In the states…
We know that abortion rights are incredibly popular—and after the midterms and various ballot measure wins, it seems like Republicans are finally starting to understand it, too. Which is why I’m not surprised that anti-choice groups in Ohio plan to campaign against an upcoming pro-choice ballot measure not by focusing on abortion—but ‘parental rights’. The Ohio Capital Journal reports that press releases from three separate anti-abortion groups, sent right after the state AG approved the proposed amendment language, specifically mentioned parents’ rights:
“If passed, it would cancel parental rights and measures in place to protect young girls; basic health and safety protections for women would be wiped out,” Ohio Right to Life CEO Peter Range was quoted as saying in a Thursday statement.
“If passed, this amendment would cancel parental rights and measures in place to protect young girls; basic health and safety protections for women would be wiped out,” read a statement attributed to Mark Harrington, president of Created Equal.
“It completely abolishes current Ohio law guaranteeing parental involvement before any abortion is performed on their minor daughter,” said religious lobby Center for Christian Virtue’s Ruth Edmonds, also in an email statement.
Please know what is coming next: These groups are going to start to use anti-trans talking points, just as they did in Michigan. Messaging about parental notification is the first step, the next will be to claim that the measure will allow minors to get hormonal and surgical treatment. You can count on it. Either way, the strategy is super telling: The right to legal abortion is so popular that these groups’ only recourse is to lie. And by the way, I’ve been seeing this messaging pop up frequently on conservative media in the last few weeks. So definitely plan to see more of it.
Here at Abortion, Every Day, we’ve been paying close attention to the state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin—so you’re gonna love this. (And by ‘love’ I mean ‘want to tear your hair out’.) You probably know that Republican judge Dan Kelly, who served on the Court from 2016-2020 and then lost his bid for re-election, is once again a candidate. This, however, you probably aren’t aware of: Apparently Kelly used to blog—pontificating about things like marriage equality and abortion between 2012 and 2015—and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has published some key lines from the now-deleted website.
Kelly wrote that “an abortion, of course, involves taking the life of a human being,” and that “everyone involved in the subject knows it.” Kelly also criticized the “culturally-elite organizations” that support abortion and try to make it “culturally acceptable,” and accused them of “favoring a policy that has as its primary purpose harming children…to preserve sexual libertinism.” Yikes.
And we knew this was coming, but it’s still horrific: Utah’s governor has said he will sign the bill banning abortions from being performed outside of hospitals, effectively outlawing abortion clinics in the state.
Meanwhile, North Carolina has seen a nearly 40% rise in abortions since Roe was overturned, largely because of patients traveling from out-of-state. That means Republicans’ plan to introduce anti-abortion legislation in the next few weeks wouldn’t just impact those in North Carolina—but women seeking care in the South more broadly. The same is true for a ruling on abortion medication: Pills accounted for nearly 60% of abortions performed in the state.
Also in North Carolina; I told you last week about the more than 1,000 doctors there who spoke out against abortion bans—urging lawmakers not to pass any more restrictions in the state. You can watch a few of these doctors on TikTok speaking about just how dangerous further restrictions could be, and how damaging the existing restrictions have already been. The video below is of Dr. Alison Stuebe, an OBGYN and maternal-fetal medicine specialist in the state:
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Dr. Stuebe also wrote an op-ed for The Charlottesville Observer last week, and I wanted to flag this particular part:
“Some anti-abortion politicians have suggested that we can ban abortion with exceptions for cases like these. But there is no legal work-around that will keep families in North Carolina safe. I have been practicing medicine for 20 years, and I have learned that every case is unique. Every patient must have the autonomy to make these decisions, with guidance from their trusted providers.”
This is something we talk about here a lot: Pregnancy is too complicated to legislate. I’m so grateful to the doctors who are speaking up to remind folks of exactly that.
In Missouri, where legislators have been debating expanding postpartum Medicaid coverage, the state Senate passed a version last week that would make women who end their pregnancies ineligible for care. And an abortion provider in Montana has written an op-ed about regulations that will make it impossible for women to use Medicaid to cover abortion costs: “Instead, patients would need to come up with hundreds or even thousands of dollars out-of-pocket—far more than many working Montana families can afford.”
Good news out of Iowa: Anti-abortion bills proposed in the state, including legislation that would ban abortion medication, didn’t make it past the legislature’s deadline on Friday. That means abortion in Iowa is still currently legal until 20 weeks of pregnancy, and Republicans there will be waiting for the state Supreme Court’s decision on the currently-blocked 6-week ban. Legislation allowing for $1.5 million in additional funding to anti-abortion centers, however, did go through. And just a reminder: More than 60% of people in the state want abortion to be legal in all or most circumstances.
Tennessee lawmakers are frustrated with the continual delays in getting a life exception into the state’s total abortion ban. And a pediatrician in the state has written an op-ed for The Tennessean about what the state’s abortion ban means for its most vulnerable citizens:
“Our leaders need to consider the rights of that child victim, and not interfere in the proper medical care and support needed. Otherwise, we will live in a state where children are forced to have children, and that is just plain wrong, no matter what your feelings are about life.”
In Colorado, Democrats are trying to convince the Biden Administration to keep the Space Force headquarters in the state, because the alternative—moving it to Alabama—would mean that the service members stationed there would lose the right to abortion.
Fun fact: New Jersey state Sen. Ed Durr, who is running again, has the following to say about abortion: “A woman does have a choice! Keep her legs closed!” Maybe, just maybe, Republicans in the state should read the fucking room.
