Abortion, Every Day (2.26.24)

Idaho has lost nearly a quarter of OBYNS

A new poll gives Democrats ammunition in the GOP’s War on Birth Control. In Ballot Measure News, updates from South Dakota, Nevada and more. In the States, news from Washington and Oklahoma. OBGYN Exodus looks at the nightmare in Idaho. In Travel Ban News, a new ad campaign on Tennessee’s ‘anti-trafficking’ bill. In the Nation, why the Alabama IVF decision is dangerous for the whole country. In 2024, Trump’s bullshit ‘compromise’. And finally, Conservative Media Watch flags an anti-abortion messaging tactic for nonviable pregnancies.

---

The War on Birth Control

File under not shocking but vital. A new poll conducted by Americans for Contraception found that the vast majority of voters believe birth control access is important (and at risk). The survey reports that 80% of voters say that protecting access to contraception is “deeply important” to them, and that 72% of Republicans also support birth control. (Who is the 28% that opposes??)

What’s more, 64% of voters were less likely to support Republican candidates when they were told how the legislators voted against the Right to Contraception Act. That means birth control is a really dangerous topic for Republicans, and that Democrats should be talking about it all the time. Not just because it polls well—but because Republicans are, in fact, attacking contraception.

As you know by now, the primary tactic the GOP is using to go after birth control is focusing on IUDs and the morning-after pill—types of contraception that the anti-choice movement claims are abortifacients. In fact, Americans for Contraception urged Democrats to focus on the specific forms of birth control under attack:

“Don’t shy away from talking about all forms of contraception, including I.U.D.s and emergency contraception like Plan B. Contraception is popular, and voters want to be the ones making the decisions on what methods they use. They do not draw distinctions between types of birth control, and neither should we.”

In other words, this is the perfect time not just for Democrats to be talking about birth control—but publicly asking Republicans what they think of certain kinds of contraception. For the love of all that is good: Don’t let them get away with pivoting!

Ballot Measure News

As multiple states try to push through abortion rights ballot measures this year, pro-choice groups continue to disagree about exactly what kinds of protections to include. (I’ve been writing a lot about how activists in Missouri, for example, oppose the ‘viability’ language in a proposed measure.)

This week, there are similar concerns bubbling up in South Dakota, where a pro-choice ballot campaign is in the process of collecting signatures. Rachel Cohen at Vox reports that the major abortion rights groups in the state—the ACLU of South Dakota and Planned Parenthood North Central States—have criticized the effort from Dakotans for Health.

The concern is that the measure—which would protect abortion in the first trimester and allow restrictions related to the “physical health of the pregnant woman”—doesn’t go far enough.

Tim Stanley, Planned Parenthood North Central States vice president of public affairs, says, “As the sole abortion provider in South Dakota for more than 30 years, Planned Parenthood is acutely aware of the impact policy language can have on patients’ lives.” Pro-choicers also say that the organizers behind the ballot effort didn’t consult the abortion rights activists already on the ground.

Cohen’s piece also gets into important questions of who can speak and organize for abortion rights—an issue we’re going to see come up a lot more in the coming months.

A ballot measure campaign in Nevada launched this weekend, complete with anti-abortion protesters who rushed the stage and ripped up signs. Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom (N4RF) needs to collect a little over 100k signatures by June 26th to get abortion rights on the ballot.

If the measure were to pass this year, it would need to pass again in 2026 in order for the state constitution to be amended.

Remember, abortion is already legal in Nevada—but as is the case in a few other pro-choice states, activists want to enshrine abortion rights for an extra layer of protection. The proposed amendment includes a ‘viability’ restriction.

Quick hits:

• The Washington Post looks at the dirty tricks Missouri Republicans are playing in order to stop voters from having a say on abortion rights;

• The Arkansas Times asks why national funders aren’t giving to the state’s ballot measure campaign;

• And more on Minnesota’s effort to enshrine abortion rights through the state’s Equal Rights Amendment.

In the States

Abortion may be legal in Washington, but women are worried about losing access anyway thanks to hospital mergers that are increasing the number of religious health systems in the state. Right now, nearly half of the hospital beds are in religiously affiliated institutions—these are hospitals that won’t perform abortions, prescribe birth control, or provide gender-affirming care.

