Abortion, Every Day (5.6.24)

Indiana anti-choice group wants abortion reports to be public

Click to skip ahead: In Attacks on Privacy, anti-choice groups are pushing for publicly available abortion reports. In the States, news from Ohio, Idaho, Arizona, Florida and more. In Ballot Measure Updates, good news out of Missouri. In the Nation, Dems want to protect contraception. Trump is trying to back off of his TIME magazine abortion comments in 2024. And in Media Muck-Ups, another publication falls for Republican rhetoric.

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Attacks on Privacy

The anti-abortion movement has become increasingly obsessed with abortion reports and data collection—from fabricated statistics on abortion ‘complications’ to invasive patient questionnaires that are reported to the state. Most recently, I’ve been tracking conservative efforts to make abortion patients’ data publicly available in spite of confidentiality laws.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has been leading the charge, lobbying the state to treat “terminated pregnancy reports (TPRs)” the same way they would a birth or death certificate. Rokita says he needs the reports made public so that he knows exactly who to prosecute. Seriously.

Essentially, Rokita counts on “third parties,” aka anti-choice groups, scouring publicly available abortion data to tip him off on potential (bullshit) reasons to investigate providers and clinics. So it’s no surprise that an Indiana anti-abortion group, in support of Rokita, is now suing the state for the right to access abortion reports.

Voices for Life’s suit argues that Indiana’s “refusal to provide access to TPRs deprives private citizens of their role in petitioning the Attorney General to investigate cases that suggest a termination of pregnancy was unlawful.”

They’re obsessed with getting in women’s business and pretending it’s for our own good. (See: snitch culture.)

Melanie Garcia Lyon, head of Voices for Life, tells the Indiana Capital Chronicle that since the group started reviewing abortion reports in 2022, their “enforcement team” has submitted over 700 complaints about supposed illegal actions. Generally, these are medical licensing complaints and claims that doctors didn’t file the abortion reports on time. This has nothing to do with patient safety.

Meanwhile, Republicans in New Hampshire are pushing for legislation to require abortion reports in the state. The law would require doctors to report on everything from how and when an abortion was performed, to supposed abortion ‘complications’—something we know the GOP is eager to drum up stats on.

Remember, in the end this is all about shame and punishment: scaring women out of getting care (because they don’t want their information reported to the state), and targeting anyone who helps patients.

Related: I’ll have a big story this week on anti-abortion attacks on privacy, so make sure to keep an eye out!

In the States

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed legislation to repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban on Thursday, putting an end to a law that was created before women had the right to vote. The ban sparked outrage across the country, leaving the GOP terrified of what voters’ anger would mean for 2024. (That’s why a handful of state Republicans voted with Democrats to repeal the ban.)

Former Arizona Rep. Athena Salman—who proposed a repeal of the ban back in 2019—was at the signing ceremony, barely able to speak because of how emotional she was. “Future generations will not have to live under the restrictions and the interference that we have had to experience,” she said. The state will now revert back to its existing 15-week ban.

When Ohio voted to protect abortion in the state constitution, people’s rights weren’t restored overnight. Activists in the state have had to challenge each and every restriction in the courts in order to fully restore abortion rights, and Republicans are fighting them every step of the way.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wants the state to keep it’s 24-hour waiting period, for example, arguing that Ohioans didn’t vote to eliminate the restriction when they supported Issue 1. His office argues that the amendment was supposed to ‘restore Roe’, a time “that allowed and upheld Ohio’s waiting period, in person, and informed consent provisions.”

The lawyer representing abortion clinics in the state, Jessie Hill, says that voters know exactly what they supported: “The attorney general is acting as though the amendment doesn't say what it says and the people of Ohio didn't pass the law they passed.”

This is a good reminder for why ‘restore Roe’ is a troubling framework: people were still being denied abortions under Roe! We need to push for something much, much better.

In the wake of Florida’s 6-week abortion ban, the number of people going to Virginia for care has taken a huge jump. Axios reports that while only 3% of patients at the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood were from out-of-state in 2022, by last month it was 20%. Last week, when Florida enacted its ban, that number jumped to 30%.

