Abortion, Every Day (3.12.24)

Conservatives are fighting over IVF :)

Click to skip ahead: It’s fun to see Conservative Infighting on IVF, but also good to get a heads up on a possible anti-IVF talking point. In the States, activism in Texas, weirdness in Arkansas and a Republican running from their record in New Mexico. In the Nation, abortion rights groups are pissed off about Biden leaving out the word ‘abortion’ in his SOTU. In Stats & Studies, conservatives respond to the latest poll showing support for abortion rights. In 2024, I’m reviving a prediction I made about Trump & abortion. In Ballot Measure Updates, news from Arkansas, Nebraska and Maryland. In Anti-Choice Strategy, the head of a radical anti-abortion group claims to be real women’s advocate. Finally, in Care Crisis news, a vital piece on the reproductive and maternal health crisis in Idaho.

---

Conservative Infighting on IVF

I almost put this in the ‘You Love to See It’ section because I really do love to see it: Anti-abortion activists and Republican legislators are clashing over IVF. Anti-choice groups are furious with the lawmakers who’ve come out in support of IVF since the Alabama Supreme Court decision on frozen embryos.

POLITICO reports that major anti-abortion organizations like Students for Life and Live Action are blasting Republicans who introduced legislation to protect IVF, accusing them of giving doctors a “license to kill.” Some organizations are even running graphic bloody ads against lawmakers that they’ve long-supported.

There’s something else worth noting in the POLITICO piece—a potential talking point we might see anti-abortion groups and lawmakers use to defend anti-IVF bills. Kristi Hamrick, chief policy strategist for Students for Life of America, said politicians need to talk about what they mean when they say they support IVF:

“Do you support allowing a clinic that allows another patient to wander back and destroy embryos to go without any sanctions? Do you support allowing a disreputable doctor who uses his own sperm to fertilize most of the women’s eggs in the facility—that person shouldn’t experience any repercussions? What exactly are you saying you support?” (Emphasis mine)

This is really interesting to me. We know that anti-abortion activists and legislators love to use feminist rhetoric to roll back women’s rights—from ‘trafficking’ to ‘Women’s Right to Know’ laws. And we’ve watched as they’ve tried to ban mifepristone by claiming that it’s unsafe for women’s health and that the drug makes it easier for abusers to force abortions on their victims.

Given all that, I would not be surprised at all if we started to hear this talking point come up in IVF discussions: claims that they’re just trying ‘regulate’ clinics to ‘protect’ women from dangerous doctors.

Definitely something to keep an eye on.

In the States

Another day, another Republican trying to hide her anti-abortion history from voters! HuffPost reports that Yvette Herrell, who is running for Congress in New Mexico, has cut all of the references to abortion from her website and campaign materials.

Some removed language includes a promise that “Yvette will be a tireless advocate for the unborn in Congress,” and that “100% Pro-Life, Yvette believes life starts at conception and will never waiver in her beliefs.”

When HuffPost reached out to Herrell’s campaign, they gave the wishy-washy answer we’ve come to expect from Republicans these days, saying that “she believes this is no longer a federal issue and should be left to the states.” The only detail her campaign gave was to say that she supports IVF, which Republicans have been scrambling over since the Alabama Supreme Court decision ruling that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children.”

Walgreens is set to start dispensing mifepristone in New York, making it the first pharmacy in the state to do so. From state Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald:

“The availability of medication abortion options in a major chain pharmacy is another step toward protecting reproductive rights. Abortion care remains safe and legal in New York state and the department will continue to protect access to medication abortion and contraception.”

Gotta love my home state!

In unsurprising business news, Inc. reports that the dating app Bumble lost a third of its staff from their Texas offices after the state passed an abortion ban. (And the company helped them do it—they don’t require employees to work in their Austin headquarters.)

At a SXSW event, Bumble's Interim General Counsel, Elizabeth Monteleon, explicitly blamed the SB 8 and said that since 2021, employees are “choosing to move elsewhere.” And honestly, who can blame them.

Speaking of Texas and SXSW, Jezebel reports that Plan C Pills and Fight for the Future had mobile billboards hanging out at the event to raise awareness around travel bans and abortion criminalization. You can check them out below:

Things are getting a little weird in Arkansas, where the state commission is arguing with an artist over how to fund a “monument to the unborn” that will be erected on the State Capitol.

