Abortion, Every Day (4.18.23)

Anti-choice legal activists are getting bolder

In the States

A total abortion ban passed the North Dakota House yesterday. A similar abortion ban is currently blocked in the state, a decision upheld by the state Supreme Court last month. The legislation here is extraordinarily extreme—it makes abortion a felony punishable by five years in prison, and the rape and incest exception is only available to victims up until the 6th week of pregnancy. (So, not available at all.) I’ll keep you updated as this one moves forward.

Doctors in pro-choice states continue to be completely overwhelmed with out-of-state patients. The Texas Tribune reports that Trust Women in Wichita, Kansas fielded 16,000 phone calls to their hotline on one recent Monday alone. Most patients traveling to pro-choice states right now are from neighboring states with abortion bans: And in places like New Mexico, they’re seeing a huge number of women traveling from Texas. Amy Hagstrom Miller of Whole Woman’s Health, which just opened a clinic in Albuquerque, says that even with abortion fund help, the clinic can’t see everyone:

“The stark reality is, though, no matter what we do to try to make a flight free [or] a hotel free, the majority of Texans aren’t making it through. That doesn’t necessarily surprise me, because I know the lives of people that come to us for abortion services, but it's still just horrible to witness on our watch.”

Meanwhile, Texas lawmakers say there is no plan to introduce exceptions into the state’s abortion ban. When anti-choice groups were asked why they wouldn’t want clarifications to the law, given all of the horror stories coming out of the state (including one woman who ended up with sepsis in the ICU), the Texas Alliance for Life dismissed the problem: “Our laws are very clear.” Lovely.

Also in Texas, hundreds of doctors, researchers and health care providers traveled to Houston for the Maternal and Child Health Conference to talk about the increasing maternal mortality rate—especially among Black women. (The Houston Chronicle points out that discrimination as a factor in maternal mortality only started being tracked in the state in 2019.)

Anti-abortion activists in Ohio have spent millions on a campaign to convince voters that a pro-choice ballot measure would allow minors to have gender-affirming surgery. But law professors there point out how fully ridiculous that notion is. Constitutional law professor Dan Kobil told The Cincinnati Enquirer, “It would have zero effect on parental consent.” And Mary Ziegler says “I don't even see an argument that that's anything but a scare tactic.” Because that’s all it is: conservatives know that abortion rights are too popular for them to win with, and so they’re hoping that they can get the votes they need by tapping into anti-trans bigotry. It’s disgusting.

You know that South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican, has been making the rounds talking about how other Republicans lawmakers need to ease up on abortion legislation. She’s not wrong, but also—what exactly did you think you were signing up to be a part of?? In any case, anti-abortion groups are pissed that she’s been raising the alarm about how cruel (and politically ill-advised) this extremism is. So pissed, in fact, that some are now calling for her resignation. They don’t much like people who tell the truth.

Sadly, the abortion clinic that was challenging West Virginia’s abortion ban has dropped their lawsuit. The notice of voluntary dismissal says that the doctor at Women's Health Center who brought the case “has now determined that he will not be able to resume providing abortion care in West Virginia at this time.” I can’t imagine the stress and strain doing that work must entail, so no judgement here—still unfortunate, though.

And in Colorado, where the governor just signed legislation to prohibit anti-abortion centers from pushing ‘abortion reversals’, one center will be able to continue doing just that while their legal challenge moves forward. United States District Judge Daniel D. Domenico granted a temporary restraining order allowing a Catholic ‘health’ group in the state to keep claiming to provide the fake reversals while their lawyers argue that the new law violates the clinic’s religious rights.

Pennsylvania Republicans are trying to stop a website launched by the state that helps patients find abortion care. State Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill says that the state shouldn’t be using taxypayer dollars for “a marquee website for abortion.” But the Budget Secretary pointed out that the site isn’t providing abortions, but information. This may seem like a small thing—but this is exactly the sort of speech infringements we need to keep an eye on. It’s similar to what we’ve seen in places like Idaho, where schools are removing art pieces from exhibitions because the law prohibits ‘promoting’ abortion. Scary stuff.

Speaking of Idaho, Gov. Brad Little is dodging questions about the state’s abortion ban—which has come under renewed scrutiny as more doctors leave the state and hospitals close their maternity wards.