That’s why Democratic Sen. Emily Randall has introduced the Keep Our Care Act. The bill that doesn’t require hospitals to provide abortion care (if only); instead, it creates a process to stall or stop bigger religious hospitals from buying small community health care centers and discontinuing existing care. The bill would also give Washington’s Attorney General oversight and enforcement power in such mergers.

Related: If you missed my article about how Catholic hospitals are killing women by driving up the maternal death rate, check it out here.

I’m overdue on a longer piece about these kinds of laws, but for now I wanted to flag this bill out of Oklahoma that’s seeking to make abortion medication illegal by labeling those who dispense it ‘drug traffickers’. Rep. Jim Olsen, who drafted the legislation, says, “We got the abortion clinics closed in 2022…but then we’re losing a lot of it through these medications.”

Remember, legislation like this is being deliberately crafted to go after abortion funds, but could also allow for the arrest of anyone who obtains a friend or family member abortion pills.

Quick hits:

• NPR has a short segment on how California college students don’t often know that their campuses offer free abortion medication;

• A Kansas columnist asks why ‘pro-life’ legislators in the state aren’t calling for a ceasefire in Gaza;

• Michigan Republicans really wish Democrats would stop talking about abortion rights;

• Massachusetts legislation seeks to prevent deceptive tactics by anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers;

• And The Texas Tribune has an important piece on the barriers that disabled Texans face when trying to access abortion.

OBGYN Exodus

Since Roe was overturned, we’ve watched OBGYNs and maternal fetal medicine specialists flee anti-choice states. They’re understandably worried that they could be arrested for doing their jobs, and that they won’t be able to give their patients the standard of care. Perhaps nowhere has that been more evident than in Idaho, where OBGYNs have been leaving en masse and only a handful of maternal fetal specialists remain.

A new study shows just how bad the care crisis has gotten in the state: 51 of 227 OBGYNs have left, a loss of nearly 23%. What’s more, only half of Idaho’s counties have a practicing obstetrician, the state has lost two vital maternity wards, and only two new OBGYNs have moved to the state to practice since Dobbs.

Those are terrifying numbers. The Idaho Coalition for Safe Healthcare, the parent group of the organization that released the report, says it “should concern every person living in or considering a move to Idaho.”

I don’t know how you can see this as anything other than a total health emergency, because we know what happens next—maternal and infant mortality will spike. But we may never know just how badly those maternal death numbers go up, because the state disbanded it’s maternal mortality review committee. (Since then, an Idaho Republican has introduced a bill that would have the state board of medicine collect the data—a move doctors in the state have serious concerns over.)

Travel Ban News

California Governor Gavin Newsom has launched the first in a series of television ads about Republicans’ attacks on the right to travel. The spot, called “Hostage,” features a teenage rape victim who has been handcuffed to her hospital bed. It will run in Tennessee, where Republicans are considering a travel ban framed as an ‘anti-trafficking law’.

The ad is powerful, but distressing. And I can’t help but be a bit depressed that it takes talking about the rape of teenagers to get people to care about this issue—the fact that we’re human beings should be enough. But we know—from ads like the one Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear used in his reelection campaign—that this kind of focus works.

It’s also clear that Republicans are nervous about the effort. One GOP strategist called it “over the top.” Tab Berg told CBS News, “I mean a handcuffed girl, 15-year-old rape victim, I mean it’s so absurd.”

But on Meet the Press this weekend, Newsom said the tone of the ad is just meeting the moment:

“That’s how serious this moment is. And we need to be even more aggressive, I would argue. And that’s what this ad represents.”

While I’m glad to see the spot getting such good media attention—there were articles about it everywhere—there’s been one huge gap in the coverage: Tennessee’s travel ban is only talked about a ban on travel. As I’ve written about so many times before, these ‘abortion trafficking’ laws would also make it illegal to give a teenager gas money, or even share information with them about an out-of-state clinic. (That’s why a similar law in Idaho has been blocked; a judge said it violated free speech rights.)

It’s vital that we’re reminding voters of the far-reach these kinds of laws could have.

In the Nation

Let’s talk about fetal personhood for a minute. It’s been on everyone’s mind since last week’s decision from the Alabama Supreme Court—but this thought from law professor Mary Ziegler just put a renewed chill down my spine.

