Abortion, Every Day (5.14.24)

Shield laws helped 40k women in anti-choice states get abortions

Click to skip ahead: In Abortion Trends, new data shows that nearly 1 in 5 abortions are done via telehealth. In the States, news from Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Florida, Arizona and more. In Ballot Measure Updates, a delayed vote on Minnesota’s ERA. In the Nation, an anti-abortion extremist is sentenced to prison. 2024 news looks at Democrats’ efforts to win over pro-choice voters heading to the ballot for abortion rights amendments. Finally, in Stats & Studies, new research shows that the shipping of abortion medication is safe and effective.

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Abortion Trends

New data from #WeCount this week paints a clear picture of just how important abortion medication and telehealth is in a post-Roe world. The report found that telehealth now accounts for 19% of abortions in the U.S., and that over 40,000 people living in anti-choice states have been able to access abortion through providers practicing in states with shield laws.

Just yesterday I wrote about increased anti-abortion chatter on extraditing abortion providers from shield states—now we know why. They’re likely seeing the same thing we are: that despite abortion bans, many people are still getting the care they need. In fact, the report found that about 8,000 people a month in states with bans or severe restrictions were getting abortion pills thanks to shield laws.

In 2022, the monthly average was 82,000 abortions; in 2023, the monthly average was 86,000 abortions. Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, public health scientist at the University of California, San Francisco and co-lead of the research, tells NPR that the increase wasn’t huge, “but we were expecting a decline.”

Two important things to remember: #WeCount is only tracking abortions that happen within the formal healthcare system—they’re not counting self-managed abortions where people get abortion medication online or from friends. So the real number of abortions is likely a good deal higher. That said, this increase in abortions doesn’t mean that people aren’t being denied care. We know they are—we hear their stories every day.

As expected, anti-abortion groups are furious that women are able to get abortions even when they’re living in anti-choice states. A representative from the Charlotte Lozier Institute says that the trend proves that “by recklessly removing in-person medical visits and safeguards, abortion advocates have put women's health and safety last.” (A bold statement in a time when women are going septic thanks to abortion bans.)

We can expect to see ramped up anti-abortion attacks on telemedicine, abortion medication and shield laws in the coming months. In fact, James Bopp Jr., general counsel for the National Right to Life Committee, told ABC News that they’re counting on a prosecutor in an anti-choice state to bring a charge against an abortion provider in a shield state. “It’ll probably occur, and we’ll get a legal challenge,” he said.

Anything to stop women from getting the care they need.

In the States

Given the #WeCount data showing how vital abortion medication has become to those anti-choice states, it should come as no surprise that Republicans are trying to enact more restrictions on the pills. I told you yesterday that Louisiana lawmakers, for example, want to classify abortion medication as “controlled dangerous substances.”

The legislation would make it a felony to have abortion pills without a valid prescription, punishable by years in prison. As I noted previously, the language says it wouldn’t target pregnant women (though we’ve seen how well that’s worked out in the past), and it’s clear that the legislation is meant to go after abortion funds.

This comes at the same time that Oklahoma Republicans are pushing legislation to label helping someone get abortion medication as “drug trafficking,” punishable by ten years in prison. Once again, the target is abortion funds and providers who help patients get the care they want.

In Ohio, however, abortion rights activists are working to repeal restrictions on abortion medication now that voters passed Issue 1—the amendment protecting abortion rights in the state constitution.

There was also some interesting state-level data in the #WeCount report—they found that the states with the greatest increases in the number of abortions were Illinois, California, and Florida. The fact that Florida is in that top three is significant; as you know, the state recently enacted a 6-week abortion ban, so that’s a whole lot of people who are not going to be able to get care in region.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the state’s 1864 abortion ban won’t be enforceable until mid-August, giving abortion rights advocates and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes some time to argue that it not be enforced at all. While the 160-year-old ban was repealed by the state legislature, that repeal law won’t go into effect for three months after the end of the session—and anti-abortion activists want the total ban to be enacted for any amount of time possible. From Mayes:

“I will do everything I can to ensure that doctors can provide medical care for their patients according to their best judgment, not the beliefs of the men elected to the territorial legislature 160 years ago.”

Now that the 1864 ban has been repealed, Arizona’s 15-week abortion ban goes back into effect. That could change in November when voters will likely see abortion on the ballot. If every other post-Dobbs ballot measure vote is any indication, Arizona voters could protect abortion rights in the state constitution, effectively repealing the 15-week ban, as well.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is headed to Tennessee to speak at a pro-choice event and rail against the state’s total abortion ban. The Associated Press reports that Beshear will be speaking along side Hadley Duvall, the young woman featured in a campaign ad credited with winning Beshear his reelection.

