Abortion, Every Day (4.11.24)
Texas billboard campaign tells women they're 'in control' of their pregnancies
Click to skip ahead: In All About Arizona, the latest after the state Supreme Court ruling. In the States, Tennessee’s travel ban advances and Alabama Dems push birth control protections. Some news on Florida in Ballot Measure Updates. In the Nation, some quick hits. In 2024, what the Arizona ruling means for the presidential election and more. Finally in Anti-Choice Strategy, conservatives want to convince women that forced pregnancy is ‘empowering’.
If you missed the news about my book coming this Fall, you can read the announcement below. To pre-order, click here. :)
All About Arizona
Earlier this week, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled to enforce the state’s 1864 abortion ban—a law created before women had the right to vote and before Arizona was even a state. A reminder: the law will not go into effect for another 40+ days, so you can still end your pregnancy legally in the state up to 15 weeks.
The state Supreme Court (absent one anti-abortion judge) wrote that “in light of this Opinion, physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal.”
Fun fact: the man who presided over the legislature at the time that this law was passed had married a 12-year-old, a 15-year-old and a 14-year-old—in that order.
The ruling—which even GOP strategists are calling a “political earthquake”—sparked a move by Arizona Democrats to repeal the law. Republicans responded in just about the most cowardly way possible: instead of standing by their anti-abortion stances and voting on the legislation, lawmakers cut off the effort and adjourned for the week.
In response, Democrats broke out in chants of “Shame! Shame!” and “Save women’s lives!” As they should. From Arizona Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton:
“We’ve got the eyes of the world watching Arizona right now. We know that the Supreme Court decision yesterday is extreme. And we know that should the 1864 ban on abortion remain a law in Arizona, people will die.”
If Republicans are so sure that their law is just fine, why not stand by it?
You may remember Arizona Sen. Eva Burch, who spoke on the statehouse floor just a few weeks ago about needing an abortion for a nonviable pregnancy. I’m going to encourage you to watch her speak about the ruling and the state’s 1864 ban. I lost it:
The impact on the people of Arizona and the surrounding region can’t be overstated. Because remember, it’s not just patients in the state who won’t be able to get care—since Dobbs, the number of patients who travel for abortion care has gone up tremendously. And as the Associated Press points out, Arizona is home to more than 20 federally recognized tribes; so the ban is also expected to increase already-disproportionate hurdles to care for Native Americans.
NBC News reports that abortion providers and clinics are focusing on treating as many patients as they can, while trying to provide some order to the “chaos and confusion.” Dr. Jill Gibson, chief medical director of Planned Parenthood Arizona, says, “Patients are coming and they are already asking, because they’ve seen the news, if their appointment would be upheld today.”
We also know that abortion funds will see a huge increase in costs associated with helping people get out of Arizona for care. The Abortion Fund of Arizona told the Associated Press that patients often need to take multi-day trips, because some out-of-state clinics will mandate that patients stay there to take the second abortion pill. Executive director Eloisa Lopez says, “We’re looking at anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000 per person for travel expenses, with their abortion procedure expense.”
To donate to abortion funds in Arizona, click here.
It’s all horrible, so here’s two bits of good(ish) news:
First, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has made clear that she won’t prosecute abortion cases. (Last year, Gov. Katie Hobbs granted Mayes the authority handle abortion cases, taking that ability away from district attorneys—a way to ensure that no one was prosecuted for abortion ‘crimes’.)
We also know that the activists pushing for a pro-choice amendment have collected more than enough signatures to get abortion on the ballot in November. That doesn’t mean Republicans won’t pull out every dirty trick to stop them—we know how this goes—but with a national spotlight on the ballot measure campaign, it’s going to be a lot harder for them to do so.
I’ll tell you a little bit more about what the Arizona ruling means for 2024 later in the newsletter, but I’m going to say the same thing I said when the Florida rulings came down: It’s vital that we’re talking first and foremost about the harm this law is going to cause. We can’t let the real human impact take a backseat to political predictions.
For more on the Arizona ruling, check out Vox; The New York Times with some legal background and the late night jokes about the ruling; and make sure to read Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern at Slate:
“The decision should serve as a warning for the rest of the country…In the hands of a far-right court, a dead, openly misogynistic, wildly unpopular abortion ban can spring back to life with a vengeance.”
