Abortion, Every Day (3.13.24)

Trump is picking a running-mate based on their abortion stance

Click to skip ahead: In the War on Birth Control, a new decision from the 5th Circuit targets teens. In the States, news from Missouri, Maine and more. In the Nation, a bit of rare good news on “judge shopping.” 2024 looks at Trump’s potential VP picks and where they stand on abortion. In Told Ya So, a prediction I made in 2022 comes to fruition. In Anti-Abortion Strategy, conservatives target YouTube for telling the truth about abortion. Finally, in Post-Roe Heroes, a couple of can’t-miss profiles of some incredible women doing necessary work.

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War on Birth Control

This is how they ban birth control: bit by bit. Yesterday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas law that requires teens to have parental consent before they can access birth control. The notoriously conservative court—also responsible for last year’s decision on mifepristone—ruled that Texas’ parental consent requirement doesn’t conflict with Title X, the law allowing teens to get birth control at federally funded clinics. 

In fact, Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote that Title X isn’t undermined by the Texas law, “To the contrary, the two laws reinforce each other.”

This is the judge, by the way, who during oral arguments essentially said that he’d be upset if his (hopefully hypothetical) daughter was able to get birth control because it would allow her to escape pregnancy as a punishment for sex:

“If she did receive contraceptives without my knowledge, that interferes in a dramatic way with my ability to parent, because the child now has a means of engaging in sexual activity and avoiding certain consequences of it.”

The ruling has opened the door for other states to start restricting teens’ ability to get contraception. And while abortion rights groups could appeal the case to the Supreme Court, doing so would be a risky move. After all, do we really want to bring a case that could strip birth control access from all American teens to the Court that overturned Roe?

There’s no overstating how big of a deal this case is—not just because of its tremendous impact on teens, but because the ruling is part of a broader effort to ban birth control for everyone. Teens are just the canaries in the coal mine.

As I’ve written so many times before, Republicans are not going to ban contraception outright—they’re going to take the same chipping away approach that they did with Roe. They’re starting with policies on teens, laws that allow companies to refuse to cover contraception, and laws that allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control.

The next attacks we’ll see will have to do with birth control’s safety: In the same way the anti-abortion movement (falsely) claims that abortion medication is dangerous and needs to be regulated accordingly, Republicans will push anti-contraception policies under the guise of ‘protecting’ women’s heath. And once again, they’ll start with teens. After all—if conservatives can ban gender-affirming care for minors by saying it’s dangerous to their health, do we really believe that hormonal birth control isn’t next?

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For more on the attacks on birth control read Part I of my series below (Part II here):

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

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In the States

Sixteen Republican Attorneys General are threatening Maine legislators over the state’s proposed shied law that would protect out-of-state patients who come to Maine for abortions and gender-affirming care.

Democratic Rep. Anne Perry, who proposed the bill, says, “what I’m really proposing to do is what I call ‘state sovereignty.’”

“This allows anyone who has services in this state protection from another state coming in and charging someone with something that was illegal in the other state."

Shied laws to protect abortion providers and patients aren’t new, but what is novel is that the bill would let people use Maine courts to sue agencies—like law enforcement and prosecutors—in anti-abortion states.

In the letter, led by Tennessee’s Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, the AGs call the bill “state-sanctioned culture war litigation tourism.” Here’s the thing: aren’t these the same people pushing legislation that allows citizens to sue each other over abortion? Now they have a problem with it?

Lisa Margulies, a vice president for public affairs at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, is backing the legislation:

“Given the national climate, it is more important than ever that Maine join this growing movement, affirm its commitment to essential health care, and pursue every possible avenue to safeguard providers in our state.”

A new poll out of Missouri shows that there’s a decent amount of support for the abortion rights ballot measure in the state. A Saint Louis University poll reports that that 44% of voters would support the proposed amendment, while 37% of voters were opposed. For more info on the measure in Missouri—and the related disagreements within the abortion rights community—read Abortion, Every Day’s past coverage here.

