Abortion, Every Day (1.16.24)

A new low in post-Dobbs victim-blaming

Click to skip ahead in the newsletter: In Post-Dobbs Deaths, anti-abortion activists have wasted no time in going after the young woman killed by the Texas abortion ban. In Care Denied, Kate Cox’s gave her first television interview. In the States, a fetal personhood bill in Kentucky, a bizarre new definition of reproductive autonomy for men in Maine, and more. In Stats & Studies, a terrific new tool to track abortion rights cases in state Supreme Courts. In the Nation, updates on funding for anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. And a few quick hits in 2024.

---

Don’t forget to watch me talk to Senate Democrats tomorrow at tomorrow’s abortion rights briefing! You can watch the livestream here at 10am, and find out more about the event below:

Abortion, Every Day is headed to the Senate!

---

Post-Dobbs Deaths

Since Roe was overturned, Abortion, Every Day has been predicting the different ways Republicans and the anti-abortion movement would try to shirk blame for post-Dobbs deaths. Now, in the wake of The New Yorker’s report on Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick—a young woman killed by Texas’ abortion ban—they’re pulling out all the tactics we’ve been covering over the last year and a half.

In the Christian Post this week, an anti-abortion activist doctor from the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) blamed doctors, the weather, and even Yeni herself.

If AAPLOG sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve been writing about these absolute maniacs for a while now: they’re the group that released a glossary of false ‘medical’ terms that they want doctors to use—like calling non-viable pregnancies ‘life limiting’ and calling life-saving abortions ‘maternal fetal separations.’

The ‘pro-life’ group also suggested that when women’s lives are in danger from a massive placental abruption, they should be made to labor for up to 24 hours—even if they need blood transfusions or the ICU—instead of being given an abortion. Why? In order to deliver “an intact fetal body.”

So excuse me if I don’t take their medical advice very seriously. In any case, AAPLOG’s Dr. Christina Francis claims the issue is that Yeni’s local hospital didn’t have adequate “resources,” that Yeni was overweight, and that the weather prevented a helicopter from transferring Yeni to a bigger hospital.

They will do anything to avoid telling the truth: that Texas’ abortion ban—and the ideology that passed it—killed Yeni. (Read more about the anti-abortion ecosystem, including religious hospitals, here.)

Care Denied

Kate Cox, the Texas woman whose story sparked international outrage, did her first television interview this weekend. She talked to CBS News Sunday Morning about being denied an abortion even after her pregnancy was diagnosed with a fatal fetal abnormality—and how much she just wanted to stay in her home state: “I wanted to come home, cry on my own pillow, hold my babies, be near my doctors.”

In the States

A Maine Republican says she opposes a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights because it doesn’t also protect men’s “reproductive autonomy.” That sounds innocuous enough until you find out what Sen. Lisa Keim means by men’s autonomy:

“The language mentions 'reproductive autonomy,' and there is no mention of the sex of the individual, whether it be male or female…We can't put ambiguous language like this in the state constitution without knowing what the impact can be. Does this apply to fathers who have this autonomy? A child in the mother's womb also belongs the father.”

So men’s ability to control women is a reproductive right?? That’s a new one! Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, who is sponsoring the bill to put abortion rights in front of voters, says, “The Supreme Court's action eliminating Roe v. Wade made it clear that if we want to ensure the right is preserved and protected going forward, it needs to be ensconced as a clear right in our constitution.”

The Courier Journal reports that a new bill in Kentucky would allow women to get child support during pregnancy. Republican Reps. Amy Neighbors says that House Bill 243—which states child support can be claimed any time “following conception”—was designed to help pregnant women.

But we know the truth: Republicans haven’t suddenly started caring about helping families; this is about enshrining fetal personhood. From Democrat Rep. Lisa Willner:

“What the bill would do would be to grant full personhood to an embryo from the moment of conception. These so-called personhood laws could result in a pregnant woman facing child abuse charges and even incarceration if she seeks treatment for drug or alcohol abuse.”