And if you wanted another reminder for why abortion being legal is the bare minimum, please read this piece in The Guardian from a woman in California who was billed $55,000 by the hospital who treated her ectopic pregnancy. The whole article will have you furious, but the insurance representative telling her that the emergency abortion wasn’t covered because she didn’t get the price approved in advance really sent me over the edge.

Let’s get into some rare good news: An amendment to enshrine abortion rights in Nevada’s constitution passed the state Senate yesterday, getting it that much closer to going in front of voters. Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro said, “The ability to continue to access reproductive care should be a fundamental right.”

Quick hits:

• DCist looks at the state of abortion access in Washington, DC and how the mifepristone rulings impact folks there;

• New Hampshire Democrats say they’ll keep fighting for abortion protections after their legislation was killed by Senate Republicans;

• And an Indiana doctor wrote an op-ed in support of over-the-counter contraception access (which is being debated by lawmakers in the state)/

In the Nation

Okay, this is a big deal: Garnet Henderson of ReWire reports that the lawyer behind Texas’s abortion bounty hunter law, Jonathan Mitchell, just asked a New Mexico judge to rule that the Comstock Act trumps any state law that protects abortion access. And if you want to know how terrifying that is, check out this Mother Jones piece on the Comstock Act and just how devastating it could be for abortion rights (especially if a Republican wins the presidency in 2024):

“[E]xperts expect that such an administration could use the law to target more than just mifepristone. Under a literal reading of the law, federal prosecutors could file criminal charges against almost any individuals or companies that ship medications or equipment to be used for abortion. ‘If Comstock really applies, it wouldn’t just apply to pills,’ [Rachel] Rebouche explains. ‘It would prohibit people from mailing forceps or suction devices or surgical gloves that are used in any kind of abortion. That’s the breadth of the Comstock Act.’”

This may all sound so ridiculous—the idea of banning the mailing of surgical devices—but this is how this shit starts. (Everyone thought going after mifepristone and the FDA was ridiculous, too.)

And by the way—this is all part of something I’ve written about a lot at Abortion, Every Day: the anti-choice efforts to ban abortion in pro-choice states via small town ordinances. Activists like Mitchell and Mark Lee Dickson have been trying to bypass state laws by targeting conservative city council members and getting them on board with anti-abortion ordinances, zoning rules, etc. We’ve seen it happen in multiple states like Nevada and New Mexico—especially in border towns where abortion clinics open up in order to serve the community in neighboring anti-choice state. The end goal was always the Comstock Act and the Supreme Court. And now we’re here.

This is interesting: Pro-choice investors are pushing companies to clarify their stances on abortion rights—a strategic pressure campaign that’s seeing some good results. Bloomberg reports that these investors are filing ‘proxy proposals’ that essentially force businesses’ hand on the issue: If the companies don’t want to have to address abortion at a shareholder meeting, they need to commit to some kind of internal action that satisfies the investors enough to withdraw the proposal. Shelley Alpern of Rhia Ventures told Bloomberg, “They’re trying to minimize any controversy and do things quietly.”

After one group, for example, asked TJX Cos (the company that owns TJ Maxx and Marshalls) to release a report on the risks to company workers who live in anti-choice states, the business agreed to cover travel costs for abortion care and the proposal was withdrawn. I’m really into this—because a splashy public statement doesn’t help people, good employee policies do.

NBC News has a piece about how Vice President Kamala Harris has taken up abortion rights as her office’s key issue—definitely worth a read. I also wanted to highlight this quote from a former anonymous Harris aide on Biden’s lackluster defense of abortion rights since Roe was overturned:

“I think he is personally pro-choice but not personally OK with talking about it every day. He gets all the issues, but it’s probably not language or talking points that he has spent a lot of time using. No one ever would specifically say what his issue was, just that she is far more comfortable on this topic and this issue. So it makes sense that she would focus on this issue.”

I’m glad to have Harris focus on abortion rights, because it’s obvious that she does know so much more—but it’s ridiculous to me that Biden can’t muster up some enthusiasm for an issue that has stripped away the humanity of half the country.

