Abortion, Every Day (4.5.23)

Abortion rights protest in Wisconsin

Fantastic news out of Wisconsin! Janet Protasiewicz won her election for state Supreme Court by a huge margin, proving what we’ve been saying here at Abortion, Every Day since Roe was overturned: Abortion wins elections.

Judge Protasiewicz said, “Wisconsin voters have made their voices heard; they have chosen to reject partisan extremism in this state.” In a truly sour grapes move, loser Dan Kelly said, “I wish Wisconsin the best of luck, I think it will need it.” What a baby.

The bad news, however, is that Dan Knodl won Wisconsin's 8th Senate District, which gives Republicans a supermajority and the ability to impeach elected officials—including state Supreme Court judges. Even worse, Knodl has already said he would consider impeaching Protasiewicz. This is exactly what I mean when I say Republicans are banning abortion by attacking democracy. (Abortion, Every Day researcher Grace Haley is writing up something more on what’s happening in Wisconsin; I’ll send it out in a separate email.)

I told you yesterday that North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham might flip parties, giving Republicans in the state a supermajority—well, it happened today. Cotham said that she was treated poorly by her Democratic peers and that they “pushed me out.” Gov. Roy Cooper called her defection “disappointing,” and said that “Rep. Cotham’s votes on women’s reproductive freedom, election laws, LGBTQ rights and strong public schools will determine the direction of the state we love.” If Cotham votes with Republicans on abortion, they could override the Governor’s veto and pass their near-total abortion ban.

Part of what’s so baffling about this move is that Cotham spoke movingly about her abortion experience in 2015, while opposing a bill to increase waiting periods in the state. She talked about ending a pregnancy after finding out that it wasn’t viable and that her life could be at risk, telling GOP lawmakers, “My womb and my uterus is not up for your political grab.” (You can see that speech here.)

Yet in her press conference today, Cotham refused to give a straight answer on abortion rights. She said, “I am going to do what I believe is right and follow my conscience. I’m going to look inside and pray on this issue.”

What worries me even more than that comment, however, is that Cotham tried to downplay how important abortion rights are to women, saying “I believe women are much more…To always be tied just to that tragic, hard topic is wrong because women are greater.” It’s language that sounds very familiar if you track conservative women’s groups at all—they’re constantly trying to dismiss the importance of reproductive rights and health by claiming Democrats want to reduce women to their body parts. It’s rhetoric that really mirrors places like the Independent Women’s Forum and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. So it makes me super nervous.

Just as bad: A local news station also reports that Cotham wouldn’t answer directly about abortion but indicated she was open to enacting restrictions.

I’ll keep you updated as I find out more. I don’t need to tell you what the end of abortion rights in North Carolina would mean—not just to those in the state, but across the South.

Speaking of the crisis of care in the South: Florida’s 6-week abortion ban is on its way to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The law won’t take effect until the state Supreme Court rules on Florida’s existing 15-week ban, which is in the middle of a legal challenge. That means that abortion is legal in the state up until 15 weeks until that decision comes down, likely later this summer.

But as Rachel Cohen at Vox points out, abortion rights advocates know winning their challenge to the restriction—and stopping the 6-week ban—is a long shot: “DeSantis has stacked the state’s high court with conservative appointees, transforming the bench from a 5-2 liberal majority to a 6-1 conservative one.”

Abortion funds in the state are preparing for their new reality, and say they plan to help fund care for patients who need to travel out-of-state. Meanwhile, even though the 6-week ban’s ‘exceptions’ for rape and incest are completely empty—few victims will actually be able to use them—anti-abortion conservatives in the state are already trying to strip them away.

A reminder that Nikki Fried, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, and Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book were arrested and charged with trespassing while protesting the abortion ban the evening it was passed. Sen. Book gave an interview to a local news station, saying, “I know women and girls across the state of Florida will die.” And Fried says this isn’t just about abortion:

“It's all of the overreaching policies that this governor is pushing down the throats of Floridians. It’s guns. It’s DEI. It's LGBTQ plus community. It’s a new voting bill. I mean, every single day, there's just more and more attacks on our freedoms.”

We’ve been closely following Tennessee Republicans’ fake ‘exception’ for women’s health and lives, a bill that does nothing to protect pregnant women or doctors—but instead gives conservative lawmakers the ability to say they did something while offering up empty legislation. Well, today that bullshit bill passed the state Senate. (You can read some background on the legislation here.)

In fact, doctors say that the language of the bill makes their job even harder. Unlike the previous ban, this legislation doesn’t include “medically futile pregnancies” or fatal fetal abnormalities, and requires doctors to use “reasonable” medical judgement on whether to end a pregnancy to save a woman’s life rather than “good faith” medical judgement (language that Tennessee Right to Life fought to get removed).

