Abortion, Every Day (4.27.23)

In the States

North Dakota’s governor signed an abortion ban earlier this week, a law that will likely see a legal challenge. An earlier abortion ban in the state was already blocked by the state Supreme Court while it decides on the law’s constitutionality. From Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights:

“North Dakota lawmakers are attempting to bypass the state constitution and court system with this total ban. They are simply trying to repackage a ban that the North Dakota Supreme Court recently said likely violates North Dakotans’ fundamental rights under the state constitution.”

Speaking of violating the state constitution: Florida’s 6-week abortion ban can’t go into effect until the state Supreme Court decides on a challenge to the state’s existing 15-week restriction—something that anti-abortion proponents have seen as a given because of Gov. Ron DeSantis remaking the court. But The Washington Post reports that Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz wrote an article in 2004 where wrote that the privacy clause of the state’s constitution protects abortion—an argument that pro-choice advocates are now using in the case. (Anti-choice activists and legislators were apparently very taken aback by the article, and didn’t know it existed.) I’m not getting overly excited about the news, but I’ll take any reason to hope at this point.

You probably remember that Wisconsin’s 1849 total abortion ban is being challenged by state Attorney General Josh Kaul and Gov. Tony Evers, who argue that the law is invalid because of other, more recent, abortion bans. Arguments in the suit will start next week in a Dane County courtroom—but the case will likely end up in the state Supreme Court, where pro-choice Judge Janet Protasiewicz will take a seat this summer. If the lawsuit is successful, Wisconsin’s total abortion ban would revert back to a 20-week abortion ban that was enacted in 2015.

In New Mexico, Edgewood has become the latest town to set themselves up for an abortion-related fight with the state: The town commission voted yesterday to approve an ordinance restricting access to abortion medication and supplies by mail. (Sound familiar?) The ordinance would also allow a citizen to sue anyone who violates that rule.

There was a similar ordinance recommended by the city council in Danville, Illinois, which would make shipping abortion medication and tools used for abortion into the city illegal. (A clinic is planning on opening in the city, so this is a way activists in the area are trying to stop that from happening.) As you likely know by now, this is part of a broader move by anti-choice activists—including Jonathan Mitchell, the lawyer behind the Texas abortion bounty law—to bring a lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court. (More on Mitchell later in the newsletter.)

Ohio anti-abortion advocates have been (falsely) arguing that a ballot measure to protect abortion rights would strip away parental rights and allow minors to have gender-affirming surgery without parental consent. It’s bullshit, obviously, and has been called out as such a million times over. But I appreciated this piece from the Ohio Capital Journal that looked at how Michigan’s abortion-rights amendment was accused of the same thing—and how after enacted, none of the scare-tactics came to fruition.

Yesterday, Kansas Republicans overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of their “born alive” legislation—a law that isn’t based in reality, science or medicine. The legislation could, however, force doctors to perform painful procedures on fatally-ill newborns in vain. (It’s just so incredibly cruel.)

Also in Kansas, abortion providers are talking about just how many out-of-state patients they’re seeing—and how they’re still unable to give care to all who need it. The Trust Women clinic in Wichita, for example, says that of the 500 patients they see a month, only 100 are actually from Kansas. Clinic director Ashley Brink says they also had to fundamentally change the way the clinic operated, cutting OBGYN and gender-affirming care.

“Because we felt like we are one of the only clinics in the area that can provide abortion care, it was really important to us to shift that gear into doing 100 percent abortions. And that's great for now, but is it sustainable, long term? Probably not.”

Texas Republicans are pushing a bill to allow for the construction of an anti-abortion monument on Capitol grounds. First of all, yuck. Second of all, I’m very sorry but this sculpture looks like a woman holding a fetus in a dog bowl.

Let’s get into some good news:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed protections for abortion patients and providers into law today! The legislation, part of a package of laws to protect reproductive health and gender-affirming care, will protect patients’ data and put restrictions on out-of-state investigations and subpoenas. Gov. Jay Inslee signed a similar law in Washington that prohibits out-of-state enforcement of anti-choice laws, and blocks and warrants, subpoenas, and extradition requests.