Artist Lakey Goff plans to erect a “living wall” of plants, but members of the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission have pointed out several issues with the plan: One, Arkansas’ climate doesn’t lend itself to the design, which would require constant maintenance. And when the commission members noted that Goff’s design isn’t handicap accessible, Goff replied, “When we talk about handicapped spaces, I just want people to know that Jesus is still healing people and setting people free.” What now??

There’s more! KUAR reports that the monument is required to be funded through private donations, but that the state could pay for “maintenance and repair of monuments”—even though there’s no set fund for such maintenance. But don’t worry, Goff said her project is “funded by heaven” so the money will come.

Really and truly read the whole piece; it’s a treat.

Finally, in Minnesota, ShaVunda Brown of the abortion fund Our Justice, calls for funding independent clinics in the state to improve the abortion care infrastructure and close racial maternal health gaps. While abortion rights is protected in Minnesota, Brown rightly writes, “Abortion rights are meaningless, however, if accessing them is contingent on one’s race, wealth, geography, gender or ability.”

Quick hits:

• Arizona Republic wants to know why Arizona’s two top Democrats didn’t go to Kamala Harris’ abortion rights event in the state;

• Oklahoma Republicans are changing an anti-abortion bill after backlash;

• We’re still waiting on the Utah Supreme Court to come down with their abortion rights decision;

• And the Associated Press on whether the ballot measure win in Ohio signals something bigger about which way the state is leaning.

In the Nation

Last week, I pointed out that Joe Biden skipped over the word ‘abortion’ in his State of the Union, even though it was in his prepared remarks. The Associated Press has more on that decision and how abortion rights advocates felt about the omission.

Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio, says, “By not saying the word ‘abortion,’ it implies that it’s taboo or something to be ashamed of.” And Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, put it plainly:

“Abortion is what we provide and what people are being denied. People don’t call us for a reproductive freedom appointment. They don’t ask for a bodily autonomy visit or a choice procedure. They call for abortion care, and abortion is a professional medical term for the health care we provide. Avoiding the word just shows the power of the historical stigma around abortion.”

As you know, Biden’s squeamishness around abortion rights has been an ongoing issue. I feel for his speechwriters and handlers, to be honest.

PBS NewsHour has a short segment on the role of fetal personhood in the anti-abortion movement, and an interview with reproductive rights attorney Julie F. Kay:

Quick hits:

• The National Women’s Law Center reminds us this Equal Pay Day that “abortion bans and restrictions are intensifying economic insecurity”;

• Media Matters catches Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins lying (again) about abortion medication “polluting our waterways”';

• The Hill on why Democrats are fired up on abortion rights;

• Salon on the problem of deeming some abortions more ‘worthy’ than others;

• And if you need a good *lolsob* moment, The Onion has “The Most Googled Questions on Abortion.”

Stats & Studies

The New York Times has more on the KFF poll I wrote about last week, reporting that “the end of Roe created a new class of energized abortion-rights voters.” The Times also gets into how conflicted Republican voters have become over the issue, with four in ten believing abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 43% reporting that they’d support a federal right to abortion.

I don’t know how many different ways we can point out that abortion rights are popular as fuck—but I’ll keep trying regardless!

Speaking of the KFF poll, the conservative National Review ran a piece this week about why their results are “misleading.” Namely, the writer claims that the way the questions were asked were biased towards pro-choice responses because they had a question that “frames abortion as a health-care issue” and that another “asks about abortion in the case of a ‘pregnancy emergency.’”

Essentially: how dare they talk plainly and truthfully about abortion! This response becomes much clearer when you check out who the writer is: Michael New of the Charlotte Lozier Institute. If that name sounds familiar it’s because he’s the guy who got bent out of shape when a Texas study came out showing a rise in infant death after the state passed its abortion ban.

At the time, he wrote that we shouldn’t be up in arms about the rise in infant mortality because the increase in deaths was due to the law “preventing unborn children from being aborted due to their medical condition.” In other words, it was a good thing.

2024

NBC’s Boston affiliate has a quote this week that reminds me what kind of rhetoric I think we’re going to see from Donald Trump as we speed towards November.

Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, told reporters, “What Dobbs did was remove, at the Supreme Court level, the issue of abortion and return it to the states. So the people in a truly Democratic process get to make their own laws.” 

In a truly Democratic process!! It reminds me of my prediction late last year: That given how much voters hate abortion bans, Trump would find a way to take credit for pro-choice wins.

Essentially, I think he’s going to point to elections like Issue 1 in Ohio and say: Isn’t it great that I gave the issue back to the states? Wasn’t that generous of me?

