In the states…
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Republicans’ 6-week abortion ban into law, saying, “We are proud to support life and family in the state of Florida.” So proud, in fact, that the governor signed the bill late last night so that no one would be around to see or protest it. From the Associated Press:
“For DeSantis, the late night, closed door bill signing was a departure from his usual bombastic style and signals the difficult political line he is walking on abortion politics ahead of his anticipated White House run.”
The ban claims to have rape and incest exceptions (it really doesn’t), and will criminalize anyone who “actively participates” in an abortion—language so vague that someone who drove a friend to an abortion could be charged. For more information on the bill and what it will mean for the state, check out my interview with Florida Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book.
A reminder of what the scale of this loss really is: There are about 22 million people in Florida—as much as the populations of Greece and Sweden put together, nearly as many people live in Australia. New research this week also showed that Florida was the state with the biggest increase in its abortion rate post-Roe, largely because of out-of-state patients from around the South seeking care there. The ban will decimate access in the area.
Even though DeSantis signed the law, the ban won’t go into effect until Florida’s existing 15-week ban is ruled on by the state Supreme Court. (The assumption is that the conservative-controlled Court will uphold the ban.) And one last thing on Florida: This photo of the bill-signing is going to haunt my dreams.
Pro-choice states are still sorting out what they can and can’t do under the rulings on mifepristone. Doctors in Oregon, for example, are dispensing mifepristone without any new restrictions. Kristi Scdoris, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, told the Oregon Capital Chronicle that no changes have taken place and that the group is “still providing the full range of health care services to our patients.” (And if you want to know how vital access to these pill are, consider that medication is used for 70% of abortions provided by Oregon Planned Parenthood.)
Oregon is one of 17 states protected by the Washington ruling. So is Maryland, where political leaders announced today that they will be stockpiling mifepristone. Gov. Wes Moore said he wants to “ensure that Maryland remains a safe haven for abortion and reproductive health care access, including access to mifepristone.” But in pro-choice states that aren’t protected by the ruling—like my home state of New York—things are less clear. That’s why we’re seeing some politicians stockpile misoprostol instead of mifepristone, the drug at the center of the current court battles.
But in Massachusetts—which doesn’t have the legal cover of having signed onto that Washington lawsuit—doctors say they plan to offer mifepristone regardless. Dr. Danielle Roncari of Planned Parenthood said, “Until we hear differently from the state or from our legal team, we’ll continue to follow the current guidelines.” And Gov. Maura Healey says the state “will continue to use every power available to us to ensure that radical judges elsewhere in the country cannot limit access to safe, effective abortion care here in Massachusetts.” Wish we saw this kind of bold attitude elsewhere!
Over at the Substack Arizona Agenda, we find out that Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has launched a unit in her office dedicated to abortion access. Hayleigh Crawford, who leads the initiative, says that they’re “keep[ing] our finger on the pulse of what's happening so that, with the AG’s direction, we can act proactively to protect rights here in Arizona.” Love to see it.
Quick hits:
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will sign abortion rights protections into law this afternoon;
New Jersey Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill has introduced legislation to curb ‘judge shopping’;
The Star Tribune profiles some of the Minnesota abortion access navigators—volunteers who help women from anti-choice states get the care they need;
Indiana is getting closer to offering contraception from pharmacists without a doctor’s prescription;
And we’re waiting to hear from the Georgia Supreme Court on the state’s abortion ban.
In the nation…
Things continue to be absolutely fucking chaotic on the national front—but here’s the latest: The Biden Administration asked the Supreme Court via an emergency application to allow mifepristone to remain available while the case continues to be heard. Danco Laboratories, a company that makes mifepristone, also filed an emergency application where they asked the Court to defer to the FDA’s expertise on the medication. These filings were made in response to the ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which allowed mifepristone to stay on the market—but under a number of onerous and unnecessary guidelines. (You can read the full decision here.)
Just hours later, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued a temporary stay through Weds, April 19th. Chris Geidner at Law Dork points out, “this is not—and should not be seen as—a ruling on either the merits of the case or even DOJ and Danco’s requests for a stay pending appeal.” It’s just an administrative stay that will allow mifepristone to remain available until the Court decides whether it will issue a formal stay.
The pharmaceutical industry continues to speak out against the anti-mifepristone rulings: Earlier this week, hundreds of pharmaceutical executives, including the CEO of Pfizer, signed onto a letter supporting the FDA and calling on Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling to be reversed. And now the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has come out to call the ruling “alarming.”