In the States
We knew this was coming: the Tennessee Senate has passed their travel ban for minors. These laws, framed as ‘anti-trafficking’ policies, are being passed across the country under the auspices of protecting children. In reality, they not only criminalize helping a teen obtain an abortion out-of-state—but make it illega to provide them any information about abortion.
As I’ve pointed out so many times before, this bill would make it illegal for an older sister to text a teenager the url to an out-of-state clinic, or for a grandma to lend her granddaughter gas money to leave the state for care. From Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro:
“Under the legislation as drafted, I’m not sure you can have an honest conversation with your grandparents, with your older sibling who’s an adult, with your priest, with your pastor, with an attorney, with a mental health provider. The communications themselves are potentially a criminal act here.”
A law passed in Idaho with near-identical language was blocked by a judge for violating the First Amendment.
The Tennessee bill would also allow a teen’s parents to sue anyone who helps their child end a pregnancy—again, with language so broad that one parent could sue another if they disagreed about their daughter’s care.
As you know, this kind of legislation doesn’t stop with teenagers; they’re just the canaries in the coal mine. Already, Republicans are seeking ways to restrict travel for women and girls of all ages.
Nashville Democrat Sen. Heidi Campbell said, “I feel like we’re living in the Handmaid’s Tale here. I mean, do we still live in a free country?” I think we know the answer.
Meanwhile, the Alabama House Judiciary Committee approved HB 279 on Wednesday, which explicitly states that people have a right to access birth control and that health care providers have the right to distribute them. I needed some good news. Especially out of Alabama!
Similar efforts have been underway in other states to varying degrees of success—largely because of Republican pushback (like in Indiana) claiming that certain kinds of birth control are actually abortions.
In related news, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is gutting a bill meant to protect access to birth control.
Finally, something to keep an eye on: Iowa’s Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a challenge to the state’s 6-week abortion ban.
Quick hits:
New York’s Supreme Court will decide whether employers’ must cover abortion care;
LAist looks at the cost for abortion medication on California campuses;
NPR on how rulings out of Florida and Arizona change the abortion access map;
And in totally normal not insane news, two Maine Republicans blamed a mass shooting on pro-choice laws.
Ballot Measure Updates
A new poll shows that 68% of U.S. Latinos oppose abortion bans, leading some to wonder whether the abortion rights ballot measure in Florida might swing on the state’s Latino population.
Meanwhile, the Tallahassee Democrat reminds us that no matter what Florida voters do, lawmakers will probably interfere in the will of the people. The piece points out that the state’s GOP-led legislature has a sordid history of defying voters’ wishes, with a former Republican state senator saying legislators would try to stop the amendment via “death by a thousand cuts.”
Finally, activists pushing the pro-choice measure to November raised over $2 million in the first three months of the year.
In the Nation
Bloomberg on TikTok’s birth control problem (there’s a whole lot of misinformation);
The Associated Press looks at what states could have abortion on the ballot in November;
NPR has an explainer on the Comstock Act, and looks at how another Trump presidency could implement a national backdoor ban;
And Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times reminds us why we shouldn’t believe Trump that abortion will be left to the states if he’s elected.
2024
Arizona’s Supreme Court ruling is throwing a wrench in Donald Trump’s abortion announcement this week. Saying you support state’s rights a few days before a state decides to enforce a 160 year-old law is not exactly a good look. But Trump’s campaign folks doubled down, with his press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “President Trump could not have been more clear. These are decisions for people of each state to make.”
This is exactly what Kellyanne Conway warned Trump about: that by tying himself to states’ decisions, he’d be implicitly supporting bans that most people find abhorrent.
Trump told reporters yesterday that the law would be “straightened out” and that Republicans would “bring it back into reason.” Trump said the same about Florida, that the law “is probably maybe going to change also.”
Speaking of total bullshit: Trump also claimed that he wouldn’t sign a federal abortion ban.
