Abortion, Every Day (1.31.24)

Four states want to require anti-choice video in public classrooms

Click to skip ahead: An update on Anti-Abortion Propaganda in Schools. In Attacks on Democracy, Florida Republicans want to make it harder to pass ballot measures. In more Ballot Measure Updates, the latest from Wisconsin and Iowa, and a terrific new resource. In the States, a few quick hits. In the Nation, experts and governors file briefs in support of the FDA and mifepristone. Keep An Eye On this question that could trip up Biden. In 2024, Grace reports on VP Harris’ latest abortion rights event. Finally, in Care Denied, how a California abortion rights law isn’t doing what it’s supposed to.

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Anti-Abortion Propaganda in Schools

Last week, I broke news on a new legislative trend: Republicans in multiple states have introduced bills that would force public schools to show students an anti-abortion propaganda video produced by the extremist group Live Action. I reported on legislation in West Virginia, Kentucky, Iowa—and a law that passed in North Dakota last year.

Well, it looks like I missed one! Missouri Republicans are also seeking to force public schools to show the “Baby Olivia” video from Live Action. And, like Kentucky’s legislation, the bill in Missouri would punish schools that don’t want to indoctrinate their students with a video made by one of the most radical anti-abortion groups in the country. House Bill 1576 would allow the state attorney general to sue schools that don’t adhere to the law—but don’t worry, that’s just part of the “state’s interest in safeguarding the health and well-being of its residents.”

The Missouri legislation would also require the so-called ‘human-development’ video to be shown “no later than grade three.” Meanwhile, the Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa bill would require first graders be shown the video.

As I wrote last week, this is all part of the anti-abortion movement’s efforts to indoctrinate children as young as they possibly can. Young people are the most pro-choice demographic in the country, and conservatives want to change that by forcing misinformation about pregnancy and fetal development into classrooms.

I’ll keep you updated as I find out more. I think this is going to be a big one.

Attacks on Democracy

Right on cue: Now that Florida pro-choice groups have collected enough signatures to get abortion in front of voters, Republicans want to make it harder to pass ballot measures. Amendments already need 60% of the vote in Florida in order to pass—now the state GOP now wants to raise that threshold to 66.67%.

I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that the amendment has the support of 62% of voters.

Now, Republicans in the state have been trying to make this move for a while—but they’re ramping up efforts now that a pro-choice amendment is one step closer to getting on the 2024 ballot. (The state Supreme Court still needs to sign off on the language of the measure.)

State Rep. Rick Roth argued this week to the House Ethics, Elections, and Open Government Subcommittee that they should change the ballot measure standards in order to protect the state constitution—and because voters don’t really know what they’re doing:

“We just want to make sure that everybody understands what the amendment's really trying to do and that it will solve the problems that we're trying to solve. The world is changing pretty fast, and a lot of people are ignoring our constitutional rights, and I can't think of a better way to protect our constitution than to raise the bar.”

The truth? Republicans know that voters—including a majority of Republican voters—want abortion to be legal. They can’t risk Floridians actually having a say on abortion. It’s exactly what we saw in Ohio and continue to see in Missouri: Republicans are more than willing to undermine democracy to ban abortion—or to keep it banned.

And in states where voters already had their say—making clear they want abortion to be legal—Republicans still aren’t letting up. Take what’s happening in Michigan: Back in November, I told you how anti-abortion groups in the state were suing to repeal a pro-choice amendment put in place by voters after Roe was overturned.

Republican lawmakers, along with groups like Right to Life Michigan, challenged the amendment’s validity by claiming it creates an unconstitutional “super-right” to abortion that’s “immune from all legislative action.” What’s more, the groups claim that the amendment eradicates parents’ rights, would allow minors to have “gender reassignment” surgeries, and that it would allow adults to have sex with children. From their complaint:

“This broad right to ‘reproductive freedom’ necessarily includes decisions involving gender and ‘gender reassignment’ surgeries and other harmful procedures as well as decisions by minors to engage in sexual intercourse with adults. There are no exceptions.”

The focus on minors has been conservatives’ primary strategy when fighting back against abortion rights ballot measures. So far, it hasn’t been successful—but it has resulted in a whole lot of fear-mongering.

