Idaho GOP Platform Calls IVF 'Murder'
6.17.24
Click to skip ahead: In the States, news from Idaho, Missouri, South Carolina and more. Attacks on Privacy gets into the latest in the fight over abortion reporting in Indiana. Anti-Choice Hypocrisy looks at a Colorado Republican who wants to ban abortion after paying for his girlfriend’s. In Ballot Measure Updates, attacks on democracy in Missouri, South Dakota and beyond. In the Nation, Democrats will hold a vote on national abortion protections. And in Stats & Studies, research shows a link between anti-abortion laws and the murder of pregnant women.
In the States
It was just a few weeks ago that I broke the news that the Texas’ GOP platform calls for abortion patients to be punished as murderers, including with the death penalty. Now another state Republican party is going all in on anti-abortion extremism—this time in Idaho.
Idaho Reports reveals that Republicans have expanded anti-abortion language in the party platform to oppose “the destruction of human embryos.” That’s right, the Idaho GOP is coming out against IVF. But it goes even further than that. The platform actually defines the destruction of embryos—a common part of the IVF process—as murder:
“We oppose all actions which intentionally end an innocent human life, including abortion, the destruction of human embryos, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.”
This section comes after language defining abortion as murder, and calling for “the criminalization of all murders by abortion within the state’s jurisdiction.” Now, that language has been part of the party’s anti-abortion plank for some years, but given that increasing calls for abortion patients to be punished under homicide laws, it’s worth revisiting.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a thousand times again: Republicans are being very explicit about the future they want, the question is whether we’re going to listen to them.
Also in Idaho, Boise State Public Radio spoke to a diverse group of faith leaders who are speaking out against the state’s ban. Rabbi Dan Fink says “the anti-abortion movement has chosen to give authority to a very small, a very narrow kind of conservative Christianity, and essentially made it a kind of state religion.”
More in abortion and religious freedom: I’m sorry to say that a judge in Missouri has ruled against a group of religious leaders who brought a challenge against the state’s abortion ban. The group wanted the ban blocked, (correctly) arguing that it imposed specific religious beliefs on everyone in the state.
The suit pointed out, for example, that one section of the statute reads as follows:
“In recognition that Almighty God is the author of life, that all men and women are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life.’”
Seems like religious imposition to me! Judge Jason Sengheiser, however, said that there’s similar language in the state constitution and that the rest of the law doesn’t have religious language.
The South Carolina Senate may soon have zero Republican women in office. I told you earlier this month that all three Republican women who voted against the state’s extreme abortion ban faced male primary challengers. Last week, two of those state senators lost their seats and another, Sen. Katrina Shealy, is facing a run-off. If Shealy loses, the Senate will have no Republican women and just two Democratic women in office. And remember, it was the all-male South Carolina Supreme Court that enacted the state’s abortion ban.
Tennessee has seen a 21% drop in OBGYN residency applications. New data shows similar decreases among OBGYN residents across anti-abortion states—and a decline in medical residents overall in states with bans.
Dr. Kyla Terhune of Vanderbilt University Medical Center's graduate medical education program says that facing legal challenges while providing care is scary, especially for those just beginning their training. “If they have the option to be in a place where they will be protected and get the training they need for individuals they might encounter, they’re going to choose that place to train,” she says. (While we’re on Tennessee, consider this your regular reminder most voters in the state identify as ‘pro-choice.’)
Finally, some good news: Arizona’s recently-repealed 1864 abortion ban will not go into effect at any point. There was some concern that the total ban would be enacted for a short time before the repeal legislation went through; but today, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that the ban is officially done for.
Quick hits:
In New Hampshire, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington officially joined the race for governor, promising to protect abortion rights;
Two pro-choice bills passed the Delaware Senate, including one that would require public universities to offer abortion medication;
And in some great local news, a new ‘quiet zone’ ordinance passed by the Chicago City Council in Illinois will stop anti-abortion harassers from using sound amplifiers outside of an abortion clinic
Attacks on Privacy
If you’re a regular reader, you know that I’ve been raising the alarm on attacks on data and privacy—and how anti-abortion groups and legislators have been ramping up efforts around abortion reporting and data collection to intimidate patients and fabricate data. Most recently, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has been fighting with the state health department to make individual abortion reports public records in the same way that birth or death certificates are:
This comes at the same time that Indiana anti-abortion groups have sued the state in order to access patients’ abortion reports. Both the activists and Rokita claim that’s the only way to keep track of dangerous abortion providers and figure out who to prosecute.
But wait, there’s more: Usually Rokita would be representing Indiana’s Department of Health in the lawsuit. But the DOH, understandably, wants a private lawyer—after all, the AG is in the middle of the same exact fight against them on abortion reports. Despite the clear conflict, Rokita has denied the agency’s request for outside counsel in the lawsuit. Astounding.
In related news, two doctors filed a motion to stop the Indiana anti-abortion group from obtaining those reports. The Lawyering Project, which is representing the physicians, points out that the data they want collected and shared could be used to identify patients. (And as I’ve pointed out previously, this is especially true for patients in rural communities.)
Executive director Stephanie Toti, says, “People who need an abortion deserve access to confidential medical care without being exposed to harassment and intimidation by anti-abortion extremists.”
In better news on the abortion reporting front, Michigan will no longer collect data on abortion patients, ending a decades-long policy of requiring doctors to report detailed patient information to the state.
