Abortion, Every Day (1.25.24)

Study: Pro-choice people know more about pregnancy

Click to skip ahead in the newsletter: We saw Attacks on Democracy this week in Mississippi, Wisconsin and Missouri. I have some Ballot Measure Updates from Arkansas and Nevada. In the States, a new fetal personhood effort in Florida, and Iowa wants even less regulation for crisis pregnancy centers. In 2024, Grace reports from the Biden/Harris event commemorating Roe. In the Nation, some quick hits. And in Stats & Studies, researchers found that the more you know about pregnancy, the more likely you are to be pro-choice.

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Attacks on Democracy

Mississippi is saying the quiet part out loud. Again. You may remember that last year, the state was considering bringing back their ballot initiative process—but only if it couldn’t be used to restore abortion rights. That’s right, they wanted to let voters have a say, just not on abortion.

At the time, chair of the House Constitution Committee, Republican Rep. Fred Shanks, admitted that the GOP was worried that voters would be able to repeal the state’s abortion ban. So, they figured, just don’t give them that particular choice. The effort fizzled out, but this week we’re right back where we started.

The Associated Press reports that Mississippi lawmakers—a group of all-male Republicans—are working to bring back ballot initiatives, but once again their proposal wouldn’t allow voters to change the state’s abortion ban. The House approved their resolution yesterday.

Democratic Rep. Cheikh Taylor responded to the effort by saying direct democracy “shouldn’t include terms and conditions.”

“Don’t let anyone tell you this is just about abortion. This is about a Republican Party who thinks they know what’s best for you better than you know what’s best for you. This is about control. So much for liberty and limited government.”

There’s a reason they don’t want voters to have a say: abortion rights wins every time it’s on the ballot, even in red states. In fact, Mississippi voters rejected an anti-choice ‘personhood’ measure back in 2011! I don’t know how much clearer Republicans can be that they don’t give a shit about what voters want.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Wisconsin are still trying to push through a 14-week ban that would then head to voters. This is the bill I’ve been writing about that would force doctors to give women c-sections instead of emergency abortions—legislation that Republicans are calling a “compromise.”

Incredibly, the GOP is also framing the ban as their effort to let voters have a say on abortion rights. Republican Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who sponsored the bill, said in a press conference that a vote against the legislation “is a vote against the will of the people.”

Never mind that voters overwhelmingly want abortion to be legal. And as the editorial board at The Cap Times writes, Wisconsin voters already made it very clear where they stand on abortion rights when Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the state Supreme Court in a landslide.

Finally, I told you earlier this week that Missouri Republicans are trying to change the rules around ballot measures to make it harder for voters to restore abortion rights. Yesterday, KCUR spoke to some of the activists working on that abortion rights amendment; you can listen to the episode below:

Ballot Measure Updates

We’re not done with ballot measure news yet! After several rounds of rejections, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has finally signed off on the language for a pro-choice ballot measure. (Remember, Griffin has quite the history of anti-abortion activism.) That means pro-choice organizers can start collecting signatures; they need over 90k by July 5th in order to get the issue on the November ballot.

The amendment, proposed by Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG) and For AR People, would repeal the state’s total abortion ban. The downside? The measure offers less protections than Roe did, only protecting abortion rights up until 18 weeks.

Gennie Diaz, AFLG’s executive director, has said that she’s trying to reach a broader swath of Arkansas voters—and that 18 weeks is a “reasonable, sensible cutoff.” If passed, it would also allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly, or to save a person’s health or life.

You know how I feel about this—and the word ‘reasonable’ in particular. (I’d recommend reading this terrific piece in Slate about Arkansas measure for more.) But I also know people are desperate to get any kind of protections in place. And Arkansas’ Republican leadership is ultra anti-abortion: Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is even having a “monument to the unborn” erected on the state Capitol.

Samuel Watson, For AR People's content director, says he believes they have a good chance of getting the measure passed:

“People are scared. Providers are scared, women are scared. This is a really dangerous time to be a pregnant woman in Arkansas, and this amendment is intended to protect them.”

