Remember when I reported yesterday that Louisiana legislators claimed that the hospital that denied a woman with a doomed pregnancy an abortion simply “misinterpreted” the law? And that this woman’s case—her fetus is missing part of its head and skull—would allows for abortion despite the ban? Well, Nancy Davis is still pregnant and is traveling-out-of-state to end the pregnancy. Unreal.
Speaking of liars: Arizona senate candidate Blake Masters is working very hard to convince people that he’s not a raving anti-abortion extremist. Masters—who has called abortion a “religious sacrifice’ and “demonic”—released an ad claiming that Democrats are lying about his position on abortion: “Look, I support a ban on very late-term and partial-birth abortion. And most Americans agree with that. That would just put us on par with other civilized nations.”
The truth? Masters supports a federal personhood law and a total abortion ban. In fact, his website even said as much up until yesterday when he scrubbed the language off his site! NBC News reported on the deletions, including the removal of a line where Masters called for a Constitutional amendment “that recognizes that unborn babies are human beings that may not be killed."
Yesterday afternoon, a judge blocked North Dakota’s total abortion ban from going into effect—which would have happened today. Still, the state has no abortion provider; Red River Women’s clinic, who brought forward the suit, was forced to move to Minnesota.
Nebraska Public Media went to the Planned Parenthood in Lincoln to find out what’s changed for them since Roe was overturned. (Abortion is legal in the state until 22 weeks.) Executive Director Andi Curry Grub, in addition to talking about the increase of patients from out-of-state, said something I think is really important:
“The one thing that it's always hard to talk about abortion in generalities. One of my favorite sayings is that if you've heard one abortion story, you've heard one abortion story. The context, the situations, the health concerns, all of the different pieces of every single patient is so different.”
Michigan is one step closer to having abortion on the ballot. The state Bureau of Elections formally recommended that state canvassers certify that organizers collected enough signatures to put the proposed constitutional amendment up for a vote. It sounds more complicated than it is: Essentially, if the Board of State Canvassers—who are meeting at the end of the month—decides the voter signatures are valid, then the amendment gets a spot on the ballot. The Reproductive Freedom for All amendment would secure the right to abortion in the Michigan constitution.
Karen Attiah at The Washington Post writes about how the Alabama state health board is reintroducing decades-old rules that would limit women’s ability to give birth outside of hospitals—and what that means for Black women and maternal mortality:
“[J]ust as more women are forced to give birth, many states are already facing health-care worker shortages. If we cared about keeping mothers alive and well—and medical burnout low—we would give women more options for giving birth, not fewer.”
If you want an update on how the implementation of Georgia’s abortion ban is going, you can listen to this short segment from the public radio station there. In Indiana, where a total abortion ban goes into effect next month, women protested outside of an annual anti-choice gala where Mike Pence was in attendance. “We’ve been marching a long time, to the point that you’re of the age that your knees are bad,” one protester said. (I can relate.)
The BBC has a piece looking at the Mexican abortion-rights groups helping women from Texas get the care they need. Also in the state, an op-ed at the Austin American Statesman takes on the anti-choice argument that women need to “take responsibility” for their pregnancies:
“When we drive to work, we know there’s a risk of a traffic accident. So, we wear a seatbelt and buy insurance. But if we are injured in an accident, nobody says: you chose to drive and consented to the risks, so you have to live with the consequences and not treat your wounds.”
Planned Parenthood in Oregon is hiring new staff and opening a new facility in order to keep up with the increased demand for abortion from out-of-state patients; and if you’re a bit of a masochist, you can watch this interview with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio where he pontificates about abortion. (I couldn’t make my way through it.)
On the national front:
This is really bad—and disappointing—news. The National Abortion Federation, along with its hotline, will require patients receiving funding to take both of their abortion pills in a state where abortion remains legal. For context: NAF is one of the country’s largest abortion funders; in 2020, they funded 10% of abortions in the U.S. And the people who need funding are typically low-income, meaning this decision will impact those who are already the most vulnerable.
The Washington Post points out that the organization’s restrictions go further than what is required by state abortion bans—which don’t prohibit doctors from prescribing medication abortion to out-of-state patients. One provider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because half of her funding comes from NAF, said, “Now my patients are being further regulated unnecessarily by a so-called ally.”
Google Maps says it will clearly identify abortion clinics and providers from now on; the company came under fire when it came out that people searching for abortion clinics were being directed to crisis pregnancy centers. From now on, they say, listings will be flagged with ‘provides abortions’ or ‘might not provide abortions’.
The White House is holding a meeting of state and local leaders today to talk about how to protect abortion access—but will not have any policy announcements.
And The Guardian got ahold of a leaked video from People of Praise, the bizarre religious group that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett belongs to—it shows the group driving a woman to tears, apparently a common occurrence in response to the teachings on the “headship” of men.
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