Abortion, Every Day (5.1.24)

Arizona Senate votes to repeal 1864 ban

Click to skip ahead: We start off with the bad news, I’m sorry to say: Florida Ban in Effect. Language Watch has a new anti-abortion term to keep an eye on. In the States, Arizona’s Senate voted to repeal the 1864 ban. In Attacks on Democracy, anti-abortion groups are targeting voters with lies over text. Ballot Measure Updates has better news: South Dakota pro-choicers collected enough signatures to get abortion on the ballot. Finally, in 2024, VP Kamala Harris was in Florida railing against the 6-week ban, and more comments from Trump on abortion.

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Florida Ban In Effect

It’s a very sad day for Florida, where a 6-week abortion ban went into effect today, impacting millions of people in the state and region. As you know, Florida providers have been seeing patients from all across the South, and this law will set off a domino effect causing chaos across the country. Even abortion funds and providers in pro-choice states thousands of miles away will be impacted.

Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro, executive director of Florida Access Network, tells The New York Times, “This is going to be the biggest change to abortion access since Dobbs.” And in the BBC, Amber Gavin of A Woman's Choice says, “There's nowhere that can absorb all of the patients that we see, it's just not possible.”

Right now, Florida clinics are trying to fit in as many patients as they can. They’re extending hours and doing ultrasounds earlier in pregnancy in order to ensure they don’t see women too late to get care. The director of one Florida clinic, for example, tells The Guardian that they rarely see patients before the law’s cut-off:

“Most people don’t know they’re pregnant until at least six weeks. We try to get people in as quickly as possible, but sometimes we’re one or three weeks booked out, so it’s rare that someone is in before they’re six weeks.”

As such, there is going to a huge effort in the state from patient navigators—those who help patients travel out-of-state for care.

There’s also well-justified fear over women’s health. Dr. Leah Roberts says, “We’re being told that we have to wait until the mother is septic to be able to intervene.” Then there are those being forced to carry doomed pregnancies to term because of the law’s language around what constitutes a “fatal” fetal abnormality. Roberts says women are “feeling the kicks for months after they’re being told that they’re never going to have a live birth.”

For a refresher on the details of the law—including its ridiculous ‘exceptions’— read my piece from earlier this week:

Countdown to Florida's Abortion Ban

Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book says the state has “taken a dangerous, disastrous step back in time where women have fewer rights today than our grandmothers before us.” And Congressional Florida Democrats released a statement pointing out that the impact of the ban doesn’t just hurt patients, but “threatens doctors and nurses, and drives away residents from our great state.”

Voters in the state will have the chance to repeal the law by supporting Amendment 4 this November, a measure to protect abortion rights in the state constitution.

For a look at the broader context of what Florida’s ban means for the rest of the country and the November elections, read Abortion, Every Day’s explainer here.

Some other quick Florida hits: Mary Ziegler at Slate writes that the 6-week ban is just the beginning; Teen Vogue has an interview with Florida House Minority leader Fentrice Driskell; The Washington Post spoke with clinic in the final hours before the ban took effect; and the Wall Street Journal on what Florida can learn from Georgia’s abortion ban.

Finally, Cecile Richards reminds us that “what’s happening in Florida right now—and what will continue to happen in the coming weeks and months—is a reminder that this is not some theoretical debate over an abstract issue.”

To donate to a Florida abortion fund or get help, click here. To order abortion medication, look to the list of resources at the end of this email.

Language Watch

If you’re a regular reader you know that anti-abortion lawmakers and organizations will do anything they can to avoid using the word ‘ban’. Their policies are so unpopular, they can’t even say them aloud. In the wake of fury over Florida and Arizona, conservatives are being extra careful to use language they think will go over better with pissed off voters.

I’ve written a lot about terms like ‘consensus’ and ‘standard’ being used in place of ‘ban’, but another word that I’m seeing more than ever is ‘protections’. In USA Today, for example, Caitlin Connor of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America talked about Florida’s newly enacted ban by saying that the state joined “states across the country who have put this protection in place.”

By calling bans and restrictions ‘pro-life protections,’ Republicans and anti-abortion activists think that they can convince voters that their policies are being done in the best interest of women. They’re not just protecting fetuses, they say, but women who are supposedly harmed by abortion. Keep an eye on this one, we’re going to see it a lot in the lead up to November.

In the States

I think we could all use some good news: Arizona’s Senate is has voted to repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban today, a law that sparked national backlash. The state House voted to repeal the ban last week, after three Republicans voted with Democrats in response to pressure from national Republican leaders (including Donald Trump). The legislation will now head to Gov. Katie Hobbs, who will sign the bill.

This means that state will revert back to having a 15-week ban—a law that could be reversed if Arizona voters come out to support a pro-choice ballot measure in November. But remember, Republicans in the state are planning on proposing a measure of their own in order to trick voters out of supporting the authentic abortion rights amendment.

In the meantime, anti-abortion activists are furious at the two Republicans who voted to repeal the ban, Sens. T.J. Shope and Shawnna Bolick. The New York Times reports that as Bolick cast her vote, anti-abortion activists yelled at her from the gallery: “Come on!” “This is a disgrace!” “One day you will face a just and holy God!” (Something interesting about Bolick: She’s married to one of the state Supreme Court justices who voted in favor of the 1864 law.)

Students for Life also held a protest; vice president of the group, Chanel Prunier, saying “If Republican leadership and members go along with this Democrat-led repeal, Arizona will become the first state led by Republicans to strip protections from already-protected preborn babies.” There’s that word ‘protections’ again!