The Massachusetts House has approved a $1 million public education campaign about the dangers of anti-abortion centers—a way to make sure that the people of the state know that these are not real medical clinics offering care. Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now, relayed how happy activists were with the funding, and said, “So-called crisis pregnancy centers are the foot soldiers of the antiabortion movement. They pose a serious threat to people seeking unbiased, compassionate care when facing an unintended pregnancy.”
And California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the state is “done” with Walgreens after their decision not to dispense abortion medication in some states. Newsom says California will stop doing business with the company, tweeting that he doesn’t want to work with “any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women's lives at risk.”
Quick hits:
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who was just granted the ability to intervene in a lawsuit against the state’s abortion ban, wants a U.S. District Court to refuse to block the ban;
Nearly 60% of the people in Nebraska oppose the anti-abortion bill being heard in the legislature;
Pennsylvania Democrats are pushing bills that would allow for public funds to be used for abortions, and legislation that would protect patient and provider data;
More on the South Carolina bill that would make abortion punishable by the death penalty;
A Florida sexual health educator is trying to dispel misinformation about emergency contraception;
And if you remember the famous “pink house” in Mississippi—which was the state’s last abortion clinic—apparently it’s now set to become a luxury consignment store. Sigh.
In the nation…
With a ruling on abortion medication coming soon, there’s lots of understandable worry happening. But Dana Johnson of Ibis Reproductive Health writes in The New York Times that a ruling in favor of the anti-abortion group “would not be the end of abortion access in America, nor the end of access to safe medication abortion.” Johnson points out that a misoprostol-only protocol for ending a pregnancy with medication is safe and more and more studies show that it can be nearly as effective as both drugs combined. “It is critical that everyone who cares about American abortion access learns about misoprostol and its uses to prepare for what may soon be to come,” she writes. Definitely take the time to read the whole piece.
Republican Chris Sununu, governor of New Hampshire, is considering a presidential run—and the Wall Street Journal wants to know if a Republican who calls himself pro-choice can actually win. (You can hear Gov. Sununu talk a little bit about abortion rights on his recent Meet the Press appearance—I wouldn’t call him pro-choice as much as I would 'seemingly ambivalent’.)
There’s been lots of criticism directed at the Biden Administration lately around their lack of pro-active work to defend abortion rights. So I was interested to see this piece from Reuters: an “exclusive” about how the White House is helping to protect and expand abortion rights on a state-level. They report that the Administration is offering legal and messaging advice to political and non-profit leaders across multiple states, an effort led by the White House's Gender Policy Council and Vice President Kamala Harris’s office.
Now, that sounds great—and Harris has absolutely been making the rounds talking with abortion rights experts and activists. But this piece about the administration’s “previously unreported, behind-the scenes effort” feels very much like a well-placed press release for the White House, who has been taking well-deserved shit for not doing more on abortion. Because the ‘exclusive’ wasn’t reporting anything new, necessarily—it just relays how “helpful” the White House has been and how grateful state leaders are. Maybe I’m just jaded, but this gets a little bit of side-eye from me…
In the wake of Walgreens caving to conservative pressure on abortion medication, the Associated Press has a short explainer on the implications of the company’s decision, and PBS NewsHour did a short segment on the same:
Meanwhile, anti-choice groups are launching local protests in front of pharmacies to continue their harassment campaigns, all in the hope that chains like CVS will also decline to dispense abortion medication.
More in the attacks on abortion medication: Anti-abortion activists are pressuring Congress to investigate Planned Parenthood and any pharmacy that carries the pills. Fox News reports that the group 40 Days for Life is asking the House Oversight Committee to see if Planned Parenthood is “profiting from selling the dangerous RU-486 abortion pills,” and asks them to investigate whether pharmacies “are lawfully selling the drug.” Essentially, they want the government to do their harassing and intimidation for them.
Quick hit:
The Los Angeles Times editorial board has come out against the lawsuit seeking to reverse approval of mifepristone;
The Associated Press looks at how abortion access in border towns has impacted citizens on both sides of the debate;
ProPublica has a long read on the Thomas More Society, an anti-abortion group that now also focuses on “relentlessly questioning the integrity of elections”;
The Biden administration wants to broaden access to over-the-counter medications, including contraception;
And not-so-shockingly, there wasn’t a lot of talk about abortion at CPAC this year (almost as if they know it’s a losing issue!).
Listen up…
NPR has a short segment about local district attorneys who are refusing to prosecute abortion cases, and how Republicans are trying to punish them as a result. You can listen to it below, or read a longer piece about the issue here.
What conservatives are saying…
Conservative media outlets and anti-abortion groups are causing a fuss over a pro-choice speaker being invited to speak at Notre Dame. We already know that teachers have been targets across the country: They’re being prevented from teaching anything about racism or even acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people. More recently, the same is happening with abortion—conservative media outlets are attacking professors who espouse pro-choice beliefs. Now they don’t even want pro-choice speakers on campus! In addition to the attacks on academic freedom and freedom of speech, I’m super worried by the increasing vitriol of conservative outlets against everyday Americans.
You love to see it…
This is very cool: The organization Obstetricians for Reproductive Justice is launching an abortion training fund! If you follow this newsletter, you know that abortion bans and restrictions have made it increasingly difficult for OBGYN residents to receive vital training. Those who live in anti-choice states have been forced to travel out-of-state for their education—and most are paying for that travel, lodging, food, etc on their own dime. ORJ’s new fund is going to help them with those costs. More of this, please!
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