Abortion, Every Day (9.12.23)

Women denied abortions suing in Tennessee, Idaho & Oklahoma

Co-written with Grace Haley. If you want to skip ahead in the newsletter today, here’s what we’re covering: Lots going on “In the States” between ballot measures and Republicans running scared. Grace takes you through the latest with the mifepristone lawsuit in “In the Nation,” and I outline the three new complaints from the Center for Reproductive Rights (the group that sued Texas on behalf of women harmed by abortion bans) in “Care Denied.” The war on our right to travel continues on with “In-State Confinement,” and Grace analyzes how 2024 may be all about women voters in “2024 Strategy.”

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In the States

A Missouri judge heard arguments yesterday about the false and inflammatory ballot summary Republicans have drafted in order to trick voters out of supporting a pro-choice amendment. The summary that Missourians will see when they go to vote on the ballot measure claims that the amendment would allow “dangerous, unregulated, and unrestricted abortions, from conception to live birth, without requiring a medical license or potentially being subject to medical malpractice.”

It will come as no surprise that the summary was written by Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who is running for governor and was recently endorsed by the powerful anti-abortion group Missouri Right to Life. From Missouri ACLU lawyer Tony Rothert in yesterday’s hearing:

“It is the secretary’s duty to set aside his personal bias against the proposals and craft a neutral statement. Instead, the secretary acted as if he were playing the political-spin and manipulation-edition of mad libs.”

This is all part of a broader effort by Ashcroft and other Republicans to keep abortion out of voters’ hands entirely. As you likely remember, the pro-choice measure was stalled for months because Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey refused to sign off on the state auditor’s cost estimate for the amendment, knowing that abortion rights advocates couldn’t start collecting signatures until he did. Bailey even pressured the auditor to change his $51,000 dollar estimate to a number in the billions. (The auditor refused, despite being an anti-abortion Republican.) Bailey actually had to be forced by the state Supreme Court to finally sign off on the estimate.

Missouri Republicans also failed in their attempts to raise the standards on ballot measures. And so this false ballot summary is the just the latest in a long line of anti-abortion attacks on democracy in the state. (Related: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board skewered Bailey and Ashcroft this week over their transparent abuse of power.)

By the way, don’t get Missouri’s ballot summary fight confused with a similar battle happening in Ohio, where Republicans have also drafted a misleading and incendiary summary that they’re being sued over.

Speaking of Ohio, abortion rights advocates have released their first television ad in the lead-up to the November election where voters will decide on a pro-choice ballot measure. The ad, put out by Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, reminds viewers that Issue 1 would not only restore abortion rights in the state, but protect birth control and emergency miscarriage treatment.

More in Ohio news: The Cincinnati Enquirer compares Ohio’s pro-choice ballot measure to the one that passed in Michigan. And if anyone in the state wants to do some sleuthing, the conservative group that’s been attacking the amendment with anti-trans and ‘parental rights’ rhetoric is having an event next week.

Meanwhile, all of the news on abortion rights ballot measures are having an impact beyond states with citizen-led initiatives. I told you last week, for example, about a Louisiana columnist who says her readers have been asking her how they can vote directly on abortion rights—and how she “had to tell them that they can’t.” It seems Louisiana voters still have ballot measures on their minds, though, because this was one of the questions posed to gubernatorial candidates during a televised debate a few days ago: “Would you, if elected governor, ask the state legislature to put this issue on the ballot to let the people decide about the abortion issue instead of politicians?”

It won’t shock you to find out that the only person to support voters having a say on abortion rights was Democrat Shawn Wilson: “The reality is, it’s important to hear them and let them have a say-so in what’s going to govern their lives.”

You can watch all of the candidates’ answers here, but I think this question is such an important way to remind voters that Republicans simply do not care what they believe on abortion. They want to ban it whether the people of Louisiana agree or not.

Another Texas town is considering an ordinance that would classify taking someone out-of-state for an abortion as ‘trafficking’. The city of Chandler may pass the same local law that’s been pushed throughout the state by anti-abortion activists—a move to restrict women’s right to travel. But wait, there’s more! The ordinance that Chandler may adopt would also call on district attorneys offices to prosecute abortion funds—which help people leave the state for care—as well as anyone who donates to an abortion fund. Total nightmare shit.