Meanwhile, 588 state legislators have signed onto a letter opposing Kacsmaryk’s ruling on mifepristone:
“If mifepristone is no longer available, the consequences will be dire. The greatest impact will fall on rural and underserved communities who will need to travel hundreds of miles just to see a provider and get the care they need.”
The department of Health and Human Services is looking to create a national hotline to help people who are seeking abortion and other reproductive health services. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said they are seeing a grant recipient (as part of its Title X program) to “establish a safe and secure national hotline to provide referral services for women in need of accurate information about their legal reproductive health care options.” Definitely much-needed. In the meantime, some hotlines that are available right now: The Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline for those seeking medical advice and the organization If/When/How runs a legal helpline.
Quick hits:
NPR fact-checks Kacsmaryk’s assertion that the FDA had an “accelerated approval” process for mifepristone;
Bloomberg Law looks at how Kacsmaryk’s ruling puts the FDA’s power over drug safety in jeopardy;
The New York Times asks whether abortion will kill the filibuster, and points out that until recently, many Americans didn’t know much about abortion medication;
And CNN points out that the rise in telehealth medication abortions are likely to be seriously impacted by the rulings coming down on mifepsristone.
Listen up…
I was on The Brian Lehrer Show this morning talking about what’s happening right now with abortion rights (just a few things!) and taking questions from callers.
2024…
Republican presidential hopefuls continue to try thread the needle on abortion rights: They want to appease those big national anti-abortion organizations, but they can see those polls and whew are Americans mad. Republicans know that they have to sort out messaging that won’t feed into that fury, but there’s no good place for them to go. So sad!
This week, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson said that when it comes to abortion medication, “we should always be deferring to science and make the best decisions on health care based on professional judgments.” Really, now! Because I’m pretty sure we know where science stands on this. On the notion of a national abortion ban, Hutchinson said he’d “want to look at the bill to see exactly what it does,” but also dismissed the idea that abortion would be a vital issue in 2024: “I don’t see [abortion] as an issue that’s going to hurt us long term.”
Apparently Donald Trump doesn’t agree. Rolling Stone reports that Trump has been having worried conversations, saying that Republicans are “getting killed on abortion.” He wants the GOP to shift their messaging and emphasize abortion exceptions. (Your regular reminder that exceptions aren’t real!) The thing is, Republicans have been talking about exceptions. But it’s kinda hard to argue that exceptions make everything okay when there are women in the ICU with sepsis in states that are supposed to have…you guess it, exceptions!
Even Mike Pence has stuck his foot in it on abortion recently. The former Vice President is probably the favorite candidate among anti-choice orgs, but when he was asked in an interview a few weeks ago about a South Carolina bill (first reported at Abortion, Every Day!) that would make abortion punishable by the death penalty—Pence didn’t give a straight answer. He was so dodgy, in fact, that his team had to issue a statement saying that Pence didn’t support the legislation!
Meanwhile, Republican strategists are wringing their hands over 2024 and beyond: In the Financial Times, Republican consultant and fundraiser David Tamasi says that the problem is in the messaging: “No one likes being told by someone else what to do with their body, particularly a woman by a man—that’s the underlying challenge.” That does sound like a challenge, David!
Another Republican fundraiser told FT that they’re worried about conservative states being less attractive to corporations: “You tell me one company—major company—particularly in the north-east that, when the husband comes home to Greenwich and says: ‘We’re moving our headquarters to Houston’, the wife is going to say, ‘Okay, let’s do it’.” Hmmm…almost as if this is a bad, shitty, misogynist policy??
Chris Hayes at MSNBC had a good rant about this last night—just how important abortion rights will be in the 2024 election, and how Republican presidential hopefuls are looking pretty fucking foolish in the meantime.
You love to see it…
I’ve written before about the incredible work of the Online Abortion Resource Squad (OARS)—a group of volunteers that run the abortion subreddit, ensuring folks get accurate and helpful info on abortion. This week, they were profiled by Garnet Henderson over at Rewire, who outlines just how much (unpaid!) work goes into running r/abortion. The subreddit gets anywhere from 600,000 to over 900,000 hits and 1,000 posts every month—with just 25 volunteers handling it all.
If you want to help OARS keep providing people with accurate abortion information, consider donating to the group here. They really are doing an amazing public service here.
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