Abortion, Every Day (10.28.22)

In the states….

This is huge: Earlier this month, I wrote about Mylissa Farmer—a Missouri woman was denied an abortion despite a fatal abnormality and risk to her life. (You may remember her as the woman who called her state rep for help just to have them direct her to a crisis pregnancy center.) According to the Springfield News-Leader, Republican leaders in the state—including Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt—may have launched an investigation into Farmer as retaliation for her telling her story in a campaign ad for Schmitt’s Democratic opponent for a Senate seat.

Reporter Susan Szuch writes that Missouri House Rep. Crystal Quade has filed records requests with the Governor, AG, and Department of Health and Senior Services over the alleged investigation into Farmer and the health center where she got care. Rep. Quade writes that Schmitt's campaign sent cease and desist letters to the television stations that aired the ad featuring Farmer, and that “within days of this letter being sent, the state launched an investigation into the Missouri hospital where Ms. Farmer received medical care, and potentially into Ms. Farmer herself.”

Rep. Quade says the investigation is “is suspicious and concerning to say the least, and suggests that the substantial taxpayer-funded investigative power of state government is being weaponized against citizens for political retaliation.”

What the ever-loving fuck. I’ll keep you updated as I find out more.

Democrats in Iowa held a press conference yesterday about abortion rights, ahead of today’s court hearing on the state abortion ban and the midterms. Gubernatorial candidate Deidre DeJear called out Gov. Kim Reynolds—who is trying to get the abortion ban reinstated: “The fact that she is pushing legislation that doesn’t lift Iowans up, the fact that she’s pushing legislation that doesn’t add values to our communities, but causes harm.”

I told you about Republican candidate for Wisconsin attorney general Eric Toney—and how he said that district attorneys should be able to cross jurisdictional borders in order to prosecute abortions. In the wake of backlash to the comment, Toney said in a debate last night that he never made the comment: “I never made that proposal.” That’s…quite a decision.

Ohio Public Radio looks at how abortion has shaped the Senate race and Democrat Tim Ryan, who said abortion bans have “injected nothing but chaos in the society.” It’s a point that I wish Democrats would make more—regardless of what voters think about abortion, anyone can see that it’s been a shitshow in anti-abortion states. Republicans pushed for this moment for FIFTY YEARS, yet women are going septic instead of getting care and child rape victims are being shuttled out-of-state. This is the post-Roe America they planned for?

Former mayor of Dayton and gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, Nan Whaley, did a good job of this yesterday during a video conference ‘debate’ with Gov. Mike DeWine run by The Plain Dealer. Gov. DeWine claimed during the conversation that the 10 year-old rape victim in the state should have been able to get an abortion despite the ban: “If I was wrong, and we're going to hear more from medical professionals, then these are the things that we will need to work out, that the Legislature will work out as it debates this bill.” Whaley responded, “This isn't a bill, governor. This is a law that you already signed that had implications in the state.” THANK YOU.

An Indiana judge has ruled that the state’s abortion ban will remain blocked until early next year, giving the state more time to submit arguments. Also in Indiana, conservative pundit and bigot extraordinaire Ben Shapiro spoke at an anti-abortion event last night. He told the audience, “Women are freer, women are happier, women are more fulfilled when they have babies.” The fact they’re being forced to do so under the threat of arrest went unmentioned. Shapiro continued, “If we actually wish to have a civilization, we’re going to have to fall in love again with the idea that…women having babies is an active good—in fact, the highest active good.” Good for whom, exactly? Certainly not the children being forced to have babies. Not the cancer patients sobbing to their doctors because they can’t get care in their state. It’s not an ‘active good’ for the mothers who find out their fetus is missing part of its skull, or the teenagers who just want to be able to finish out their senior year. It’s not ‘good’ for anyone but men like Shapiro who think they know better than women themselves about what they want for the lives and future. Fuck this guy.

NPR has an in-depth piece on a woman in North Carolina who found out at 18 weeks that her pregnancy had a fetal abnormality—and how the state limitations on abortion only gave her and her husband a few days to decide what to do. It’s a good examination of how abortion bans and restrictions make it difficult for families to have the time or ability to research what their pregnancy’s diagnosis really means, and make a fully-informed decision. If you only have three days to decide whether to end a pregnancy because of a 20-week ban, for example, you’re not going to have the opportunity to talk to multiple specialists about your case.

As the midterms inch closer, misinformation abounds in Kentucky about the abortion-related ballot measure. And while proponents of the measure—which would establish the state constitution has no right to abortion—claim that it wouldn’t ban abortion (it would), Democrats are fighting back against conservative claims that without the measure, abortion would be legal up until birth. I am so tired of this shit.

Arizona Planned Parenthood has resumed providing abortions after a long period of legal back-and-forth over the state ban; here’s a short local TV segment on how abortion will impact the midterms in South Carolina; and NPR in Tennessee looks at how the state abortion ban has led to an increase in demand for long-term birth control options.

In the nation…

ABC News talked to voters in swing states about abortion, and this particular quote from an Ohio woman stuck out to me: “I don't believe abortion should be used as a birth control but there's good causes for needing an abortion…That was very hurtful as a woman and I feel like this is the start our rights being taken away.” I hate that people still say things like ‘abortion being used as birth control’, it’s ridiculous and infuriating. But what gives me hope is that this seems like a common theme among voters: They may be iffy on abortion, they’ve bought into the misinformation, but they know enough to know that the bans are fucked up.

Healthline reports on how abortion bans are delaying care for cancer patients; one oncologist says, “We’re hearing stories where people are being turned away from medical care because they’re pregnant and the physician fears they’re going to be criminalized for providing the care this individual needs.”

And Teen Vogue has published a piece by Tammi Kromenaker—owner of the Red River Women’s Clinic, who was the sole abortion provider in North Dakota until she was forced to move across the border to Minnesota:

“Nobody walks into an abortion clinic lightly. And to be with a person at that moment, have them trust you with one of the most intimate things somebody can go through, hear their processes, and be able to provide them with excellent medical care in an emotionally supportive environment where they're treated with dignity and respect, is an honor.”

Highly recommend reading the whole piece.

We already know that Americans support legal access to abortion more than ever—and that they really don’t like abortion restrictions. Now a new survey shows that even Republicans’ support for extreme abortion bans have decreased drastically—from 25% to 11%.

In The Daily News, an op-ed contributor talks about what it was like to work for an abortion clinic in the 1970s; Jezebel covers the abortion storyline in Love is Blind; Ms. magazine says pro-choice activists should look to the women of Poland for inspiration; and here’s a list of companies who are bankrolling anti-abortion efforts in the South.

The Conversation points out that in a post-Roe world—and as birth control may become available over-the-counter—pharmacists are going to have more power than ever over women’s reproductive rights. And Vogue looks at the talk over ‘Roevember’ and whether or not women will be inspired to the polls over abortion. Oriaku Njoku, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds, for example, says “We need to think beyond Roe. The fight is bigger than just one election.”

You’re getting a shortened version of Abortion, Every Day today so that I can take the time to learn new podcasting software that’s been generously donated by reader Valerie Monroe (who also has a fantastic newsletter if you’re so inclined!)