Abortion, Every Day (2.14.24)
Study: Anti-choice states have a 75% higher rate of peripartum homicide
Click to skip ahead: Calculated Cruelty in West Virginia looks at a new bill that’s everything I’ve been warning about. In Travel Ban Nightmares, let’s talk about what’s happening in Tennessee. In the States, news from Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa and more. In Better News, some positive developments to break up the horror. All About Missouri looks at attacks on democracy in the state. In A Billion Dollar Problem, take a wild guess at how much money crisis pregnancy centers got in 2022. Stats & Studies highlights new research showing that pregnant women are more likely to experience domestic violence if they live in an anti-choice state. Finally, a few words from yours truly.
Calculated Cruelty in West Virginia
Here we go. You know that I’ve been writing a lot lately about the anti-abortion movement’s quiet campaign to force women to carry doomed pregnancies to term—whether it’s the attacks on prenatal testing that I covered earlier this week, or attempts to direct women to anti-abortion activists posing as prenatal counselors.
As part of that work, I’ve been telling folks to watch out for legislation using language about “prenatal counseling” or “perinatal hospice care.” (Both of which are real things that have been co-opted by the anti-abortion movement to mean something very, very different than what the credible services offer.) I also warned that Republicans would be pushing bills using those terms under the auspices of “informed consent”—the idea being that they’re simply trying to give pregnant women all their options when faced with a devastating diagnosis.
Well, right on cue, a bill that passed the West Virginia Senate today checks all those boxes. Senate Bill 352 would require doctors to tell pregnant women with nonviable pregnancies about “perinatal hospice services.” And Republican Sen. Patricia Rucker says the legislation ensures “women have informed decisions, and information to make decisions under the limited circumstances we allow.” Sound familiar??
Doctors would also be mandated to direct women to specific resources—which just happen to be anti-abortion groups pretending to be medical, non-ideological programs. As I outlined in “Calculated Cruelty,” this is a way to force hospitals and doctors to direct women—who’ve just been given perhaps the worst news of their lives—to anti-abortion groups. There, these vulnerable patients are fed a bunch of shaming, inaccurate bullshit crafted to pressure them into carry their doomed pregnancy to term.
Some will be lied to about the health risks of their pregnancy—told that it’s perfectly safe to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term (even though there are serious mental and physical health risks involved). Others will be told that having an abortion is dangerous and might kill them. And you can count on these support-counselors to claim that no matter what the tests and ultrasounds say, they might be aborting a healthy pregnancy.
The whole thing isn’t just dangerous and inaccurate and cruel—it’s downright disgusting. So if you know anyone in West Virginia, make sure they know about this bill and what their legislators want to do to women.
Travel Ban Nightmares
I don’t know how many different ways I can warn about how bad this is: The GOP-controlled Tennessee statehouse advanced their abortion travel ban yesterday. The law would punish an aunt who takes her niece out-of-state for an abortion—or a friend who even lends a teen gas money—with up to 15 years in prison. Still, Republicans like Rep. Jason Zachary continue to claim the legislation is “simply a parental rights bill.”
In case you need a refresher: travel bans shrouded as ‘anti-trafficking’ legislation are proposed in multiple states; a similar law that was enacted in Idaho has been blocked as unconstitutional. That’s because the language of the legislation is so broad that it criminalizes speech—a state attorney could use it to go after someone who gave a teenager the url to an out-of-state clinic. (Which is the point! The ultimate goal is to use these laws to go after abortion funds.)
On the off chance you think I’m exaggerating, consider that when Oklahoma Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm was interviewed about his travel ban—asked specifically about these broad interpretations like lending a teen gas money—this is how he responded:
“If they did it knowingly that they would be circumventing the parents and committing a crime. It’s no different than if you gave somebody gas money for them to be the getaway driver for committing some other crime or something else like that. You’re becoming an accessory in the violation of a crime.”
The legislation that the Tennessee House subcommittee moved forward yesterday uses the near-exact language of the other bills, and could even allow one parent to sue another parent for taking their child out-of-state.
As I’ve said before, this will never stop with teens. We can already see it happening in Texas, where multiple counties have passed ordinances making it illegal to help someone (of any age!) leave the state for an abortion. This is the slow chipping away process they use to stop us from leaving states that don’t see women as fully human.