As you likely remember, Duvall was raped and impregnated as a child, and talked about her experience in the ad—calling out Beshear’s Republican opponent by name: “This is to you, Daniel Cameron. To tell a 12-year old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable.” (The ad has sparked dozens more like it, with Democrats relying on women’s personal stories to drive out votes.)

Since winning reelection, Beshear has been lobbying for the inclusion of rape and incest exceptions to Kentucky’s abortion ban. It seems that he’s going to be arguing for something similar in Tennessee, telling the AP that voters there “have enough basic empathy to believe [the ban] goes way too far.”

“When they hear stories like Hadley’s, someone who has gone through the worst of the worst, they get out of being pro-this or pro-that, are willing to push back against the extremism and have the basic empathy to believe these victims and survivors deserve options.”

Also in Kentucky: A judge heard arguments yesterday in the lawsuit brought by three Jewish women who say the state’s ban violates their religious freedom. A lawyer for the Kentucky Attorney General’s office is arguing that the women don’t have standing to bring the suit at all because they’re not pregnant. The “alleged injuries are hypothetical,” the state claims.

Attorney for the women, Benjamin Potash, says, “If they don’t have standing, no one has standing to challenge abortion rights in America. If the courts are going to shut their doors on these women…they’re going to shut the doors on all of us.” 

Quick hits:

• More on Louisiana’s efforts to increase funding to crisis pregnancy centers;

• And Tennessee parents are speaking up about the new requirement that public schools show students an anti-abortion video.

Ballot Measure Updates

Minnesota Republicans delayed a House vote this week on the ERA, an amendment Democrats want to use to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. A vote on the potential ballot measure is expected to happen on Wednesday, and the Star Tribune reports that Republicans are expected to push more than a dozen changes to proposed amendment.

The other thing holding up the ERA is that there’s some disagreement between Democrats in the House and Senate as to the language of the amendment: Dems in the House want the language to explicitly protect abortion rights. They also aren’t on the same page about when the issue should be put to voters—this fall, or in 2026.

And while abortion is already legal in Minnesota, they want to add an extra layer of protection—something other pro-choice states, like Michigan, have also done.

Unfortunately, even when voters pass abortion rights amendments, it doesn’t stop Republicans from continuing their attacks on our bodies and freedom. Voters in Kansas, for example, sent a clear message in 2022, when they resoundingly defeated an anti-abortion ballot measure by nearly 20 points. Still, the state GOP has passed restriction after restriction on abortion—even overriding vetoes from Gov. Laura Kelly.

Kelly says, “If they were truly representing or even listening to their constituents, bills like these wouldn't have made it to my desk after such a resounding rebuke of political overreach.”

Quick hits: The Nevada Independent is tracking Nevada’s proposed abortion rights amendment, outlining the legal and financial status of the measure, along with how many signatures have been gathered thus far. States Newsroom looks at the intergenerational fight for Amendment 4 in Florida. And Arizona abortion rights activists are fighting back against conservative myths about the pro-choice ballot measure making its way towards voters this November.

“Trump saying that Republicans are ‘the party of fertilization’ is inadvertently one of the most honest things he’s ever said about abortion. He can swear up and down that he believes it’s now an issue for the states, but anti-abortion activists and the current GOP have been extremely clear that their end goal is full legal rights for fertilized eggs—rights that necessarily come at the expense of the living, breathing people with said eggs inside them.”

~Susan Rinkunas, Slate

In the Nation

An anti-abortion activist who attacked a clinic in Washington, DC has been sentenced to five years in prison. Lauren Handy was convicted of violating the FACE Act—the federal law prohibiting blocking access or doing violence to a reproductive health clinic—after she and other extremists forced their way into the clinic, blocked the doors, and prevented patients from getting care. A nurse was injured in the process, and one of the activists with Handy accosted a woman who was having labor pains.

Prosecutors say Handy was the “mastermind” behind the attack, and other similar actions. She also broadcast the invasion of the clinic and encouraged her followers to commit similar crimes at other clinics.

Anti-abortion groups have lauded Handy as a hero, and are using her case to argue that the Biden administration is unfairly going after peaceful protesters using the FACE Act.

This comes at the same time that some Republicans are trying to repeal the federal law that protects clinics, and as anti-abortion groups are bringing lawsuits against local buffer zones—arguing that they violate their free speech rights.

In short: anti-abortion organizations, lobbyists and lawmakers are working hard to make it easier to harass clinic patients and providers.