Other states are also looking at ways to further protect abortion: In Illinois, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch indicated that Democrats might be considering a ballot measure to protect abortion rights in the state constitution; and Oregon lawmakers started to hear testimony on legislation that would get a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights in front of voters next year.

In South Carolina, where Republicans are trying to pass an abortion ban (even after the state Supreme Court ruled their last one unconstitutional), five female Senators led a two-day filibuster that prevented the Senate from moving forward on the legislation. There are six days left in the state’s legislative session, and while Senate Republican Leader Shane Massey called on House members to pass the bill—it’s looking unlikely that the legislation will go anywhere.

Filibustering has also protected abortion rights in Nebraska: Republicans failed to pass their 6-week abortion ban for the time being, and it looks unlikely to come back in the current session. Love to see it.

Quick hits:

• Maine is pushing ahead with legislation to allow for later abortions with a doctor’s recommendation;

• The Intercept has more on the Texas case where a man is suing his ex-wife’s friends for allegedly helping her obtain abortion medication;

• A Florida CVS refused to fill a prescription for misoprostol, claiming that a federal judge ruled the medication was illegal (not true);

• And Wellspring Health Access, the Casper, Wyoming clinic that was destroyed by arson and recently re-opened, remains understandably concerned about clinic safety.

In the Nation

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on abortion rights yesterday where Democrats railed against abortion bans and the precedent that court decisions like Matthew Kacsmaryk’s are setting. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked, “What’s next? Is it going to be birth control pills?” The answer is yes, of course it is.

Amanda Zurawski, the Texas woman who nearly died of sepsis after being denied an abortion, testified at the hearing about her experience—and absolutely eviscerated the Republican legislators responsible. Highly recommend you watch the whole thing.

In response, Republicans did the thing I warned about last October: They blamed Zurawski’s doctors and hospital, claiming that the physicians and lawyers simply misunderstood the state’s law. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said, “This is a legal professional who’s guilty of malpractice.” Conservative lawmakers know that it’s just a matter of time before the first death-by-abortion-ban is reported, and they’re laying the groundwork for their talking points when that happens.

The other issue that came up in the hearing that Abortion, Every Day has covered quite a bit is the undermining of democracy: Law professor Michele Goodwin said, “What we see is the dismantling, the vulnerability of constitutional principles that date back centuries, and abortion is being used as a proxy to dismantle fundamental constitutional principles, including the right to travel.”

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about abortion rights at Howard University, her first speech since President Joe Biden’s re-election announcement. Harris, who has taken the lead in the White House on reproductive rights and health, called on the audience to take action:

“It is the tradition of this university, and dare I say the tradition of our country, to fight for freedom, to fight for rights, to fight for the ability of all people to be who they are and make decisions about their own lives and their bodies…Open your medicine cabinet. In the privacy of your bathroom, in the privacy of your home, I wonder what's sitting up in there…You don't want me getting in your business, do you?”

Amy Littlefield at The Nation has a terrific (though harrowing) piece on the Comstock Act and just how excited anti-abortion extremists are about using it to ban abortion. Jonathan Mitchell, architect of the Texas bounty hunter law, told Littlefield, “From my standpoint, I want to get Comstock to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible.” (Also pay particular attention to the relationship between Mitchell and Mark Lee Dickson, the creepy ‘sanctuary cities’ guy.)

Quick hits:

• U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier of Washington have introduced federal legislation to protect abortion providers by prohibiting criminalization efforts by anti-choice states;

• Republicans are apparently getting fed up with Sen. Tommy Tuberville holding up military nominations and promotions over the Department of Defense allowing service-members leave and travel costs for abortion care;

• And Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota and Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri write in MSNBC how “Republicans are working toward a backdoor nationwide abortion ban, one that can be forced on Americans in red and blue states alike.”

In the World

Reproductive rights groups are worried that the American rulings on mifepristone could cause supply issues in Canada—both in terms of manufacturing, and an increase of women traveling into the country for the drug. There’s also an understandable concern that anti-abortion activism and tactics from the U.S. will be imported into Canada, along with misinformation about abortion.