In the States
Since we’re already talking dystopian legislation, let’s get into how Republicans are trying to dismantle free speech in their anti-abortion attacks: In Mississippi, Rep. Gene Newman introduced a bill that would make it illegal to advertise abortion. Now, this legislation isn’t going to go anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be paying attention to it—this is Republicans’ roadmap for what they want to do next.
For example, Rep. Newman said he got the idea to write his bill after talking with anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, and finding out that the non-medical religious groups have a hard time reaching people because they’re “overrode” by abortion clinic ads:
“[I]t’s very hard for them to get their word out online. It kind of aggravated me that you got people in here advertising for something that’s illegal in the state of Mississippi.”
In short: he got grumpy that those damn women have free speech rights, and wanted to give CPCs a leg-up.
Kentucky abortion rights activists rallied at the State Capitol yesterday, calling for the restoration of abortion rights. Tamarra Wieder with Planned Parenthood told public radio station WUKY that the state ban is also creating a troubling trickle-down effect: “Seventy-three counties out of one-hundred-twenty do not have practicing OBGYNs and that's becoming more severe as we're losing more providers.”
I also really appreciated this from Democratic Rep. Lindsey Burke:
"Two weeks ago I stood in front of a room full of cameras and told my very private, and very painful abortion story. I'm the only legislator here who's told one, and I tell you what, we shouldn't all have to tell our stories for us to be heard.”
Thank you. We should not have to lay our pain bare, or tell personal medical experiences in order to be seen as fully human.
You can watch a short video of the protest below. I’ve gotta tell you, it doesn’t matter how many of these I’ve watched: I cry every single time.
A bill making birth control available over the counter is being advanced in Iowa, but anti-abortion groups (shockingly) oppose the effort. Maggie DeWitte, executive director of Pulse Life Advocates, claims that the legislation would put women’s health at risk. She points to potential side effects of hormonal birth control, and says this:
“You hear so often about these kinds of decisions, especially in the abortion situation, that this should just be between a woman and her doctor. Well, in this case, we’ve left the doctor out.”
So now they care about what doctors think? Also, why bring up abortion when we’re talking about birth control? Oh right! It’s because anti-abortion activists believe birth control is abortion. (DeWitte admits as much in the interview.) I don’t know how much clearer these people can make themselves: they were never going to stop at abortion.
Speaking of birth control, extremism & Iowa: Students for Life is reviving a chapter of their organization at the University of Northern Iowa, where some students are understandably worried about the group’s anti-contraception stance.
Quick hits:
Jezebel on Kansas Republicans’ fetal personhood effort;
The Ohio Capital Journal on how Republicans are campaigning on abortion in the wake of Issue 1;
And more on the South Dakota bill that purports to clarify the state ban. (For what it really does, click here.)
In Better News
Okay, let’s take a breath and focus on some positive developments: We have some rare good news out of Missouri today! The state Supreme Court ruled (for the second time) that Republicans’ efforts to ban Planned Parenthood from getting Medicaid reimbursements are unconstitutional. Terrific.
And this is cool: An Illinois Democrat has filed a bill that would provide a $500 tax credit for those who relocate for reproductive or gender-affirming health services. Democratic Rep. Kelly Cassidy said, “This is very much meant to provide a warm handoff for folks who have made incredibly unwelcome in their homes.” Love it.
I told you yesterday about a Virginia bill that would protect abortion patients and providers from extradition to anti-choice states. That legislation was one of several pro-choice bills moving forward in the state, including bills to prohibit the state board of medicine from arbitrarily punishing abortion providers who give care to out-of-state patients; the Contraceptive Equity Act, which would require insurers to expand birth control coverage without cost-sharing; and legislation to protect private health data stored on period apps.
Finally, Maryland Matters and WYPR have more on the new funding for abortion rights and access in Maryland—money that will go, in part, to training new providers to help with the overwhelm from out-of-state patients. From Jessica Lee, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, which houses the Abortion Care Clinical Training Program:
“We will specifically address training clinicians in underserved areas and rural areas in Maryland to help reverse health inequities and to provide reproductive health care services to those in need.”