This week, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is asking a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the plaintiffs lack standing to file a complaint. (And that even if they did have standing, their arguments don’t hold up.) Nessel told the Michigan Advance that the groups are simply trying “to undermine the will of Michigan voters, whose overwhelming support for Proposition 3 in the wake of Roe being overturned ensured that the people of our state are guaranteed agency over their own personal medical decisions.”

Oh, and to the claim that the amendment would allow adults to have sex with children? Nessel pointed out that Republicans voted against banning child marriage in Michigan last year. Oop!

Ballot Measure Updates

We’re not done with ballot measures yet! To start, let’s talk about Wisconsin. As you know, Republicans in the state have proposed a 14 week abortion ban that they’re framing as a ‘compromise’ measure for voters to decide. (Their ‘compromise’ would force doctors to give women c-sections instead of emergency abortions.)

Read this for the full context of what’s happening with abortion rights in Wisconsin, but the short version is that Republicans are desperate to get any sort of ban passed because they know the issue is heading to the state Supreme Court—which is now under liberal control. Pretending they’re trying to ‘give voters a say’ just adds insult to injury.

Republican Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who sponsored the bill, has said that voting against the legislation “is a vote against the will of the people.” Anti-choice groups have also clearly been putting the word out to their base: I’ve noticed a recent spate of letters to the editor claiming that Republicans are just trying to give voters a voice. (As the editorial board at The Cap Times wrote recently, Wisconsin voters already made it very clear where they stand on abortion rights when Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the state Supreme Court in a landslide.)

Iowa Democrats announced a package of pro-choice legislation yesterday, including a proposed amendment to protect abortion rights in the state constitution. The amendment would prevent the state from denying or interfering with a person’s “reproductive freedom,” which includes abortion, prenatal care, miscarriage treatment and more. From Sen. Janet Petersen:

“The majority of Iowans believe the power over our bodies does not belong with politicians…A constitutional amendment ensures reproductive freedom cannot be infringed upon by extremist politicians hellbent on taking away the ability of Iowans to control their own bodies and lives.”

The issue, of course, is that Iowa doesn’t have citizen-led initiatives. That means this amendment would have to pass through the Republican-controlled state legislature before getting to voters. In other words, the amendment isn’t likely to go anywhere. But it’s smart to remind voters that Republicans are desperate to stop them from deciding directly on abortion rights.

Finally, if you have a hard time keeping up with all of the different ballot measure efforts, KFF has a new amazing resource. KFF’s policy brief doesn’t just report on the status of measures across the country, it outlines the different ballot measure laws in each state. For example, showing which states have citizen-led initiative processes versus legislatively-referred measures—and how that intersects with the states that have abortion bans. It’s definitely something I’ll be bookmarking.

In the States

• The Columbus Dispatch with where the Ohio Republican Senate candidates stand on abortion (you can probably guess);

• Republicans running for Michigan’s Senate seat have a tough fight ahead on abortion;

• In Oklahoma, where there’s no exception for rape and incest, there were an estimated 4,529 rape-related pregnancies since Roe was overturned;

• More on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that abortion rights activists call a landmark victory;

• The Grio on anti-abortion efforts in Wisconsin;

• And Here & Now speaks to Tennessee’s Allie Phillips, who is running for office after being denied an abortion.

In the Nation

On Tuesday, a wave of experts filed briefs in support of mifepristone and the FDA, as the Supreme Court gears up to take on the biggest abortion rights case since Dobbs. Amicus briefs from the group—including the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, The Lawyering Project, and more—focused on the abundant evidence showing mifepristone’s safety and efficacy, the necessity of respecting long-standing FDA authority, and the importance of following real science.

The ACLU also warned about “patently unreliable witnesses,” “lack of scientific integrity,” and “ideologically tainted junk science” that’s being used in the 5th Circuit's decision that brought the case to the Supreme Court. (Remember, the so-called experts and studies being used to argue against mifepristone are all anti-abortion activists posing as credible.)

Twenty-two governors (who call themselves the Reproductive Freedom Alliance) also filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to support of mifepristone and the FDA. They argue that attacking the FDA review process harms governors’ ability to provide adequate healthcare to their constituents—including medications and procedures outside of abortions.

