Abortion, Every Day (6.21.23)
40% of OBGYNs in anti-choice states report constraints giving emergency pregnancy care
Howdy! It’s Grace Haley, Abortion, Every Day’s researcher. Jessica is in DC with me working on a few things for the Dobbs anniversary, so I am taking over the newsletter today. As a researcher and data gal, I thought I’d start with the stats first:
Stats & Studies
Health policy nonprofit KFF released the results from a national survey of office-based OBGYNs on the impact Dobbs had on their practice, and the results are devastating. Some of their key findings show that 64% of OBGYNs believe that Dobbs has worsened maternal mortality rates, which comes at a time when pregnancy-related deaths are rising.
Most of the OBGYNs surveyed believed that the decision worsened their ability to treat pregnancy-related emergencies. A crushing statistic:
“One in five office-based OBGYNs (20%) report they have personally felt constraints on their ability to provide care for miscarriages and other pregnancy-related medical emergencies since the Dobbs decision. In states where abortion is banned, this share rises to four in ten OBGYNs (40%).”
And the fear and confusion strategy of the post-Dobbs landscape has worked. OBGYNs practicing where abortion is restricted said they did not understand very well the circumstances under which abortion is legal in the state they practice.
CBS also released a poll showing that most Americans say Roe's overturn has been bad for the country, and half say abortion has been more restricted than what they expected after Dobbs. What’s important from this poll: almost a third of women in states where abortion isn’t banned believe that abortions are difficult to get. We’ve stressed in the newsletter before that access has been threatened even in states where abortion is protected.
And some more numbers for you (I know you love them). Gallup released a poll that shows a record high number of voters who say that abortion is the single defining issue when they are choosing who to vote for in elections—and the majority of those voters are pro-abortion rights. The latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll shows similar results: Majority of Americans say it was wrong for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe.
Pew published a global survey that showed that support for legal abortion is widespread in many countries, especially in Europe: “A median of 71% of adults across the 24 countries surveyed believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while a median of 27% believe it should be illegal.”
In the States
The New York state legislature passed a bill that protects abortion providers against litigation from states with bans. They are the fifth state to pass a shield law. But this is a huge deal because they will be the first shield law to explicitly protect providers who openly talk about their intention to mail abortion medication to anti-abortion states. It will now go to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk, where it will be signed into law.
Abortion continues to be a defining feature in elections, as we saw in Virginia’s primary elections last night. In one of the most contentious and watched primaries of the evening, pro-abortion rights candidate Lashrecse Aird defeated one of the few remaining anti-abortion Democrat incumbents—state Sen. Joe Morrissey.
Gov. Glen Younkin has promised an abortion ban if the GOP gains control of both the Virginia state legislature and Senate in November. A reminder that the state is the last abortion safe haven in the South.
Abortion rights proponents have dropped a challenge to Kentucky’s abortion ban—a suit that argued that the law violated citizens’ constitutional rights. Instead, they will be focusing their legal strategy on the pregnant women who were denied abortions because of Kentucky's abortion ban. They say they’ll bring a suit forward in the future.
As we’ve mentioned in the newsletter in the past, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure last year that would have prevented constitutional protections for abortion. This is another example of how Republican majorities in state legislatures are banning abortion against the wishes of voters.
Every week there are new reports on the medical deserts growing for OBGYN care because of abortion bans after the Dobbs decision. The 19th* interviewed doctors who are leaving their practices in Texas because it is becoming impossible for them to provide care for their patients due to abortion and gender-affirming care bans. And the impact is becoming the most severe in rural counties, which already were in a crisis of care before Dobbs. One gutting quote from the piece:
“Are we making the problem worse if we leave? We have to think about our families, too at the same time. I wouldn’t be helping my family if I went to prison and lost my nursing license.”
Reuters published a photo essay about the father-daughter duo who had to uproot their lives and medical practices to move their abortion clinics from Texas and Oklahoma to New Mexico and Illinois.
To get a better sense of the crisis in care we’re seeing, it’s worth checking out this map from Reuters showing that the number of women who live in counties that were more than 300 miles from an abortion clinic jumped almost 900 times from 18,000 women to 16 million women.
And USA Today and The Tennessean released a video on the Mississippi maternal health care crisis that is being exacerbated by its abortion ban. It shows how the healthcare system is not ready for the surge in births in a post-Dobbs world. You can watch below:
We’ve reported extensively on the attacks on democracy that change the rules to prevent voters from approving pro-abortion ballot measures, and it's worth highlighting the CBS investigation into the politics behind the months-long GOP effort in Ohio. The Republican effort to change the rules around ballot measures in Ohio “is one flank in a coordinated nationwide campaign, heavily funded by Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein, to raise the threshold to pass any citizen-initiated constitutional amendment.”
Uihlein also funded policy research that promoted the “‘sixty percent supermajority requirement’ as a legally sound approach to mitigate attempts to ‘bypass’ state legislatures.” We’ve been tracking similar efforts in South Dakota and Missouri.
The Maine House voted last night on a dozen abortion bills, including a shield law that protects abortion providers and a ban on “sanctuary cities for the unborn” We’ve been seeing similar strategies being utilized by anti-abortion groups in abortion-accessible states like New Mexico, and we’ll continue to watch how legislators pro-actively respond. Groups in Maine are waiting for the House to take up a bill expanding access to abortions later in pregnancy.
In other good news, reproductive advocacy groups are pushing for the ‘Location Shield Act’ in Massachusetts that would ban the selling, leasing, trading or renting of cellphone location data. If passed, it would become the first state to protect location data.