In better news, I wrote last week about how Republicans—terrified of the GOP’s losses and voters’ fury over abortion bans—are suddenly trying to seem more pro-choice. We saw candidates from Colorado, Virginia, and Michigan trying to soft-pedal their anti-abortion positions in an attempt to avoid voters’ ire. And now this week, yet another Michigan Republican is trying to downplay his anti-choice extremism. Republican U.S. Rep. John James, who is being challenged by a number of Democrats eager to attack him on abortion, says he’s changed his minds on supporting abortion ban exceptions.

Last year, James compared abortion to “genocide,” and stated that he didn’t support rape or incest exceptions. But now that Michigan has enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution, and the polls show that voters are clearly pro-choice, a spokesperson says James “has been clear on numerous occasions since taking office that he is in favor of the three exceptions.” The desperation is really kicking in! (For more on Republicans’ ramping up of messaging around the ‘three exceptions’, click here.)

As the Florida Supreme Court decides the future of abortion rights in the state, a doctor speaks out about why legal abortion is so important, a columnist at the Sun Sentinel reminds readers that the privacy clause is more important than ever, and a local Democratic leader writes that “forced pregnancy is not freedom.” For a run-down on what’s happening in Florida with the legal challenge to the state’s ban, check out this Associated Press piece, or Abortion, Every Day’s in-depth coverage last week.

Finally, another terrific California bill expanding abortion rights protections has passed the state legislature and is heading to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. SB 487 would prohibit insurers from discriminating against or penalizing abortion providers and those who provide gender-affirming services.

Quick hits:

• St. Louis Public Radio reports that the Missouri Supreme Court will decide whether the state can restrict public funds from going to Planned Parenthood;

• The Nation profiles Greta Kemp Martin, the pro-choice Democrat running for Mississippi Attorney General (against the Republican who took Dobbs to the Supreme Court);

• And the Kansas Reflector interviews medical experts about a Kansas Republicans’ false claims about ‘post-birth’ abortions. Sigh.

Care Denied

In the wake of winning their suit against Texas, the Center for Reproductive Rights has filed three more complaints in Idaho, Tennessee and Oklahoma on behalf of women with dangerous pregnancy complications who were denied vital health care. Here’s a breakdown of the cases:

In Adkins v. State of Idaho, CRR is representing four women who were denied care, as well as the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians and two doctors who say they can’t provide adequate care to patients because of the severe penalties associated with the ban.

One of the plaintiffs, Jennifer Adkins, was pregnant with a fetus that wouldn’t survive—and her doctors feared her life was in danger, as well. Still, she was unable to get care in her home state; her doctors weren’t even sure if they could tell her where to get an abortion elsewhere. She ended up having to raise money from friends, family, and two abortion funds in order to go to Oregon for an abortion. Adkins told The Washington Post, “I can’t stop bad things from happening to people’s pregnancies, but I want other Idahoans to feel safe and cared for.”

Blackmon v. State of Tennessee being brought on behalf of three women who were denied care, and two doctors. Nicole Blackmon found out at 15 weeks into her pregnancy that her baby’s organs were developing outside of its body, around the same time that her health started to suffer as well. “It was so much to bear,” she told The Washington Post. Blackmon couldn’t afford to leave the state for an abortion elsewhere, and so her health continued to deteriorate and she developed signs of preeclampsia—which can be deadly. Her water ended up breaking early, and she delivered a stillborn baby.

Blackmon says, “Going through all of that, I don’t want no one to have to suffer or just have to bear the things that I went through. I was lucky enough to survive all of that, but the next person might not be lucky.”

Another Tennessee woman, Allie Phillips, learned at 18 weeks that her baby had severe fetal abnormalities and had to travel to New York for care. (If Allie’s name sounds familiar, it’s because Abortion, Every Day helped her story go viral back in February.)

Finally, in Oklahoma, CRR filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services against Oklahoma Children’s Hospital for violating the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) when it denied Jaci Statton an abortion. Statton had a partial molar pregnancy—which means the fetus wouldn’t survive and she was at serious risk of hemorrhage. You may remember her story: she was the woman who was told by doctors to wait in the hospital parking lot until she crashed. She ended up making the three hour drive to get an abortion in Kansas.

