importance far beyond Florida; it’s about Republicans’ attacks on democracy. After all, Warren was an elected official: voters put him in office to use his discretion on what cases to pursue. DeSantis didn’t like what Warren believed, so he removed him.

What’s more, when Warren sued, fifteen Republican state Attorneys General signed onto an amicus brief in support of DeSantis—arguing that the First Amendment doesn’t apply when the state wants to remove prosecutors. That means AGs in fifteen states believe it’s their right to fire any DA who won’t prosecute abortion. I don’t think I need to tell you why that’s so troubling. (I was going to use the word ‘fucked’ but a few of you have emailed that you think I curse too much.)

In Kentucky, the young woman that brought home Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection win was in the state house today lobbying for abortion ban exceptions. Hadley Duvall was featured in a campaign ad for Beshear, where she spoke about being raped by her stepfather as a 12-year old; the ad made a huge impact during the campaign. Now Duvall is pushing for legislators to adopt “Hadley’s Law,” a bill to add exceptions to the state’s ban for rape, incest, and pregnancies that are nonviable.

The legislation was introduced by Democratic Senate Minority Whip David Yates, who admits, “There is no belief that this is somehow a fix-all.” The challenge is that of course you want as many people as possible to be able to get care—but we know that exceptions largely don’t work, and that an incremental approach leaves too many people behind. But as I’ve said so many times before: I can’t imagine what it’s like to try to pass abortion rights legislation in Kentucky.

Yates says, “I believe this is a very small step in the right direction for a very limited amount of victims we can help.”

Finally, Planned Parenthood of Illinois just opened up a new facility in Carbondale—a location strategically picked because of the town’s proximity to Tennessee. (Several clinics have moved to the area since Roe was overturned, causing a bit of discord among citizens.)

Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said the new center “means Carbondale will continue to be a safe place to access abortion care within a four-hour drive for most patients in Middle and West Tennessee.”

Quick hits:

Arkansas abortion rights advocates have submitted their third draft of a pro-choice ballot measure to the state’s anti-choice Attorney General, who keeps on shooting them down;
Planned Parenthood North Central States—which covers Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas—has reached a tentative deal with its union;
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy highlighted abortion rights in his State of the State speech;
And Indiana Rep. Sue Errington writes that voters in the state should have the right to decide directly on abortion rights.

Anti-Choice Strategy: Emergency Abortions

The biggest abortion news of the last week or so has been the court battles over the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)—one of which is headed to the Supreme Court. LawDork has a refresher if you need it, but the short version is that Republicans in Idaho and Texas want the right to deny women life-saving and stabilizing emergency abortions.

Putting aside how extraordinarily depressing it is that these people are working so hard for the ability to kill us, I find conservatives’ focus on this perversely fascinating. After all, Republicans know they have a huge public relations problem right now with reproductive rights—do they really think denying emergency abortions is going to help??

Even in the face of public backlash, the anti-abortion movement is doubling down on the cruelty: Steve Aden‚ the Chief Legal Officer of Americans United for Life (one of the most powerful anti-choice groups in the country) said in a podcast interview today that the EMTALA forces hospitals to “provide for essentially elective abortions when a woman presents to the emergency department claiming that the pregnancy threatens her health.”

You know us sneaky women! Always dragging ourselves to ERs pretending that our lives are at risk! They really don’t turn down an opportunity to be raging misogynists, do they?

Fun fact: Aden also talked about my column, “Of Course They Want Us Dead.” (Should I be flattered? I’m not!) Podcast host Mary Reichard asked Aden how he would respond to my argument that the 5th Circuit ruling allowing Texas to deny women emergency abortions, “is part of a much broader plan to normalize women’s deaths, and to get voters used to the idea of divorcing abortion from healthcare.” How he responded is telling:

“Well, that’s outrageous and misguided, of course Mary. The point is that abortion is not actually a part of health care properly understood. It’s an elective procedure in the states where it is still legal. And it doesn’t do anything to prevent or treat disease. Pregnancy is a natural state for women who are pregnant. Even though the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration recently changed the rules related to chemical abortion to insist that pregnancy is a quote unquote, ‘disease’ that needs to be treated, that’s not so. Pregnancy is a natural state.”

