A new poll shows that the majority of voters in Texas want abortion to be legal in all or most cases; only 11% favor a total abortion ban. This is why Republicans are so afraid of what happened in Kansas. Also in Texas, the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas at Austin has new research showing that the state’s ban doesn’t just stop abortions, but other kinds of vital health care. They say the law created a “chilling effect for clinicians who care for pregnant people and adversely affected patients experiencing medical complications during their pregnancies.”
One mother of four, for example, had to be hospitalized at 14 weeks pregnant for blood clots that had traveled to her lungs. She asked multiple doctors for an abortion, but none would even discuss the issue with her—even after being hospitalized a second time, and doctors deducing that the clots were due to pregnancy:
“She asked, ‘Well, if this is an at-risk pregnancy—I have four other kids that need me, that are alive right now that need me. What happens if I die because of a blood clot?’ They still refused to talk to her about an abortion. The only person who offered her any information about abortion was the OB, who ‘didn’t even tell me. She wrote it down in a book’ after her shift was over.”
Small sliver of good news in Texas: In Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner says that he, the attorney general, and the city police department have agreed to not prioritize using resources on abortion investigations or charges.
If you want more info on what happened in Michigan yesterday—a state election panel was deadlocked over a proposal to get abortion on the ballot—NPR has a short segment explaining it all.
After it came out that Wisconsin gubernatorial nominee Tim Michels gave $250k to extremist organizations that are anti-LGBTQ and oppose contraception, the Republican hit back without apology. Fuck this guy.
Tennessee’s attorney general has signed on to support Idaho in its fight against a federal lawsuit over its extreme abortion ban. Tennessee’s law is similar to Idaho’s—it not only criminalizes abortion, but mandates doctors give an “affirmative defense” of the procedure should they end a pregnancy to save someone’s life. Essentially, doctors have to prove the abortion was necessary after prosecutors bring criminal charges. (The Tennessean has more info on how hospitals are shifting their policies in response.)
Doctors in anti-choice states across the country are struggling with how to adhere to bans. So in Oklahoma, the attorney general and state medical boards issued guidance for doctors on how to interpret the law. What’s noteworthy is that the guidance tells doctors that when presented with a case where a pregnancy puts a woman’s health at risk, to “monitor and wait until a manifestation of a medical emergency exists before attempting an abortion.” But this is doctors’ exact criticism! The law wants them to let a woman’s health decline until an “emergency” occurs and then be ready to defend (on threat of prison) how it was really an emergency. As if on cue, Oklahoma’s attorney general also issued a memo to state law enforcement urging them to prosecute abortion cases.
Doctors in Georgia are also speaking out about how the state’s abortion ban makes it impossible to give patients adequate care. From Atlanta Professor and OBGYN Dr. Lisa Haddad:
“[T]o be put in that situation where you can’t choose what’s right for your patient, which is what you’ve vowed to do, you’ve made an oath that you’re going to do what’s best for your patient, but you can’t do that, that puts you in a terrible conflict. And I think many people are not going to want to continue to provide care [in Georgia]. So that’s going to specifically impact those people who already have limited access to care.”
An abortion rights group in Hawaii has launched a new website to act as an information & resource hub. The Hawai’i Abortion Collective can be found here.
A clinic is opening in Maryland that offers all-trimester abortions. Dr. Diane Horvath, OBGYN and co-owner of the clinic says, “Every time we draw a line and we say 'no more abortions after this point,' someone's going to fall on the other side of that line, and they're going to be harmed.”
Great news out of California, where 15 bills to protect abortion rights are headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom—including $20 million to expand access, banning coroner investigations into fetal deaths, and making it easier for nurses to provide abortions. (This last one is especially important as abortion providers in pro-choice states become overwhelmed with out-of-state patients.)
And as is the case in California, Massachusetts students returning to college will have access to medication abortion through their student health centers. Good shit.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has previously said he supports banning abortion after 15 weeks, says he has no current plans to do anything on the issue as legislators reconvene next week. (Just another anti-choicer running scared as more polls show fury over abortion bans.)
In Maryland, Montgomery County has created a $1 million grant program for organizations that provide abortions or refer patients to abortion clinics. And yesterday, seven abortion clinics and a doctor filed a suit in Florida asking the state Supreme Court to stop a 15-week abortion ban—the latest in a months-long legal battle over the law.
In Arizona, clinics are slowly resuming abortion care as the post-Roe legal landscape is (somewhat) clarified. As a reminder, Republican nominee for governor Kari Lake still hasn’t made her position on abortion bans clear.
Speaking of scared Republicans, Colorado GOP congressional candidate Barbara Kirkmeyer has scrubbed her website of a page where she explains her opposition to abortion. (Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl did the same—until questioned by a local television station and then the anti-choice bullet point magically reappeared.)
When South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem made a campaign stop this week at an indoor golf facility, Tiffany Campbell of Sioux Falls was waiting there to ask her about abortion:
“I said, ‘I think women should make their own medical decisions and I’m sorry that you don’t also. And then she kind of looked at me, gave me a nasty little look. I said, ‘If you don’t think I should make my own medical decisions, you don’t respect me as a human being.’ And that’s when she really took off.”
More of this please! Don’t let anti-choice politicians forget for one minute that we will hold them accountable.
Pew reports on how abortion bans are putting patients’ lives at risk. From Dr. Jen Villavicencio at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG):
“It’s happening every single day. We’re seeing treatment for ectopic pregnancies being stalled until they rupture and become life-threatening. We’re seeing people with broken water and fetal parts stuck in their vagina sent home until fetal demise occurs or the patient ends up in the ICU because of infection or bleeding.”
I don’t know how anyone can read this and think that these laws are a good thing. New research from Pew also shows that approval ratings for the Supreme Court dropped from 70% to 48% after Roe was overturned.
POLITICO looks at how way-down-the-ballot races are going to be pivotal to abortion rights; the Associated Press gets into abortion as a winning issue and how Republicans are backing off their most extreme positions (or at least trying to hide them). The New York Times has a piece on the same, and how candidates’ websites are mysteriously changing their abortion content.
And an investing app marketed to younger adults is seeing an increased interest in investors putting money into companies that support abortion rights.
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