In the meantime, Jen Cox, senior adviser for President Joe Biden’s campaign in Arizona, blamed Trump directly for the state Supreme Court’s ruling:
"What's happening in Arizona is only possible because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade—it's cruel and it's a direct threat to our health and freedoms.”
The campaign also bumped up their ad spending in the state, pushing out the incredible (and distressing) campaign ad featuring Amanda Zurawski and other spots reminding voters that “because of Donald Trump, millions of women lost the fundamental freedom to control their own bodies…women’s lives are in danger because of that.”
Axios also looks at what the ruling could mean for 2024, and reports that Kamala Harris switched around her travel schedule in order to head to Tucson in the wake of the Arizona ruling.
And over at The Hill, a Republican strategist says, “I don’t think there’s a single Republican candidate in Arizona that was prepared for the fallout of this particular decision.”
The short version? The GOP is shitting their pants far and wide.
Anti-Choice Strategy: ‘Empowering’ Women
Adopting feminist rhetoric is nothing new, but in the wake of growing post-Roe fury over abortion bans, conservatives are putting even more effort into making forced pregnancy seem ‘empowering’.
Fox News, for example, covers a new agenda from the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) to “empower women.” The H.O.P.E. agenda relies on their oh-so-cool acronym to make forced childbirth sound downright progressive. The O, for example, stands for giving women the “opportunity…to be supported to pursue motherhood or adoption, while giving all babies the chance to live and pursue the American dream.” Huh?
(The group also mentions IVF a lot, a way to pretend as if they’re a lot more progressive than they actually are.)
And in Texas, the Houston Chronicle reports on this anti-abortion ad campaign featuring a picture of a woman and copy that says, “I’m in control of an unplanned pregnancy.” The issue, of course, is that women in Texas are anything but in control of their pregnancies.
It turns out that the state is spending $4 million for billboards and digital ads targeting young women with the message that giving babies up for adoption ‘empowers’ women and lets them be ‘in control.’ I guess that sounds better than, what the fuck else are you going to do?
As columnist Joy Sewing puts it, “Only in a fantasy world with draconian laws are women stripped of their reproductive rights, then sold a bill of goods to convince them they have ultimate power.”
This is particularly obvious in Florida, but it's a problem everywhere: If you say you are pro-choice, but you vote Republican for other reasons, you are not pro-choice. Because the Republican party will do everything in its power to take every freedom away from women. By that metric, how many Americans are really pro-choice? We don't know yet.
There used to be a conservative commenter on here, who was pro-choice but agreed on just about nothing else with most everyone here. He lost his shit one day - something about George Soros and the swamp - and his comments disappeared, so I'm guessing he stopped subscribing.
I wonder/worry how many Americans who answer that they are pro-choice in polls are like this. Honestly right now I barely care what anybody thinks about any other issue, but some of these people are so far off the deep end that I don't see how they'll ever vote Democrat. And they can vote our way in referendums until the cows come home; we know that doesn't really matter.
That proposed Alabama law that guarantees the citizen's right to access birth control may be a lot less than meets the eye. It may be interpreted as excluding the birth control pill; Plan B or the IUD because the super majority Republican legislature may define these methods a being abortifacients, (and therefore not birth control) and the conservative courts would back them up. Even though the medical science would be spurious, it would not prevent a legislative pronouncement on the subject. The junk science propounded against Mifepristone has not prevented a serious legal challenge to ban it on spurious health grounds. So the most common and effective birth control methods could be re-criminalized in Alabama even if this bill passes. This reality, I'm sure, would be kept from the public before the next round of legislative elections.
It is a similar situation with Red states that pass Reproductive State constitutional amendments. If the Republicans have super majorities in the legislatures and courts, they could simply ignore the amendment. Even if abortion was permitted, the Republican anti-abortion legislature state like Ohio is already coming up with laws like publicizing the names and addresses of women who get abortions as a deterrent. They know that such a law would not only be humiliating for some women, but would also expose them to serious harassment, and even violence from family members. Such a law might run afoul of federal medical privacy laws, but with the current SCOTUS, abortion could be written out of the law as not being health care, and the State statute would be upheld. My point is that the fight for reproductive freedom is ongoing, and permanent, and that the only way to win decisively for the long term is to throw the Republicans out of office and replace their judges.