Ziegler says that the danger of the Alabama decision is a national one, because the more states that adopt fetal personhood laws and rulings, the more likely the U.S. Supreme Court can say that fetal rights is a matter of history or tradition: “They’re going to say, ‘Well, look, there’s also all these states that hold this position.’” Terrific.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren says there’s no question that Republicans will pass a national abortion if they take control come November: “The only question is how big and how bad—but it will be there.”

Finally, you already knew that Kate Cox would be attending the State of the Union this year as a guest of First Lady Jill Biden. This week, we found out that another woman denied care will in the audience: Dr. Austin Dennard, who was invited by Texas Rep. Colin Allred. If Dr. Dennard’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she’s spoken publicly (including with me at a recent Senate press briefing) about needing to leave the state for care after finding out her fetus had a fatal abnormality.

Personal stories have taken center stage in the post-Roe abortion rights fight, with women coming forward with horror story after horror story and Republicans struggling to respond.

Quick hits:

• KFF Health News on the rise of ‘abortion navigators’;

• The Washington Post has a brief outline of the abortion rights cases headed to SCOTUS;

• And Bloomberg on how Democratic governors are bracing for SCOTUS’s mifepristone ruling.

2024

Let’s talk about Donald Trump’s new plan for how to win over voters pissed off post-Roe: he wants to ban abortion at 16 weeks. For some reason the disgraced former president thinks that adding on an extra week to Republicans’ standard 15-week national ban will be a big hit.

But just like all the abortion ‘compromises’ from the GOP, this simply won’t work. Just ask Virginia—who made a multimillion dollar bet on a 15-week ban and got walloped! People don’t like bans, full stop. It doesn’t matter if they’re 15 weeks or 6 weeks.

The other thing about these ‘middle ground’ bans is that they don’t have exceptions for nonviable pregnancies! If they’re law, Kate Cox wouldn’t have had to leave Texas for an abortion—she would have had to leave the country. The majority of post-Roe horror stories that are horrifying and motivating voters come from women who were later on in their pregnancies. So Trump’s 16-week ban isn’t going to fix Republicans’ problem with voter outrage.

And remember, even if Trump were to add a so-called exception for doomed pregnancies, it won’t mean a thing. Republicans are already drafting bills defining nonviable as death “upon birth or imminently thereafter”—meaning states could say a newborn who would only live a few days doesn’t have a fatal condition.

But the most important thing to remember is that this 16 week talk is a distraction. Regardless of what happens with a national abortion ban, a Trump presidency would allow for a backdoor ban that would impact every single state.

Besides, any ban is an extreme ban because pregnancy is too complicated to legislate. The sooner Dems start repeating that truth (and pushing for it in their policies) the better.

Meanwhile, Jill Filipovic has a good piece at Slate about what a second Trump presidency would mean for reproductive rights. The whole thing is worth reading, but here’s just one bit that hits the nail on the head:

“They want to restore a man’s right to be the financial and political head of his household, with his wife and children legally subservient. They want to remove women’s abilities to control our reproduction and determine the number and spacing of our children, because they know that without that ability, we simply cannot be as free as men—cannot pursue education to the same degree, cannot pursue anything in life we might want, will simply be tethered to more-powerful men and see our lives and our futures curtailed.”

Finally, RJK Jr. struggled to answer questions about IVF and abortion this weekend, responding to a question about how he’d protect reproductive rights by saying, “I don’t know, you tell me. What should I be doing?” He also refused to say when he believes life begins.

Conservative Media Watch

Nonviable pregnancies have become a focal point of abortion rights lately, especially with stories of women denied care going viral. And while Republicans quietly push a campaign to force women to carry doomed pregnancies to term, conservative media is doing their own work on the issue—and this Fox News piece is the perfect example.

Check out how they describe exceptions for fatal fetal abnormalities:

“Legislative attempts to include abortion exceptions for unborn babies with disabilities are beginning to crop up in pro-life states amid controversy surrounding a Texas woman who struggled to get an abortion after her baby was diagnosed with a genetic condition in the womb.” (Emphasis mine)

I’ve written about this messaging before, but it’s worth repeating: they are trying to make people who end nonviable pregnancies sound like monsters who are targeting disabled kids. It’s unconscionable. (Keep an eye out for this kind of language from your representatives.)

---

For more on the anti-abortion movement’s plan to pressure & force women to carry nonviable pregnancies, read below:

Calculated Cruelty

---