Tamarra Wieder of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates also made a vital point to the Courier Journal: Because the bill would require the state to verify women’s child support eligibility, it would allow for the surveillance of pregnant people.

A new Indiana poll shows that the majority of voters in the state—nearly 60%—want abortion to be legal. The 2023 Hoosier Survey from the Bowen Center for Public Affairs found that 31.3% of respondents said they believe abortion should be legal “in most cases,” and 27.8% said it should be legal “in all cases.”

An Illinois Republican is angry that millions in funding for reproductive health services and an abortion navigation hotline will benefit out-of-state patients, more and more of whom have been coming to Illinois for abortion care.

State Rep. Brad Halbrook claims that the funding—part of a plan to increase access by Gov. J.B. Pritzker—will “incentivize” getting abortions in Illinois.

Finally, let’s talk about political representation in the Southeast: ProPublica reports that while a record number of women were elected to statehouses last year, the Southeast lags behind. Some legislatures there are more than 80% male—and these are the lawmakers, of course, that are passing abortion bans. (I’ll never forget that it was the country’s only all-male state Supreme Court that allowed for South Carolina’s abortion ban.) Definitely make the time to read the whole piece.

Quick hits:

• Minnesota Democrats want to include abortion rights protections in their state Equal Rights Amendment;

• Since Roe was overturned, fewer Michigan adults want to have children;

• And New Hampshire Deputy House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson on the attacks on abortion and Trump’s culpability.

In the Nation

Republicans are trying to block the Biden administration’s spending rule that would stop millions of dollars from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program from going to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. The fact that TANF dollars—money meant for low-income Americans—go to centers at all is a total scandal.

These religious groups don’t just lie to women and put their health and lives in danger—they don’t give women and families the meaningful support they promise! The vast majority of money that these centers spend go towards salaries and ‘marketing’; one study found that when it came to tangible support, the average family who went to a crisis pregnancy center got a single package of diapers.

In the latest episode of “Your Call,” the KALW podcast looks at the state of reproductive rights 51 years after Roe legalized abortion. They point out that abortion is banned 15 states, and that nearly one in five patients are now traveling out of state for care. The comprehensive hour-long episode features some terrific guests, so make sure to check it out.

Quick hits:

• Abortion rights will be used in Democratic efforts to turn competitive races blue, with a close eye on the Senate in Texas and Florida;

• American Bridge, a major Democratic group chaired by Cecile Richards (formerly of Planned Parenthood), will be spending $140 million targeting women voters in battleground states this cycle;

• And Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra will be launching an abortion healthcare series tomorrow with Democratic congresswomen highlighting the Department’s efforts to improve reproductive rights since Roe was overturned.

Stats & Studies

You can always count on Center for Reproductive Rights to come out with the best resources. The organization, who you probably know from their lawsuits against states like Texas and Tennessee, has just released a new online tool that gives a state-by-state analysis of state Supreme Court decisions on abortions. It’s epic, and I’ll definitely be pulling it up on the regular:

2024

• Iowa caucused amid a blizzard last night, and (to no surprise) Trump won the crowd, especially among voters who want to ban abortion nationwide—but he also won 44% of those who oppose abortion bans;

• Not all conservatives are enamored with Nikki Haley’s abortion position and rhetoric;

• A pro-Biden press conference in Des Moines, led by Sen. Tina Smith, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Co-Chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, highlighted Trump’s anti-abortion extremism to Iowan voters; 

• And Chris Matthews writes at The Washington Monthly that Biden should talk about abortion rights as a democracy issue.

“[Viability is] a social construct, an arbitrary line in the sand. It’s not a medical term, and we need to back away from perpetuating these damaging terms that are a legacy of Roe that we don’t need to resurrect.”

~Pamela Merritt, executive director of Medical Students for Choice, in a piece about the fight over viability language in Missouri ballot measures