Abortion, Every Day (2.23.24)

This is how they ban birth control

Click to skip ahead: In Alabama Fallout, the anti-abortion movement celebrates while Republicans run scared. In Banning Birth Control, Indiana Republicans are making moves on contraception. In the States, news from Wisconsin, Florida and more. Care Denied has the stories of women denied abortions in Tennessee and Texas. Conservatives are pushing dubious numbers in Stats & Studies. And in You Love to See It, an ode to abortion providers.

---

Alabama Fallout

One of the biggest abortion rights stories this week has been the Alabama Supreme Court decision that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children.” The fallout has been extraordinary, but predictable: Republicans are running scared from the ruling, doing their best to pivot or change the subject.

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, for example, didn’t seem to understand what the ruling actually said. He told a reporter he agreed with the decision, but then followed up by saying, “we need more kids.” And South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott simply said, “Well, I haven’t studied the issue.”

Then there was Nikki Haley, who really fucked it up. First the Republican presidential hopeful told ABC News, “Embryos, to me, are babies.” When the reporter asked if she was concerned that the ruling would make it harder for people to obtain fertility treatments, Haley changed the subject to the importance of the doctor-patient relationship—as if that had anything to do with anything. (It was a weird moment.)

Later, after it was clear that the public was furious about the decision, Haley told CNN, “Alabama needs to go back and look at the law…We don’t want fertility treatments to shut down.” She is the queen of saying absolutely nothing.

Speaking of saying nothing, the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America wants to have it both ways on the Alabama ruling. A representative from the group told NBC News that the decision was correct, but that “that does not mean fertility treatment is prohibited.” (I mean, it sort does: After the ruling was announced, University of Alabama at Birmingham health system announced they were pausing IVF procedures.)

While the group was pretending to care about IVF patients, their sister organization, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, submitted a public comment to the CDC advising them to report and regulate the embryos used in fertility treatments:

“Embryonic nascent human beings of blastula age (3-5 days post-fertilization) are living human beings, who merit the same respect and care as human beings at later ages of their development and lives.”

Remember, reporting mechanisms are huge part of the anti-abortion movement’s strategy moving forward. They want every abortion reported, every so-called abortion complication submitted to the state, and now every embryo accounted for. That is…not good.

So while Republicans freak out and try to back off the ruling—this afternoon the Senate GOP’s campaign arm told candidates to support IVF—the people who very much dictate Republican abortion policy are making it clear what comes next.

---

If you missed my coverage of the Alabama ruling and why it’s about more than IVF, read below:

Alabama's Fetal Personhood Ruling

---

Banning Birth Control

If you’re a regular reader, you know that the decision about embryos is just one part of a much broader push for fetal personhood—a strategy that includes banning contraception. Sometimes the legislation is explicit, like the Oklahoma bill I outlined Monday that would ban emergency contraception. But more often than not, the moves against birth control are done quietly. And that’s exactly what’s happening in Indiana.

An Abortion, Every Day reader flagged HB1426 for me—legislation that would increase long-acting reversible contraception for for Medicaid recipients.¹ But before the bill hit a state Senate committee this week, any language referring to IUDs was removed.

That’s because Indiana anti-abortion activists successfully lobbied legislators, claiming that IUDs are abortifacients. Republican Rep. Cindy Ledbetter said that the bill was changed because “we are a strong pro-life state.”

This is something I’ve been banging the drum on for months: the anti-abortion movement is redefining certain kinds of birth control (like IUDs and emergency contraception) as abortions. This is how they’ll ban birth control—not with a single explicit law, but a slow chipping away process just like they did Roe. Republicans don’t need to make contraception illegal in order to ban it, they just need to make it impossible to obtain.

I’ll keep you updated on the Indiana legislation as it advances, but this is exactly the kind of thing we need to be watching out for.

In the States

Since we’re talking about fetal personhood today, let’s get into Florida. The Alabama ruling is putting increased attention on the Florida legislation that would allow people to bring civil suits for the “wrongful death” of a fetus. While Republicans claim this bill is simply about protecting parents of would-be-children, Democrats rightly point out that it’s a sly way of enshrining fetal personhood.

This week, the Sun Sentinel editorial board blasted the legislation, calling it a “shattering blow to what’s left of women’s reproductive independence.” The Republican behind the effort, Sen. Erin Grall, said she may rework the bill. Not sure what kind of ‘reworking’ could fix this mess, but sure.

There’s another sneaky piece of legislation I want to flag, this time out of Kansas. The Kansas Reflector reports that House Bill 2813 and Senate Bill 527 would make it a felony to “coerce” someone to have an abortion by threatening physical or financial harm. Now, I am all about curbing reproductive coercion, but let’s take a closer look at that legislation.

These bills would make it a crime—a felony—to pressure someone to have an abortion by threatening “any…adverse financial consequence.” What does that mean?? If one roommate tells another that they’ll have to move out if they have a baby, is that felony coercion? What if a parent tells a teen that they won’t financially support them if they have a child? ANY financial consequence is pretty damn broad!

That’s the point, of course. And remember, “coerced abortions” are a new focus of the anti-abortion movement, who are desperate to pretend as if they care about abused women.

In Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn an 1849 law that was being used to ban abortions. In a petition filed directly to the Court, the group says that the law violates the state constitution’s right to life, liberty and equal protection. What’s interesting about the filing is that the group also argues that for abortion providers, “life and liberty also require the right to pursue one’s lawful profession.” Love that.

