Abortion, Every Day (1.11.23)
Study: Abortion better for your mental health than unwanted pregnancy, adoption
In the states…
If you missed my piece on the Alabama Attorney General’s office accidentally giving up the entire GOP strategy on how to jail women for abortion—make sure you read it! It’s an important one, and goes to show just how far Republicans are willing to go to make sure that women get punished for abortion. Since I published my column, the story has been picked up by Alabama’s biggest news source, The Washington Post, Jezebel, VICE and others. (None have credited me, not that I’m irritated or anything!)
Related: Robin Marty, who is the director of the clinic, West Alabama Women’s Center, points out something super important. What happens in Alabama is the canary in the coal mine for what will happen in the rest of the country. So if you think this is just about one Attorney General in one state—you are wrong.
More on abortion medication in the South: Georgia Republicans are still making noise about trying to ban or restrict abortion medication in the state. And the Associated Press reports on something I mentioned last week: A failed bill that would have required women to get an in-person exam before being able to access abortion medication will likely resurface in the coming weeks.
Also in Georgia: The state is offering a $3,000 tax deduction for a fetus with a detectible heartbeat but because a fetus is not actually a person, the guidance has left all sorts of questions open about the deduction as it relates to pregnancy loss, what kind of medical records are necessary, privacy issues, etc. Most of all—the rule gives some insight into how confusing it will be as more states adopt fetal personhood measures.
The Texas Tribune has been doing absolutely stellar reporting on the impact of abortion bans in rural Texas, and this piece about the maternal health desert in East Texas is no exception. Women need to drive over an hour to get to a hospital where they can give birth because 60% of rural hospitals in the state no longer deliver babies, and a third of pregnant women in the area don’t see a doctor until their second trimester. Labor and delivery nurse Ginger Kalafatis says she’s seen it all: Women showing up for the first time at nine months pregnant, women who find out they have gestational diabetes but don’t come back until it’s time to deliver, preemies, teen moms, etc:
“Nurses don’t judge, we really don’t. We live here too. We know how hard it is to get prenatal care, to get time off work and get to those appointments. We know how far these women have to travel.”
Also in Texas, you know that a new ruling means that teens in the state aren’t allowed to get birth control without their parents’ permission—something that takes on increased significance given the state’s extreme anti-abortion law. Still, teenagers are doing anything that they can to get the care that they need:
“Samantha Sorsby-Jones watched friends at her Texas high school go to great lengths to get birth control: Secretly arranging rides to clinics that didn’t require parental consent and hiding phones in bushes in case parents were tracking them.”
Meanwhile, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says the reason the state’s abortion ban doesn’t contain rape and incest exceptions is because of…Democrats? In a podcast interview, Patrick said that after Roe was overturned, Texas simply reverted back to laws they had on the books:
“Our original law that’s on the books now was written by Democrats—all Democrats…We had few Republicans back then, few Republicans in the state. They did not put in an exception for rape or incest when they passed that law.”
In Illinois, Democratic lawmakers want to expand what kind of medical professionals are allowed to perform in-clinic abortions. A bill in the state would allow advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants to do so—an incredibly important step in reducing some of the pressure on overwhelmed abortion providers who are seeing not just Illinois patients, but those traveling from anti-choice states.
Also in Illinois, the state just passed more reproductive rights protections—measures that would shield abortion patients and providers from out-of-state lawsuits or criminalization.
I’ve written a lot about anti-abortion activists targeting small towns in pro-choice states—trying to get said towns and counties to pass ordinances to make it more difficult, if not impossible, for abortion providers to open clinics. (POLITICO has a piece on the increased tension in those border downs, where providers are trying to open clinics.) On that front, more New Mexico counties are passing anti-abortion ordinances, including the town of Clovis. And in Virginia, an abortion clinic that moved from Tennessee is being sued by their new landlord, who say they are“morally opposed to the use of their property as an abortion clinic.”
Speaking of Virginia: You know that abortion rights in the state have been a little dicey as of late, which is why I’m so glad to bring you some great news: Democrat Aaron Rouse beat Republican Kevin Adams in a special election for a state Senate seat! This win flips a seat and widens Democrats’ majority—keeping abortion rights that much safer.
Meanwhile, continue to love what’s happening with New Jersey funding abortion rights:
New York is also taking active steps to protect and expand abortion rights in the state (and for those coming from out-of-state). Yesterday Governor Kathy Hochul announced that all public colleges in the SUNY and CUNY systems will either offer medication abortion directly on campus, or have an established relationship with a local clinic that they can direct students to. The governor’s plan also proposes allowing pharmacists in the state to directly prescribe hormonal birth control.