Anti-abortion groups are already out there opposing the amendment; Family Council President Jerry Cox called it “a radical amendment” that “writes abortion into the Arkansas Constitution.”

Meanwhile, a Nevada judge is allowing the abortion rights ballot measure effort to continue in the state, striking down a challenge from an anti-abortion group that claimed the ballot question was inadequate. That means pro-choice petitioners can gather signatures to get abortion on the ballot in November. The amendment, proposed by Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, would protect abortion rights until 24 weeks.

As you know, Nevada is a pro-choice state, but like other states with existing pro-choice laws, activists there want to enshrine the right in the state constitution for an extra layer of protection. If voters passed the amendment this year, it would go on the ballot again in 2026 to amend the Nevada constitution. Democratic legislators are also working to get reproductive rights in front of voters on the 2026 ballot.

What’s also worth noting is that some of the funding for the campaign—about $1 million—comes from Think Big America, the organization founded by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to support abortion rights efforts across the country.

Quick hits:

• Karen Middleton, president of the Colorado pro-choice group Cobalt, and Dusti Gurule, president of Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), urge voters in The Denver Post to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution;

• In response to their Issue 1 loss, Ohio Republicans are proposing legislation to restrict the kind of funding ballot campaigns can use;

• And in a sign of how abortion rights are popular across the board, more than 200 Republicans have donated to Florida’s pro-choice ballot measure.

In the States

Florida Republicans are pushing a new fetal personhood effort that should have us all worried. Sponsored by the same lawmakers who sponsored the state’s 15-week and 6-week abortion bans, the bill would allow parents to sue for the wrongful death of “an unborn child.”

The Miami Herald reports that the majority of states have laws allowing civil remedies for the death of a fetus—but generally only when the pregnancy is ‘viable’. This bill would allow someone to sue regardless of how far along someone was in pregnancy. So the fear, naturally, is that this is just another way for Republicans to target abortion providers—or anyone, really, who helps someone obtain an abortion.

As is the case with so many other anti-choice laws involving civil penalties, the bill could also be used to empower abusers. Democratic Rep. Ashley Gantt, for example, pointed out that the legislation would allow men to sue providers if their partners or exes had abortions they didn’t approve of. (And that anti-abortion groups could seek those men out and encourage them to bring suit.)

While the Republicans sponsoring the legislation claim that it “has nothing to do with abortion,” Florida anti-abortion groups clearly understand what the goal is. Andrew Shirvell, the executive director of Florida Voice for the Unborn, told the Hearld that the legislation “is a good step in the right direction recognizing that unborn children are persons like you and me and should be entitled to that recognition under Florida law.”

I reported yesterday on a new study projecting that about 65,000 women were impregnated by their rapists in anti-choice states since abortion bans took effect. It looks like a good chunk of those rape-related pregnancies—more than 26,000 of them—were estimated to have come from Texas.

The Houston Chronicle reports that of the 14 states researched, Texas had the highest estimate of rape-related pregnancies—largely because the state has the highest population. Dr. Kari White from Resound Research for Reproductive Health told the publication that those numbers “are only going to increase while this total abortion ban is in effect.”

As I predicted, the anti-abortion movement is already freaking the fuck out about the study—they’re putting out frenzied quotes and blog posts about how you can’t trust the data. This is what they do whenever credible studies come out showing how dangerous and cruel their laws are; it’s why, for example, they’ve been trying to sow distrust in maternal mortality data. But they can only pivot for so long.

On Tuesday, I told you about the travel bans proposed in Tennessee and Oklahoma—laws that would prosecute someone as a trafficker if they help their niece or granddaughter get an abortion (or even give her information about abortion).

In response to the Tennessee bill, Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, said, “Targeting trusted adults, family members, and helpers who assist minors in accessing abortion will have a chilling effect and is dangerous and irresponsible.”

Coffield also said (and this made my blood run cold), “If you know a minor who miscarries, you’re a potential suspect.”

