The Anti-Abortion Movement's Newest Weapon

10.23.24

Click to skip ahead: A reminder about the War on Birth Control. In the States, how abortion is impacting state Supreme Court races. 2024 news looks at a new Harris campaign ad. Ballot Measure Updates on Florida and Nebraska. We have new abortion numbers from #WeCount in Stats & Studies. And in You Love to See It, where to watch films about abortion rights.

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War on Birth Control

I was glad to see USA Today cover Republicans’ war on contraception and the way that conservatives are trying to conflate popular kinds of birth control with abortifacients. If you’re a regular reader, you know this is something I’ve been banging the drum on for a while—there’s a whole chapter on it in my book!

That said, I hate that the mis- and disinformation has become so bad that a mainstream publication actually needs to publish a headline that makes clear “birth control doesn’t cause abortions.” But the explicitness really has become necessary.

Professor Dima Qato at the University of Southern California points out, “A survey in 2023 found that almost half of women in full-ban states believe Plan B is illegal in their states.” And I’ve reported previously that a whopping 73% of Americans believe that emergency contraception can end a pregnancy.

Anti-abortion activists and politicians are counting on people’s confusion over contraception and abortion—and adding to it!—to prevent them from getting the care they need. It’s awful.

For more on the Republican war on contraception, read the first part of Abortion, Every Day’s series below:

The GOP’s Plan to Ban Birth Control (Part I)

In better birth control news, the Biden Administration proposed new rules that would require insurance companies cover the cost of over-the-counter birth control—including emergency contraception and the first non-prescription hormonal pill, Opill.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra said the rule would “build on the progress we have already made under the Affordable Care Act to help ensure that more women can access the contraceptive services they need without out-of-pocket costs.”

You can bet that anti-abortion groups are not happy about this one.

In the States

Abortion rights has become a focus in several state Supreme Court races. In Indiana, for example, three of the five justices are up for reelection, and abortion rights activists have launched a campaign to oust them over their support of the state’s abortion ban—encouraging voters to “hold them accountable for their decision at the ballot box.”

There are similar moves at play across the country, even in Texas, where the Find Out PAC is targeting three state Supreme Court justices. We already know the issue shifts elections: It wasn’t so long ago that we had wins in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—where Democrats spent a record amount of money in state Supreme Court races focusing on abortion rights.

This time around, CBS News reports that Planned Parenthood Votes and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee are spending $5 million on state supreme court elections—with Planned Parenthood spending $2 million in Montana alone.

There’s no overstating how important these races really are. In Montana, for example, the makeup of the court could allow Republicans to finally reverse the state’s constitutional protection for abortion rights. (They’ve been hard at work since Roe was overturned trying to do so.) And in Michigan and Ohio, state Supreme Court justices will likely be the last word on as Republicans try to reverse or hobble recently-adopted abortion rights amendments.

In other words, we’re talking about elections that could potentially undo the abortion rights protections voters made very clear that they want.

Quick hits:

• Reckon explains why national access to abortion could depend on Pennsylvania voters;

• Voters are worried about abortion everywhere, even in pro-choice states like Connecticut;

• Kansas voters remain pro-choice as we head into November;

• And the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) announced a multimillion dollar ad campaign focusing on abortion in battleground states Arizona and Pennsylvania.

2024

Today, the Harris campaign put out what I think may be the most powerful political ad I’ve ever seen. Please know before you watch that it is extremely distressing and graphic. But for good reason—it demonstrates exactly what abortion bans do to American women. I said this on TikTok earlier today (in a video that’s being annoyingly suppressed by the algorithm), but it bears repeating: this is why Republicans are losing and will lose. They think they can talk about abortion as if it’s some shallow side issue. As if calling women ‘single issue voters’ will make us forget that the ‘single issue’ is our lives.

The Harris campaign is going all in on abortion rights this week: Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Houston on Friday to talk about the issue—a break from the political norm, considering that Texas isn’t in play for her campaign. But the anti-abortion state has seen some of the worst post-Roe horror stories imaginable, and Harris will be there to meet with some of those women and talk about their stories. Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, who is running to oust Sen. Ted Cruz, will also be there.

Harris also spoke about abortion in an interview with NBC News this week, where interviewer Hallie Jackson asked what “concessions” the presidential candidate would make in order to get congressional action on abortion rights—mentioning religious exemptions, specifically.

Harris answered exactly as I hoped she would, saying, “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body.”

Naturally, Republicans and anti-abortion groups sprung into action—attacking Harris as “rejecting religious exemptions.” To be clear: There are no laws forcing people to perform abortions against their religious beliefs, but antis insisted that Harris would “force Christians to kill unborn children.”

Quick hits:

• The New York Times’ “The Daily” looks at the huge gender gap among young Americans;

• The Financial Times asks whether anger over abortion rights will swing the election;

• And Axios looks at how Senate Democrats are relying on abortion rights to help them keep a majority.

Ballot Measure Updates

Florida Republicans are still going full force against Amendment 4: In addition to a bogus fraud investigation and threats against television stations, Gov. Ron DeSantis is doing a press tour with the anti-abortion movement’s newest weapon: extremist doctors.

