Abortion, Every Day (10.4.23)

Conservative leader says it plain: they're coming after the Pill

Hey, it's Grace Haley, researcher for Abortion, Every Day and I’m bringing you the newsletter today. I wanted to start first with my congratulations to Diana Greene Foster and ANSIRH for her MacArthur ‘genius grant’ fellowship. She’s the author of The Turnaway Study and her work has been pivotal in showing the detrimental consequences of being denied access to contraception and abortion care. Cheers to her team! Now let’s get started with the rest—

---

Click to skip ahead in the newsletter: In the States, Wisconsin anti-choice groups are trying to punish providers. In the Nation, how all of the national political drama is very much about abortion. Some absolutely horrific (but predictable) news in Abusers & Abortion Bans. And in Anti-Abortion Strategy, a deep dive into the group behind Roe’s demise and what they’re up to next.

---

In the States

After district attorneys in Wisconsin declined to prosecute the Planned Parenthood doctors who resumed performing abortions this month, one of the state’s largest anti-abortion groups is turning to the state medical board. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Pro-Life Wisconsin has filed complaints to the Wisconsin medical licensing board against the abortion providers. From the group’s director Dan Miller:

“We just felt we had no other course of action other than to go after the doctors that are actually doing it…if nobody else will try to enforce the law, maybe the Medical Examining Board will enforce (the state's 1849 abortion law).”

As you may remember, the group—along with other anti-choice organizations in the state—mounted a pressure campaign against Dane and Milwaukee County attorneys to have the doctors prosecuted. That campaign was unsuccessful. Miller also has tried calling the sheriff's offices and police departments, “to no avail.”

Remember, Wisconsin’s ban hasn’t actually been repealed—but a recent ruling from a judge (saying that the ban isn’t actually a ban) gave Planned Parenthood the legal confidence they needed to start performing abortions again, after a post-Dobbs trigger ban halted their medical services for over a year.

Neither the state’s doctors or Planned Parenthood have heard from the licensing board. We’ll keep you updated on this as it continues to progress. And in the meantime if you want to hear more about the group’s decision to resume abortion care, you can watch an interview with the president of Planned Parenthood Wisconsin, Tanya Atkinson, in Monday’s newsletter or here.

Anti-abortion activists are also ramping up their efforts in Ohio, where the powerful organization March for Life will be protesting on Friday against the state’s upcoming abortion rights ballot measure. In anticipation of their rally, the group and other Ohio anti-abortion activists, published an op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch spouting their usual talking points about the amendment. Namely, they claim the ballot measure is a “Trojan horse” for “taxpayer-funded, painful late-term abortions, that seeks to destroy parental rights, while eliminating basic health and safety regulations for women.” 

We know this is false: The Ohio amendment says nothing about taxpayer funding for abortion or parental consent, and the measure actually restricts abortion after ‘viability’—a standard that’s been a source of contention within the reproductive rights movement. The op-ed is another good reminder that when we try to preempt anti-abortion attacks and talking points by proposing moderate versions of pro-choice policies, these groups still push the same lies anyway.

We’ve been following the legal battle over the attempts to regulate anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers in places like California, Connecticut and Illinois. The latest conflict, though, is in Massachusetts—where city officials in Worcester have been fighting over whether or not to pass a law regulating the centers. Unlike other Massachusetts towns who are trying to pass similar ordinances, Worcester has crisis pregnancy centers within its city borders. And so the concern among officials is that passing a ban on deceptive speech might open up the city to a lawsuit. 

But now, the city has sought out an independent opinion from The Lawyering Project in New York, where attorney Stephanie Toti says that the city can regulate deceptive practices from anti-abortion centers without violating the Constitution. In short, Toti told city officials that false commercial speech isn’t protected by the First Amendment. Also from Toti:

“In my opinion, given that the city has compelling interests in preventing consumer deception and safeguarding access to time-sensitive reproductive healthcare, the deceptive advertising ordinance is narrowly tailored to address a specific and well-documented problem…”

Similar challenges made by crisis pregnancy centers in other states have been unsuccessful. Ordinances protecting communities from deceptive ads and misleading claims from religious anti-abortion centers are more important than ever. As Jessica pointed out in Part II of “The GOP’s Plan to Ban Birth Control,” the proliferation of these groups is a central part of conservatives’ post-Roe strategy.

Spending in Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court race has surpassed $4.5 million, and millions more are expected to be spent ahead of the November election (whew!). As you may recall, abortion rights groups are spending history-making amounts on ad campaigns there, with a highlighted focus on reproductive rights, including a case to be heard on Medicaid coverage for abortion procedures. Planned Parenthood has been running ads targeting Republican candidate Carolyn Carluccio’s anti-abortion views, and the support she has from anti-choice groups. (Naturally, Carluccio is claiming that the press and Planned Parenthood are mischaracterizing her views.) Although this race won’t immediately affect who controls the court majority, state justices hold 10-year terms—so advocates are taking the long view in working to protect abortion rights in the state. 

Finally, some good news: The Mississippi Abortion Access Coalition launched an initiative today to combat the fear, confusion and stigma foundational to abortion bans. They wrote up an Abortion Patient Bill of Rights for abortion-seekers in Mississippi. The goal is to educate people about the right to abortion, including the right to travel (or help others travel) to get a lawful abortion in another state, and to ensure knowledge about self-managed medication abortions. From the group:

“Ultimately, Mississippians deserve to know that abortion care and access are still available. Mississippians are capable of taking care of themselves, their loved ones, and their families.”

Resources like this are more important than ever as abortion bans continue to create a foundation of fear and confusion for abortion providers and patients. You can read and share it here.

