Abortion, Every Day (3.8.24)

Arizona Republican: Women should put an aspirin between their knees

Click to skip ahead: When men tell you who they are, Believe Them. In my State of the Union Recap, Biden’s focus on abortion rights and the very bizarre Republican response. In Anti-Choice Strategy, how the quiet campaign on nonviable pregnancies came up post-SOTU. In the States, a fetal personhood effort in Iowa, news from Wisconsin and more. In the Nation, some abortion hypocrisy and a new effort to take down Project 2025. Finally, in Stats & Studies, how to help the researchers taking down anti-abortion studies.

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Believe Them

I actually appreciate when men like this don’t bother hiding who they are. In Arizona, Republican Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli says that women wouldn’t need birth control if they would just keep their legs closed. Not joking.

When Arizona Mirror reporter Gloria Gomez asked Sen. Borrelli about whether he’d oppose efforts to restrict access to emergency contraception, this was his response:

“Like I said, Bayer Company invented aspirin. Put it between your knees.”

Then, incredibly, Borrelli dismissed concerns that Republicans might ban birth control, calling it “a controversy that doesn’t exist.”

When Republican men tell you who they are, believe them. Then, give them a call: You can find Sen. Borrelli on Twitter here, and find his phone number and email address here and here.

State of the Union Recap

I don’t know about you all, but I was pleasantly surprised about last night’s State of the Union. I thought President Joe Biden seemed energized, and I appreciated the light shit-talking directed at Republicans. I was also happy to see abortion come up early in the speech—and that it got a lot more focus than last year’s disaster.

That said, you all know how I feel about the ‘restore Roe’ framework. I understand wanting to bring over more moderate voters, but there’s a way to do that while still building something better than Roe. Because at the end of the day, women need more—and there’s never been a better time to fight for it. (Check out “The Year in Polling” for some reasons why.)

This tweet from Erika Christensen, for example—who wrote this fantastic guest column for us in December—is a good reminder for why moving past Roe is so important:

“When I hear Biden and other dems say ‘Roe got it right,’ I hear that I deserved to fly across the country for abortion care during a health crisis. That teens deserve to beg judges. That the most systemically marginalized communities deserve delays, denials and dehumanization.”

One more complaint: In keeping with the president’s penchant for talking about abortion rights without using the word ‘abortion’, Biden deviated from his prepared remarks when talking about Kate Cox. The speech was written to say that “Texas law banned abortion,” but instead Biden said that “Texas law banned her ability to act.” It may seem like a small thing, but to abortion rights activists who’ve been lobbying the White House, it’s a big deal.

I also think there was a missed opportunity to talk about the Comstock Act. If you want people to understand the danger of another Donald Trump presidency, tell voters about how Trump could enact a backdoor ban in every state in the country!

In fact, make sure to read this Slate piece from law professors David Cohen, Greer Donley, and Rachel Rebouche on why Biden really should have used the speech to warn voters about how this obscenity law from the 1800s could ban abortion regardless of what state you live in.

Read Biden’s full speech here; if you want to watch, his comments on abortion and Kate Cox start around minute 57 here.

Okay, now it’s time to talk about Sen. Serena Joy’s response. U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama responded to Biden’s SOTU from a kitchen of all places. While I’m sure Republicans thought the location would come across as relatable, all it did was remind voters of exactly where the GOP thinks women should be, even if they’re Senators.

Britt’s response—which was widely panned, even by Republicans—came across as just downright strange. Her voice, the over-the-top acting, and quick-change emotions from creepy wide smile to fake tears, was absolutely bizarre. It was giving evangelical mommy vlogger.

If you can’t take watching her—and I sure couldn’t make it all the way through—you can read Britt’s response here. What’s worth noting is that while the Senator from Alabama says that Republicans support IVF, Britt herself has refused to say whether or not she believes embryos are ‘children’. I think we know the answer.

Anti-Choice Strategy: Non-Viable Pregnancies

There’s one more thing I want to flag about the State of the Union: this response from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. The video that the anti-choice powerhouse put out after Biden’s speech speaks volumes about the priorities of the broader anti-abortion movement.

Jamie Dangers, legislative director of SBA Pro-Life America, called the SOTU “depressing and demeaning,” and Biden the most “pro-abortion president” in the country’s history. Dangers also mentioned that Biden didn’t use the word abortion, but that he “hid behind euphemisms,” reminding us why it actually is important that he uses the word.

But Dangers said something else that I want to make sure doesn’t go unnoticed. She talked about women “rising up” to tell stories of “empowerment”—and by empowerment she means women who carried nonviable pregnancies to term:

“Overcoming the odds and fear to keep their babies and to not choose abortion. To choose only a few minutes with their baby, if they’re not going to live, but to be able to surround that baby with comfort and love for the moments they do have together.”

For months, I’ve been warning that the anti-abortion movement’s next big campaign is all about pressuring and forcing women to carry doomed pregnancies to term. (If you’ve missed my reporting on this, check out Part I and Part II of “Calculated Cruelty.”) In this video, SBA Pro-Life America is laying that tactic out very clearly.

But wait, there’s more! Before Biden’s SOTU, Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins talked about nonviable pregnancies, as well. In POLITICO, Hawkins told reporters, “We have empathy and we want to stand with families who’ve received an adverse prenatal diagnosis, but that’s not the end of the story.”

Hawkins said that prenatal tests can be wrong (you’ve heard this song before) and that it’s better for parents to have a little bit of time with their babies rather than none at all. “You don’t end the suffering by ending the sufferer,” Hawkins said. How kind of her to make the decision for parents!