First of all, I love that it’s “outrageous and misguided” for me to suggest that the ruling is trying to divorce abortion from healthcare because “abortion is not actually a part of healthcare.” That is…not a compelling rebuttal. But the real tell here is the claim that pregnancy is a “natural” state so emergency abortions are “elective.”

You know what else is ‘natural’? Dying. It’s totally natural! But generally it’s something we like to avoid.

Then there’s this: Law professor Greer Donley points out that in practice, the EMTALA doesn’t actually impact very many abortions. “Even for the small subset of abortions that are because of a medical emergency, this will only affect a small percentage of those—we’re talking about the margins of what those exceptions mean,” she told The 19th.

That means that conservative legal groups, Republican politicians and anti-abortion activists are working overtime to limit even the tiniest number of abortions—those that are desperately, urgently needed! And as Donley tweeted yesterday, “The fact that antiabortion activists are fighting tooth and nail to ensure that people cannot get these medically necessary abortions should shock the conscience.”

Keep An Eye On

You know that one of my obsessions is the way that anti-abortion activists and lawmakers are messing with language. (Read my most recent column at The New York Times, if you haven’t already.) Republicans are working to do away with ‘ban’, mislead voters with words like ‘consensus’, and redefine medical terminology from ‘abortion’ to ‘nonviable’—all in an effort to trick Americans out of knowing exactly how extreme they are.

The latest in this broad effort to replace medical terminology with ideological bullshit comes out of Idaho: Republican lawmakers want to change any references to fetuses in state law and replace them wit the term ‘preborn child’. Boise State Public Radio reports that a bill from Rep. Julianne Young would replace more than 70 uses of the word fetus. This isn’t just about language—it’s about enshrining fetal personhood.

2024

Every time Nikki Haley talks about abortion, the veil drops a little bit more. The former South Carolina governor has been positioning herself as the ‘reasonable’ Republican on abortion rights, despite being just as extreme as the other presidential candidates. She just messages around that fact more effectively!

Haley’s go-to line for months has been that Republicans are seeking a “consensus” on abortion (you know what I think of that word), and that we can all agree birth control should be legal, and that women shouldn’t go to jail or get the death penalty for having an abortion. As if it’s somehow a compromise not to kill women for obtaining healthcare!

And while Haley has pledged to anti-abortion groups that she would sign a 15-week national abortion ban, she’s also tried to sidestep questions about federal legislation by claiming it would never make it past Congress. This week in Iowa, however, Haley dropped a hint about what she’d actually do as president:

“The only way we’re going to do it is if we find consensus on the federal level. I think we will find consensus on banning late-term abortions.”

If you’ve been following Abortion, Every Day for a while, you can translate this sentence pretty easily: ‘consensus’ is just another word for ‘ban’, and ‘late-term’ means something very different to Republicans than it does to most Americans. As I reported in October, there’s a concerted effort right now to define ‘late abortions’ as anything after 12 weeks.

Also, ‘late abortion’ and ‘late term abortion’ are not medical terms! And because the phrases are made up, conservatives can pretty much redefine them at will. So when you hear a Republican like Haley say she thinks we can find a federal ‘consensus’ on ‘late term’ abortion, what she’s really saying is that she’d support a national abortion ban after 12 weeks.

More on Haley and the lie that she’s somehow a moderate on abortion:

No, Nikki Haley Isn't Reasonable on Abortion

Jessica Valenti

August 28, 2023

Read full story

Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is wasting no time tying Donald Trump to every piece of extremist legislation that comes out. Take the Florida bill I told you about at the top of the newsletter. When the news of that legislation broke, the Biden-Harris campaign released this statement:

“Directly enabled by Donald Trump, Florida Republicans just introduced a bill that would ban nearly all abortions—even in cases of rape or incest—and criminalize doctors for doing their jobs. When we say Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are coming after your freedoms, it isn’t an abstract threat—they are showing us exactly what they intend to do.”

I think reminding voters that Trump is directly responsible for post-Roe suffering and extremism is exactly the right thing to do, but they also need to do more than that. I want to see the proactive plan to restore and protect abortion rights—a plan that goes beyond Roe.