Texas is Losing OBGYNs

10.8.24

Click to skip ahead: In Media Muck-Ups, CNN’s ‘fact check’ is going to give me an aneurysm. Anti-Abortion Strategy on post-Dobbs deaths is getting a more mainstream audience. In Ballot Measure Updates, the FCC is weighing in on the Florida GOP’s attacks on democracy. Republican’s Abortion Panic looks at GOP men staying stupid shit. The Care Crisis has hit Texas hard—including OBGYNs. And In the Nation, how to help support abortion access in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

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Media Muck-Ups

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Mainstream media’s shitty abortion coverage could very well lose us the election. I yelled out loud when I saw this ‘fact check’ from CNN on Gov. Tim Walz’s (correct!) statement that Donald Trump supports an abortion ban:

Leaving aside for a moment that Trump lies as easily as he breathes, we know that Republicans are using language games around the word ‘ban’ to trick voters. I first wrote about this over a year ago, and since then other reporters—most recently Adam Serwer at The Atlantic—have pointed out the same. There is absolutely no excuse for CNN or any other outlet to be repeating Trump’s lies without explaining to voters what they believe ‘ban’ means.

At the very least, they could ask the Trump campaign what the difference is between an abortion ban and a ‘minimum national standard’—or which term he would use to define the 15-week ban GOP Senators have been pushing.

Because let’s be clear: the anti-abortion movement is depending on journalists repeating their language lies. Just this week, Media Matters found that the Family Research Council’s blog, The Washington Stand, published a piece lauding JD Vance for using the term ‘minimum national standard.’ (This is one of the groups behind Project 2025.) In it, the organization makes clear that a ‘minimum national standard’ is just a plain old abortion ban! In fact, the example they give is Sen. Lindsey Graham’s legislation.

But wait, there’s more. The Stand basically lays out exactly what I’ve been warning about: That Trump could easily pass a national abortion ban by just calling it something else:

“[If] he were wise enough to listen to his veep, President Trump could sign such a bill in three months’ time. Trump has vociferously promised to veto a ‘national abortion ban,’ but he could adopt Vance’s differentiation between a ‘ban’ and a ‘minimum standard.’ Pro-life advocates should make every effort to assure that he does so.”

So I’ll say it for the thousandth time: Please, do your jobs.

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If you’re still on the fence about buying my book, Rolling Stone has an excerpt from my chapter on so-called exceptions. Check it out and consider buying Abortion!

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Not quite done with bad abortion coverage yet. I know I shouldn’t expect better, but the Wall Street Journal has published two pieces this week that lend credibility to anti-abortion bullshit. I’ll tell you about the one I’m maddest about in the next section, but first let’s get into this piece from the WSJ editorial board. They insist that Democrats are lying about the GOP’s abortion position and that Republicans are trying to “move to the middle.”

Imagine invoking the “middle” while women are dying and going septic.

Naturally, their examples of Democrats lying are all about Republicans candidates supporting or opposing ‘bans’—and the editorial board relies on the same sneaky language tricks that anti-abortion activists and politicians do.

What this comes down to is that Republicans know they’re on the wrong side of this issue and are trying anything they can to hide the truth from voters.

Anti-Abortion Strategy: Post-Dobbs Deaths

Onto WSJ’s second piece: A WSJ staffer with a history of writing anti-abortion propaganda published a column claiming to know “the truth about Amber Thurman’s death.” Nicholas Tomaino writes that Georgia’s abortion ban didn’t kill Thurman (the state’s maternal mortality review committee disagrees), and that Democrats are co-opting a tragedy for political gain.

Unsurprisingly, Tomaino also points a finger at the Georgia hospital and abortion medication itself, which he claims is dangerous. His proof? The word of Christina Francis, president of American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs—a woman who believes abortion is never necessary to save someone’s life and that patients with life-threatening pregnancies should be given c-sections instead of abortions.

But this isn’t just about one article. The WSJ piece is part of a broader trend in which the anti-abortion movement shirks blame onto anyone they can. They’ve blamed hospitals for supposedly misunderstanding the law, pro-choicers for ‘scaring’ doctors out of providing care, and even the women themselves for wanting abortions to begin with.