He’ll say that he’s ‘pro-life’, of course, but claim that any vote for or against abortion in the states is because of him. That he cleared the way for democracy. Maybe I’m wrong (I hope I’m wrong!) but it’s something I’m watching out for.

Ballot Measure Updates

Nebraska abortion rights activists are moving forward with a pro-choice ballot measure. Protect Our Rights, a coalition of reproductive rights and justice groups, is collecting signatures for an amendment that would protect abortion up until ‘viability’—a standard which would be determined by a doctor.

Taylor Givens-Dunn with ibeblackgirl, one of the coalition partners, says, “The majority of Nebraskans agree that decisions about reproductive health care and health care in general should be made by the patient themselves.”

The anti-abortion groups in the state, however, are pulling the same old shit we’ve seen in every state proposing a pro-choice measure: they’re claiming that the language of the measure is too broad and would allow for abortion in any and all cases. From Sandy Danek of Nebraska Right To Life:

“There’s a health exception. And courts have, in the past, define health exceptions is being so broad, it could be for any reason, mental, financial, whatever reason, and again, the person who determines that is the one performing the abortion.”

Please note the careful way she’s using her words here. She’s not saying that the measure allows abortion for mental or financial reason—but that “courts have in the past” defined health exceptions in such a way. It’s a clever rhetorical trick.

In better news: Several hundred people gathered in Arkansas over the weekend to protest for abortion rights. The rally was put together by Arkansans for Limited Government, the organization working to advance a pro-choice ballot measure in the state. They need to collect more than 90,000 signatures by July 5 to get the proposed amendment in front of voters this November.

In other ballot measure inspired protests this weekend: anti-abortion activists marched in Maryland yesterday, calling for a pro-choice amendment to be kept off the ballot. One of the reasons attendees gave for why they were protesting the measure was the idea that it would undermine parents—this is a growing anti-abortion talking point being trotted out specifically for pro-choice amendments.

They know they can’t win on abortion rights alone—the issue is too popular! So they’re trying to make it seems as if enshrining abortion rights will let teens get abortions or gender-affirming care. (Their hope is that anti-trans talking points will sit with voters better than anti-choice ones.)

Anti-Choice Strategy: Lie Your Ass Off

Remember the wacko organization that put out a glossary of ‘life-affirming medical terms’ that they want doctors to use instead of actual medical terminology? American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists also happens to be the group that says women never need an abortion to save their life, and if a woman has a placental abruption, she should be forced to labor for 24 hours—despite the risk to her life and even if the pregnancy is nonviable. All so she can deliver an “intact fetus.”

Well, the CEO of AAPLOG has an op-ed in The Hill this week, claiming that President Biden is putting “abortion politics ahead of health care.” That’s right, Christina Francis says it’s Biden putting women’s health at risk. How? By requiring that emergency rooms provide life-saving abortions.

Francis says that the administration’s call on hospitals to adhere to the EMTALA—which requires life-saving and stabilizing care, even if that means an abortion, hurts women:

“This callous guidance could terminate scores of innocent lives while creating a wedge between emergency patients and the care they need. Giving women the false impression that induced abortion is lifesaving care risks luring them into seeking treatment that can lead to a lifetime of mental and physical harms. But most doctors understand that induced abortion is not medically necessary to save the life of a mother.”

Here’s the thing, you can’t have a lifetime of “mental and physical harms” if you’re dead; in fact you can’t have a lifetime of anything. These people are truly nuts. As usual, I worry about their use (or misuse, more accurately) of language: they’re working very hard to sound medically credible and compassionate. It’s vital we’re reminding voters of who they really are.

Care Crisis

Speaking of who anti-abortion activists really are and what their laws really do: The Spokesman Review has a must-read piece on what maternity ward closures in Idaho have done to the rural communities there.

You know by now that Idaho has been one of the hardest-hit states in terms of the post-Roe care crisis: the state has lost nearly a quarter of its OBGYNs and two vital maternity wards.

Last week, the Pro-Voice Project organized a rally outside of Bonner General Hospital, bringing together about 200 protesters. The hospital closed its maternity ward last year, explicitly tying the closure to lawmakers who “introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care.”

Reporter Amanda Sullender spoke to life-long residents who said they’d be leaving Idaho if and when they decide to have children. Makayla Sundquist, for example, said she’d leave out of fear that something could wrong: “Not only can you have a loss of pregnancy, which is incredibly sad, but you could potentially lose your life as a pregnant woman in Idaho.”

Make sure to read the whole piece.