Abortion rights activists are also preparing for North Carolina to see huge jump in patients—both those from Florida and those who would have gone to Florida for care. The Associated Press reports that even before Florida’s 6-week ban, 32% of patients going to North Carolina Planned Parenthood clinics were from out-of-state. The downside for patients traveling to North Carolina, though, is that while the law allows for abortions up until 12 weeks, patients need to have two in-person visits 72 hours apart before being able to obtain care. That’s a huge hurdle for those who need to take off of work, get child care, or pay for hotel rooms.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has written an op-ed for the Idaho Statesman, insisting that the state’s abortion ban doesn’t endanger women’s health or lives. Fresh from complaining about the female Supreme Court justices and claiming that doctors lied about having to airlift abortion patients out of state, Labrador writes that the Biden Administration is “peddl[ing] fear [and] spreading blatant misinformation” about Idaho’s law:

“Under Idaho law, women facing life-threatening conditions should be treated and provided whatever care or procedures they need to save their lives. That’s what the law requires, and the Idaho Supreme Court has been very clear about this.”

First of all, nearly a quarter of Idaho OBGYNs didn’t leave the state because of misinformation. They left because they can’t give patients the standard of care. And what Idaho Supreme Court actually said about women with life-threatening pregnancies is that doctors “must remove that unborn child in a manner that provides the best opportunity for survival (e.g., vaginal delivery or cesarean delivery)” as opposed to a standard abortion procedure. Doctors need to do this even if if they believe the fetus won’t be viable—unless it would pose a “greater risk of the death of the pregnant woman.”

Is that a state that sounds like it cares about women’s health and lives?

In a far less infuriating op-ed, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has written for Detroit Free Press, urging people who care about abortion rights to vote for President Joe Biden. “If Donald Trump wins again, I can’t prevent all the protections we fought so hard for in Michigan from being erased,” she writes.

Quick hits:

• New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing crisis pregnancy center powerhouse Heartbeat International, along with eleven specific clinics, for lying to women about abortion ‘reversal’;

• Two Arizona Democrats have been brought up on ethics complaints after shouting “shame” at the Republicans who blocked a vote on the 1864 abortion ban;

• And Vanderbilt University in Tennessee has a vending machine with emergency contraception thanks to a collaboration between the student government and Planned Parenthood.

Ballot Measure Updates

Congratulations to Missouri abortion rights activists, who collected an incredible 380,000 signatures to get abortion on the ballot. That’s more than twice the number they needed! What’s particularly impressive is that because Republican leaders continually held up the signature-gathering process with anti-democratic attacks, petitioners had only three months to work. (For a refresher on those GOP attacks, click here.)

It wasn’t just conservative politicians trying to keep voters from having a say: anti-abortion groups launched a text message campaign lying to voters, warning them that petitioners were trying to steal their personal information.

Speaking of efforts to mislead voters, check out this quote from Stephanie Bell, an anti-abortion activist with Missouri Stands With Women: “Out-of-state Big Abortion supporters think the fight is over…they could not be more wrong.” This is language I’ve flagged before. Anti-choice groups need to use terms like “Big Abortion” because they don’t want voters to know that their actual political enemy isn’t some nefarious “abortion industry,” but women, themselves.

Florida anti-abortion groups have a new campaign they’re calling “Almost Aborted,” which is…quite a name. POLITICO reports that anti-abortion groups are targeting specific neighborhoods with materials featuring parents who considered abortion before deciding against it. (Deciding being the key word here!) As I’ve reported before, anti-abortion organizations are super-eager to find a way to replicate Democrats’ success with using personal stories to win over voters.

Finally, the Associated Press looks at Minnesota Democrats’ efforts to protect abortion and LGBTQ rights in the state constitution via an Equal Rights Amendment. The proposed amendment would prohibit discrimination of a person “making and effectuating decisions about all matters relating to one’s own pregnancy or decision whether to become or remain pregnant.”