Speaking of Missouri, here’s something cool: pop star Olivia Rodrigo had an organization handing out free emergency contraception at her recent show in the state. Rodrigo invited Right By You, a group that connects young people to abortion care (out-of-state) and birth control to table at her show. Stephanie Kraft Sheley, project director of the group:

“It fills my heart with so much joy and gratitude to Olivia, and it shows how well received it will be when other artists step up and do this. I hope they follow this example.”

Love to see it!

Quick hits:

• Nebraska Public Media with more on the pro-choice ballot measure effort in Nebraska, which activists say is “on track”;

• The Wall Street Journal on how abortion bans are driving patients to pro-choice New Mexico;

• And the Idaho House passed a bill requiring insurance companies to cover six months worth of contraception at a time.

In the Nation

In some rare good news, the Judicial Conference of the United States—a panel of judges who determine policy for the federal judiciary—have announced a new rule to make ‘judge shopping’ harder.

This is the practice that brought us the nightmare mifepristone ruling from Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk: when anti-abortion groups sued the FDA over abortion medication, they deliberately filed the suit in Amarillo, Texas to ensure that their anti-choice extremist buddy would be the one to hear the case.

The new policy, however, will make sure that any civil cases that “seek to bar or mandate state or federal actions”—like Kacsmaryk’s FDA decision—would be assigned to a judge through a random selection process.

Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr., who sits on the Conference, said that this “deters judge-shopping and the assignment of cases based on the perceived merits or abilities of a particular judge.”

From Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in response to the new policy:

"The practice of judge shopping has given MAGA-right plaintiffs the ability to hijack and circumvent our federal judiciary by targeting courts that would all but guarantee a handpicked MAGA-right judge who would rule in their favor.”

Quick hits:

• New York Magazine on the strife between Republicans and the anti-abortion movement;

• Kamala Harris was in Denver talking about abortion rights;

• And First Lady Jill Biden is teaming up with singer Christina Aguilera in a social media campaign urging voters to get out and support abortion rights in November.

2024

NBC News reports that Donald Trump is “laser-focused” on abortion rights as he thinks about a VP pick—and that the disgraced former president has taken to grilling diners at his Mar-a-Lago club about what they think about various candidates’ abortion stances.

Specifically, Trump asked club-goers what they thought about of Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and his hardline view of abortion. My favorite fun fact about Scott: In a fundraising email, he warned voters that Democrats would “grant abortions up to 52 weeks.” (Pregnancy normally lasts about 40 weeks.)

Some other names Trump has been throwing around and looking into for their positions on abortion: Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

Those close to Trump are most concerned about Sen. Scott and Gov. Noem, because of their anti-abortion extremism. When Noem was asked, for example, about whether a 10 year-old should be forced to give birth, she defended her state’s ack of a rape and incest exception.

I’ll be getting into all of these potential VP picks in the coming days, but let’s be real: they’re all radicals, and they’re all assholes. For my prediction on Trump and abortion, click here.

On the other side of the aisle: I told you yesterday about abortion rights groups’ less-than-thrilled response with President Joe Biden’s State of the Union. The prime issue was the president’s refusal to say abortion—skipping over the word even though it was in his prepared statements. Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, gave perhaps my favorite quote of all time to the Associated Press:

“Abortion is what we provide and what people are being denied. People don’t call us for a reproductive freedom appointment.”

Today, POLITICO has more on post-SOTU anger from repro rights organizations, including Physicians for Reproductive Health. Dr. Jamila Perritt, president and CEO of the group, said, “The president is part and parcel of the culture of stigma and shame that surrounds abortion care.”

But Democrats came to Biden’s defense. Here’s Rep. Judy Chu, who co-leads Congress’ Pro-Choice Caucus”

“Words are important. Actions are even more important. And the president has shown time and time again that he will act.”

It’s obvious that Biden and his team know how important abortion rights are to November. But as POLITICO reports, and as Abortion, Every Day has stressed again and again—people are rightly worried that the president’s personal squeamishness around the issue will undermine a strong pro-choice message.

Told Ya So

In late 2022, I predicted that the anti-abortion strategy in response to post-Roe horror stories and deaths would be to say that there was nothing wrong with abortion bans—and that doctors were to blame. Lo and behold this headline from the Associated Press:

The AP reports that Republican lawmakers are refusing to revisit their bans, despite the pain and harm the policies have caused. Instead of considering that their laws might be the problem, this is what they’re doing:

“GOP leaders accuse abortion rights advocates of deliberately spreading misinformation and doctors of intentionally denying services in an effort to undercut the bans and make a political point.”