Meanwhile, a judge gave North Carolina abortion rights advocates a partial victory yesterday, ruling against one of the state’s restrictions on abortion medication. U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles says that the mandate that doctors must prescribe abortion medication in person—essentially a telehealth ban—goes against federal rules. Eagles allowed other restrictions on the pills, like a an in-person exam and waiting period, to remain.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, who is running for governor and was a party to the suit, said he was pleased that women in rural areas of the state will be able to access care more easily. “Republican legislators enacted the law to control, not protect, women,” he said.

In disappointing news, Kansas legislators overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a law that will require doctors to ask abortion patients invasive questions and report those answers to the state. Emily Wales, president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said the group is considering suing over the law. “This is about shame and stigma, it’s not about improving care, or tracking critical vital statistics,” she said.

Abortion, Every Day has been tracking the way that abortion reporting has become an increasingly important tactic to anti-choice groups, who are looking to scare women out of getting care and hoping to collect information that they can use to argue that abortion is unnecessary or unsafe. (Remember my investigation into the Texas abortion ‘complication’ reporting law that’s used to fabricate statistics on the supposed-danger of abortion?)

A statement from Kansas House leadership, however, called the fear around abortion data collection “unreasonable,” claiming that Republicans are just seeking “up-to-date and relevant information.”

Finally, Louisiana Republicans are pushing legislate to classify abortion medication as a controlled substance. Rolling Stone reports that legislators snuck the language in through a last-minute amendment, which would criminalize possession of abortion pills. From attorney Elizabeth Ling at If/When/How:

“It’s unknown how police or prosecutors might choose to use this law, or might choose to use information against people. The amendment may have an exception for the pregnant person, but there’s no exceptions for the people supporting a pregnant person.”

Women in anti-choice states often rely on abortion medication, which can be shipped from pro-choice states—so this kind of law is especially troubling.

Attacks on Democracy

I told you earlier this week that Missouri voters were getting texts from anti-abortion groups, warning them that pro-choice petitioners were trying to steal their personal data. The texts, which you can see here, say “protect yourself from fraud and theft” and “don’t share your personal data with strangers.”

It’s a shameless move from the state’s “Decline to Sign” campaign, one that joins a deluge of anti-abortion attacks on democracy. And it turns out this isn’t just happening in Missouri. Just minutes after I posted about the tactic on TikTok, a commenter let me know that they had received similar texts in Nevada, where abortion is also on the ballot.

Remember, these anti-choice campaigns aren’t just being run by organizations in the state—they’re supported by powerful national organizations like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. That’s how little faith they have in their message on abortion; they need to trick voters out of signing pro-choice petitions.

I’ll have more on this campaign soon; I’m looking into just how many states voters are seeing these messages in.

Ballot Measure Updates

South Dakota abortion rights activists have collected enough signatures to get abortion on the ballot in November. Dakotans for Health announced that they gathered signatures from more than 55,000 voters; they only needed to collect 35,000.

POLITICO has a big piece on the ballot measure effort in Florida, where abortion rights activists will need to get 60% of the vote, as opposed to a simple majority. Pro-choicers are feeling positive over potential support for the measure, but for a depressing reason: they expect horror stories will start to stream out of the state now that the 6-week abortion ban is in effect, motivating voters. Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried says, “Unfortunately, the stories are going to tell themselves.”

Democrats in Illinois have put plans for an abortion rights ballot measure on the back-burner for now. Rep. Kelly Cassidy told WTTV that amendment campaigns are time-consuming and expensive, and that they think that sort of energy would be better spent in states that don’t have the same kind of protections that Illinois does.

Quick hits: NPR has an interesting piece on how the Missouri ballot measure is bringing up complicated questions for Catholics. U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen signed the petition in Nevada to get abortion rights on the ballot in November, saying, “I am challenging people to sign up to protect women's freedom.” Axios writes about the ballot measure effort in Arkansas, which is already getting some local pushback. And the Tampa Bay Times looks at Latino support for Amendment 4 in Florida.

2024

Vice President Kamala Harris was in Jacksonville today to rail against Florida’s 6-week abortion ban. She blamed Donald Trump for the ban, noting that another Trump presidency would mean “more bans, more suffering, less freedom.”

“But we are not going to let that happen. Because we trust women. We trust women to know what is in their own best interest. And women trust all of us to fight to protect their most fundamental freedom.”

You can watch her full comments below:

If you missed Donald Trump’s most recent comments on abortion in TIME magazine, make sure to check out my analysis from yesterday. Trump said he would be fine with states tracking women’s pregnancies and arresting abortion patients because “the states are going to make those decisions.” He also refused to commit to vetoing a federal abortion ban. (Because, as we know, he would absolutely sign one.)

Today, TIME released the full transcript of Trump’s interview, and there’s even more on abortion. When asked about abortion medication, for example, Trump said “I have an opinion on that, but I’m not going explain.”

The disgraced former president said that he’d be “releasing” his opinion on abortion medication over the next week—as if this was a product launch, rather that women’s lives. When reporter Eric Cortellessa pushed, bringing up the fact that anti-abortion groups want to use the Comstock Act to prohibit the shipping of abortion pills, Trump once again said that he had a “big statement” on the issue that he’d give within the next two weeks.

“I feel very strongly about it,” he said. “I actually think it’s a very important issue.” Sure he does.

I think Trump loved the fact that his previous abortion announcement made such big headlines and he’s looking for a similar moment. I also tend to think that if he’s going to announce anything on Comstock, he’ll announce support for using it against abortion pills. It’s a way for him to throw the anti-abortion movement a public bone in a moment when they’re pissed off about his comments on states’ rights, and he can use language on ‘drug trafficking’, which is the sort of thing he loves. Obviously, I hope I’m wrong.