All eyes on Kansas today, where the state is voting on whether or not to remove abortion protections from the state constitution. Worth noting: Anti-choice groups have been sending out texts to confuse voters, telling them that “voting YES on the amendment gives women a choice.” (To support abortion rights, folks in Kansas need to vote NO)
This falls under ‘good news/depressing news’: the Department of Justice is suing Idaho over their abortion ban, noting that the lack of exception for women’s health violates federal law. We want to see more of this, obviously, but it’s hard not to think about how dystopian it is that a state needs to be stopped from criminalizing emergency medical care.
There was a lot of confusion yesterday in Michigan after the state Court of Appeals ruled that county prosecutors could enforce an abortion ban. At the end of the day yesterday, however, a judge issued a restraining order to prevent prosecutors from going after abortion providers.
A judge in Kentucky reinstated an abortion ban today, making abortion in the state illegal effective immediately. As a reminder: There is no exception in Kentucky’s law for rape or incest; abortion is only permitted in cases where a person is at risk of death or serious bodily injury. We know these exceptions are deliberately vague, making it impossible for doctors to provide adequate care.
Abortion has also become illegal once more in Louisiana, where an appeals court ruled that the state attorney general can enforce the abortion ban while the legal fight goes on. Amy Irvin, a spokesperson for several abortion clinics in Louisiana said, “Once again, politics has superseded medical expertise and commonsense.”
The Indiana House continues to make changes to their abortion ban: Today they added an exception for the health of the pregnant person and changed the time limit for rape and incest victims to get care. Previously, victims under 16 years-old had up to 12 weeks to get an abortion, and victims over 16 years-old had 8 weeks. Now, all victims, regardless of age, have 10 weeks. (What’s incredible is that we’re meant to feel grateful for this.)
City leaders in Ohio are trying to protect abortion in the state: Officials in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Cleveland Heights have gone to the state Supreme Court and argued that the ban “willfully jeopardizes the health and safety of millions of Ohioans,” and therefore should be rescinded.
And in North Dakota, lawmakers are seeking clarity around the state’s abortion ban, which they say is written so broadly that it could result in rape victims having to get spousal permission before getting an abortion, or prevent doctors from treating ectopic pregnancies.
I missed this last week but it’s so wild that I had to include it: In West Virginia, State Rep. Chris Pritt argued that mandating child support goes against anti-abortion principles, because if men know they’ll have to financially support a child, they’ll be more likely to want their partner to have an abortion. In short, women have to be forced to carry pregnancies they don’t want, but men shouldn’t be forced to pay child support for the resulting babies. Another Republican in the state argued against an amendment that would terminate the parental rights of a rapist. What’s in the water there, West Virginia??
Speaking of awful things people have argued about abortion, the GOP candidate for governor in Illinois said in 2017 that the Holocaust “doesn’t even compare” to the atrocity of abortion. Fucking yikes.
In better state news: Several religious leaders in Florida are suing the state over its abortion law, arguing that the ban violates their religious belief in support of abortion. I love this, and it’s something we’re going to see in lots of lawsuits: Why is the only religious belief about abortion considered legally legitimate the one that opposes it? One of the clergy members who brought a suit forward, Rev. Tom Capo, said this:
“It has to do with the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every human being. When I look at a woman who has changes going on within her body because a sperm and an egg have come together, I still think that it’s her body and continues to be her body throughout the pregnancy and that worth and dignity needs to be respected. It has to be her conscience that decides whether that child becomes a person, to have say over her own body and how she chooses to use it.”
Also in Florida, The Miami Herald has the story of three people who had abortions and what it means to them now.
On the national level:
Senators have introduced a bill to codify abortion rights. The Reproductive Freedom For All Act would protect the right to abortion until viability and stop states from preventing access to contraception.
The Associated Press has a roundup of where things stand in various states, including pro-choice states where lawmakers are trying to further protect abortion rights; and in The New Republic, an 80 year-old woman describes her experience with illegal abortion. A brutal but necessary reminder.
Over five hundred men in the television industry have signed onto a letter demanding protections for employees who could get pregnant in states where the procedure is illegal; and Ms. Magazine has a piece up about how abortion bans impact incarcerated women.
This guest essay in The New York Times was really interesting, asking why we talk about miscarriage and abortion differently—especially when they’re so similar. The writers also argue that one of the mistakes of the pro-choice movement was to dismiss the idea of fetal value (not personhood). They say the move made us seem callous and the anti-abortion movement seem compassionate—when in fact the exact opposite is true.
“[Fetal] attachment is entirely subjective — it develops for different people at different rates, depending on their circumstances. And crucially, it may never develop. The same person who may grieve an early miscarriage after months of trying to get pregnant might have an emotionally uncomplicated abortion at a different time in their life. If we ground fetal value in the pregnant woman’s attachment, and commit to defending her conception of the pregnancy, we can recognize loss without threatening abortion rights.”
The New York Times also published a heart-breaking article that follows a woman who had to raise money and travel out of state after her wanted pregnancy turned into a life-threatening situation; and CNN reports on how the fight over abortion has impacted Kamala Harris’ vice presidency.
Thanks, as always, for reading. And if you’re in Kansas today—THANK YOU for voting, I’m thinking of you and hoping for the best.
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