Abortion Wins in North Dakota, Nevada & Nebraska

9.13.24

Click to skip ahead: In the States, North Dakota’s abortion ban has been repealed, and news out of Florida, Nevada and more. In Ballot Measure Updates, abortion will remain on the ballot in Nebraska, and more dirty tricks in Florida. Anti-Abortion Strategy looks at the conservative docs coming out of the woodwork. In the Nation, House Dems introduce a resolution to mandate emergency abortions. Stats & Studies report that women seeking sterilization increased after Dobbs—as did maternal health deserts. And in 2024 news, a $15 million abortion ad buy for Kamala Harris.

---

In the States

I love the days when I get to start with good news! A North Dakota judge has struck down the state’s near-total abortion ban, ruling that the law “takes away a woman’s liberty and her right to pursue and obtain safety and happiness.”

North Dakota’s ban is one of the strictest in the country: Its ‘exception’ for the life of the pregnant person is deliberately and dangerously vague, and rape and incest victims are only allowed abortions before 6-weeks for pregnancy—too early for most people to know they’re pregnant. So this is great and important news.

That said, there won’t be a huge change on the ground for patients for some time, because there are no longer any abortion clinics in North Dakota. Meetra Mehdizadeh, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, says while the ruling is a win for reproductive freedom, “most people seeking an abortion still won't be able to get one, even though it is legal.” The good news, Mehdizadeh points out, is that care for emergency abortions will be much, much easier to provide:

“Hospitals and doctors no longer have their hands tied and can provide abortions to patients with complications…Doctors don’t have to guess as to what the law allows them to do, they can rely on their own best judgment and consultation with their patients to determine whether a patient who is experiencing pregnancy complication should be able to get an abortion.”

And maternal fetal medicine specialist Dr. Ana Tobiasz said, “We are finally free to put our patients’ health first and offer patients the standard of care without fear of facing criminal prosecution.”

I also really appreciated the clear-eyed 24-page ruling from Judge Bruce Romanick, who wrote that it didn’t matter if the framers of North Dakota’s constitution didn’t mention abortion rights specifically:

“The reality is that ‘individuals’ did not draft and enact the North Dakota Constitution. Men did. And many, if not all, of the men who enacted the North Dakota Constitution, and who wrote the state laws of the time, did not view women as equal citizens with equal liberty interests.”

Thank you. Naturally, Republican Attorney General Drew H. Wrigley says he’s going to appeal Romanick’s decision. I’ll keep you updated as I find out more.

Meanwhile, we’re starting to get a picture of the impact Florida’s 6-week abortion ban has had across the country. Because remember, Florida was a regional hub for abortion care before the ban took effect. As the Guttmacher Institute points out, approximately 9,000 people traveled to Florida for abortion care in 2023, with large numbers of patients coming from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Now those patients have to leave the South entirely in order to get healthcare. A reminder of how stark the regional map is below:

Guttmacher also notes that the average number of abortions fell by more than 7% nationally after Florida’s 6-week ban went into effect—that’s just how much care the state was offering to Americans across the board. (Before the ban, more than 1 in 10 abortions in the country where happening in Florida.)

In better news, Nevada will start to allow Medicaid funds to be used for abortion care. This comes after a judge found that denying abortion coverage violates the state’s equal right protections. Coverage will begin no later than early November. Rebecca Chan, a lawyer with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said, “Nevadans who have Medicaid as their health insurance will no longer need to fear that they will be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will.”

Quick hits:

• The ACLU of Michigan will spend $2 million in ads for the state Supreme Court race;

• North Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson says he’d sign a 6-week abortion ban, the latest in the extremist conservative’s constantly-moving abortion stance;

• CalMatters points out that if Project 2025 went into effect, California could lose billions in Medicaid dollars if they didn’t report abortion data to the federal government;

• And a judge will dismiss the lawsuit seeking to oust an abortion clinic from its building in Bristol, Virginia.

Ballot Measure Updates

As you know, Republicans across the country have been trying to stop voters from having a direct say on abortion rights. Earlier this week, they lost their suit in Missouri to keep abortion off the ballot, and today—I’m very glad to say—conservatives have also been unsuccessful in booting abortion off of Nebraska’s ballot.

