Abortion, Every Day (12.7.22)

Abortion medication makes illegal abortions safer—so conservatives want to end it

In the states…

Georgia came through! Thank fucking goodness, I was nervous. Obviously, abortion played a huge role in Sen. Raphael Warnock’s win—The Washington Post reports that a third of Warnock’s ads mentioned the issue. Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said, “Senator Reverend Warnock is a fighter for our fundamental rights, and Georgians fought just as hard to send him back to the Senate.” However, Terry McGovern, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, writes that “we need to look at [this'] win with clear eyes,” and not forget how close the election was—and how we’re going to need to continue harnessing that political energy.

I’ve written about how Democrat Rep. Yusuf Hakeem in Tennessee wants to add rape and incest exceptions to the state’s extreme abortion ban, while removing the affirmative defense mandate. (Right now, doctors who want to save a pregnant person’s life in Tennessee have to break the law and then prove it was necessary to do so.) The Democratic lawmaker now seems to have the support of a Republican colleague, Sen. Richard Briggs. Briggs, who is a physician, says, “I have seen two cases of 11-year-olds, one through rape, one through incest. I don’t believe that little child should be forced to carry a pregnancy with the risk of her never being able to have a child or a family of her own.” (Don’t get too excited, though, Briggs still identifies as ‘pro-life’.) Just a reminder that of the 132 lawmakers in Tennessee’s General Assembly, only 19 are women.

Things are horrible in Texas, but incredibly there is a chance they could get a lot worse. State Senator Nathan Johnson points out there’s a 1925 anti-abortion law still on the books that says women who have abortions should be prosecuted. And while the state’s current ban doesn’t allow the criminalization of anyone getting an abortion, the Democratic legislator doesn’t want to take any chances—he’s proposed a bill to repeal the old law: “I don't want any confusion and I don't want a woman being prosecuted for getting an abortion or being suspected of getting an abortion.” The old law also calls for anyone who helps women get abortions to be prosecuted, which Johnson points out “could mean prosecuting members of the boards of directors of corporations if their health insurance policy provides for out of state travel if one of their employees is a rape victim and chooses to go out of state for an abortion.”

Two things has been clear since Roe was overturned: 1) Americans don’t like abortion bans, and 2) Republicans don’t really give a shit. Case in point: Despite the fact that voters in Kansas made their (pro-choice!) voices heard loud and clear via a ballot measure on abortion, Republican lawmakers in the state plan to move ahead with anti-choice legislation. Republican Dan Hawkins, the newly-elected Kansas House Speaker, said in an interview this week that despite conservatives’ ballot measure loss, “To say that we won’t see another abortion bill is wrong…everybody’s free to bring what they want when it comes to bills. So, we’ll see those.”

Well this made me furious. St. Louis Public Radio has an interview with newly-elected Missouri state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman—a Republican who helped get the state’s abortion ban get passed and wants to allow private citizens to sue those who help women get abortions a la Texas. Coleman told reporters that banning abortion is “the thing that I am the most proud of” but she wants to “move on” to focus on other things. How nice that must be! To fuck over the women of your state and just…go live your life! (By the way: This Serena Joy wannabe who wants women to be forced into motherhood has been known to employ two nannies at a time. Again, must be nice!)

As pro-choice states deal with the influx of out-of-state patients seeking abortions, reproductive rights organizations are enlisting the help of ‘navigators’—people to help this barrage of women with the logistics around leaving their home state for care. That could mean anything from helping patients find a clinic, lodging, transportation—and even money to help pay for it all. Pam Rotsky, a navigator in upstate New York, says, “I probably never imagined in my lifetime this was going to be an issue again.”

Michigan’s pro-choice ballot measure win was in large part thanks to the absolute fury Americans felt about abortion bans—and the incredible organizing efforts within the state. The Progressive reports that the folks who mobilized for Proposal 3 were a diverse swath of voters, including many who had never been politically active. Michigander Raina Korbakis, for example, said “This issue changed everything. I felt like I couldn’t sit on the sidelines anymore after what happened with Roe, after watching our rights being stripped away from us.”