Naturally, you can guess how anti-abortion activists have responded to the suit. Steven Aden of Americans United for Life told The Washington Post that pro-choicers were creating “a fabrication to scare the public.” And as we saw in Texas, we can be sure that conservatives will try to shift blame onto doctors.

Related: Check out this MSNBC interview with Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung—a maternal-fetal specialist who left Tennessee for Colorado after the Dobbs decision.

In the Nation

The Justice Department and Danco filed their appeals in the Texas mifepristone lawsuit to the Supreme Court on Friday. The appeal challenges the ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that would significantly restrict how the drug is delivered and distributed. (For more information on that ruling, read our coverage here).

The appeal argues in favor of the FDA’s authority and scientific judgment, while emphasizing that limiting access to mifepristone would have “damaging consequences for women seeking lawful abortions and a healthcare system that relies on the availability of the drug under the current conditions of use.”

Fellow Substacker Chris Geidner at Law Dork writes that the move “make[s] it increasingly likely both that the justices will hear the case and that a ruling in the case would come by June 2024.”

Please remember: Access to both mifepristone and misoprostol is still available, and that abortion is possible with just misoprostol, the second pill in the two-step abortion pill regimen. The lawsuit does not account for access to misoprostol.

Safe websites to find & buy abortion medication:

Aid Access, Plan C Pills, Hey Jane, Abortion Finder, I Need An A 

More news from the Biden White House: The president has threatened to veto congressional Republicans’ proposed defense budget over the party’s add-ins that attack abortion access within the military, and gender-affirming care for transgender service-members. Senate Democrats, who hold the majority, have also threatened to tank the bill if its current version passes the House. A House floor debate over the legislation is expected to begin Wednesday.

Quick hits:

• Republicans threatening to defund PEPFAR over false accusations about abortion could put 20 million lives at risk;

• The GOP is also divided over Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s military promotions blockade over abortion;

• Dobbs has provided a foundation for lawsuits targeting gender-affirming care;

• And the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board writes how the recent reproductive rights win that decriminalizes abortion in Mexico shows just how far behind the U.S. is falling.

Anti-Choice Strategy: In-State Confinement

MSNBC covered Republicans’ strategy of confining pregnant people to anti-choice states this weekend: Ali Velshi interviewed law professor and Mary Ziegler and Robin Marty, operations director at West Alabama Women’s Center. (One of the groups that you all fundraised for this weekend!) Highly recommend you watch the whole thing to get a sense of what things are really like on the ground for people doing this work in places like Alabama and the very real restrictions on speech that they’re dealing with.

If you don’t have the time to watch the segment, I’ll leave you with this reminder from Robin: “This is coming for blue states…You have to help us fight on the ground because you want that fight here, before it comes for you.”

2024 Strategy: Appeals to Women Voters

Biden’s reelection team is upping their messaging on abortion, running new ads attacking Republicans on abortion in an appeal to women voters. (The ads are so close to saying the word abortion instead of the usual euphemisms, but still only use the word when discussing abortion bans). 

One thing to watch for: the same poll that has politicians distancing themselves from the term ‘pro-life’, found that voters were more favorable towards anti-abortion messaging coming from Republican female politicians—which explains why Nikki Haley’s and Rep. Nancy Mace’s profiles have risen significantly over the past few weeks. 

But Republican women are no more ‘reasonable’ on abortion than the men of the GOP. We’ve seen how they call for a national “consensus” and vocalize support for access to contraception, but they can’t run away from their records. Republicans are hoping that having a woman shill for the restrictions will somehow reverse their historic political losses since Dobbs.

Quick hits:

• New polling from The New York Times/Siena College shows that Trump’s electoral college advantage is diminishing and that abortion rights successes in key battleground states contribute to this trend;

• And redistricting court rulings could give Democrats a 2024 edge, especially in Southern states like Florida and Alabama where courts have overturned maps that limit Black electoral power.

Coming Up

There was a lot in today’s newsletter, which means I wasn’t able to fit everything in. (I’m determined never to send you an email that’s clipped and requires you to click through.) So be on the lookout for more from Abortion, Every Day on these two articles from Mother Jones and The Nation about the internal pro-choice fights over ‘viability’, and how I think Democrats need to get off the defensive when it comes to talking about abortion later in pregnancy.