As I’ve written here many times, the anti-abortion movement knows they don’t have medicine or science on their side, so they’re desperate to appear credible—especially as Americans hear about women dying preventable deaths in hospitals. Enter anti-abortion doctors, who Republicans can trot out to pretend that their bans are perfectly medically legitimate and safe.

Because that’s simply not the truth, conservatives don’t have that many doctors to choose from—there’s a reason you’re constantly seeing legislators recycle testimony from Ingrid Skop or Christina Francis. There are only a handful of doctors willing to put their name on this nightmare.

And the people they do have…well, let’s just say they’re not bringing their best. Take the doctors DeSantis brought out for his press tour; as Amendment 4 campaign director Lauren Brenzel points out, these aren’t exactly credible experts.

Dr. Ana M. Verdeja-Perez, for example—who is featured in an anti-abortion ad—is actually an anti-contraception activist who sits on the board of a crisis pregnancy center. Dr. Grazie P Christie also features heavily in anti-Amendment 4 ads and has been on DeSantis’ tour; she’s also an anti-birth control radical who regularly speaks out against abortion and same sex marriage.

DeSantis isn’t the only governor using extremists to feign medical credibility. Nebraska Go. Jim Pillen also held a press conference this week surrounded by anti-abortion doctors. Remember, Nebraska is the only state with two abortion-related measures heading voters this November—an abortion rights amendment and a measure that would enshrine the state’s 12-week ban into the state constitution. (This is the amendment that anti-abortion groups have tried to pretend was ‘pro-choice’ in order to trick voters into supporting it.)

Nebraska law prohibits Pillen from using the power of his office to campaign for or against a ballot measure, so the governor instead claimed to be warning against “misinformation” about the state’s ban. It was just a coincidence, I’m sure, that his comments came as abortion rights group Protect Our Rights released ads about how Nebraskans are being denied vital care.

Pillen insisted that Nebraska’s ban allows women to get necessary healthcare, and that “it is unconscionable for anyone to claim otherwise.” The doctors accompanying Pillen at the press conference said the same: Family medicine doctor Richard Wurtz, for example, said the state’s ban allows women to get care, that the law “is predicated on sound medical practice and on sound law,” and that ”anyone who says this is not the case is not telling you the truth.”

Speaking of not telling the truth: Wurtz fails to mention that he’s an anti-abortion extremist who has called the procedure “reprehensible.” In 2022, Wurtz even testified that abortion is never medically necessary, saying “there is no sound medical, scientific or ethical justification for it.” So excuse me if I don’t consider him the best judge of what’s safe for women.

Protect Our Rights called the press conference “desperate” and “propaganda” in a statement:

“Nebraskans shouldn’t be fooled Gov. Pillen used his leadership position to attempt to clean up the mess, confusion, and true pain that this government abortion ban has inflicted…The only way to end political interference and put decisions about reproductive health and pregnancy back where they belong is to vote against Initiative 434 and vote for Initiative 439.” 

I pointed out earlier this month that polling shows both measures in Nebraska could pass. If that happens, whichever amendment gets the most number of votes would be adopted. But as the Associated Press reported this week, it’s not quite that simple—both measures ‘winning’ would “[open] the door to legal challenges in which a court must decide which provisions conflict and whether some parts of each measure can take effect.”

In other words: a total shit show.

Quick hits: Gothamist lays out New York’s abortion rights amendment, Prop 1; The Kansas City Star breaks down Amendment 3 in Missouri; The editorial board of the Arizona Republic has come out in support of Arizona’s abortion rights ballot measure, Proposition 139; and Salon asks if Ron DeSantis’ strategy of attacking democracy in Florida to keep abortion banned with backfire.

Keep an eye out: Abortion, Every Day will be publishing an explainer this week about the abortion rights ballot measures heading to voters in ten states. I’ll cover everything from the Republican attacks on democracy and anti-abortion strategy to what to watch out for on election day.

Stats & Studies

The latest #WeCount data is out, and it shows that the number of abortions has continued to rise despite Roe’s demise. The more than 12% national increase is in large part thanks to tele-health and shield state providers—in fact, researchers found that there was a 155% increase in abortions provided via tele-health.

That’s why anti-abortion groups are going so hard after abortion medication; they know that many women in states with bans are still managing to get care thanks to medication being shipped in from pro-choice states. Remember, it was just last week that Abortion, Every Day broke the news that Republicans had revived their lawsuit against mifepristone:

The GOP's Attack on Abortion Pills is Here

The report also found that in the 13 states with near-total bans, the number of women getting abortions increased in 10; it was only Texas, Idaho, and Oklahoma where the numbers went down.

You can read the full #WeCount report here.

You Love to See It

There are some pretty incredible films out right now about what’s happening in post-Roe America. First, I know a lot of us have been waiting for Zurawski v. Texas, so I have some good news: You can watch the film in a free virtual watch party this weekend.

Zurawski v. Texas will be available online this Saturday and Sunday here. There will also be a special live panel at 7pm EST on Sunday, Oct. 27th. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer below:

But we’re not done yet! I told you yesterday about “Everybody’s Fight,” a series of short films on abortion rights that I helped to advise on. You can watch the three films here, or check out one below. I love all three shorts, but I’m biased towards “Do No Harm” because it features Pamela Merritt, executive director of Medical Students for Choice and an old friend. To read a guest column from Pam here at Abortion, Every Day, click here.