Abortion, Every Day (4.5.24)

A win in Indiana!

Click to skip ahead: In the States, a Tennessee court hears a challenge against the state’s ban, a win in Indiana, the latest in Florida and more. In Ballot Measure News, updates from Minnesota, Montana and Florida. In the Nation, some quick hits. In Language Watch, some thoughts on the conservative accusation that we’re “fear-mongering.” 2024 looks at Democrats’ hopes that ballot measures will drive out voters for Biden. In Stats & Studies, a new poll looks at women in red states. And congrats to Grace in You Love to See It!

---

Join Me in Raising $ For Alabama!

If you’re in New York—or will be next week—consider supporting the West Alabama Women’s Center by coming out this incredible event I’m a part of.

On Wednesday evening, I’ll be in conversation with Karen Thompson, the legal director of Pregnancy Justice, and Robin Marty, executive director of the West Alabama Women’s Center and author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America.

All of the money raised goes towards helping the center keep their doors open. If you can’t join us in-person, please consider making a donation of any size to the West Alabama Women's Center.

I hope to see you there!

In the States

Speaking of fundraising: Axios reports that Florida abortion funds are not seeing the same ‘rage-giving’ that happened after Roe was overturned. So to find and donate to a Florida fund, please click here.

It’s not just abortion funds in Florida preparing for more patients once that 6-week ban is enacted: Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, told The Hill she expects that the group will spend $100,000 more per month to handle the increase of those needing support. I also really appreciated what Jeyifo said about how so much of the political news on Florida and abortion is focused on what it all means for 2024—rather than the people who will actually be impacted:

“We’re seeing glee from so many people, you know, ‘We’re going to have a ballot amendment, Florida’s back in play now!’ And that’s going to be on the backs of people for at least the next nine months that will not be able to access common essential lifesaving, life-affirming health care. What about the people who are going to be suffering throughout this process? You know, is anyone paying attention to them?”

Clinics in North Carolina and Virginia are preparing for an influx of patients from Florida by extending their hours and hiring new staff. The Bristol Women’s Health Center in Virginia, for example, now sees patients on evenings and weekends. From administrative director Karolina Ogorek:

“It is already hard enough for somebody who’s driving 12 hours away. While their reproductive health choices are being taken away by their state, as an abortion provider and a clinic, we want to give them as many choices as possible to be able to access the care that they need.”

Hero behavior. A few quick hits in Florida: CNN has more on the people and patients who are going to suffer as a result of the state’s ban; NBC News covers patients’ “confusion and terror”; and Slate’s “Political GabFest” podcast gets into the nitty gritty.

A Tennessee court heard arguments today in a challenge to the state’s abortion ban. This is the suit brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of multiple women who were denied abortions despite risks to their health and lives.

One woman with a doomed pregnancy developed sepsis because she had to travel out-of-state for care. Another had to give birth to a stillborn baby because she was denied an abortion for a nonviable pregnancy. From plaintiff Nicole Blackmon:

“Because of the state’s cruel laws, I was forced to carry a baby for months that was never going to live. I was condemned to endure both physical and emotional torture, knowing that I was going to deliver a stillborn.”

Another woman, Allie Phillips, was motivated to run for office after her horrific experience.

Incredibly, the state claims that these women don’t have grounds to bring their lawsuit because they’re not currently in the middle of a medical emergency, and because the law doesn’t criminalize abortions for patients. CRR lawyer Marc Hearron reminded the court that the women are directly impacted by their care being denied. "I don't really know how they can make that argument with a straight face," he said.

Lawyers for Tennessee also tried to argue that the state’s addition of a medical exception was a “physician friendly development” that addressed the problems brought up in the lawsuit. (You may remember, this is the ‘exception’ that was watered down into nothing because Tennessee Right to Life didn’t like it.)

I’ll keep you updated on what happens next. Also in Tennessee, some bad but not surprising news: lawmakers have passed the bill that requires public schools to show an anti-abortion video masquerading as a ‘fetal development’ lesson. For more on the legislation, versions of which are proposed in multiple states, read my story here.

Remember when I warned last week about abortion ‘reporting’ as a growing conservative strategy? Well, this week, a New Hampshire Senate committee added language to an abortion bill mandating that providers report certain details to the state: like demographic information about the patient, the kind of abortion they received, whether medication was used, the gestational age of the fetus, and where and when the abortion was performed. The language was added without chance for public comment.

I think we could use some good news, so let’s talk about Indiana. Today, the Indiana Court of Appeals agreed that the state’s abortion ban may infringe on some people’s religious freedom. The Associated Press reports that “the three-judge panel's ruling agreed with a lower court that plaintiffs with a religious objection to the ban should be exempt from it.” (Emphasis mine.)

But the ruling also found that the preliminary injunction was too broad; they sent it back to a lower court to be more narrowly tailored towards those whose religious beliefs are impacted by the state’s ban. Basically that means that nothing with the law changes for the moment, and that the ruling could be challenged in the state Supreme Court.

But Ken Falk, legal director at ACLU of Indiana, says that if there are women in the state who need an abortion and have religious beliefs that are infringed on by the state ban, “I would suggest they contact us…and we can determine what steps to take.” You can reach the ACLU of Indiana at intake@aclu-in.org or via their online intake form.