Quick hits:

• Roxanne Jones, radio host and a founding editor of ESPN The Magazine, wrote a piece for CNN on how mifepristone saved her life;

• The Guardian has a round-up of responses from Democratic senators on the abortion medication rulings;

• MSNBC on the news that Kacsmaryk covered up an article he wrote in order to hide it from the Senate Judiciary Committee;

• NBC on the Trump-DeSantis battle over abortion rights and messaging;

• The Hill on young voters and abortion;

• and The Washington Post on how the mifepristone ruling could mess up the FDA process for all sorts of drugs.

In the World

You probably remember the Polish activist Justyna Wydrzyńska, who was arrested and convicted of “intent to aid” an abortion after she mailed a woman abortion medication. Today, The Nation has an exclusive interview with the woman Wydrzyńska tried to help. (Ania, a pseudonym, was unable to take the pills because her partner discovered them and reported her to the police.) The story is harrowing, I have to warn you—Ania attempted to self-induce an abortion and nearly died—but it’s exactly the kind of story we’re going to see more and more of in the U.S.

In other international news, Human Rights Watch has put out a paper about the human rights crisis in the U.S. sparked by the end of Roe.

Listen Up

WNYC has a short segment explaining the Comstock Act and the role it plays in the legal battle over mifepristone; FiveThirtyEight talks about mifepristone heading to the Supreme Court; and public radio in Florida tries to clear up any confusion about the status of abortion law in the state.

I also wanted to flag this New Orleans Public Radio segment about how the mifepristone ruling won’t have much of an impact on states that already have abortion bans—and how difficult it’s been for those anti-choice states to see national attention diverted away from the places that need it the most. Robin Marty of the West Alabama Women’s Center (who I’ll be interviewing soon for Abortion, Every Day) says, “I hope that when it's done, they remember that we're still here. They may have had their victory, and everything's still the same for them, but we are still in so much trouble and we need them.”

Republican Panic

Axios has a piece about the Republican women who pushing legislation to increase access to birth control, and I have to admit that this quote from South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace made me laugh:

“If you're gonna ban abortions, you got to give women access to birth control, that's just logic. I'm trying to carve a path for us to move forward and show that we're not assholes to women.”

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy—once again, what party do you think you’re a part of?? Republicans are assholes to women. I’m all for expanding birth control access, but I think there’s going to come a time when these Republican women start to notice that the organizations they’ve been letting draft their abortion bans are vehemently anti-contraception, too. You aligned yourself with the worst of the worst! Now you’re going to have to deal with it.

What Conservatives Are Saying

Republicans are still trying to find the right messaging as it becomes clearer and clearer that Americans fucking hate abortion bans. The Executive Director of the conservative group Heritage Action, Jessica Anderson, told the Washington Examiner that Republicans shouldn’t ignore the issue—but highlight exceptions (which aren’t real) and spread information about all the great anti-abortion centers out there!

But it was something else she said that had me dying laughing at the idea that these people think they’re good at messaging. Anderson was praising Florida’s 6-week ban, saying a “heartbeat” bill is a “very natural” place for anti-abortion legislation to start:

“If Carson, who's sitting right here next to me, were to fall on the floor, the first thing I would do is check to see if she had a heartbeat. It's a very natural thing, to trace life to a heartbeat, and there should not be any ignorance of that and whether it's unborn…or out of the birth canal.”

First of all, I’m pretty sure fetuses don’t reside in the birth canal so it looks like someone needs to go back to health class. (This is what happens when you give a generation of young people abstinence-only education!) But also I would love for someone to check the ‘heartbeat’ of a six week pregnancy, which we know looks like this:

You Love to See it

The incredible activist and author Mariame Kaba has organized an art auction for abortion rights, with the proceeds going to abortion funds. Make sure to check it out!

And I’m thrilled to see the incredible doctors at the MYA Network—including Dr. Joan Fleischman—get their due in this terrific piece from Poppy Noor at The Guardian. You probably remember the MYA Network from the image of early pregnancy above; their work went viral along with the picture. Now the group and Dr. Fleischman are trying to raise awareness about MVA (manual vacuum aspiration) abortion and how the procedure is so simple and important that primary-care clinicians should be trained in them. I’ll be writing more about MVA abortions soon, but in the meantime make sure you read the whole Guardian piece!