Abortion, Every Day (5.17.24)

The GOP is finding more ways to track abortion patients

Click to skip ahead: In Attacks on Privacy, what Louisiana Republicans are really working towards. In the States, news from Louisiana, Iowa, South Carolina, Georgia and more. In Ballot Measure Updates, abortion will be on the ballot in South Dakota—but not without a fight from Republicans. In the Nation, a look at what happens to our data if Comstock is used to target abortion pills. And in 2024 news, Trump is still using dangerous anti-abortion rhetoric.

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Attacks on Privacy

Let’s talk about Louisiana Republicans’ efforts to classify abortion medication as a controlled substance. I’ve covered this a bit already, but New Orleans public radio station WWNO flagged something I can’t believe I didn’t put together earlier: controlled substances are trackable in a state database:

“The state database allows any doctor or pharmacist to look up the prescription history of his or her patient. The data is also accessible by the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, which licenses physicians and other providers, and by law enforcement agencies with a warrant.”

OF COURSE. This is what I’ve been banging on about for months: anti-abortion groups are hyper-focused right now on data, tracking, and attacking patient privacy. (Both for criminalization purposes and to have a chilling effect on those seeking care.)

And remember, Republicans’ move in Louisiana comes at the same time that the GOP and anti-abortion groups in Indiana are working to make women’s abortion reports public records, and as Republican Senators propose legislation that would enable them to harvest pregnant women’s information. None of that is a coincidence.

If you have information about anything happening in your state around data, privacy, or abortion reports, please contact me.

In the States

Sticking with Louisiana for a moment: There’s more than just privacy issues at play if abortion medication is labeled a controlled substance. That classification is meant for drugs that are habit-forming—so the way that doctors and nurses handle the medication would have to change. The pills would be locked away at hospitals, for example, making them harder to get in emergencies when someone is hemorrhaging after giving birth.

And in news that will shock no one, anti-abortion groups in Louisiana are using the protection of teen girls as an excuse for their attack on the medication. Sarah Zagorski of Louisiana Right to life told WWNO, “We've had pregnancy centers email us with many stories of minors getting access to this medication.” They want voters to think they’re just protecting vulnerable girls—even as they vote to force them into childbirth.

A South Carolina judge has rejected a challenge to the state’s 6-week abortion ban, allowing the law to be enforced as it is. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic has brought multiple suits challenging the law, specifically around its definition of fetal heartbeat. Here’s a backgrounder I did on the issue in February, but the short version is this: There’s no heartbeat at 6-weeks of pregnancy because there’s no heart yet. And so Planned Parenthood South Atlantic wanted the courts to allow abortion until the 9th week of pregnancy, which is when most of the primary parts of the eventual heart have formed.

While 6 weeks vs. 9 weeks may seem like not a very big difference, I always think of this vital point made by South Carolina abortion advocates: The difference between a 6-week ban and a 9-week ban is the difference between doctors turning away half of their patients, or 90% of them.

Also in South Carolina, state Rep. April Cromer is running for reelection—and away from her anti-abortion voting record. The Republican posted a video attacking her opponent, saying they “stooped so low as to say I want to punish and even kill women who have an abortion.” Feigning offense, she continued, “I have never and would never advocate for punishing women.”

It seems that Cromer is for getting that she co-sponsored legislation last year that would have made having an abortion punishable by the death penalty! Incredible. (Abortion, Every Day was the first to break the news about the bill, which didn’t end up going anywhere thanks to the ensuing public outrage.)

The Georgia Supreme Court race is becoming all about abortion: Former U.S. Rep. John Barrow, who launched a long-shot campaign against Justice Andrew Pinson, has made abortion rights a centerpiece of his run. That focus on abortion, however, has drawn some ire from Republicans, who say he’s violating the state’s judicial code of ethics.

First, the Judicial Qualifications Commission sent Barrow a letter, issuing a warning against his repeated comments about supporting abortion rights, specifically mentioning how “emphatically” he was talking about the issue. Barrow then sued the commission in federal court, making the letter public; yesterday a judge dismissed that lawsuit. From Barrow:

“I’ve never declared how I would rule in a case, but I have not hesitated to say what I believe the law is in this matter because that’s what people have a right to know. If you can’t talk about what the election is all about, what’s the point of having an election in the first place.”

