Abortion, Every Day (3.21.23)

Ohio anti-choice group suing to stop pro-choice ballot measure

In the states…

In the latest egregious example of Republicans undermining democracy in order to ban abortion, anti-choice activists in Ohio are suing to try to stop a pro-choice ballot measure from getting in front of voters this November. As you know, abortion rights groups in the state are in the midst of collecting the over 400,00 signatures necessary for the ballot measure to move forward. But yesterday, the former head of Cincinnati Right to Life filed a lawsuit in an attempt to force organizers to start over and collect twice as many signatures.

Right now, the language for the proposed amendment states that everyone “has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including to abortion, contraception, fertility treatments, miscarriage care and continuing a pregnancy. But the lawsuit claims that abortion is different than other reproductive decisions, and therefore the issues require multiple different ballot measures.

If the suit is successful, the measure would have to back to the Ohio Ballot Board, and organizers would need to start their signature-gathering process all over again. And because the amendment would be split in two, they’d need to get twice as many signatures by July 5th in order to have voters see it November. This move could not only stall or stop the measure, but could also give Republicans more time to pass legislation requiring ballot measures to have 60% of the vote to pass, as opposed to a simple majority. (Something they’ve been working on for a while now.)

And remember, Ohio anti-abortion groups already launched a $5 million ad campaign against the measure—relying on anti-trans talking points out of fear that abortion rights are too popular to beat. (The ads falsely claim the amendment would allow teenagers to get “sex change” surgery without parental permission.) Apparently they don’t have full faith in that messaging strategy, so they’re just going to try to stop voters from having a say at all.

In Tennessee, the fake abortion ban exception for women’s health and lives has passed the House. As I’ve reported previously, the new language does nothing to actually help protect women and doctors; it won’t even allow treatment for miscarrying women. Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson called the bill dangerous, pointing out how horrific it is that a doctor’s risk for prosecution goes down as the risk to a woman’s life increases: “How close to death must their patient be for them to avoid criminal prosecution? That’s something that I don’t think we should be asking women to test.”

Meanwhile, reproductive rights experts are worried that Wyoming’s new first-of-its-kind abortion medication ban could become a trend in other states. Jenny Ma, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights, says “When one anti-abortion state acts, they become the market leader for far more restrictions. Other states will follow suit.”

And in the wake of a separate law in the state banning abortion, Wyoming providers have already started to cancel appointments. Under the new law, doctors who provide abortions could be charged with a felony and face five years in prison. From OBGYN Dr. Giovannina Anthony:

“What these laws do…is they force physicians like myself to choose between providing good, evidence-based care and my own welfare. That’s an impossible choice to make.”

There’s a hearing set for tomorrow as abortion rights activists try to block enforcement of the law.

We also have some new information on the Utah law that bans abortion clinics by requiring all abortions be performed in hospitals. I told you last week that not one Utah hospital—that’s right, zero—had performed any abortions in the past year that weren’t medically necessary, emergency cases. That data from the Utah Hospital Association was backed up today by the Guttmacher Institute, who tells The 19th that only 1% of abortions in the state happened in hospitals.

Now, that’s not unusual: abortions are a safe, outpatient procedure or a prescription to medication—neither of which requires a hospital stay. And Republicans know as much. The point of the law is claim that women canget abortions in a place that doesn’t really do abortions. As Guttmacher’s Elizabeth Nash said, “You can’t just show up at a hospital and say, ‘I’m ready for this care now—when can you pencil me in?’ This isn’t how care is provided in hospitals.”

Slate has an absolutely harrowing piece on what’s happening in Texas, where doctors are leaving the state in droves over the total abortion ban and their inability to provide patients with anything coming close to adequate care. Reporter Sophie Novack spoke to more than a dozen Texas doctors for the piece, many of whom were leaving or thinking about leaving—several, she said, cried through the interview. Charles Brown, chair of ​​the Texas district of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), said, “If I was ever touch a patient again, it won’t be in the state of Texas.” Don’t miss this one, but also prepare yourself—it’s a difficult read.

Kansas Republicans continue to propose anti-abortion bills, despite the state’s clear pro-choice majority. The latest legislation would require doctors who prescribe abortion medication to tell patients about ‘abortion reversal’—an unproven bullshit claim made up by anti-choice organizations and activists. Lawmakers are also pushing a ‘born alive’ bill, another lie created to demonize abortion providers and spread misinformation. (Click here for some information on what this kind of legislation really does.)

If you think violations of reproductive rights only happen in states with abortion restrictions and bans, guess again. Irin Carmon has a devastating piece in New York Magazine about a woman who was tested for drugs without her consent in Brooklyn hospital as she gave birth. “They really wanted to see my baby get taken away,” the woman says.” When you read the piece, I think you’ll see that she’s absolutely right. (And, of course, this is a strategy right out of the anti-abortion/fetal personhood playbook.)

In Idaho, anti-abortion activists make clear that they’re not just trying to criminalize abortion—but anyone who helps someone get an abortion. Brandi Swindell, president of a local anti-abortion clinic, says, “There needs to be clarification and enforcement that any organization or individual that is involved in promoting, selling or profiting from attempting to skirt Idaho’s law to dispense and sell and profit from the abortion pill, that those entities need to be held accountable.” To be clear: That’s just another way of saying they want to put abortion fund organizers in jail.

In better news, Minnesota lawmakers passed protections for abortion providers and patients out of the state House. The legislation would prohibit out-of-state subpoenas and extradition requests against those who provide or obtain abortions. It’s a vital move in light of Minnesota providers seeing more out-of-state patients than ever, some from states like Texas, that have ‘bounty hunter’ laws allowing citizens to sue over abortion. In fact, Amy Hagstrom Miller of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance told the Associated Press that, “The most remarkable change has come from Texas, where we only saw 2 patients from that state in 2019 to 96 from February 2022 to March of 2023.”

Quick hits:

• Voting began today for the Wisconsin state Supreme Court, which we’ve been paying very close attention to;

• Nevada Democrats want to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution;

• Iowa Democrats are proposing a slate of pro-choice bills they know have little chance of passing but are using as a chance to send “a loud and clear message”;

• Oregon lawmakers are heard testimony on a bill that would provide broad protections for abortion providers;

• And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is going to get another state Supreme Court pick.

In the nation…

I’ve written before about the terrific work of Elevated Access, an organization of volunteer pilots who fly women (often on their own dime) out of anti-choice states to locations where they can get the care they need. NPR flags something important about the group’s work today—noting that while there aren’t laws banning interstate travel for abortion as of yet, that doesn’t mean that kind of criminalization will never come. From Drexel University law professor David Cohen:

“You could see an aggressive prosecutor trying to say, under the current laws, that, ‘We are going to charge this pilot with being an accessory to murder or an accessory to abortion.’ We haven’t seen prosecutors try that yet. But there’s good reason to believe that’s on the horizon.”

In related news, Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson was on Good Morning America talking about the attacks on abortion rights:

Well, well, well: Check out this profile of Kentucky Republican James Comer from The New York Times, which details how the House Oversight Committee chair spreads misinformation and conspiracy theories. Especially notable for our purposes is that the piece resurfaces 2015 allegations that Comer abused his college girlfriend and helped her obtain an abortion. (Naturally, Comer voted against the Violence Against Women Act and is a co-sponsor of anti-abortion legislation.)

Quick hits:

• Always read Dahlia Lithwick in Slate, who lays out how anti-abortion strategies are being used to deprive all of us of freedom;

• Teen Vogue argues that if the U.S. is going to force women into childbirth, they should provide a guaranteed income;

• And Vice President Kamala Harris is speaking out on abortion rights in Texas and beyond.

Listen up…

NPR in Wisconsin has a short segment with the political backstory on the fight over abortion rights in the state; and public radio in Texas gets into the politicians battling it out over birth control.

What conservatives are doing…

The anti-abortion organization Students for Life continues their protests outside of pharmacies that might dispense abortion medication. They’ve been demonstrating in multiple states, holding signs like “Keep abortion out of pharmacies.” But here’s the thing: Students for Life classifies almost all forms of birth control as abortifacients, and claims that contraception is a “degrading disservice to women.” I’ve flagged this before, but I keep seeing the organization covered in mainstream news outlets without any context about just how radical they are—and it’s important! Here's a piece yesterday from The Washington Post, for example, about what some of the “major players” are planning to ask potential Republican presidential candidates.

“Students for Life Action is developing a survey asking candidates whether they’ll promise to appoint Cabinet members who oppose abortion, if they’d sign legislation to restrict abortions early in pregnancy, how they’d crack down on abortion pills and whether they would defund Planned Parenthood.”

This would be a perfect place to mention that this group believes birth control pills are abortion! Because if they believe that contraception is abortion, then when the group pressures candidates to appoint “Cabinet members who oppose abortion,” they are talking about something much broader than what this language leads readers to believe.

Keep an eye on…

Conservatives and anti-abortion activists saw those maternal mortality numbers from the CDC and they are nervous. And so in the same way that lawmakers and activists have been preemptively blaming doctors for abortion ban horror stories in anticipation of the first reported post-Roe death, they’re starting claiming that the CDC’s numbers are wrong.

Check out, for example, this latest bit of propaganda from the anti-choice organization, the Charlotte Lozier Institute. The entire paper is about how abortion restrictions don’t impact maternal mortality at all, and why Americans shouldn’t trust data on maternal mortality. (It was also written by Ingrid Skop—an anti-choice OBGYN that conservative groups trot out to testify at every fucking bill debate.) Not only do they want us to doubt what we can see with our own eyes, they want to blame women in the process: The paper suggests that perhaps Black women are dying at a disproportionate rate because they have a higher chance of obesity.

It’s disgusting all around, but important to pay attention to—we’ll definitely see more of this in the coming months.

This newsletter was compiled with the help of researcher Grace Haley.