Here’s my fear: In the same way we’ve seen journalists fall for conservative language tricks or give a platform to so-called anti-abortion experts, my worry is that ‘both sides’ media will give equal weight to anti-choice lies about women’s deaths. If it’s already happening in the WSJ, what publication is next?

Ballot Measure Updates

I’m still reeling from the news I shared in yesterday’s newsletter about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis threatening television stations with criminal charges if they don’t remove ads about Amendment 4. NBC News and HuffPost have more today, but the short version is that Florida Republicans claim that the ad (which you can watch here) isn’t truthful about the state’s abortion ban and that it violates a “sanitary nuisance” law.

As Above the Law points out, that law is generally used to regulate slaughterhouses and septic tanks—places that cause “air pollutants, gases, and noisome odors” or “any condition capable of breeding flies, mosquitoes, or other arthropods.” How the fuck this has anything to do with a video of a woman sharing her story of being diagnosed with brain cancer while pregnant is beyond me.

It’s pretty evident that Republicans are throwing anything they can at the wall to stop abortion rights groups from spreading the word about Amendment 4 and what Florida’s abortion ban does.

The free speech violation is so obvious that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is getting involved. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement, “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”

But as Mark Joseph Stern at Slate writes today, DeSantis’ strategy doesn’t have much to do with what’s legal or illegal:

“The governor attempts to impose his policies by censoring expression, threatening those who disagree with gag orders, civil penalties, and even incarceration. He might lose in court later—but by then, the censorship may have had its intended effect.”

If you’re a regular reader you know that what’s happening in Florida is just one of many Republican-led attacks on democracy and abortion. For a refresher, read Abortion, Every Day’s past coverage here, here and below:

The GOP's Ballot Measure Wars

Meanwhile, we need to raise the alarm about Prop 1 in New York. According to The New York Times, the proposed equal rights amendment isn’t as well-known among voters as it should be, and the anti-abortion campaign against the measure has been gaining steam. Seriously, New Yorkers, how embarrassing would it be if our state was responsible for abortion rights losing it’s ballot measure streak! If you live here, tell someone about Prop 1 today.

Finally, hardline anti-choicers in Nebraska are having a hard time with the two abortion-related ballot measures in front of voters this November. As you know, there’s both a proposed abortion rights amendment, and a measure that would enshrine the state’s 12-week ban into the state constitution. (The anti-abortion measure was designed specifically to trick voters by appearing pro-choice.) But some anti-abortion activists in the state are apparently freaking out because they don’t want to support either amendment; they want abortion banned entirely.

Cue the world’s tiniest violin.

Republican’s Abortion Panic

Republican men are really stepping in it lately when it comes to abortion. Let’s talk about the U.S. Senate race in Montana, for example, where Republican Tim Sheehy is running against incumbent Democrat Sen. Jon Tester. In a delightfully unsurprising bit of news, Sheehy was caught on tape blasting young women for being “indoctrinated” over abortion. (You really have to hear it to get the full effect.)

“I sat with a group of younger folks a couple of months ago talking about, just, various issues. And one of them was life, because of course young women between the age of 19 and 30, abortion is their Number One concern. That’s all they want to talk about. They are single-issue voters. And it’s all about pro-choice, pro-choice. Well, ‘Republicans are pro-life. They want to take my rights away and lock me up and throw me in prison.’”

He might as well have said “wah wah.” What big babies we are for wanting…human rights?

By the way, Sheehy also repeated a false Trump talking point about ‘post-birth’ abortion, saying, “It’s called murder…that is the position of the American Democrat Party.” So good times around.

In response to Sheehy’s comments, Tester spokesperson Monica Robinson said, “calling young women ‘indoctrinated’ because they value reproductive freedom just goes to show how out of touch he is with Montanans.”

This comes just a few weeks after U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio called women “crazy” for caring about abortion rights and said women over 50 years-old shouldn’t worry about it because, “I don’t think that’s an issue for you.”

Speaking of Republican men terrified of abortions, I am still thinking about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Specifically, what yesterday’s Supreme Court news might mean for his race. Remember, SCOTUS declined to hear an appeal from the Biden administration yesterday over emergency abortions in Texas. (Namely, that the state doesn’t have to provide them.)