Abortion has been a top issue in a several state Supreme Court races recently —like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where we saw record amounts of money spent on campaigns.

It’s been over a year since Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird stopped funding for emergency contraction for rape victims. Katy Rasmussen, a nurse with the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program, told the Iowa Starting Line, “I think we all feel pretty strongly that this is not a cost that we want to pass along to our patients.”

Still, Bird has refused to budge. She even stood by the decision to make rape victims pay for their own care even after finding out that the majority of victims serviced by the funding were children. As I’ve pointed out so many times before, this is how they ban birth control—a little at a time, starting with the most vulnerable among us.

This stinks: The Amarillo city council in Texas is going to have to consider an anti-abortion ordinance after activists gathered enough signatures tto force the issue. Originally, Amarillo leaders declined to hop on the ‘abortion trafficking’ bandwagon (multiple Texas counties have made it illegal to help someone leave the state for an abortion or to use county roads on the way out). But the Texas Tribune reports that the city validated 6,300 signatures, enough to make the council to hear out the issue.

And in the last bit of state news, another sign that Republicans are terrified of abortion rights: Maryland Republican Larry Hogan, a former two-term governor, is now saying he is “pro-choice” in order to preempt any Democratic attacks about abortion as he runs for U.S. Senate.

It’s a remarkable statement, really, considering that the Catholic Republican has previously ducked talking about the issue and, while governor, vetoed a law to expand abortion access. “I support restoring Roe as the law of the land,” Hogan said. “I’ll continue to protect the rights of women to make their own reproductive choices just like I did as governor for eight years.” Sure you will.

Hogan’s opponent, Democrat Angela D. Alsobrooks, said, “Larry Hogan has already shown us and told us that he’s not going to protect abortion rights…And the Republicans he’d be joining in the Senate have made their agenda crystal clear.”

Quick hits:

• Abortion rights activists in North Carolina marked the one year anniversary of the state’s ban in a press conference yesterday;

• How victims of the Flint water crisis helped to protect abortion rights in Michigan;

• And more on the Planned Parenthood app for abortion medication in Illinois.

Ballot Measure Updates

Abortion will be on the ballot in South Dakota this November. Secretary of State Monae Johnson reported yesterday that abortion rights activists collected enough valid signatures to put the issue in front of voters.

Dakotans for Health released a statement celebrating the ballot measure being certified, saying that “the people of South Dakota, not the politicians in Pierre, will be the ones to decide whether to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of South Dakota.”

The measure would protect abortion rights through the first trimester of pregnancy. The government could limit abortion in the second trimester as it relates “to to the physical health of the pregnant woman.” In the third trimester, abortion would be allowed to save a patient’s life.

And while that’s certainly better than what South Dakota has now—which is a total ban—you know how I feel about restrictions in ballot measures. Obviously, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the activists on the ground who are working to restore any kind of access. I don’t live in South Dakota; I don’t know what it’s like to do this work there. I don’t know what it’s like to push for a ballot measure in Missouri or Florida, either. But I’m extremely concerned that measures including these kinds of limitations are effectively enshrining restrictions—and leaving some of the most vulnerable people out.

All that said, none of that changes the horrific attacks on democracy we’re seeing from Republicans in these states. South Dakota anti-abortion groups, for example, plan to bring forward a legal challenge—and it was just yesterday that I told you about their (very sketchy) efforts to invalidate the measure.

Activists have been impersonating government employees in calls to voters, pressuring them to remove their names from the petition as part of their “Take Off My Name” campaign. (Republicans were able to pass a law that would allow the measure to be invalidated if they get enough people to withdraw their signatures.) Incredibly, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley’s office announced that an investigation found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

Speaking of anti-abortion ballot measure bullshit, this made me so angry. A group of anti-choice groups in Florida are coming together to try to stop Amendment 4, and they’re calling themselves “Do No Harm Florida.” The fact that they’re adopting the language of doctors who care about their patients is just beyond the pale—especially given the horror stories that are coming out every day from states with abortion bans.