Also in national news, six anti-abortion activists who blocked access to a Tennessee clinic—staging a “rescue” of fetuses—were convicted on felony FACE charges. From UPI:

“Prosecutors said the activists had blocked the clinic's doors and prevented a patient and an employee from entering the facility. During the livestream, members of the group were seen trying to engage with a patient and her companion while one of them described the woman to the audience as a ‘mom coming to kill her baby.’”

Charming. The defendants face up to 10 years in prison.

Keep An Eye On

I’ve been highlighting the various ways Republicans have responded to the Biden-Harris campaign’s focus on abortion rights. For the most part, conservative pundits are pivoting—or pretending not to be nervous about the issue that has lost them election after election. There was one talking point, though, that did make me concerned.

In an appearance on Fox News, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee stressed that Republicans needed to stop playing defense on abortion rights—and that they should be targeting President Joe Biden, in particular:

“Joe Biden has not been able to explain to the American people why he’s had such a radical change. He used to believe in abortion restrictions, but he doesn’t anymore. And I don’t know why reporters don’t ask him, ‘Mr. President, when did you stop believing that abortion should have some restrictions?’

Now, we know that Biden doesn’t actually believe in abortion without restrictions. If only! If anything, Biden has been far too timid about offering full-throated support for abortion rights—but it’s that tepidness that could make a question like this a real problem.

After all, Biden’s history on abortion rights isn’t great: he supported the Hyde Amendment, voted multiple times to prohibit federal workers from using health insurance on abortion, and backed Republican efforts too ban certain kinds of abortion procedures.

The president has made it pretty clear over the years that he personally opposes abortion—and now that abortion rights has become central to the Democrats’ strategy, he’s having a hard time sticking to the script: In his remarks commemorating Roe, he added an aside about not supporting “abortion on demand.”

So far, conservatives have focused on asking Biden about how many weeks into a pregnancy he supports abortion—to which he can just talk about restoring Roe. But if the president is asked why his position has changed, I think what we’d end up seeing is Biden making unhelpful comments about abortion-on-demand or abortions later in pregnancy. Because the truth is his personal view hasn’t changed! And I can’t help but worry that given the opportunity to say as much, he would.

2024

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to California on the most recent stop on her ‘Reproductive Freedom’ tour, reminding the audience that blue states aren’t safe from abortion bans if Trump wins the White house:

“Let’s understand, none of us can afford to sit back and think, ‘Thank God we’re in California. Because if these folks have their way, and they’ve already articulated this as part of their agenda, they’ll have a national ban.”

Once again, the word ‘abortion’ was missing from any of the signs on stage surrounding the vice president.

As was the case last week, protesters interrupted Harris’ event calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. One of the demonstrators, Allie Felker, was invited by the Biden-Harris campaign because of her work advocating for prenatal care to prevent stillbirths. She told KQED, “I can’t come here and advocate for reproductive justice without also standing with Palestine, standing with the women and children of Gaza and saying that the reproductive justice we’re seeking in this country needs to also be equated with what’s happening in Gaza.”

Quick hits:

• Sara Guillermo, Executive Director of IGNITE, writes at Newsweek that the way to engage with Gen Z voters is to talk about abortion rights;

• Reckon News with three things the Biden-Harris campaign is missing in their focus on abortion rights;

• And POLITIFACT says Vice President Kamala Harris’ statement that 1 in 3 American women live in an anti-choice state is true.

Care Denied

LAist has an important (and disappointing) story about how California’s requirement that state colleges offer abortion medication isn’t working so well in practice:

“An LAist investigation has found that one year after California became the first state to require its public universities to provide the abortion pill to students, basic information on where or how students can obtain the medication is lacking and, often, nonexistent.”

The California publication spoke to one young woman who had no idea that she was supposed to be able to get free abortion medication on campus, and ended up driving more than 300 miles and spending hundreds of dollars to get care. “I was really upset when I found out; I had to really push myself to make that money happen,” she said.

It seems like the biggest problem is that there’s no campaign to let students know that the medication is available. LAist found, for example, that many health clinic websites didn’t mention abortion, or that information was difficult to find on the website.

And while California gave colleges over $10 million to help them implement the new law, the funding didn’t require that schools inform students that they could get abortion medication on campus clinics.

Definitely take the time to read the piece—it’s a good reminder that it’s not enough to pass pro-choice laws. We need pro-choice implementation, too.