Quick hits:

• A new bill in Minnesota would require insurance companies to cover abortion care;

• All the bills proposed to protect contraception access in Mississippi died in committee;

• And Florida Rep. Gallop Franklin II calls for protection of contraception access.

Ballot Measure News

Axios reports that there’s a hold up on an Equal Rights Amendment in Minnesota that would enshrine abortion rights because of an internal DFL debate over the amendment’s language.

Essentially, some Democrats and abortion rights advocates want the ERA to include language that would explicitly add the right to abortion and reproductive health care, while other Democrats are concerned the addition will keep the amendment from passing. Hmm.

Meanwhile, if Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen doesn’t move forward with the ballot measure process for a proposed pro-choice amendment, the state Supreme Court says she’ll face a contempt charge. This comes just hours after abortion rights advocates asked the Court to force Jacobsen to allow them to collect signatures for their measure. As has been the case in multiple states, Jacobsen and other Republican leaders have been working overtime to slow roll the measure. They’re all desperate to keep abortion as far away from voters as possible.

Finally, speaking of desperation: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he thinks the pro-choice ballot measure effort in the state will fail once voters “figure out how radical” it is. He is shaking in his high heel boots.

In the Nation

• The Center for American Progress spoke to four medical professionals in Idaho about Idaho v. United States—the Supreme Court case on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA);

• Danielle Campoamor at CNN writes that birth control is already on the chopping block;

• Julie Fedorchak, a candidate for North Dakota’s U.S. House seat, says she supports a federal abortion ban;

• The Star Tribune on U.S. Sen. Tina Smith’s call to repeal the Comstock Act;

• And I love this resource guide that Media Matters put together on Project 2025—such a smart idea. Pay particular attention to how conservatives are coming after surrogacy.

Language Watch: ‘Fear-Mongering’

This piece in U.S. News & World Report reminded me about a term I’ve been meaning to write about: ‘fear-mongering’. Here’s what Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, for example, wrote in a recent memo:

“They will spend millions to fear-monger and lie about the Republican position, denouncing any limits whatsoever on abortion as a ‘national ban,’ even while they refuse to tell the truth about their own radical stance.”

The idea that Democrats and pro-choice groups are ‘fear-mongering’—both about abortion bans and the danger of a Trump presidency—has been everywhere lately. I’ve seen this message repeated by Republican legislators, spewed on cable news, and even in TikTok comments sections.

Here’s the thing: It’s hard to convince voters that Democrats are fear-mongering about abortion bans when people are reading post-Roe horror stories every day. That’s why they’re focusing more on the idea that a national ban will never happen.

Republican women, in particular, are repeating the lie that a federal ban is unrealistic; they say the GOP will never have the votes and Democrats are just trying to scare voters. They’re counting on voters not knowing about the Comstock Act and what happens if Trump replaces the head of the FDA. (Which means it’s super important that we’re screaming it from the rooftops!)

2024

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is putting up billboards in Florida attacking Trump on abortion in the wake of a ruling that will enact a 6-week ban. The Hill reports that billboards will run in both English and Spanish, and read, “Abortion is banned in Florida thanks to Donald Trump. He won’t stop until it’s banned nationwide.”

The New York Times, though, wonders if President Joe Biden’s focus on Florida may be a fake out “meant to lure Trump’s campaign into spending some of its finite resources in the state.”

Meanwhile, NBC News says Biden’s abortion strategy is akin to what George Bush did in 2024 around opposition to marriage equality: used ballot measures to drive voter turnout:

“‘It is the exact same strategy we employed in 2004 on culture wars—in reverse,’ said Mike Madrid, a political strategist who worked on Bush’s re-election bid. ‘Culture wars used to be the place Democrats went to die. That’s not the case anymore. They win on these issues.’”

As you know, there are pro-choice ballot measures in multiple states—including swing states where Democrats hope folks furious about abortion will cast a vote for Biden. A new report from POLITICO backs that theory up: They have a memo from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that lays out how abortion rights ballot measures will “remain a driving issue for voters this November, putting vulnerable House Republicans and GOP candidates on the hook for their anti-abortion and anti-freedom positions.”

Let’s end with a fun fact: The Washington Post reports that when a reporter asked Trump a question about abortion at a recent event in Michigan, “the audience drowned it out with boos and yelled ‘fake news!’”

Stats & Studies

A new poll from KFF shows that in states with abortion bans, one in five women of reproductive age say that either they or someone they know has had trouble accessing abortion since Roe was overturned. The same is true for one in seven of all women in anti-choice states.

This is something I’ve said often: it’s only a matter of time before everyone in the country has been touched by the consequences of abortion bans. And it won’t just be knowing someone who was denied an abortion—but people being unable to find a hospital to give birth in, or having to wait months for a pap smear because of the strain on OBGYNs.

What’s especially interesting about the KFF poll is that a majority of women in anti-choice states—67%—think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. That’s a lot of votes!

You Love to See It

Thanks to a terrific investigation by LAist into how California colleges weren’t doing a good job letting students know they could get free abortion medication on campus, a state agency is calling for millions in spending to address that awareness gap. Related: NPR has a piece on how students largely don’t know about the availability of abortion medication on campus.

And finally: A huge congratulations to AED’s indispensable researcher, Grace Haley, who is celebrating a year with the newsletter!