Quick Hits:
Tomorrow, a Wyoming 9th Circuit Court will hear arguments over medication abortion access in the state before the medication abortion ban goes into effect July 1;
Ohio Democrats have collected over 100,000 signatures for the state’s abortion rights ballot measure;
The Wisconsin Assembly is scheduled to vote tomorrow on a bipartisan bill that would allow pharmacists to prescribe and dispense birth control;
More data: Minnesota clinics are seeing a surge in out-of-state demand for abortions.
In the Nation
Last night, the Senate confirmed Julie Rikelman—the lawyer who represented the case for the Mississippi clinic before the Supreme Court in Dobbs—to the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. Rikelman has had a long career fighting for abortion, including serving as the senior litigation director at the Center for Reproductive Rights and is largely considered one of the best abortion rights attorneys in the country.
Her bio at the Center for Reproductive Rights notes that her career has included “challenging bans and clinic closing laws across the country…invasive ultrasound laws, fighting to preserve access to medication abortion, and defending the rights of young people in Florida and Alaska to make their own reproductive health decisions.” We will see if this will make an impact on abortion jurisprudence.
Across the board in Washington, DC, Democrats are highlighting the anniversary of Dobbs. This week Senate Democrats forced a GOP block on four bills that would protect a woman’s right to abortion access and contraception. The goal was to show GOP opposition to abortions rights and how the issue has “become a political liability at the national level for the G.O.P.”
The DNC is also launching a billboard campaign in Times Square and battleground states across the country that will “highlight the contrast between Democrats' efforts to protect abortion rights and Republicans' attempts to ban abortion.”
Multiple roundtables have been held this week around the fall of Roe: Yesterday, First Lady Jill Biden hosted a group of women from Florida, Louisiana and Texas at the White House who were denied medical care related to pregnancies. They discussed their experiences with the White House Gender Policy Council.
As we discussed last week, the White House hosted Democratic lawmakers from GOP-led states to discuss future action and how to safeguard access to abortion. On Friday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra will be traveling to Planned Parenthoods clinics on the border of Illinois and Missouri to show the difference in access between states post-Dobbs. (Border towns have been under a particular spotlight in the last few months.)
Vice President Kamala Harris will also be giving a speech on Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina; rumor is that she’s going to make a speech where she will allegedly push for national legislation.
As a reminder of how stark life is in the post-Dobbs world, here’s a piece on the nonprofit volunteer network Elevated Access that flies people across state lines to receive reproductive and gender-affirming care. We really do live in a country where volunteer pilots need to fly people across the country to their nearest available abortion appointment.
And The Guardian reports that people are feeling pushed to go on birth control to prevent forced pregnancy:
“Within a month of the decision, in July 2022, a TIME survey found that 21% of respondents reported changing their method of birth control after Roe was overturned. CNN reported a 300% increase in demand for emergency contraception”
Over the past year, the need for accessible birth control is rising at the same time as anti-abortion groups are mobilizing efforts to ban contraception as their next anti-abortion battle.
Quick hits:
Axios on how abortion restrictions are forcing some medical residents to travel out-of-state for abortion training;
Politico looks at the pro-abortion religious freedom legal arguments from pro-choice advocates.
WIRED with an explainer on the legal battle over telehealth abortion medication;
And Science Magazine wrote on how scientific conferences aren’t pulling out of states with abortion bans and anti-LGBTQ+ laws, despite issuing safety measures and warnings.
Anti-Abortion Strategy
As Abortion, Every Day has flagged in the past, anti-abortion Republicans are inching away from using the word “ban” and trying to call it by any other name—standard, consensus, compromise.
In a news conference this week, for example, GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham told reporters that he is planning on introducing new legislation for a 15-week national abortion ban on the Senate side:
“I’ll introduce legislation soon, creating a national minimum standard of 15 weeks. At 15 weeks a baby can feel pain, they suck their thumb. Forty-seven of 50 European nations limit abortion on demand from 12 to 15 weeks. So, I think as a nation I want to be aligned with Europe, not North Korea and Iran and China to allow abortion on demand at the moment of birth.” (Emphasis mine)
We know that this is completely false: we’ve reported in the past how this has no medical or scientific basis. It is part of a larger anti-abortion strategy within the movement to push gestational limits further back.
And on the House side, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik spoke to reporters last night in a press conference to announce that House Republicans will be beginning the process to also introduce a 15-week national abortion ban. Stefanik said that “we do have a role” at the federal level, especially regarding "building consensus" at the national level to restrict access to abortion. (There’s that word again!)
This is part of a larger movement to paint a 15-week national ban as a reasonable alternative to the bans we are seeing in places like Florida and South Carolina. Another Trump-Republican, Rep. Nancy Mace was profiled in Politico this week saying she is a champion of Trump’s policy positions and rhetoric, especially around abortion. She has criticized both her party’s and Democrats’ positions on abortion, and has called for a 15 week “sweet spot.”
Thanks for reading to the end! This may be my first, but won’t be my last takeover.
Great job Grace, thank you! Curious if anyone has noticed what I view as the very recent D msm media push to pay attention to state legislative candidates in regards to the pro-choice issue & not just federal candidates. I really took note of it last night on multiple stations. It appears Kamala has been tapped to lead this push. Living in VA I was pretty excited that the D party seems to have bumped up prioritizing this agenda, which for too long has not received the attention it deserves. Another positive.
Thank you, Grace. I appreciate reading this superb newsletter devoid of angry outbursts. As it is, abortion news is hugely upsetting to absorb. Thank you both for your commitment to educating us.