The New York Times crunched some numbers and figured out that the results in Kansas suggest four out of five states would support abortion if a similar vote were to take place. The Guardian also looked at the numbers in Kansas, and the amazing voter turnout—nearly half of registered voters came out to make their voices heard.
The results of the vote in Kansas is also giving hope to Texas pro-choicers: Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, said yesterday, “it gives people a lot more motivation to work toward electing Democrats.” Dyana Limon-Mercado, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes Texas, “Even though we don’t have a statewide ballot initiative, abortion is definitely on the table and Greg Abbott has made it clear which side he’s on and Beto O’Rourke has made it clear that he’s for Texans and he trusts Texans.”
NPR has a good 3-minute segment explaining the federal and state lawsuits against Idaho over their sweeping abortion ban. Definitely check it out if you need a refresher.
West Virginia Republicans have been debating just how awful they want their abortion ban to be: Some want to make the procedure a felony with no exceptions for rape and incest, while others want the ban to have no criminal charges and to include exceptions. Mountain State Spotlight has a great in-depth look at the week-long legislative battle there and the incredible protesters who packed outside Senate chambers sometimes for 10 straight hours. (That said, this photo of Republicans praying before fine-tuning the ban really set me off, and tells you all you need to know about who gets to decide what women can and can’t do with their bodies.)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey signed an executive order yesterday limiting city employees’ ability to aid in the prosecution of abortion cases. He said, “The message to Minneapolis residents, the message more broadly to other cities and states around us, is if you need that basic health care service of abortion, we in Minneapolis are a safe haven.” Abortion is legal in Minnesota—and the state constitution protects abortion rights—but as is the case in other pro-choice states, officials are anticipating being asked to help with investigations of people who come out-of-state to seek care.
California voters will decide this November whether to protect abortion rights in the state constitution. Voting ‘yes’ on Proposition 1 would also protect the right to birth control, making California the first state to create constitutional protections for both abortion and contraception.
Some other states who will be voting on their state constitutions: Kentucky voters will decide whether to ensure abortion isn’t protected in the state constitution; abortion is currently illegal there. The people of Vermont will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to protect the right to abortion, as will voters in Michigan.
Speaking of Michigan, a judge there has extended the restraining order preventing county prosecutors from going after abortion providers. The order is extended until August 17th, at which point there will be a hearing. Democrats also have a new ad out in the state, attacking the Republican nominee for governor, Tudor Dixon, on her extreme anti-abortion stance. (She wants abortion banned with no exceptions, not even for a pregnant person’s health.)
Iowa medical educators are preparing for a future where student OBGYNs may not be able to get the full training they need because of abortion laws. Right now, abortion is legal in Iowa, but educators there are still on edge.
Abortion training is a requirement for nationwide OBGYN programs, if they want to be accredited by the Accrediting Council for Graduate Medical Education, ACGME. (Those with religious or moral objections can opt out.) Despite Roe being overturned, ACGME says they will still require abortion training, which means residents in states where abortion is illegal will either need to travel to a different state, or programs will have to provide education that simulates an abortion, as well as evaluate residents on a uterine evacuation (essentially the same method as one type of abortion).
Last month, when Bloomberg covered how OBGYN education was going to change post-Roe, they interviewed Eric Strand, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who issued this important reminder:
“There’s a common idea out there that abortion care and general obstetrics and gynecology are mutually exclusive of one another, and that is simply wrong...The skills you learn when caring for patients proceeding with abortion are extremely important in other clinical situations...This ruling will have the inevitable result that we’ll have fewer providers who are skilled enough to care for all of their patients, those seeking abortion and others too.”
You may have heard the story of a Texas woman who was forced to carry her dead fetus for two weeks; she gave a new interview to a local television station where she said she felt like “a walking coffin.” Just horrific.
In Illinois, Sen. Tammy Duckworth has an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times calling for bold action to protect abortion rights: “I’ll be damned if I let my daughters grow up with fewer rights than their mom had.”
Mexican activists say that American women seeking abortions are flooding into the country. Sandra Cardona, founder of a Monterrey-based abortion rights group, said, “We imagined this would happen, but not at the rate that it’s been happening.” Women are mostly coming from Texas, but they’ve also seen patients from Oklahoma, Ohio, Florida—and states that are further away, like Idaho and Wisconsin. Verónica Cruz, founder of Las Libres, said that before Roe was overturned, her group heard from about 10 American women a day—now it’s 100. (And remember, that’s just one organization.)
FiveThirtyEight has a piece up backing up what I wrote in my column yesterday: Abortion is increasingly a winning issue; and two law professors have an opinion piece at CNN where they lay out some of the privacy and legal concerns around getting medication abortion through the mail.
Something that I missed yesterday: Microsoft has donated $3 million dollars since 2010 to support Republican groups working to end abortion. Ironically, Microsoft is one of the companies who promised to cover employee’s travel costs for abortions. Lovely.
As always, if there’s anything I’ve missed, feel free to shoot me a note or leave it in comments. Thanks for reading. -J
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