In the states…
This is infuriating: Gulf States Newsroom reports a new Mississippi law gives corporations tax breaks if they donate money to crisis pregnancy centers. The Pregnancy Resource Act set aside $3.5 million dollars in tax credits for companies in 2022, nearly $550,000 has already been claimed. But here’s the kicker: The Mississippi Department of Revenue won’t release any information on the companies who took advantage of the tax credit. Unbelievable. (ProPublica has a story from earlier this summer about a similar law in Missouri.)
A Georgia court will hear arguments in a lawsuit against the state’s abortion ban before election day, after a judge rejected the state’s request to push the trial until after the midterms. Also from Georgia: Dr. Nisha Verma, an OBGYN in the state spoke at the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access this week, talking about how many patients she’s had to turn away:
“I have had teenagers with chronic medical conditions that make their pregnancy very high risk and women with highly desired pregnancies who receive a terrible diagnosis of a fetal anomaly cry when they learn that they can't receive their abortion in our state and beg me to help them.”
Also in Georgia, Republicans are standing by Senate candidate Herschel Walker, despite the revelation that he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion.
In Wisconsin, Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, candidate for U.S. Senate, spoke to women in Eu Claire about abortion access. Afterwards, he took questions from reporters and said something I really appreciated. When asked about when abortion should be restricted—Republicans’ current favorite claim is that Democrats support abortion ‘up until birth’—Barnes didn’t take the bait: “This is about treating each situation uniquely...If a person is to arbitrarily set a date, that creates more opportunities for devastating situations.” This is the right response; no defensiveness, no equivocating. (Here’s a short run-down of abortion and the race for governor in the state, as well.)
In a debate on Wednesday, Kansas’ Republican nominee for governor, Derek Schmidt, said officials would “have to respect” voters’ decision to protect abortion rights in the state. Just a reminder: Don’t trust a fucking word these guys say.
The Des Moines Register asked 90 candidates in Iowa about their position on abortion; you can read their responses here.
An Illinois man tied to 19 attacks on three abortion clinics last year has been charged in federal court; Michael Barron is suspected of using a slingshot to fire steel ball bearings through clinic windows and gluing clinic locks shut. Eleven people in Tennessee also face federal charges after the group physically blocked the entrance of a clinic, not allowing patients to enter the building.
Idaho’s Supreme Court is hearing challenges to the state’s abortion ban today; you can find out more about it here, and I’ll keep you updated as more info comes in.
NPR has a segment on the legal battle over abortion in Arizona and how the confusion is keeping people from getting the care they need. The same thing is happening across the country, where abortion’s legal status is changing day-by-day because of states’ court battles.
In Michigan, POLITICO reports that Democrats may benefit from Republican women voters who are pissed off about abortion rights; and here are the abortion bills in the state that have been introduced in the legislature so far this term.
A North Carolina poll shows that the majority of voters disagree with the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe, but that they would support a law banning abortion at 20 weeks. (I’d be really curious to see how this survey was worded.)
And three Jewish women in Kentucky have filed a suit against the state over its abortion ban, arguing that it violates their religious freedom.
In the nation…
The Washington Post reports on the five states (Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona) where gubernatorial races could determine whether abortion is legal or not.
The Guttmacher Institute reports that at least 66 clinics across 15 states have stopped offering abortion care since Roe was overturned. Researcher Rachel Jones said, “Much more research will need to be conducted to grasp the full extent of the chaos, confusion and harm that the U.S. Supreme Court has unleashed on people needing abortions, but the picture that is starting to emerge should alarm anyone who supports reproductive freedom and the right to bodily autonomy.”
The rapid closure of so many clinics is also a good reminder that the exceptions some states have for a pregnant person’s health, or sexual violence victims, exist in name only. You can’t use abortion exceptions if there are no abortion providers.
The Wall Street Journal reports that an increasing number of OBGYN-focused medical students are limiting their searches for residency programs to states where abortion is still legal. This not only means that the programs in anti-abortion states are facing a future without very many doctors, and that the competition for programs in pro-choice states has gotten a lot more difficult. In order for an OBGYN program to certified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, it has to include abortion training. It’s not just necessary for abortions, but miscarriage management: David Eisenberg, an OBGYN and medical professor at Washington University School of Medicine, told the WSJ, “When a pregnancy goes sideways, you want your health provider to not hesitate. It should be as second-nature as putting on your scrubs.”
The Guardian looks at how law enforcement’s increasing use of license plate readers could impact the criminalization of abortion; The Cut has a great piece from a woman on what it was like to grow up under Ireland’s abortion ban, and the link it had to misogyny more generally; and Slate argues that Sheryl Sandberg’s $3 million donation to abortion rights is actually “dinky.”
And in the Financial Times, the paper looks at how abortion bans in the U.S. are impacting international workers who aren’t quite as keen to move to a country where women are second-class citizens.
You love to see it…
Students at more than 60 schools across 29 states walked out today in protest of abortion bans today. Teen Vogue spoke to a few of the organizers: “We can’t just stand by and watch our rights be taken away. We have to do something.”
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