Anti-Choice Hypocrisy
These Republican men never fail to tell on themselves: Colorado state representative and congressional candidate Richard Holtorf wants to ban abortion even though he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion years ago.
During a local television interview on 9News, reporter Kyle Clark put Holtorf on the spot, asking “If abortion was the best choice for your girlfriend, why try to deny that choice to other women?” Incredibly, Holtorf tried to shirk blame and place it directly on his ex:
“She had an abortion. Was that her choice? Yes. Did she have that right? Yes. Was it my choice, Kyle? No.”
What an asshole.
Ballot Measure Updates
I’m so glad to see the Associated Press publish a piece about the anti-abortion attacks on democracy. You all know this is something I’ve been obsessed with and tracking since Roe was overturned. And in the last few months, Republican efforts to stop voters from having a say have ramped up in the worst ways possible—with anti-abortion groups harassing pro-choice petitioners in Montana, trying to intimidate voters in South Dakota, tricking folks in Missouri, and doxxing signature-gatherers in Arkansas.
That’s to say nothing of Republican legislators, who are working to raise standards on ballot measures in an attempt to stop voters from having a say, or proposing fake ‘pro-choice’ measures of their own to trick citizens they know want to restore abortion rights.
All of which is to say: it’s great that the AP is catching on and spreading the word. We need more mainstream outlets to connect the dots.
Speaking of attacks on democracy: Missouri Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a GOP candidate for Secretary of State, made clear last week that she doesn’t give a shit what voters want when it comes to abortion rights. In an interview with St. Louis Public Radio, Coleman said that even if voters passed protections for abortion to be enshrined in the state constitution, Republicans would move to stop the amendment from taking effect.
“To think that would go unchallenged by the Republican supermajority, I think is probably a little bit of a pipe dream,” she said. This isn’t the first time Coleman made clear she doesn’t want voters to have say; she’s sponsored legislation to raise the standards on ballot measures.
“The reactions have become more heated, from just a polite decline to, ‘I’m going to find you and kill you.’ It’s escalated in probably the last four to six weeks.”
- Gennie Diaz, Arkansans for Limited Government, on threats while signature-gathering for a pro-choice amendment.
And in the last bit of ballot measure news, an anti-abortion group in South Dakota is trying to stop a pro-choice amendment from getting to voters by suing abortion rights activists. Life Defense Fund claims that Dakotans For Health broke “petition circulator residency laws.” As South Dakota Public Broadcasting reports, this is part of an anti-abortion effort to discredit signatures in support of the amendment in an attempt to stop the measure from going on the November ballot.
This comes on the heels of anti-abortion activists in the state calling voters who signed the petition, pretending to be government officials, and pressuring them to withdraw their signatures. Even worse, the group behind the calls was formed by a Republican legislator, state Rep. Jon Hansen, who also happens to be the vice president of South Dakota Right to Life.
In the Nation
After pushing votes on contraception and IVF, Senate Democrats are setting up a vote on federal abortion rights—yet another move to put Republicans on the defense. The Hill reports that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made a move to hold a vote on the Reproductive Freedom for Women Act, a law Democrats say would restore the protections of Roe.
This month, Republicans refused to sign off on bills to protect IVF and birth control, hosting one of the most radical anti-abortion leaders in the country at a Senate committee hearing. If you don’t remember Christina Francis, don’t miss Sen. Patty Murray’s exchange with her on contraception. It’s…telling.
In some rare good news, a federal judge in Arkansas ruled against the 17 Republican attorneys general who sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over mandates on abortion patients. They filed the suit after the EEOC made clear that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for abortion patients—like time off. Thankfully, the judge ruled that they lacked standing to bring the case.
Quick hits:
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra is going on a national tour to talk abut the Biden administration’s efforts around protecting and expanding reprodutive rights;
Experts at Bloomberg and MSNBC say last week’s SCOTUS decision was a “scolding” to the judges who let the flimsy case get so far;
The Hill on the OBGYN exodus out of anti-abortion states;
And the Center for American Progress has a policy brief up on what would happen to women should Trump be elected and Project 2025 be enacted. It’s not good!
If you missed my Father’s Day column, check it out below:
Stats & Studies
A study published in Health Affairs found that anti-abortion laws are associated with an increase in the homicide of women. We already know that pregnant and postpartum women are at an increased risk of being murdered by an intimidate partner—in fact, homicide is a leading cause of pregnant women.
Now, researchers at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine report that there’s a 3.4% increase in the rate of intimate partner violence-related homicide among women of reproductive age in states that have abortion restrictions. From lead author Dr. Maeve Wallace:
“The main take away here is that restricting access to abortion may have dangerous implications for health and safety. Pregnancy can be an added stressor in relationships, and intimate partner violence can start during pregnancy or even increase in severity during pregnancy. It’s important that abortion is an option available to everyone who may want to end a pregnancy, especially people in violent situations where continuing a pregnancy may increase their risk of being killed.”
It's all so dystopian--and on top of these indignities it seems that there is a 20% increase in women seeking tubal ligation in the wake of Dobbs. Will the GOP come after sterilization next? Don't be surprised if it does.
I laughed out loud at the title of the newsletter today. Talk about being womb half-empty.
Also, fun fact! Do you know why it's a big sin in the Catholic Church to kill yourself? So feudal peasants wouldn't off themselves after going to church and hearing about how great Heaven is, thus depriving the upper class of their labor. With the rollback of child labor laws, a cynic might think the reason hasn't changed much...