Japan has approved its first abortion medication, after years of activist work to make the pills available; Italy is set to make contraception free, despite outrage from anti-abortion groups; and Foreign Policy has a piece on the court fight over the abortion ban in El Salvador and how it squares up with public opinion.

Wise Words

“These views are so extreme that we’re viewing people abiding by the law as a win now, and we can’t accept that from our court system, and definitely can’t be accepting that from our lawmakers across the country.” ~Mack Smith, Planned Parenthood Northwest on SCOTUS’ mifepristone decision

Stats & Studies

Pew has some new really interesting new data out on abortion. You won’t be surprised to know that support for legal access to abortion remains high—that’s been the case for decades. But the report also looks at people in states where abortion is restricted or banned, and found that there was a huge jump among those who believe abortion should be easier to get: from 31% in 2019 to 43% currently.

But here’s what really got me excited: support for abortion rights among young people. We knew that young Americans are the most pro-choice demographic in the country, but check out these new numbers from Pew:

Seventy-three percent of adults 18-29 years old think abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, compared with 62 percent of adults 30-49 years old. And here’s the most interesting statistic: Whereas only 26% of adults 30-49 years old say they believe abortion should be legal in all circumstances, 39% of adults 18-29 years old think the same. That’s a huge jump! To me, it’s also an indication that this goes beyond younger people simply being more pro-choice. This generation understands abortion rights, and the importance of access to later abortions, in a way that’s distinct from older adults. It’s terrific news.

Meanwhile, this is hilarious. (And terrifying.) You know that the anti-abortion movement is all about false data and bullshit studies, but this latest claim may take the cake. Radical anti-abortion group Live Action is pushing out social media posts this month (they have a huge following) telling people that mifepristone has been responsible for 28 deaths.

Here’s what PolitiFact found when they investigated: The number comes from an FDA report looking at adverse events around mifepristone from 2000 to 2022. In that time period, 5.6 million women took mifepristone. And while 28 women did die after taking the drug, the report does not tie these deaths to mifepristone! In fact, 19 of those 28 deaths were attributed to homicide, suspected homicide, suicide, drug intoxication, drug overdoses and a natural death. The rest were cases of sepsis that the FDA says, once again, can’t be “causally attributed to mifepristone because of information gaps about patient health status, clinical management of the patient, concurrent drug use, and other possible medical or surgical treatments and conditions.”

So out of millions of women who have taken mifepristone in the last 22 years, not one death in this report has been directly linked to the drug. Yet that hasn’t stopped Live Action from making false claims.

I cannot stress enough that fucking with data is the newest and most insidious anti-abortion trend: Both in terms of lying about the dangers of abortion and attempting to sow distrust in actual scientific research (as groups are trying to do around maternal mortality data). Please, please pay attention to this.

Listen Up

Fresh Air with Terry Gross has an interview with full-spectrum doula Vicki Bloom, who supports patients whether their pregnancy ends in childbirth, miscarriage or abortion. (It’s in the second half of the episode)

Keep An Eye On

I’ve written plenty about the way that anti-abortion groups have tried to co-opt feminist language, but this went above and beyond. In Illinois, where Democrats are advancing legislation to stop anti-abortion centers from using deceptive advertising practices, anti-abortion activists called the legislation “anti-choice!” Like…what??? Their argument is that the law would somehow stop women from going to anti-abortion centers, taking away their ‘choice’ to…be lied to and terrified? The whole thing is just wild. Really curious if we’ll see more of this blatant appropriation.

2024

The pundit class is swooning over Nikki Haley’s abortion speech, from The Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal. I also wonder where the anti-abortion groups will end up on her. Haley gave the speech at the headquarters of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, where the organization’s president Marjorie Dannenfelser commended Haley, saying she “has decided something very important, and that is to lead, to go toward the issue, and not to run away.” But we also know that former Vice President Mike Pence has long been the anti-choice favorite…

Meanwhile, Axios gets into how and why abortion is front and center in Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.

This newsletter was compiled with the help of researcher Grace Haley.