The campaign to force people to carry doomed pregnancies to term also came up earlier this week when Kentucky Democrats walked out of a committee meeting about a bill that would shame women with fatal fetal abnormalities out of having abortions. This tactic is everywhere right now.

In the States

Speaking of sketchy anti-abortion tactics, make sure to keep an eye on what’s happening in Kansas. Republicans there are advancing a bill that would mandate doctors ask patients all sorts of invasive questions before they can get an abortion. In turn, those answers would be reported to the state.

You can read some of the questions in the Kansas Reflector, but they range from asking patients whether they’ve been raped to whether they feel having a baby would interfere with their education.

Anti-abortion activists and lawmakers say the bill is a way for the state to collect better information about why women seek out abortions. But we need to be very, very wary of any data-collection efforts by conservatives around abortion. After all, one of the strategies I’ve been tracking and warning about is anti-abortion efforts to fabricate data, and to collect information about pregnant women.

Anti-abortion groups know that Americans don’t see them as medically or scientifically credible—so these organizations are trying to change that by creating their own stats and studies.

At the of the day, though, this bill is also just another way for Republicans to control women’s bodies and lives. Columnist Clay Wirestone points to this particularly telling moment during a debate on the bill when Rep. Brenda Landwehr said, “We just want to have more information…Make sure we’re making the right decision for these women.”

For these women. Because god forbid women make decisions for themselves.

Fetal personhood efforts continue on in multiple states, despite public outrage over the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF decision. In Iowa this week, Republicans advanced a bill that would enshrine fetal personhood by making it a felony to “cause the death” of an “unborn person.”

The bill, which passed the House yesterday, doesn’t include protections for IVF. As the Iowa Capital Dispatch points out, an amendment introduced by Democratic Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell that would have excluded the use of hormonal contraception and IVF was withdrawn.

Republicans, naturally, claim that no such protections are necessary. From Rep. Wessel-Kroeschell:

“When the Alabama Supreme Court defined an embryo as a child, it created chaos in the legal system and stopped in vitro fertilization in Alabama. This bill will recreate the same chaos in Iowa, limiting the ability for Iowans to build their families and their futures.”

Meanwhile, Democrats in Wisconsin want to codify the right to contraception in a state statute and are calling on Republicans to support the effort. Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein pointed to the Alabama IVF decision, noting that “Republican attacks on bodily autonomy are reaching far beyond abortion access,” and saying “we cannot wait until it is too late to take action.”

Sen. Hesselbein co-authored the “Right to Contraception Act” with Rep. Lisa Subeck, who says that they plan to deliver a petition with 15,000 signatures to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (both Republicans), urging them to support the effort.

Ruth Marcus at The Washington Post says the Alabama Supreme Court did us a favor by making it all-too-clear what Republicans really want for American women:

“The more rigidly personhood advocates hew to their stance, and the more the public understands about the consequences of this position, the better for those who take a more nuanced view,” she writes.

Finally, because there’s never just one terrible Republican man saying something disgusting, I had to share this news out of Colorado. Rep. Scott Bottoms, who is sponsoring a bill to ban abortion, said this at a committee hearing:

“Somebody who has been raped who goes to seek an abortion is still choosing to murder a baby, regardless of how that baby came into conception. They’re still seeking to murder a baby.”

I can’t believe that these are the people that get to create laws.

Quick hits:

• More on the Arizona legislation to protect birth control that Republicans refuse to support;

• POLITICO on moves by Missouri Republicans to make it harder to pass ballot measures (an effort we’ve seen by the GOP in every state considering an abortion rights amendment)';

• Abortion medication access is set to increase in Pennsylvania;

• And we love to see it: a Minnesota bill would mandate that health insurers cover abortion care.

“Yes, for too many years, women’s destinies were sealed by others. Their lives captured, their freedom scorned.” -French President Emmanuel Macron, in a ceremony enshrining the right to abortion in the constitution

In the Nation

The Guardian reports that the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America—which is asking the Supreme Court not to restrict access to mifepristone—has also given more than $125,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).

RAGA seeks to elect and re-elect Republican Attorneys General, which have historically been not so terrific for abortion rights! As reporter Carter Sherman points out, it was just last year that 19 Republican AGs filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of of the case against mifepristone.

Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US, told The Guardian, “PhRMA claims to oppose this lawsuit that could deny women access to the safe, widely-used mifepristone, yet they bankrolled the top political group for anti-choice attorneys general who further threaten access.”

Speaking of Accountable.US, The Hill reports that the government watchdog group will be launching digital ads targeting conservative groups over their opposition to abortion and IVF. The ads are part of Accountable.US’s “Expose Project 2025” campaign. (If you haven’t heard of Project 2025 yet, I’m jealous of you.)

Quick hits:

• The American Prospect on the GOP war against birth control;

• Fox News host Sean Hannity warned against pushing Republican candidates with hardline abortion views;

• And law professor Mary Ziegler joined Ezra Klein on his podcast.

Stats & Studies

Two small updates today: The KFF poll I told you about yesterday which shows that 1 in 8 voters say abortion is their top 2024 issue shows something else important. The report found that the vast majority of Americans—86%—want women to have access to abortion in medical emergencies, like miscarriages.

Obviously, one would hope that’s the case! But in a moment when states are actually fighting for the right to deny women life-saving abortions, it’s a good thing to know.

Finally, earlier this week I told you about the researchers delving into major anti-abortion studies on their own time and dime in order to make sure this fake research gets retracted by their publishers.

Again, this is a long and difficult undertaking—but one that’s incredibly important. These are studies that are being used in major lawsuits (like the one on mifepristone headed to the Supreme Court) that have no basis in science, or even reality.

So if you want to support this effort, and help the researchers who are taking down this bullshit all on their own, click here and here to donate.

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