The state Supreme Court ruled today that voters will see both abortion-related amendments on the ballot this November, rejecting an argument from the Thomas More Society that the pro-choice amendment violated the state’s single subject rule. (Remember, this is the same conservative legal group that brought forward the suit in Missouri.)

From Allie Berry, campaign manager for Protect Our Rights:

“Anti-abortion politicians forced an abortion ban into law and then coordinated with activists to launch desperate lawsuits to silence over 200,000 Nebraskans by preventing them from voting on what happens to their bodies. They know Nebraskans want to end the harmful abortion ban and stop government overreach in their personal and private healthcare decisions. Today, their plans failed.”

What this means, however, is that it won’t just be an abortion rights ballot measure in front of voters in November; the fake ‘pro-choice’ measure crafted by conservatives will also be on the ballot.

A refresher: Anti-abortion groups, seeing how well pro-choice measures were doing with voters, decided to launch a ballot measure initiative of their own. They chose a name that sounded similar to Nebraska’s pro-choice amendment, and collected signatures by telling voters that they would be supporting abortion rights. The truth, however, is that their measure would actually codify the state’s 12-week abortion ban into the state constitution—making it virtually repeal-proof.

Even though voters complained to the Secretary of State’s office that they had been misled and lied to by anti-abortion petitioners, the fake measure will remain on the ballot. Whichever measure gets the most votes will become law.

Ironically, conservatives are calling the proposed abortion rights amendment “deceptive” and a “Trojan Horse abortion expansion” measure. For more on Republicans’ fake ‘pro-choice’ ballot measures, read Abortion, Every Day’s coverage below:

Republicans' Fake Ballot Measures

The battle over Amendment 4 in Florida continues on: Earlier this week, I told you how Republicans are weaponizing state agencies against the pro-choice measure. Last week, the state Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) launched a website opposing Amendment 4, claiming that it “threatens women’s safety” and repeating anti-abortion myths.

Yesterday, the ACLU of Florida and Southern Legal Counsel filed a joint lawsuit against the AHCA, asking the Court to stop the agency from it’s clearly-illegal lobbying efforts. From ACLU attorney Michelle Morton:

“Florida’s government has crossed a dangerous line by using public resources to mislead voters and manipulate their choices in the upcoming election. This lawsuit aims to stop these unconstitutional efforts and restore integrity to our electoral process.”

Florida Democrats are urging indictments over the website, which they say violates election law. Incredibly, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is defending the AHCA’s anti-abortion attack by likening it to something as non-controversial as a campaign reminding people to wear seatbelts. “We have resources to do public-service announcements across a wide variety of fronts,” DeSantis said. “That goes to the Department of Transportation, for example, on safe driving.”

Ah yes, telling voters that abortions will kill them is totally the same as warning them to drive safely. These people are maniacs.

Meanwhile, in addition to the state agency attacks on Amendment 4, DeSantis has dispatched his bullshit election police to try to find ‘fraud’ in the petition signatures. As I’ve told you previously, Republicans are investigating tens of thousands of signatures that have already been verified by county election supervisors—all in an effort to make it appear that voters don’t actually overwhelmingly support abortion rights in Florida. (They do.)

How many different ways can anti-abortion politicians make clear that they don’t care what voters want? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it a million times over: They’ll do anything they can to ban or keep abortion banned, even if it means dismantling democracy in the process.

Quick hits:

• The New York Times has an interactive on where abortion is on the ballot;

• At Slate, law professor Mary Ziegler writes about the frightening effectiveness of the attacks on ballot measures;

• The Washington Post and States Newsroom outline some of the Republican attacks on democracy in states where abortion in on the ballot;

• And if there’s anyone who can do satire on abortion rights, it’s columnist Alexandra Petri.

Anti-Abortion Strategy

As soon as I saw that a group of doctors had come out in opposition to Amendment 4 in Florida, I knew we’d find something fishy. Lo and behold, take a look at who is organizing these supposedly concerned physicians: the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG). That’s right, the downright batshit organization that says abortion is never necessary to save a woman’s life and that doctors should give patients c-sections instead of abortions, even if the fetus isn’t viable.

