A federal judge has allowed North Carolina’s 20-week abortion ban to be reinstated. From Gov. Roy Cooper:
“Abortion past 20 weeks in pregnancy is exceptionally rare and happens because of a devastating health emergency or diagnosis. Denying women necessary medical care in extreme and threatening situations, even if rare, is fundamentally wrong, and we cannot let politicians mislead people about the real world implications of this harmful law.”
What’s also important to know is that North Carolina has been servicing a lot of patients from out-of-state who live in places where abortion is illegal. So this puts an extra strain on already-overwhelmed providers.
In South Carolina, the state Supreme Court temporarily blocked the state’s 6-week abortion ban. President of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic applauded the decision in a statement, and pointed out that for weeks “patients have been forced to travel hundreds of miles for an abortion or suffer the life-altering consequences of forced pregnancy.”
Here are some more details on the case of the 16 year-old in Florida being denied an abortion because a court ruled she’s not “mature” enough to decide to end her pregnancy. What’s fascinating is that when teenagers get a judicial bypass in order to obtain an abortion as minors, they have to prove “by clear and convincing evidence” that they’re “sufficiently mature” to make the decision. No such proof is required to bring a literal human being into the world and parent them.
Also in Florida: The Chief Medical Officer of one of the state’s Planned Parenthoods says that since Roe was overturned, they’ve seen a massive increase in requests for long term birth control and sterilizations:
“They'll say, ‘I wanna get it now just in case I can't get it later.’ So, they're scared. They're scared if that means, like, they're going to lose access to their contraception too, because they can't make this decision about their body.”
The New York Times does a deep dive into the Nebraska case of a teenager and her mother being charged with illegal abortion. It’s a pretty tragic situation all around. What we all need to pay attention to, though, is the way that police built their case: Accessing those private Facebook messages, using a message where the teen said she didn’t want to be pregnant as evidence, and getting access to the FB messages via a warrant that didn’t mention the word ‘abortion’. From Dana Sussman of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women:
“What we have been saying consistently is that it will almost never say ‘abortion’ in the search warrant that you receive: It’s feticide charges, it’s manslaughter charges, it’s murder charges, child abuse, felony child neglect.”
The woman behind the pro-choice win in Kansas, Rachel Sweet, has been hired to help out in Kentucky, where the state will vote on a measure that says the state constitution doesn’t protect the right to abortion.
You may remember that the Texas attorney general is suing the Biden administration over their guidance to hospitals reminding them to follow federal law and provide life-saving abortions. In response, attorneys general from 20 states have filed a brief in federal court in opposition to Texas’ lawsuit. From their brief: “emergency abortion care is necessary to avoid serious harmful outcomes (including death).” Sort of amazing that supposedly ‘pro-life’ Texas is suing for the right to let women die.
Much better news out of Texas: This is just the best. Destiny Adams, a coffee shop owner in West Texas, has been giving away free Plan B by leaving emergency contraception kits in the bathroom. Adams said, “We don’t charge people or ask questions, we don’t take names, we don’t even know who grabs them.” I’m looking around to see if there’s a way to support this truly awesome woman, so if you have any tips let me know!
Abortion in North Dakota will become illegal next week, but a state court will hear arguments tomorrow about whether to block the law. The Red River Women’s Clinic is arguing that the state constitution guarantees the rights of “life, liberty, safety and happiness”—which means the constitution protects the right to abortion. Couldn’t agree more.
In Mississippi, activists are working to get the state to offer more help to mothers—especially in light of the abortion ban. The maternal mortality rate in Mississippi is almost twice the national average (and the U.S. already has a terrible rate!); so this is very much a matter of life or death. (Related: In today’s no-shit news, NPR reports states with the strictest abortion bans are also those with least amount of support for parents.)
A new poll shows that the majority of voters in South Dakota do not support a total abortion ban, and that 65% would like a state referendum to determine the law. South Dakota has no exceptions for rape or incest in their sweeping abortion ban, but nearly 80% of those surveyed support those exceptions. Just another example of how the abortion bans across the country are not what Americans want.