Meanwhile, Minnesota lawmakers were expected to vote today on the Equal Rights Amendment, which would protect abortion rights in the state constitution—but they tabled the issue (again). Abortion is legal in the state, but multiple pro-choice states are pushing ballot measures as an extra layer of protection.

In Missouri this week, Democrats beat back an effort by Republicans to raise the standards on ballot measures by engaging in a 50-hour filibuster. Following in the footsteps of Ohio Republicans, who held a failed special election to raise ballot measure standards, the Missouri GOP wanted to require that constitutional amendments pass with five out of eight congressional districts as opposed to a simple majority. I’m glad that Democrats were able to hold them back, but as we’ve seen in multiple states—we can expect the attacks on democracy to continue.

Quick hits: Arizona abortion rights activists are fighting back against anti-choice myths. Teen Vogue on the ballot measure in Florida, and NY1 on the abortion rights amendment that was tossed by a New York judge. Finally, today was the last day of the legislative session in Maine, which means that the proposed abortion rights amendment, which failed to get the 2/3 support needed, will not go forward.

In the Nation

Let’s get back to Republican attacks on privacy. Nicole Gill, executive director of Accountable Tech, has an important (but terrifying) piece at Fast Company about what would happen to our private data if the Comstock Act is enforced to ban the shipping of abortion medication. It’s a must-read.

Gill points out that major tech companies are already putting abortion seekers at risk “by collecting, storing, and selling as much user data as possible.” Around this time last year, in fact, I wrote about Accountable Tech’s work testing Google’s promises to stop collecting users’ abortion-related data. What they found then is similar to what they found in January of this year: that Google was still holding onto data. (Even searches for terms like “Planned Parenthood” were being stored.)

If Comstock is used to stop the mailing of abortion medication—which we know now accounts for 63% of abortions and thousands of red-state abortions a month—the situation gets even more dire:

“That means thousands of women would be forced to travel for abortion—often out of state—with many of them turning to GPS tools like Google Maps to find and navigate to far-away clinics. And the more of this personal location data Big Tech companies collect, the more data they will have to turn over to law enforcement under subpoena.”

Scary stuff. Meanwhile, I appreciated this reminder from Talking Points Memo that one of conservatives’ criminalization strategies is to oust any state or local prosecutors that decline to prosecute abortion cases. This is a tactic I’ve been tracking since Roe was overturned—from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis firing of a state attorney to Texas laws allowing for the removal of DAs via citizen petitions.

This week, the Public Rights Project and Local Solutions Support Center released a report showing just how bad those attacks on prosecutors have gotten. The groups outline some of the lawsuits brought on the issue and the (many) bills that are being advanced in states eager to punish state attorneys who don’t get with the Republican program.

In a release, Public Rights Project CEO Jill Habig says that the legislative trend has not stopped, “in fact it’s only accelerating.” For more on this tactic, check out Abortion, Every Day’s year-end roundup on criminalization.

Finally, thanks to The New York Times for quoting my piece about Harrison Butker’s misogynist commencement speech. They even included my favorite line!

Quick hits:

• TIME magazine on the story of a trans man navigating abortion laws;

• The Guardian on abortion medication and shield laws;

• Salon covers the Republican bill to create a website that collects data on pregnant women (a story Abortion, Every Day broke last week);

• And Linda Greenhouse at The New York Times lays out the abortion-related attacks on free speech and how the courts are responding.

2024

Steve Benen at MSNBC points out that Donald Trump still hasn’t said what he thinks about using the Comstock Act to ban the shipping of abortion medication. The disgraced former president promised in his recent interview with TIME magazine that he’d be “releasing” his opinion on the issue and making a “big statement” within the next two weeks. It’s been two weeks, and we haven’t see any announcement—big or small.

“The whole point of the deceptive two-week trick is to push off inconvenient questions indefinitely,” Benen writes.

Speaking of Trump. He keeps repeating the dangerously false claim that Democrats are allowing babies to be “executed” after birth. Is any Republican going to speak up about it? Why aren’t reporters asking GOP leaders what they think about this rhetoric? It’s going to get someone hurt or killed. After all, we’ve seen it happen before.

Quick hits: Roll Call on Vice President Kamala Harris taking the lead on abortion rights. And even Fox News’ polls show that abortion is important to voters.