I want you to compare that with what I wrote in October 2022:

“Conservative politicians, activists and pundits have all started to float the idea that abortion bans don’t stop doctors from providing care. Instead, they say, any harm that comes to women is the fault of pro-choicers who have frightened medical professionals and their lawyers into misreading the state laws.

…It’s kind of genius, really. Because conservatives aren’t just shirking blame, but offloading it onto their biggest threats, the very people who make them look bad: Feminists shining a light on the very real human toll of these laws, and doctors desperate to save their patients’ lives.”

All of which is to say: We knew this was coming. Republican lawmakers aren’t blaming doctors out of the blue; it’s been their strategy from the moment Roe was overturned. Because they knew that women were going to be harmed, and because they knew women would die.

Anti-Abortion Strategy: YouTube

Anti-abortion groups, bolstered by the support of 16 Republican Attorneys General, successfully lobbied YouTube to change the language of their context disclaimer on an anti-choice video about abortion medication.

The video—from conservative powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom on supposed dangers of abortion pills—included the following language from YouTube:

"An abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. It uses medicine or surgery to remove the embryo or fetus and placenta from the uterus. The procedure is done by a licensed healthcare professional."

Led by Iowa Attorney Genera Brenna Bird, Republican AGs demanded that YouTube take the language down because the last sentence, they claimed, was false: “It suggests that chemical abortions are performed by trained professionals. They are not.”

Bird—best known for ending free emergency contraception for rape victims in the state—wrote that that by including the label, YouTube was “targeting pro-life messages.”

That is some serious nitpicking! I suppose if you want to be literal about it, doctors don’t place the pill in a patient’s mouth—but come on.

We know what this is about: anti-abortion activists and politicians are desperate to stop tech companies from telling the truth about abortion’s safety. And where to get one: the letter also mentions Yelp’s recent practice of adding consumer notices to crisis pregnancy centers, making clear that they don’t offer abortions.

In this case, YouTube ended up changing the context disclaimer to exclude that last sentence and distinguish between medication and procedural abortion. The new language is fine, nothing offensive—but it’s a good reminder that Republicans are paying attention to every little thing when it comes to abortion. So as conservatives ramp up the pressure on tech companies, we need to do the same—making sure that they’re providing people with accurate information.

Post-Roe Heroes

We’re so used to hearing bad news (because there is a lot of bad news), but it’s vital that we’re reminded of all the incredible work being done to counteract Republicans’ bans and cruelty. This week we saw two terrific profiles of incredible women doing just that.

First, there’s Jen Jackson Quintano, who The Guardian reports is the only abortion rights organizer in her region—northern Idaho. Last year, Quintano founded the Pro-Voice Project, an to encourage abortion storytelling in the state.

As you know, Idaho has one of the strictest bans in the nation—policies that have led to OBGYNs fleeing and hospitals shuttering maternity wards. There’s also a real sense of physica danger in the area: The Guardian points out that Quintano is in an area where “an armed militia descended on a Black Lives Matter march in Sandpoint led by high schoolers, and a librarian in a nearby town was forced to resign after gun-toting local residents packed the library where she refused to censor books.”

And even though a majority of Idaho voters believe that abortion should be legal, people are afraid of speaking out—in part for their personal safety. That’s what makes Quintano’s work so important. Make sure to read the full profile here.

Finally, The New York Times profiled Julie Burkhart, founder of Wellspring Health Access—the only abortion clinic left in Wyoming. The Times reports that Julie is “the only person in America to open an abortion clinic in a state that bans abortion.”

“I really reject the notion of putting facilities only in the safe states, because the only way we’re going to preserve rights in this country is to go to these really uncomfortable places. For us to say we’re going to concede in certain areas, I don’t think we’re living up to our words and what we say when we say we support the rights of everyone.”

If Wellspring sounds familiar, it’s because the clinic was destroyed by an arsonist and just recently reopened. I’m glad to see Julie and her incredible work get the media love it deserves!

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