Quick hits:
What the new FDA regulations allowing pharmacies to carry abortion medication means in places like Wisconsin, where abortion is illegal;
Nebraska Republicans want to pass a ‘heartbeat bill’ (your regular reminder that ‘heartbeat’ is a misnomer here) despite the fact that most voters in the state do not increased restrictions on abortion;
Republican lawmakers in North Carolina also want to further restrict abortion, either with a 12- or 6-week ban;
And a reminder that Missouri Republicans are still trying to make it harder for voters to make their voices heard on abortion by changing ballot measure rules.
In the nation…
A new study published in the journal Archives of Women’s Mental Health shows that having an abortion causes significant less mental distress than going through with an unwanted pregnancy or putting a child up for adoption. This adds to the vast existing research showing the negative impacts of denying women abortions.
Meanwhile, as the battle over abortion medication continues, Students for Life tried to get the FDA to turn back the clock and impose restrictions that they stopped over a decade ago. The anti-abortion group wanted women to only be allowed to access the pills if they see a doctor in person—not via telehealth or sent by mail. According to POLITICO, they also demanded “the drug’s use to be restricted to just the first seven weeks of pregnancy rather than the current 10, for patients to have to make three in-person trips to the doctor to obtain it, and for it to be given only to patients who can prove they have ‘convenient access to emergency medical care.’”
The FDA rejected the petition, pointing out that it was just a regurgitated version of 2019 demands from other anti-abortion groups that the agency already denied. (Though they said it a lot more politely than I did.)
In the wake of the FDA allowing retail pharmacies to carry abortion medication, anti-abortion groups are also trying put pressure on pharmacy chains themselves—they’re setting up protests outside of pharmacies in at least 8 cities. From one anti-abortion activist:
“We want people to be uncomfortable going into a CVS that has a demonstration going on and to consider going to a different pharmacy. We also want to put enough pressure on the companies to retract this decision and not get certified to sell abortion pills.”
Related: Vox has a good explainer on the broader fight over abortion medication, and telehealth abortion providers talk about how the FDA’s change of rules will positively impact their work.
The Department of Veteran Affairs issued clarifying guidance on religious exemptions for those who don’t want to provide abortion-related services at VA health centers, reiterating that no one has to perform abortions or refer someone to an abortion if they have objections, for whatever reason. Which has always been the case! But because Republicans have been losing their shit over the VA offering abortions in extremely limited circumstances (rape, incest, health & life), the department was forced to make their longstanding rules clear. Again.
Quick hits:
The New York Times editorial board wrote about the “promising new path” to securing abortion rights through ballot measures;
The Guardian on whether or not the new rules loosening restrictions around abortion medication will have an impact in the places that need them most;
I’ve written before about shareholder pressure on companies to take a stand on abortion rights; the Financial Times has a bit more here;
Salon on how Republicans seemed to have learned nothing from the midterms;
And The Washington Post on what you need to know about getting abortion medication from pharmacies.
Keep an eye on…
“Natural family planning.” I know I’ve said it before, but I keep seeing more and more talk—whether it’s in articles or on social media—pushing the idea that hormonal birth control is bad for women. And while I am all for more women knowing about how to track their cycle—I am seeing so much of this bullshit from conservative women’s ‘magazines’ touting absolute misinformation about birth control, telling women that taking it will give them chronic and dangerous health problems. (It’s worth mentioning that this publication is actually backed by a Peter Thiel-funded company that gives women health advice based on their menstrual dates—not at all sketchy!)
You love to see it…
It’s the small things that really perk me up: A bookstore in Rhinebeck, New York, is carrying a special abortion-rights display that features books on reproductive rights. Every piece of activism matters, and I would love to walk into my local bookstore and see this. So if you’re ever in the Rhinebeck area, show Oblong Books some love!
Welcome, Grace!
As you all know, we fundraised so I could hire a researcher—and now she’s here! (And given that I’m still in bed with Covid, the timing couldn’t be better.) So please say hello to Grace Haley, who I’m thrilled to have on board:
Grace is a full time gender researcher and data journalist in DC. Her work has been cited in major media from The New York Times, NPR, CNN and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. She volunteers with her local abortion fund and loves history, romance novels, dinner parties and train travel. Grace says that her work is powered by ABBA and Dolly Parton (According to Spotify, she is in the 1% of their listeners.)
Hi Grace - thank you!
Jessica - having had covid recently, please let yourself rest. My energy went down a lot at first. Then when it seemed to get a little better, I tried to do too much too fast. It just took time, frustrating as it was to sit around.