The filing comes as both abortion rights groups and an anti-choice district attorney are asking the Court to provide clarity on the 1849 law after a judge ruled that it wasn’t actually an abortion ban, but a feticide law. (Background here.)

Utah Republicans are suddenly want to repeal the abortion clinic ban that they passed into law last year—mostly because they want to find another way to ban abortion. In case you need a refresher: both a trigger law and a ban on abortion clinics specifically were blocked last year, and are both in front of the state Supreme Court.

Republican Rep. Karianne Lisonbee says she wants to repeal the law to “simplify the question before the Supreme Court of Utah” so that they only have to decide on the trigger law ban. In short, they want to make it easier for the justices to rule in favor of a total ban. The bill passed out of committee this week.

The number of abortions performed in Florida is on the rise, which makes protecting and expanding the right all the more important. Florida has been responsible for providing care to patients from all across the region, and if the state Supreme Court upholds the 15-week ban—making way for a newer 6-week ban—the entire Southeast is going to be devastated.

Quick hits:

• Connecticut Democrats are calling for abortion protections to be enshrined in the state constitution;

• The Associated Press on Republicans’ abortion rights attacks in South Dakota;

• The Baltimore Sun and the Associated Press look at how abortion rights are playing into Maryland Republican Larry Hogan’s Senate bid;

• And the chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas gave an interview about the proposed abortion rights amendment.

Care Denied

Caroline Kitchener at The Washington Post reports today on a young Texas woman who was denied an abortion even though she had an ectopic pregnancy—a delay in care that endangered her life.

It’s a nightmare story: Even after Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz got her diagnosis, Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital refused to give an abortion, telling her there could be a chance the pregnancy was viable. (Ectopic pregnancies are not viable.) Instead of giving her care, they told her to go home and wait.

Norris-De La Cruz told WaPo, “I was scared I was going to…lose my entire reproductive system if they waited too long.” She ended up getting emergency surgery at another hospital 24 hours later. The doctor had to remove most of her right fallopian tube, because the ectopic pregnancy had started to rupture. The OBGYN says that if she had waited much longer, she would have been “in extreme danger of losing her life.”

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? We knew things like this would happen—every single story is the predictable result of abortion bans. But Republicans still continue to claim that there’s no problem with their laws.

We know what comes next: The anti-abortion movement will argue that this was the result of a bad doctor, or of pro-choicers scaring doctors out of providing appropriate care. Anything to shirk responsibility.

Nightline had a segment this week about a Texas woman traveled to Washington, DC for a health- and life-saving abortion. The video below has snippets of Alexandra’s story, but the whole piece is here. It’s an incredibly powerful reminder of what compassionate abortion care looks like.

Finally, if you missed this story from ProPublica that followed a Tennessee woman for a year after being denied an abortion, please go read it now.

You may remember Mayron Michelle Hollis’ story from when ProPublica first covered it last year: she had to have an emergency hysterectomy after being denied care for a dangerous and life-threatening pregnancy. This update looks at how Tennessee abandoned and punished Hollis after forcing her to have a premature baby with special medical needs. It’s a vital (though devastating) investigation.

Stats & Studies

Anti-abortion groups and publications are hot to trot on a new study they say shows that Americans support banning abortion after 16 weeks. (This the restriction that Donald Trump suggested recently.) The National Review even shouts that a 16-week ban has a “plurality” of support. Why not say majority? Because The Economist/YouGov poll actually shows that most Americans would not support a 16-week ban.

As is so often the case these days, conservatives are pretending that their numbers on abortion are better than they really are. The truth is polls show over and over again that Americans don’t support abortion bans. In fact, they’re pissed about bans being passed against their wishes. But the anti-abortion movement is desperate to grab onto any good news they can, so don’t be surprised if you see this poll everywhere.

Quick hits:

• A new report from Advocates for Youth and Hey Jane finds that the majority of young people face hurdles to accessing reproductive health care on campus;

• NPR covers the study showing the awful mental strain OBGYNs are under in anti-choice states;

• Scientific American looks at the two retracted anti-abortion studies;

• And Vox has more on the study I told you about last month showing that women living in anti-choice states after Dobbs were more likely to have anxiety and depression.

You Love to See It

We could use some good/inspiring news! The New York Times ran a terrific piece yesterday on the medical providers using shield laws to mail abortion medication to patients in states with abortion bans. I’m so grateful for these people—and their bravery. Because, let’s face it, we know that the anti-abortion movement wants to punish anyone who dispenses abortion medication. (Some of the providers won’t travel to states with bans on the chance they’d be arrested, and are creating trusts to protect their assets from civil lawsuits.)

From Lauren Jacobson, a nurse practitioner who writes abortion medication prescriptions:

“We’re a free country. So let’s put that to the test. Here we are and we’re not going to be intimidated, and we have our states backing us.”

Heroes. More on abortion rights superstars this week: Maryland is about to about to spend over $10 million to train nurses and physician assistants to perform abortions—a move to help increase access and trained providers.

The program will be run by the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. From Dr. Laura Herrera Scott, Maryland’s health secretary:

“This funding represents a major step toward fortifying reproductive rights with abortion training and education. [The training programs] will help keep abortion care in Maryland safe and accessible for generations.”

Pro-choice states have been inundated with patients from states with abortion bans, and doctors have been completely overwhelmed and overworked. Programs like these are a vital part of increasing the reproductive health workforce and helping to lessen the load on existing providers.

1. There’s a whole other conversation to be had about LARCs and how they’re targeted at low-income women.