So you can imagine the kind of wacko doctors they brought out of the woodwork. Dr. Angeli Akey, for example, claims that because the pro-choice amendment says abortion should be allowed after ‘viability’ to “protect the patient’s health,” it means that “really anything could be cited as a reason for an abortion, even a head cold or an ankle sprain.” Huh??

This is part of the reason I harp on AAPLOG so much: the coverage of these doctors is in a local NPR station, but there’s no context about who this group is and just how radical they are. That’s something readers and listeners deserve to know.

Learn more about AAPLOG here.

In the Nation

House Democrats have introduced a resolution that would mandate hospitals provide emergency abortions. Obviously, it’s unlikely to go anywhere given Republicans’ control of the House, but an important move to keep the cruelty of abortion bans in the public consciousness. Lawmakers cited the Associated Press’ report that more than 100 pregnant women have been denied emergency care since 2022, which Rep. Mikie Sherrill called “an outrage.”

“Lives are at risk and despite clear federal law and additional guidance from the Biden administration, states across the country are refusing to treat pregnant women in emergencies,” Sherrill said. Sen. Patty Murray says she’ll be introducing a Senate version of the resolution next week.

This comes a few months after the Supreme Court offered a less-than-terrific ruling on EMTALA, the federal law that requires hospitals to give patients life-saving and stabilizing treatment.

Mainstream media outlets are finally talking about Trump’s ‘post-birth’ abortion lie. This week, both CNN and The New York Times wrote about the origins of the absurd claim and what it says about the increasing extremism of anti-abortion activists and legislators. (I have to point out that Abortion, Every Day has been banging the drum on this for quite a while—and calling on Democrats to talk more explicitly about what this attack really means.)

One final thing in national news: Do New York Times columnists have lifetime appointments or something? Because I can’t fucking believe they still have Ross Douthat writing about abortion over there. In his latest column about what constitutes “pro-life realism,” Douthat cites all sorts of thinkers and activists on the issue. Let’s take a quick look at their names: Ryan Anderson, Michael Brendan Dougherty, David French, Matthew Lee Anderson, Marvin Olasky, Patrick Brown, and Bethel McGrew.

Notice anything? That’s right, out of the seven people Douthat quotes, just one is a woman. If you count Douthat himself, that’s one out of eight. Bring in Donald Trump and JD Vance—who Douthat writes about as well—then we have a New York Times columnist debating women’s bodies, lives and freedom while relying on the ideas and beliefs of 90% men. Sounds about right!

Stats & Studies

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found a rise in sterilizations after Roe was overturned. Researchers report that tubal ligations went up by nearly 40% in anti-abortion states. Whew.

Jacqueline Ellison, a public health professor in Pennsylvania, told The New York Times that “it suggests that people are experiencing fear and anxiety around the ruling, either for their ability to get an abortion or even to access contraception in the future.” And North Carolina OBGYN Dr. Kavita Shah Arora says she’s seen this play out in her own practice: “Patients would often say things like, ‘I was on the fence, and this pushed me over the edge,’ or, ‘I feel like the safety net was taken away.’”

Meanwhile, the March of Dimes’ 2024 report came out this week, warning that 1 in 3 counties in the country are without access to birthing facilities, obstetric clinicians or maternity care services. Researchers found that over 100 hospitals have closed their obstetric units since 2022, and that North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Oklahoma and Nebraska have the lowest access to maternity care.

The report notes that 350,000 babies who were born in environments with no or limited access to maternity care, and more than 5.5 million women who are now living with limited or no access to obstetric services. That number could grow if more hospitals shutter their wards, the consequences of which will be highest for Black and Indigenous patients.

2024

There are $15 million in ads for Kamala Harris hitting the airwaves right now in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The massive ad buy was made by American Bridge 21st Century, with television spots focusing on the suffering caused by abortion bans and Donald Trump’s policies. Here’s one that’s showing in Pennsylvania: