Abortion, Every Day (3.27.24)

Alabama Dem flips a seat by sharing her abortion story

In Abortion Wins Elections, Alabama Dems flipped a seat! In Florida’s Personhood Push, Republicans are at it again. In Ballot Measure News, efforts to quash voter voices in Nebraska. And In the States, news out of Arizona, Kentucky, Texas and more. In the Nation, some quick hits. Post-Roe Care Crisis looks at the mess in Idaho, and in Keep An Eye On, pharmacy protests ramp up.

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For a recap on yesterday’s Supreme Court arguments, check out the email I sent earlier today:

SCOTUS & Mifepristone Takeaways

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Abortion Wins Elections

I don’t know how many times we have to say it before politicians truly understand: Abortion wins elections. Even in red states.

In what Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams called a “political earthquake,” Alabama Democrat Marilyn Lands flipped a state House seat by running on repealing the state’s abortion ban—and by telling her own abortion story.

What’s more, Lands won by 25 points. The licensed mental health counselor told The Washington Post that she heard from voters again and again about reproductive rights. From her statement Tuesday night:

“Today, Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation. Our legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the right to contraception.”

Reproductive rights has been top-of-mind for folks in Alabama, where the Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos are “extrauterine children.” But Lands didn’t just win by focusing on reproductive rights, though—she put out a campaign ad where she shared her own experience of getting an abortion after a nonviable pregnancy.

The ad, called ‘Two Decades’, featured a young woman who had to drive 10 hours out-of-state for care after finding out that her fetus had a fatal condition. Lands then shares that she had a “nearly-identical situation” years ago, but “was able to get the care I needed close to home.”

Personal stories have become one of Democrats’ most powerful political tools since Roe was overturned. In Kentucky, for example, Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection was credited in large part to an ad featuring Hadley Duvall, a young woman who spoke about being raped by her stepfather as a child. (Anti-abortion groups have tried to find personal stories of their own to connect with voters, but they’re just not resonating in the same way.)

Florida’s Personhood Push

Florida’s Supreme Court is expected to come down with a decision soon on the language of a pro-choice amendment—a ruling that will determine whether the measure will go to voters this November. (The Court has until April 1.) While abortion rights activists wait, however, Republicans are making another move—one the newsletter warned about last month.

The proposed amendment in Florida, like nearly all of the pro-choice amendments making their way towards voters, has a ‘viability’ limit—something that’s been at the center of a tremendous amount of disagreement within the pro-choice movement. (I come down on the side of the National Institute for Reproductive Health’s Learning and Accountability Project, which points out this kind of standard “invites a conversation about when the government should interfere in someone’s pregnancy” as opposed to “whether the government should ever be empowered to override someone’s bodily autonomy.”)

And remember, back in October, Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody petitioned the state Supreme Court to reject the measure based on that ‘viability’ standard—claiming that the language was deliberately misleading. But there’s another issue, too.

Last month, Abortion, Every Day flagged that Chief Justice Carlos Muniz raised fetal personhood during oral arguments on the measure, asking whether the proposed amendment would interfere with the rights of the fetus. He questioned the state attorney on whether the Florida Constitution’s guarantee that all ‘natural persons’ be ‘equal before the law’ can apply to fetuses.

In other words, the justice was giving Republicans ideas for how to make a personhood argument. Lo and behold, the Orlando Sentinel reported last week that AG Mood’s office and anti-abortion groups “raised the possibility of filing an additional brief about what is described as the “natural persons” provision of the state Constitution.” So yeah, the exact idea he planted in their minds!

Definitely check out the Orlando Sentinel article for some legal nitty gritty, because it’s an argument we’re going to see in states beyond Florida.

In the meantime, it’s worth remembering that the abortion rights amendment has broad support in the state among voters—with 60% saying they’d vote in support of the measure, including the majority of Republicans. I’ll keep you updated when a decision comes down.

Ballot Measure News

In other ballot measure news, a Nebraska lawmaker has been chastised after using the power of his office to pressure religious leaders into speaking out against a pro-choice ballot measure. The Nebraska Examiner reports that state Sen. Loren Lippincott sent a mailing to pastors and ministers in the state, on official letterhead, telling them to “use your influence” to oppose the abortion rights amendment proposed by Protect Our Rights.

“Stand up and speak up to your congregation for life in its entirety with your commitment to promote biblical truths,” the letter said.

A state statute says that legislators shouldn’t be sending mass mailings at public expense in support or opposition of a ballot measure, but whether or not the letter qualifies as a “mass mailing” seems up for debate. As such, the head of the Legislature’s Executive Board told the state senator to “knock it off” after recipients of Lippincott’s letter complained.

Maybe a more official censure would be nice?? It’s incredible that these legislators continue to break the rules in order to stop voters from having a say and they’re just…allowed to get away with it!

In the States

The IndyStar has a good rundown on what happened in Indiana when a bill meant to protect birth control became the perfect example of the war on contraception.

I wrote a bit about this last month: House Bill 1426—which has since been signed into law—would increase long-acting reversible contraception for for Medicaid recipients. But anti-abortion activists successfully lobbied legislators to remove any mention or language about IUDs, claiming that the contraceptives were actually abortifacients.

As I wrote then, this is how they do it. Republicans won’t ban birth control all at once, but chip away at it a little bit at a time.

Arizona Sen. Eva Burch spoke to Democracy Now about her floor speech announcing that she’d be getting an abortion for a nonviable pregnancy. One of the things she mentioned both in that speech and to Amy Goodman was the hoops she was expected to jump through in order to get care. From her interview:

“I think that a lot of people don’t really understand the ways that laws can be sort of weaponized against patients, not to necessarily ban abortion, but to make abortion inaccessible or a difficult experience, to create a hostile environment in the abortion clinic, to create confusion in the patient and provider relationship. And we have a lot of that in Arizona.”

Efforts to add rape and incest exceptions to Kentucky’s abortion ban seem unlikely to go anywhere, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. The bills, one of which was proposed by a Republican, weren’t given committee assignments. This is the second session since Roe’s demise that legislators have tried and failed to get exceptions added to the state ban.

Also in Kentucky, medical students talk about how they’re hesitant to practice in the state because of its strict abortion ban. “The minutiae of the law means that we have to worry at every step of the process that there’s a chance that we could be doing something that is a class-D felony,” one student said.

As you know, we’re seeing an exodus of OBGYNs and medical residents out of anti-choice states. (In fact, a new University of Michigan study shows that OBGYN residency applications are decreasing in states with abortion bans.)

I’ve written before about the abortion rights fights in the town of Bristol, which actually sits in two states—Virginia and Tennessee. That means whether or not abortion is legal depends on what side of the street you’re on—literally. This week, USA Today published a video looking at how post-Roe politics have played out in the town:

The Austin-American Statesman has an explainer on the Texas medical board abortion guidelines, which have been at the center of a lot of controversy these last few weeks. The board was meant to issue rules that would help doctors know when they could legally give life-saving abortions (I can’t believe this is up for debate). By all accounts the panel fell short.

Law professor Joanna Grossman, for example, told the Dallas Observer that the guidelines “add literally nothing in terms of clarity, and in some ways, may make it a little worse.”

“Because they seem to impose documentation requirements that are quite onerous. The way the medical exception is written uses a lot of words that don’t have any fixed meaning, like ‘substantial risk,’ ‘life-threatening,’ and ‘aggravate.’ We’ve seen it in recent news stories. How close to death does someone have to be for their condition to be life-threatening?”

Meanwhile, Republicans in Alabama are being attacked by anti-abortion activists over a bill meant to protect IVF doctors. After the explosive state Supreme Court decision declaring frozen embryos are people, Republicans advanced legislation to protect IVF, granting legal immunity to doctors. In response, anti-choice groups are accusing Republicans of giving doctors a free pass if they “kill unborn children.”

Gonna be honest, love to see the infighting! They deserve each other.

Finally, some good news. Oregon launched a website to help patients access abortion care in the state: Abortion Access in Oregon. Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement that the site “helps us reaffirm to people in Oregon that abortion remains legal and protected in our state.” Kotek also said that anyone who comes to Oregon, regardless of immigration status, has the right to abortion care—even if they’re not a state resident.

In the Nation

• Capital B speaks to three Black reproductive health experts on the misinformation around birth control;

• Rewire calls on college campuses to step up when it comes to access to abortion medication;

• Mother Jones interviewed Lynn Paltrow, founder of Pregnancy Justice;

• The CEO of CVS on why the company decided to carry abortion medication;

• POLITICO on the anti-abortion movement’s personhood plans;

• The New Yorker on the “shameless” oral arguments against mifepristone;

• And PBS Newshour spoke to law professor Mary Ziegler about how the 2024 election will impact abortion rights.

Post-Roe Care Crisis

Idaho has been one of the states hardest hit by the post-Roe care crisis: a recent report found that the state lost nearly 25% of its OBGYNs since Dobbs, several hospitals have shut down their maternity wards, and the state disbanded its maternal mortality committee.

In response to what is obviously an urgent health crisis, Idaho Democrats held a press conference on Friday, calling on their colleagues across the aisle to do something. House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel asked Republicans to introduce legislation to reverse the damage their ban has caused—and to do so before the end of the session:

“There is enough time left to address this. When GOP leadership cares about an issue, they can move quickly. We are asking them to act now to fix the disaster they’ve created before we adjourn, and before the women and health professionals of Idaho have to face another year of physical and legal endangerment.”

You’re not going to believe how Republicans responded. Local outlet KVTB reports that GOP leadership went out of their way to cancel an event set to be held Monday, where doctors and other experts were expected to speak about the consequences of the state’s ban.

If you’re wondering why Republicans would do such a thing—stop experts from sharing vital information about the clear crisis on the ground—well, it’s because their feelings were hurt.

“The chairman and some of the members of the committee were really frustrated at the press conference on Friday,” Republican Rep. Megan Blanksma said.

“Democrats came out, and they had a press conference and basically called Republicans names. And I think that's when the chairman got frustrated, and reasonably so because a lot of the things that were asserted in the press conference simply weren't true."

That’s right, they canceled the event in retaliation. (Blanksma also accused Democrats of “fear-mongering”—which is quite a statement given the absolute mess that’s happening on the ground.)

Keep An Eye On

No matter what happens with the Supreme Court, we’re going to continue to see attacks on mifepristone—namely, more protests in front of pharmacies that carry abortion medication. In the last few days, I’ve seen quite a few local stories about anti-abortion demonstrators outside of Walgreens and CVS locations, accusing the chains of turning pharmacies into abortion clinics.

It may not seem like much, but this is how a pressure campaign builds up. And anti-abortion groups are very much focusing on local efforts at the moment—from protests like these to crisis pregnancy centers. So this is something I’ll be keeping a close eye on.

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