All About Missouri
Missouri Republicans are still trying to find a way to stop voters from having a direct say on abortion rights. Some background on the state GOP’s attacks on democracy here and here, but just one example is that the Republican Attorney General had to be forced by the state Supreme Court to sign off on a cost estimate for the measure. He wanted it to say that restoring abortion rights would cost Missouri billions of dollars.
Today, The Kansas City Star reports on how Missouri Republicans are working to change the standards on ballot measures. (I wrote about this a bit last month.) Essentially, they want to require that ballot initiatives not just win a statewide majority—but majorities in five of eight congressional districts.
Thanks to GOP gerrymandering, that means amendments would need support in conservative areas in order to win. As The Kansas City Star puts it, “a coalition of rural congressional districts would have effective veto control over amendments.” It’s a way to ensure that Republican districts could kill any measures they don’t like!
Meanwhile, the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote in support of the abortion rights ballot measure in Missouri today, blasting Republicans all their shenanigans. They say the politicians’ motivation is clear:
“They recognize that their draconian ban is unlikely to survive a fair up-or-down vote among Missouri residents. Some of them have said as much.”
The editorial board also criticizes Missouri anti-abortion groups for “going full Orwell,” asking people to report the location of signature-gatherers so they can go down and harass them and anyone thinking about signing.
A Billion Dollar Problem
Remember when I told you that anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers were going to be a central part of the anti-abortion movement’s post-Roe strategy? Well, please check out this incredible article at The Guardian showing that the groups took in at least $1.4bn in revenue in the 2022 fiscal year. That’s right, billion. And at least $344m of that money came in the form of government funds.
These absolutely wild numbers come from a report from the Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch. Jenifer McKenna, the crisis pregnancy center program director of the organization, says the groups’ 990s report that they spent $1.2 billion on expenditures. “What did they do with all that money? There’s so many questions begged by their own reporting,” she told The Guardian.
As you likely know by now, there is a shocking lack of regulation around crisis pregnancy centers. (Remember this video from North Carolina??) It’s bad enough that millions in taxpayer dollars are going to groups that lie to women, target children, and put people’s health and lives in danger. And we know that the groups often get TANF money—funds earmarked for low-income families. But Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch also found that crisis pregnancy centers were getting FEMA money! Please tell me why in the world crisis pregnancy centers should get emergency food and shelter funds?
In any case, make sure to read the whole article—though you may throw your laptop across the room as a result.
Stats & Studies
A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS) found that pregnant women living in anti-choice states are more likely to experience domestic violence and that anti-choice states had a 75% higher rate of peripartum homicide. 75% higher.
Truthout reports that the researchers also found that the risk of domestic violence was higher for younger women, Black women, and women with lower levels of education. In a statement, lead author Grace Keegan from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, said, “This study reveals that in the United States, there’s an epidemic of preventable violence that disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, including peripartum people.”
A note from Jessica:
If you’re like me, you probably have a million subscriptions and the last thing you want to do is sign up for another one. But if you’ve made it this far, I’m betting that you rely on Abortion, Every Day for your repro rights news—and that you care about this issue as much as I do.
The newsletter is only able to publish because of reader support, full stop. And I need your help to keep going and growing. In addition to supporting independent feminist media, becoming a paying subscriber also gets you access to the audio version of the newsletter, the fantastic community in comments, and other subscriber-only content like livestream AMAs with me and more.
So if you’ve been holding off on joining up, consider making today the day! Either way, thanks for being here and supporting AED by reading and sharing. -Jessica
Thank you Jessica! I've been a bit behind but am starting to catch up. I appreciate all your reporting and commitment to this issue. 💜💜
I’m posting this here since I think many of you would appreciate this documentary, called “Deciding Vote”, about the NY State lawmaker who cast the deciding vote in 1970 to legalize abortion in NYS (note that was pre-Roe). The documentary was released in November and has already been well received in numerous festivals and won several awards. The executive producers are cousins of a friend who sent the link to some of us. Here is the link from The New Yorker. 19 minutes long https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/the-new-yorker-documentary-deciding-vote-a-courageous-assemblymans-stand-for-reproductive-rights