I’m really curious to see if this drives any more energy to Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred’s campaign for Cruz’s Senate seat. After all, Allred has been hitting Cruz hard on abortion rights—and reminding voters that Texas Republicans are fighting for the right to deny women emergency abortions is a powerful message. Given that women have been turned away from emergency rooms in Texas, and that multiple women have had their health and lives endangered by the state’s abortion ban, it would make sense of Allred to tie Cruz to that suffering.

Care Crisis

Speaking of the consequences of Texas’ abortion ban: A new study published this week adds to the ever-growing evidence that the state’s ban is harming patients, doctors and everyone in between.

A report from Manatt Health found that more than three-quarters of Texas OBGYNs believe that “they cannot practice medicine according to best practices/evidence-based medicine.” Another 60% fear legal repercussions from practicing evidence-based medicine.

There’s more: Over 1 in 5 OBGYNs in the state have thought about leaving or are planning to leave Texas to practice in another state. And of the nearly 60% of resident physicians who said that Texas’ abortion laws impacted their decision on whether to stay or leave the state after residency, half said that they’re planning to leave in part because of those laws.

In plain English? Texas is losing OBGYNs—especially new ones—because they don’t want to practice somewhere that would jail them for doing their jobs.

I can’t imagine the moral distress these doctors are feeling. Do do you leave so you can practice evidenced-based care, or do you stay and give people whatever care they law allows? Here’s what Houston-based OBGYN Dr. Anitra Beasley told the Texas Tribune:

“And I’ve got patients here that depend on us to provide really excellent care. I think there's a lot of us who feel like we just can't abandon people. We just can't abandon the patients who need us the most.”

If you want to learn more about this study, Texas Public Radio spoke to the researchers today in The Source podcast:

The care crisis goes beyond Texas, of course. Abortion, Every Day has been tracking the OBGYN exodus out of anti-abortion states across the country—especially when it comes to residents and new doctors not wanting to practice in states with abortion bans. This short documentary from CNN is a good reminder why. Featuring the inimitable Pamela Merritt of Medical Students for Choice, the video outlines how OBGYN residents are being forced to leave their home states to practice abortion procedures on papayas:

Now, don’t get me wrong: From all the experts I’ve spoken to, papayas are actually a very good training tool for manual vacuum aspiration abortions! But expecting residents to train out-of-state on models isn’t sufficient, comprehensive training. And as Merritt notes, we have to worry about a new generation of doctors not being prepared for serious emergency situations.

In the Nation

In response to the news that the Supreme Court wouldn’t hear the Biden administration’s appeal over emergency abortions in Texas, Vice President Kamala Harris hit hard at Donald Trump in a Twitter post:

“Because of extreme Trump Abortion Bans in states across the country, including Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia, women are facing horrific consequences to their health and lives—even death. Let me be clear: Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis. He hand selected three Supreme Court Justices to overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did just as he intended. And women across our nation are suffering. I will never stop fighting for a woman's right to emergency medical care—and to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade so that women in every state have access to the care they need.”

By the way: The Supreme Court declined to hear another abortion-related case yesterday: they turned away an appeal from an Alabama IVF clinic that was sued for wrongful death after some frozen embryos were accidentally destroyed.

Finally, this is really important: In the wake of the Hurricane Helene disaster, abortion rights activists in the South are still working hard to help people get the care they need. The Cut spoke to the Carolina Abortion Fund about the impact the hurricane has had on abortion access:

“You can’t go to a health-care appointment when your house has been washed away. It’s still gonna take people a little bit before they can go, Oh, okay, now I need to deal with this. On top of that, the Asheville Planned Parenthood was the only abortion provider in western North Carolina. With it being closed, there is essentially no access to abortion care in the region.”

The article has suggestions on how to help folks working on reproductive health access in the area, so make sure to read until the end for links and ways to support.

Quick hits:

• The Harris/Walz Reproductive Freedom bus tour is hitting up Arizona this week;

• In light of Melania Trump’s abortion announcement, USA Today reminds voters what exactly her husband did;

• A big thanks to Mother Jones reporter Ruth Marai for writing this profile of me (I’m not above shameless self-promotion);

• And the Lincoln Project isn’t pulling any punches with their latest ad.