Republican attorneys general from Louisiana and Mississippi filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the EEOC’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which says employers need to give women time off to have and recover from abortions.

Quick hits:

• Salon on the new study showing that medical residents are avoiding anti-abortion states;

• The Guardian does a deep dive on the new Pew numbers showing that the majority of Americans want abortion to be legal;

• Fast Company highlights an award-winning pro-choice ad;

• And Stateline reports that the birth rate is falling despite abortion bans.

2024

As you know by now, Democrats are hoping that anger over the decimation of abortion rights is going to bring out voters for Biden and all the other down-ticket Dems. Specifically, they’re counting on increased voter turnout for pro-choice ballot measure, believing that those coming out to support an abortion rights amendment will stick around and vote for Democratic candidates while they’re there.

Earlier this month, a memo from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) laid out that plan. From DLCC president Heather Williams:

“We need to win federally and we need to win in the states, we need to win these ballot measures and we need to build power in state houses, because that is how we are able to be responsive to a really harmful Republican agenda.”

But state-level abortion rights advocates aren’t so keen on that plan, worried that Democrats tying themselves to state ballot initiatives will put off pro-choice Republican and Independent voters. I’ve written a bit about that tension in Florida, for example, where Amendment 4 activists point out that they have quite a lot of Republican support—support they know they need to hold onto.

POLITICO reports that this is becoming an issue in other states with abortion rights ballot measures as well, like Arizona, Nebraska and Nevada. Reporters Megan Messerly and Alice Miranda Ollstein write that “as ballot measure campaigns work to appeal to voters across the political spectrum, they fear Democrats will make the referendums appear too partisan, and ultimately sink their chances.”

Taylor Givens-Dunn at Protect our Rights in Nebraska says that the message that does the best when they’re collecting signatures for the pro-choice measure is that Nebraskans should have the freedom to get the healthcare they need without political interference. “We want to be clear that this is about people, not politicians,” she says.

PBS NewsHour has a short segment on how Democrats are keeping abortion front and center as we speed towards November—and the way that Republicans are struggling to find messaging that will resonate with voters. It’s definitely worth a watch if you want to check it out below, and I especially appreciated this thought from U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin:

“We have to understand that most people see this as a kitchen table issue. A decision about whether to have a child or not is the most profound kitchen table issue that we have. It's not separate from inflation. It's not separate from the economy. It's like your whole family trajectory and whether you are going to be able to afford that life.”

In a South Carolina Republican primary debate for a U.S. House seat, incumbent Rep. William Timmons went up against state Rep. Adam Morgan on abortion rights—revealing something telling in the process.

First of all, let me say that watching even a few minutes of this debate where all men are talking about abortion as if they know a single fucking thing is exhausting.

Okay, now to the substance: When Timmons attacked Morgan for his support of legislation that would criminalize women who have abortions, Morgan defended himself by saying he was simply trying to close a “loophole.” But that wasn’t all! Morgan said the law wouldn’t criminalize “any woman who has an abortion, it was women who commit abortions on themselves.” Aka, a woman who takes abortion medication—which is used in 63% of abortions.

Speaking of men saying stupid things on abortion: U.S. Senate candidate for Pennsylvania David McCormick agreed with a radio host this month that abortion is a “money laundering operation.”

Stats & Studies

A study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine found that getting abortion medication in the mail is as safe and effective as having the pills prescribed in-person. (Given the data from #WeCount showing how many patients rely on telehealth for abortions in anti-choice states, the timing for the research couldn’t be better.)

Researchers at University of California, San Francisco, followed over 500 people who had abortion medication shipped to them, and found nearly 98% had complete abortions, and that there were no adverse events related to the medication being mailed.

Lead author Dr. Daniel Grossman from of the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program at USCF said, “The study provides additional evidence that the abortion medication mifepristone should be treated like every other medication and can be easily dispensed by pharmacists, including through a mail-order pharmacy.”

Most importantly, Grossman points out that “any attempt to restrict [the medication] is not based on science.”

The Conversation features a piece this week from researchers who looked at Americans’ knowledge about pregnancy, and what that means for those in states with abortion bans. Specifically, they looked at few people know about how pregnancy dates are measures—something that’s obviously critical in places with 6-week bans and the like.

The political scientists found that only one-third of respondents knew how pregnancy is dated, and that most about 60% believed pregnancy is dated from conception. Unsurprisingly, they also found that the people who supported 6-week abortion bans were “significantly less likely than others to correctly understand the timing of pregnancy.”

That knowledge gap is something we’ve seen before. In fact, a study published earlier this year found that the more people know about pregnancy, the more likely they are to be pro-choice.