In fact, several cities in Wisconsin are looking to highlight that disconnect by having local referendums that ask voters whether they think the state’s abortion ban should be overturned. The vote results are non-binding, of course, but organizers hope it will demonstrate just how far off the state ban is from what voters actually want.
Speaking of voters supporting abortion: Colorado’s U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is the latest Democrat to take extra effort to point out his opponent’s anti-choice stance:
In Nevada yesterday, Gov. Steve Sisolak said if he wins re-election he’d codify the protection of abortion providers and patients: “Governors are the last line of defense in protecting reproductive freedoms. The buck stops with us.”
Despite the ongoing legal battle, abortion is still legal in Michigan; but someone needs to tell the awful anti-choice protesters who have been harassing women and clinics by reporting them to the police. Activists have been standing outside of a Grand Rapids clinic, recording the people who go in and then taking the videos to police. In one report, a woman makes clear to cops that she will “likely be there to make reports daily.” Nightmare.
On the national front:
Younger Americans are turning down jobs and other opportunities in anti-choice states: “It’s hard for me to get excited about raising [my daughter] in Texas.”
Hundreds of workers at Google have written a petition to get management to extend abortion care benefits to contract workers; and more than 650 Google employees have sent management a petition demanding that they stop collecting data on those seeking abortions, and that they stop directing people to misleading and dangerous crisis pregnancy centers.
ABC News published a piece on what exactly medication abortion is and how it works. (A reminder that if the model legislation I told you about yesterday were in effect, that article would be illegal.)
A woman has written an incredibly moving opinion piece about being raped and impregnated by a babysitter when she was 11 years-old. I urge you to read all of it, but this is the part that really stuck with me:
“My abortion wasn’t a choice. It was my life. If I had been forced to give birth, I wouldn’t be texting my mom from my home in a beautiful mountain town. I wouldn’t teach at the nearby university. I wouldn’t be working on a book about climate change and how to shatter predetermined destinies. I wouldn’t be married to my husband or have my two children. My life would not have been my own. I would be a prisoner subject to a body’s whims — and not my body’s whims, but the whims of a teenage boy who, as best I can tell, experienced no consequences for inflicting what his body wanted upon my own.”
Heartbeat International is based in Ohio but poses a danger to women everywhere: For years, the group has been collecting data on women who visit crisis pregnancy centers—information that could be used to prosecute women who end up getting abortions. Heartbeat has a website, for example, on (debunked) abortion reversal where their chatbot asks women to give their name, info on if they’ve had an abortion and when, and their location. One privacy expert called it a “data honey pot.” Most dangerously, none of the data it collects from crisis pregnancy centers is covered by HIPAA. (Just another way that CPCs are not medical facilities!)
The Atlantic points out that employers covering abortion-related care is a “terribly shaky safety net” and that “most people who get abortions don’t have plushy positions at major corporations.” The Grist also looks at the employers pledging to protect their workers’ abortion rights, and how “Companies don’t do anything out of the goodness of their hearts.”
In sports news: USA Gymnastics president Li Li Leung said yesterday that the organization will take abortion laws into account when deciding whether to have a particular state host events (like the U.S. championships). She told ESPN, "We want to be able to align with cities and locations that are also aligned with our value system.”
The Associated Press has an updated list on what’s happening in different states on abortion; genetic counseling during pregnancy is now more complicated thanks to abortion bans, as most abnormalities are not found early in pregnancy. And a study of more than 20 pregnancy and period tracking apps showed that these companies are collecting a massive amount of data, “and then share it widely.” Terrific.
Finally, if you need a good laugh/cry, The Onion published a satirical slideshow of post-Roe laws. In Arizona: “After six weeks of pregnancy, women must crawl through the desert toward a far-off abortion clinic only to realize it is a mirage.” Oof.
Please excuse the very bizarre audio wackiness in the first two secs of the clip. Not sure what happened there! I think I’m just about at the point where I need to get some real podcast software. Sigh.
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