In the Nation

Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to guarantee people can get their birth control at pharmacies without delays or interference from extremist pharmacists.

Led by Sens. Patty Murray and Cory Booker, the Access to Birth Control Act would establish civil penalties for pharmacies that that refuse to fill birth control prescriptions, misinform customers about contraception availability, breach confidentiality, or otherwise intimidate, threaten or harass patients seeking birth control.

“This bill is simple and especially important in light of increased threats to contraceptive access from Republican anti-abortion extremists,” Sen. Murray said.

Since we’re talking so much about privacy these days, it’s worth checking out this PBS NewHour segment about the Biden administration’s expansion of HIPAA rules to protect abortion patients. Carmel Shachar, head of Harvard University’s Health Law and Policy Clinic, talks about the increase of abortion reporting and abortion ‘complication’ reporting throughout the country.

Quick hits:

• Salon on how self-managing an abortion is safer than ever;

• A call for civil disobedience from Carrie Baker at Ms. magazine;

• And a look at patient navigators, abortion fund volunteers and the other reproductive rights and justice activists making sure that patients in red states can get the abortions they need.

2024

Donald Trump is backing off of his comments on abortion in TIME magazine, where he made clear that he’d be fine with states monitoring women’s pregnancies and arresting them for having abortions. On Truth Social, Trump wrote, “this was made up by Democrats and the Fake News Media.” (He also took his expected victory lap, taking credit for both anti-abortion and pro-choice wins, just like I predicted.)

But as the disgraced former president tries to distance himself from anti-abortion policies, he’s ramping up dangerous anti-abortion rhetoric. In that Truth Social post, for example, Trump wrote that some states permit “execution after birth.” He repeated that lie in a Wisconsin speech last week, saying that Democrats allow “execution after birth,” a phrase he repeated at least three times. Also last week, Trump said in an interview with FOX-2 Detroit that in pro-choice states “they can kill the baby…they can kill the baby after the baby is born.”

Let’s be clear about two things: 1) This kind of language is going to get someone killed. (In fact, it already has.) 2) What Trump is actually referring to—the “execution” he’s talking about—is the painful decision some parents make to withdraw care from severely ill premature infants who they don’t want to torture with painful and pointless medical interventions. That’s who he’s saying are murderers. Democrats would do well to point that truth out.

Meanwhile, U.S. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a potential VP pick for Trump, has suddenly backed off his support for a federal abortion ban. (At least, he’s backing off publicly.) In an interview with MSNBC, Scott repeated some Trump-esque talking points about abortion being left up to the states. He declined to say whether he still supported a national ban, something he’s been unequivocal about in the past. Whether it’s because of Republicans’ broader fear of abortion rights or his desire to look good to Trump, Scott now joins all of the other politicians who refuse to give Americans a straight answer.

Biden’s reelection campaign released a new ad aimed at Latino men that features a Marine Corp veteran talking about his daughters and saying Trump is “not tough” for his attacks on women’s freedom. (It’s an interesting tactic you’ll hear more from me on soon.)

Finally, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff is holding a panel conversation tomorrow about the role men can play to protect abortion rights, and Kylie Cheung at Jezebel says maybe he should start with Joe Biden. Whew.

Media Muck-Ups

CBS News fell into a Republican trap, reporting that Florida has issued guidelines to “clarify” the state’s abortion ban and “safeguard against any immediate harm that could come to pregnant women due to disinformation.” That’s just not true.

As I reported last week, the guidelines from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) not only require doctors to send the state detailed abortion reports, but also dictate how doctors should end pregnancies—with language that could even force physicians to give women c-sections rather than abortions.

Abortion, Every Day has tracked similar moves in multiple state: Republicans claiming that they’re “clarifying” abortion bans to make it easier for doctors to help women, when the truth is that they’re just further codifying their extremism.

I am BEGGING mainstream publications to stop taking Republicans' word for it when it comes to abortion. Stop repeating their talking points. Stop doing their work for them.