Quick hits:

• EMILY’s List has endorsed 29 Democratic abortion-rights candidates in the upcoming November elections in Virginia that will determine who has control of the state’s legislature (and in turn, the proposed abortion ban);

• Ohio doctors are nervous about an exodus of OBGYNs and medical students from the state if Ohio’s abortion rights ballot measure fails; 

• And something I like to shine light on: the power of the arts and abortion storytelling (this time a Boise playwright in Idaho).

In the Nation

Abortion rights continue to play a central role in politics, even during yesterday’s historic vote that ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy from his speakership. GOP Rep. Nancy Mace (one of the eight pivotal Republican votes) told reporters that she voted to oust McCarthy because he didn’t help women following the fall of Roe. But let’s call a spade a spade—she’s a co-sponsor of countless pieces of legislation aiming to restrict abortion, and has the endorsements from several influential anti-abortion groups—here’s her score-card from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, giving her a passing grade on her voting record. (It’s also worth checking out this Jezebel piece on how quickly Mace folded under some minor questioning on The View.)

Similar to Nikki Haley (whose star continues to rise in polling), Mace is another example of a Republican woman pretending to push back against her party’s extreme anti-abortion stances, while falling in line with party votes that support those same anti-abortion stances. These GOP figureheads continue to be the face of the “moderate” anti-abortion movement, while rarely getting live-fact checks of the anti-abortion policy positions they continue to write and support. And that’s what makes them so dangerous.

The race for control over the Senate in 2024 is gaining heat quickly, and abortion rights are at the center of it all. The influential abortion rights group Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly known as NARAL Pro-Choice America) has removed their support from Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema’s reelection campaign, switching their endorsement to her opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego. This is notably the first endorsement since the group changed their name, citing Sinema’s negative voting record around the Senate filibuster. (Sinema has also lost endorsements from other abortion rights groups like EMILY’s List and Planned Parenthood.) 

Yesterday, the newly appointed California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris following the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Before being sworn in, Butler was the president of EMILY’s List, the organization dedicated to electing candidates who support abortion rights. This move keeps Democrats in the Senate majority, and adds another layer of complicated politics to the crowded 2024 race for this Senate seat. EMILY’s List is a major fundraiser for the candidates currently running—like Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee—and it is unclear whether she will jump in the race next year once her appointed term ends.

More 2024 Senate news: the election over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey’s seat in Pennsylvania is starting to take shape. The race is already centering abortion rights, with his likely Republican competitor Dave McCormick coming out in support of near-total abortion bans. 

These will be some of the most influential races in the 2024 election, and we’ll be keeping an eye on them as they develop. In the coming months, it’s important to have as much clarity as possible about these candidates’ views of a national abortion ban—especially around the 15-week “consensus” strategy being pushed on the GOP presidential primary side of these elections.

Quick hits:

• The Supreme Court cases to watch this new term (including the potential mifepristone case);

• Law professor Mary Ziegler on how “parental rights” legal arguments are just a smokescreen;

• How the fight for reproductive rights is tied to immigrant rights;

• And in international news, how abortion rights are at the center of Argentina’s upcoming presidential election.

Abusers & Abortion Bans

New court documents show that the Texas man suing his ex-wife's friends for $1 million for allegedly helping her obtain abortion medication promised to drop the lawsuit if she’d have sex with him. The conversation took place in June after the lawsuit gained national attention. 

Rolling Stone reports that in the recording of the conversation in court filings, Marcus Silva can be heard saying, “You’re just gonna have your f-cking life destroyed in every f-cking way that you can imagine to where you want to blow your f-cking brains out.” Silva also threatened to post intimate videos of her to the world’s most popular porn site and send it to her workplace, her family and her family’s workplaces unless she did his laundry.

 

Feminists have been warning that bounty laws like the one in Texas enable abusive men—giving them a powerful tool of the state to keep abusing their partners and the communities around them. They quite literally create incentives for abusers to use the courts to exert and extract control over their victims. Silva’s extortion and attempt to sexually abuse his ex is just one more example of this.

Lawyers have asked the court to dismiss the case, noting that this is “the latest abusive tactic in a long line of steps he has taken to harass and control Brittni, his ex-wife.”

Anti-Abortion Strategy: Alliance Defending Freedom 

I wanted to highlight yesterday’s New Yorker profile on the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Their latest victories in court, especially their Dobbs Supreme Court victory, has given the organization new energy to double-down on their strategy to chip away at reproductive health across the country.

This article shows how this organization’s influence has only just begun: Their staff has expanded to over 70 lawyers, they now host receptions for newly elected lawmakers in DC, their revenue doubled in the last five years (thanks to wealthy private donors), and their recent court wins have given the ADF confidence to pursue a more aggressive legal strategy. In short, the piece highlights how the anti-abortion organization is switching from a decades-long defensive position to an offensive position attacking the right to privacy that protects birth control, gender-affirming care, abortion, same-sex marriage, and any sex that isn’t heteronormatively straight. 

For example, the piece reports how the ADF sends out regular messages to churches and ministries to be on the lookout for grievances within their church communities to turn into cases. That’s how the group ended up with 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis—the case that went to the Supreme Court over whether people could refuse business to LGBTQ customers—a pastor directed a web designer who refused wedding services to LGBTQ couples to speak with ADF before she even created her website. 

And if anyone had any lingering questions over whether or not conservatives have their eyes on birth control, I’ll leave you with this pivotal quote from ADF president Alan Sears, flagged by one of our Abortion, Every Day readers:

"We are on a winning trajectory. It may be that the day will come when people say the birth-control pill was a mistake."

To be clear: this is the president of the country’s most powerful conservative legal group making it very clear that going after contraception is at the top of his wishlist. It’s all the more reason to be turning our attention to this now before it's too late.