Abortion, Every Day (5.4.23)

The North Carolina bill is worse than you think

If you haven’t read today’s piece about how Texas Republicans are fabricating abortion data, make sure to check it out. It’s incredibly important and we’re going to see more of the same in other states with similar ‘complication’ reporting laws.

Since Grace and I have been burning the midnight oil on that article, Abortion, Every Day will be back in full form tomorrow. (And if you want to hear me talk about today’s piece and everything else going on with abortion, I’ll be on MSNBC with Chris Hayes around 8:45pm EST tonight.)

In the meantime, I wanted to make sure to tell you a little bit about the abortion ban proposed in North Carolina, because it’s so much worse than most mainstream media outlets are making it out to be.

Republicans are touting it as a 12-week restriction—something they’re calling “reasonable” and “commonsense.” Their hope is to make it seem as if the bill will fully allow for abortions in the first trimester, because they know that most Americans (and 60% of people in North Carolina) want abortion to be legal. Sen. Joyce Krawiec, one of the bill sponsors, even claimed today, “this is a pro-life plan, not an abortion ban.”

They are lying.

Paige Masten at The Charlotte Observer points out that there are a tremendous amount of restrictions and hurdles that the bill sets out in those first 12 weeks, including a 72-hour waiting period and a mandated initial in-person consultation (currently, you can have that first meeting by phone.) These are requirements that will make it extremely difficult for low-income people or those who can’t take off of work to get care.

There are also increased hurdles for medication abortion, which is used in more than half of abortions. Abortion medication would only be available in the first 10 weeks, not 12—and would require three in-person visits, which is absurd. (The law mandates an in-person consultation three days previous to getting your first pill, a second appointment where you take the pill in-person, and a third appointment two weeks after the abortion.)

The bill has new requirements for clinics that are so stringent that not one Planned Parenthood clinic in the state would be able to keep their license—which, of course, is the point. (This is what Republicans are doing in Utah, banning abortion by banning clinics.)

Republican lawmakers say that there are exceptions for fetal anomalies, but the bill that makes it illegal to have an abortion if someone wants it “in whole or in part” because of the “presumed presence of Down syndrome.” (Fetuses with Down syndrome can have a whole host of other severe abnormalities; this language would mean a woman could be forced to carry a pregnancy with multiple abnormalities if one of them includes Down syndrome.)

And then there’s just the absolutely cruelty of it. If passed, this law would force women to have ultrasounds, listen to the “heartbeat” and look at the image while doctors describe the pregnancy in detail. If they’re getting a medication abortion, physicians will be forced to tell women that they’re risking sepsis and sterility—despite the incredible safety of the drug. Doctors would also be required to tell women that they “may see the remains of her unborn child.”

If someone is seeking an abortion because of a fetal abnormality, doctors must provide them with written and oral information about how “life-limiting anomalies have resulted in live births of infants with unpredictable and variable lengths of life.” They want to force doctors to tell patients that maybe their baby will survive—a way to make patients in horrific circumstances feel even worse.

All of which is to say, this isn’t a moderate “reasonable” restriction. This is cruel, punitive legislation that will hurt women. It is a nightmare. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.