We know what ‘exceptions’ like this do: Nothing. Take, for example, the latest horror story out of an anti-abortion state, from an Idaho woman who was denied an abortion despite a fatal fetal anomaly and a high-risk pregnancy. Kayla Smith and her husband had to travel to Washington to get an early induction at 21 weeks so they would be able to “say goodbye.”

Unsurprisingly, one of the authors of Idaho’s abortion ban, Blaine Conzatti, president of Idaho Family Policy Center, had zero empathy for this family, saying “preborn child shouldn't be killed because of their disability.” He told local reporters that women should be forced to carry pregnancies to term, even when there is no chance for their child’s survival: “Cherish that time that they have, even if it’s a short amount of time, and then begin the grieving process.” Absolute ghoul.

Attacks on democracy aren’t just coming in the form of ballot measure changes: Texas legislation that would force district attorneys to prosecute abortion cases has advanced in the Senate. One bill would classify refusing to prosecute specific kinds of cases (like abortion) as official misconduct—which would be punishable by removal from office. Another bill would allow the state attorney general to take any abortion cases that a local prosecutor refused to pursue, and allow the AG to sue that prosector for tens of thousands of dollars. Law professor Sandra Guerra Thompson told The Texas Tribune that this is an attempt from legislators to “exert statewide control over a traditionally local function.”

Speaking of anti-democratic moves to ban abortion: The Ohio Ballot Board has responded to a lawsuit by anti-choice activists which seeks to break up an abortion rights ballot measure into multiple amendments. The ballot board submitted its argument to the state Supreme Court, writing that they “correctly refused to usurp the people’s power by splitting the petition.”

Also in Ohio, students are about to lose out on a major source of sex education. The state just passed a law requiring schools to teach sexual violence and abuse prevention, but prohibits any organization that provides abortion from teaching those classes. That means Planned Parenthood, who has been a major educator in the state, is banned from teaching students about sexual violence. And while schools can use their own teachers, the law says that educators must receive training from law enforcement or prosecutors on sexual violence prevention. (I have all sorts of thoughts about that.)

Montana abortion providers spoke to NPR about doing their work in the face of threats and harassment. I linked to the audio segment of this piece in yesterday’s newsletter, but I had to share this quote from Nicole Smith, the current executive director of Blue Mountain Clinic:

“Our patients show up every day because they are desperate to get this care. We have to be there and hold the line for them.”

Thank an abortion provider today, seriously.

You may remember that Missouri lawmakers passed postpartum Medicaid expansion out of the Senate, but added in language that would ban coverage for anyone who had an abortion. This week, legislators heard testimony about that language, and how it could lead to the effort being rejected for federal approval. And because the language is broad—it says no one who breaks the law can receive funding—there’s concern that even someone who jaywalks could be denied health- and life-saving coverage. It just goes to show how far Republicans will go to punish women who have abortions.

And I’m sorry to keep hitting you with bad news, but in Kansas: The horrific ‘born alive’ bill passed through its final hurdle in the legislature yesterday. Even though Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly could veto the legislation, Republicans have enough votes to override her. The law claims to protect babies born alive after ‘botched’ abortions—which is not a real thing, just a bizarre conservative myth. What the legislation will do, however, is force doctors to provide extreme medical interventions on babies who are not expected to live—like very premature infants or newborns with severe conditions.

Families who would normally be able to peacefully say goodbye to their children will instead lose out on those precious moments and watch as doctors perform ‘life-saving’ measures in vain. Democratic Rep. Susan Ruiz said, “If the infant is born alive and only has minutes to live, the mother, the father, the family, have the right to ask for palliative care and embrace the infant until it is no longer breathing.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has written a letter to Idaho Gov. Brad Little, asking him to veto the ‘abortion trafficking’ bill that’s headed to his desk:

“I fear that our residents, in particular the women and girls of Washington, will be in grave danger if they travel to your state and find themselves in need of urgent reproductive health care services. This bill would also attempt to punish some Washington residents who happen to be in your state for any length of time, a gross abuse of their right to travel between our states.”

You can read the full letter here. And if you want to read some updated information on Gov. Inslee’s purchase of 30,000 doses of mifepristone, click here.

Quick hits:

• Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repealed a 1931 abortion ban today (a largely symbolic move as the law was made unenforceable by the state constitution’s new abortion protections);

• More on Tennessee losing millions in Title X funding;

• Maine lawmakers will be considering multiple bills to protect and expand abortion access, including legislation to allow later abortions;

• And a group of Ohio rabbis are asking people to talk about abortion rights over Seder dinner.

There was so much state news that I’m forgoing the other sections today. Whew. As always, thanks to researcher Grace Haley for her help in compiling the newsletter.