In better news out of Tennessee, Allie Phillips—the young woman running for office after being denied an abortion—was profiled by The Washington Post. The last line of the article is just *chef’s kiss*.

In Iowa, Republicans are want even less regulation of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. Right now, the law requires that the state health and human services department hire a nonprofit to oversee the centers that get funding from Iowa. But House File 2057, which was advanced by a House subcommittee this week, would get rid of that third-party and allow the state to send money directly to the religious groups.

I don’t think I need to tell you why this is so dangerous. These are groups that already get millions of taxpayer dollars with almost no oversight. And as Mazie Stilwell of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa says, this will just mean less transparency and accountability for the groups:

“This is a continued waste of taxpayer dollars, it is extremely disingenuous to patients who are seeking actual health care, and it’s really a risk to their privacy.”

Quick hits:

• Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels has introduced a bill that would allow abortions in cases of rape and incest;

• Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vowed to increase contraception access in his State of the State speech;

• Oklahoma Republicans want to enshrine fetal personhood in the state constitution;

• Missouri Republicans are trying to defund Planned Parenthood (again);

• And how Nevada Democrats are making abortion a key issue in 2024.

2024

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held their first 2024 rally on Tuesday to commemorate the fall of Roe as they continue to make abortion rights central to their reelection campaign. There was heavy “Restore Roe” and “Defend Choice” messaging during the event—a strategy that’s drawn a good deal of criticism.

It’s important that the campaign is taking abortion seriously, and there was excited and supportive energy at the rally—but as Andrea González-Ramírez of The Cut put it, “Simply positioning Democrats as the party of Roe is not enough.”

Abortion advocates argue the campaign using outdated strategy that ignores where the base is currently, turns a blind eye to the abortions denied even before the Dobbs decision was in place, and puts the campaign in a defensive messaging position.

The word “abortion” was not even featured in any of the signs surrounding the President on stage, and it wasn’t printed on the campaign-issued posters at the rally—which were the only ones allowed into the building when going through security. 

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Read Erika Christensen’s guest column on the dangers of abortion compromise:

Guest Column: The Danger of Abortion 'Compromise'

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Biden’s remarks were interrupted by at least a dozen demonstrators protesting the president’s support of Israel. Before they were escorted out of the event, protestors brought up the reproductive healthcare crisis for Palestinians—how two mothers are killed in Gaza every hour, and that Palestinian women are forced to go into labor without medication, anesthesia or hygienic material.

In the Nation

• Kate Cox, the Texas woman whose story gained national attention after being denied an abortion has been invited to attend the State of the Union later this month as a guest of First Lady Jill Biden;

• A new survey from the Brennan Center for Justice found that state legislators and local officials are avoiding “hot button” issues like abortion in response to extremist intimidation;

• Bloomberg Law writes on how Biden’s cautious abortion rights initiatives are constrained by concerns over the upcoming Supreme Court battles;

• U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky writes at the Chicago Sun Times that contraception is on the line;

• And The Washington Post on the details of Biden’s reproductive freedom initiatives.

Stats & Studies

In just about the least surprising news ever, a new study shows that the more someone knows about pregnancy, the more likely they are to be pro-choice.

The research, presented at the Southern Political Science Association Conference in New Orleans, found that people who don’t understand pregnancy are more likely to oppose abortion. From Steven Greene, one of the study’s authors and a political science professor at North Carolina State University:

“We found that people who had a better understanding of pregnancy were more opposed to legislation restricting access to abortion. Basically, people who knew what a trimester was and who knew how we count the weeks of a pregnancy—that it’s done dating back to a woman’s last period, rather than to conception—are more likely to oppose laws limiting women’s access to the full range of reproductive health care options.”

The study also has some really interesting information about messaging and support for 6-week vs 12-week bans—so I’ll have more on this study tomorrow. (Alas, I ran out of room on the email!)

As always, thanks for reading & caring about abortion rights. Hope everyone has a great night. -Jessica