Quick hits:

• I will never not link to a letter to the editor that is written by a pro-choice high schooler—this one comes to us from a young man in Nevada;

• New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced new pro-choice protections;

• And a new Indiana survey shows that 56.7% of those in the state believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases and that more than 76% believe abortion is an important issue.

In the nation…

Reproductive rights and justice advocates haven’t wasted a moment since the midterms, and—as Renee Bracey Sherman of We Testify put it—they’re doubling down. From ballot measure initiatives and telemedicine to voter registration and legal challenges to bans—activists are hitting every area of the issue that they can. The Guardian has a nice rundown of what some of those pro-choice priorities are, and what activists are thinking about next.

Meanwhile, Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville‚—a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee—is threatening to block any Defense Department nominations because he’s pissed off about the Department of Veteran Affairs offering abortions in some (very limited circumstances).

Eight in ten single people say that Roe being overturned has impacted their dating and sex life. Seventy percent of the women surveyed say that having a conversation about your position on abortion is just as important as sharing your STI status before sex. Agreed. One Texas-based therapist interviewed by HuffPo even said that she knows women who are changing their dating profiles to make clear that they don’t want to date anyone who isn’t pro-choice: “One even wrote, ‘I’m not interested in a ‘Handmaid’s’ life.’”

You know I like good news, and this is great news in the mainstream media/abortion coverage world:

APStylebook @APStylebook

Do not use the term “late-term abortion.” The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defines late term as 41 weeks through 41 weeks and 6 days of gestation, and abortion does not happen in this period.

Quick hits:

• The Wall Street Journal has a roundup of which states Republicans are focusing their anti-abortion efforts on, and how—in the wake of a not-so-great midterms performance—they may be relying on state judges to their jobs for them;

• A reminder that medical students and doctors looking at residencies are worried about abortion rights—and it’s increasingly looking like anti-choice states will face a severe OBGYN shortage. (Right now, nearly 45% of OBGYN residencies are in states that have banned, or are likely to ban, abortion.);

• And if you had any doubts that abortion misinformation should be a top priority, check out the ‘fact check’ that Reuters had to do this week. (!!!)

Keep an eye on…

Anyone who calls medication abortion ‘chemical abortion’. It’s the latest language shift being pushed by conservatives and right-leaning media to make a safe and legal medication seem like something scary and unnatural. It’s part of the larger effort to limit or end access to medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of the abortions in the country. (And is a big part of the reason we’re not seeing the kind of deaths from illegal abortions that we did pre-Roe.)

For example, check out this op-ed in a Pennsylvania publication claiming that “the safety of the abortion pill is clearly greatly exaggerated,” and that its use is “concerning, even frightening.” (The author fails to mention—save for the last sentence in her bio buried at the bottom—that she works for the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an extremist anti-abortion organization.)

What conservatives are saying…

Conservative media is pissed over the Virginia restaurant I told you about on Monday that denied service to an anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion group. Fox News is in an uproar, of course—but what was disappointing to see was how even CBS News got in on the pile-on. In their coverage of the story—both in the headline and the body of their article—they call the Family Foundation “a Christian group” that was denied service. As if this was some group of church grandmas rather than a powerful conservative organization that writes legislation! Really shitty.

You love to see it…

Missouri college students are out there doing the work: at Washington University, a reproductive rights group is developing a guide for students on sexual health, creating a free Plan B program, and is escorting at a clinic in nearby Illinois, where abortion is legal. Anyone who thinks young people don’t care about abortion rights isn’t paying attention.

HBO’s “If These Walls Could Talk” is coming back—it’s a dramatic limited series about abortion rights. I haven’t watched it in years; I’m curious to see how it holds up. Also, someone should remake it for a more modern audience…

And you have to love Lizzo in general, but especially now! When the superstar took the stage at the People’s Choice Awards yesterday, she shared her ‘People’s Champion’ award with 17 activists—including friend-of-the-newsletter Amelia Bonow, co-founder of Shout Your Abortion!

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