An Arkansas Nightmare is Anti-Choice 'Victory'

6.6.24

Click to skip ahead: In Care Denied, a nightmare story out of Arkansas. The War on Birth Control looks at yesterday’s contraception vote. In the States, some quick hits. In Misinformation Watch, antis are trying to make clinic harassers look like saints. In the Nation, Comstock, SCOTUS and more. In 2024 news, Trump still wants to have it both ways. Finally, AED researcher Grace Haley has more from the Senate hearing in Anti-Choice Strategy.

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Care Denied

The Arkansas Times has an important but devastating story this week about a woman who was forced to carry a dying fetus, even as the pregnancy put her health and life increasingly at risk.

“Under Arkansas’s near-total abortion ban, no exceptions are allowed, even when death or grave suffering for the fetus is assured. Each week, [Theresa] Lee had to show up to her ultrasound appointments, only to observe her slowly dying child. ‘I was grieving her while she was still alive,’ Lee said. ‘I just wanted that closure.’”

Just when you think it can’t get any worse: Lee’s OBGYN was worried that she’d need emergency care at a moment when he was unavailable, so he asked his colleagues if in that circumstance anyone would be willing to help her. They all said no.

Knowing that her life was at risk, Lee and her husband had conversations about what to do if she died. I want to just pause here a moment. Leaving aside the physical torture and risk we are forcing women to take on—the mental suffering caused by these bans is absolutely inhumane.

After Lee gave birth to her dead daughter, reporter Stella Hufhines writes that the Arkansas became seriously depressed. “You go there with a baby and you leave with a box,” Lee told her.

Now that you know Lee’s story, please take a look at the headline below from the National Catholic Register.

This is what they’re celebrating.

The War on Birth Control

Yesterday, Republicans made their birth control stance very clear, blocking federal legislation to protect access to contraception. The only two GOP lawmakers to vote in support of the the Right to Contraception Act were Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. (The Washington Post has a breakdown of how all the senators voted.)

From Reproductive Freedom for All president Mini Timmaraju:

“If you still need more proof that Republicans are coming for birth control, here it is. Their refusal to protect this popular and fundamental right tells us everything we need to know—and voters won’t forget it this November.”

Republicans said they didn’t support the bill because “there is no threat to access to contraception.” Yet—as I reported yesterday—they introduced their own birth control legislation in order to ensure that emergency contraception wasn’t protected. Seems like there’s a reason to be worried after all! Here’s what Sen. Elizabeth Warren said about the vote on Morning Joe:

“I’m really sick of this idea that the Republicans think they can say two things simultaneously—they can talk to their extremist group and say, ‘I’ll give you everything you want. We are going to ban abortion, IVF, contraception, everything you want,’ and then try to say to the rest of America, ‘Boy, we don’t want any part in that.’”

You can watch Warren’s full appearance below. I also want to give kudos to Sen. Patty Murray: in addition to her incredible questioning this week of anti-abortion extremist Christina Francis, she’s been raising the alarm about the way that conservatives are trying to redefine certain kinds of contraception as ‘abortifacients.’

“This should be an easy vote,” Sen. Patty Murray said. “It almost shouldn’t be necessary.”

By the way, if you want to know how totally wacky those on the Right are getting around birth control messaging, check out Life News’ coverage of the legislation (if you can stomach it). Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, said this:

“The so-called Right to Contraception Act would be better titled, ‘The Right to Abortion and Gender Transitions for Minors’ Act. The bill’s definition of contraception as ‘any action taken to prevent pregnancy’ begs the question—at what point? Does this mean that a person has the right to prevent pregnancy before the egg and sperm are fertilized or after? Does it mean a child has the right to prevent pregnancy from ever occurring by undergoing gender transition surgery?”

Um…what?? Honestly, I think the more we connect Republican lawmakers to this kind of absolutely bonkers (and strange) extremism, the better. That’s what was so powerful about the moment with Sen. Murray and Christina Francis—voters need to know that these aren’t just random weirdos, but the people dictating American policy.

In the States

• Anti-abortion activists plan to use Louisiana’s law classifying abortion medication as a controlled substance as a model for the rest of the country;

• Illinois is boosting funding for Planned Parenthood;

• Florida Democrats are calling out U.S. Sen. Rick Scott for his “phony support” of IVF;

• Buzzfeed on Allie Phillips, the Tennessee woman who is running for state office after being denied an abortion;

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the 25% drop in OBGYN residency applications in Missouri;

• And Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Molly Duane and plaintiff Amanda Zurawski respond to the Texas Supreme Court ruling.

Misinformation Watch

I’m glad to see the Associated Press taking on anti-abortion misinformation: There are viral social media posts going around claiming that a 75-year old woman “in poor health” was sentenced to two years in prison “for praying” outside of a Washington DC abortion clinic. And conservative outlets like the National Catholic Register are running headlines like this: “Locked Up: Meet the Elderly and Infirm Women Now in Prison for Pro-Life Activism.”

The truth? These women were convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) Act after pushing their way into a clinic, blocking patients from receiving care, and harassing clinic staff. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said the defendants have simple “been held accountable for using force, threatening to use force and physically obstructing access to reproductive health care.”

This kind of fact-checking is really important, especially in a moment when anti-abortion groups want to make it seem as if their violence and harassment is really just peaceful grandmas praying on sidewalks.

Mis- and disinformation like this is happening at the same time that anti-abortion lawmakers and activists are trying to do away buffer zones outside of clinics and repeal the FACE Act. They claim it’s a first amendment issue, and that efforts to stop extremists from screaming in patients’ faces is a violation of their free speech.

In the Nation

The Supreme Court released some rulings today, none of which were the decisions in two-major abortion cases. I’ve gotta say, my stomach was in knots waiting to see if the mifepristone or EMTALA ruling would be announced. (Once they are, I’ll make sure to have some explainers and backgrounders here for you.)

As we wait to hear what the future of abortion medication and emergency abortions will be, Democrats are pushing for federal protections. Sens. Patty Murray and Bernie Sanders have an op-ed at The Hill this week calling for the passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act:

“If Republicans truly believed in small government or freedom, they wouldn’t be championing federal and state governments mandating what women can and cannot do with their own bodies and taking away their fundamental right to choose.”

Speaking of Republicans dictating what we do with our bodies, one of the most dangerous tools the GOP could use—regardless if they’re able to pass a national ban—is the Comstock Act. (Abortion, Every Day’s explainer here.) This week, States Newsroom has a really interesting interview with law professors Reva Siegel and Mary Ziegler about the danger of the Comstock Act; it’s definitely worth a read. Here’s Siegel:

“[I]t’s become really clear now, that having achieved the goal of overturning Roe, the anti-abortion movement doesn’t have a great appetite for democracy. And it’s looking for various ways to advance its commitment in ways that override popular opinion and even the efforts of people to adopt referenda to express their will. In some respects, it’s revealing its hostility to democracy. And one can locate the Comstock statute strategy in that tradition.”

The good-ish news is that these kinds of sneaky attacks aren’t going unnoticed. We know that voters are madder than ever about abortion bans, and experts say that votes like the one we saw yesterday in the Senate on birth control really do sway Americans.

A February poll conducted by Americans for Contraception found that 64% of voters were less likely to support Republican candidates after being told they opposed a federal bill to protect birth control. And University of Virginia's Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato told Katy Tur at MSNBC that Republicans’ refusal to support contraception this week is terrific for Democrats—and that it will make for some compelling campaign ads.

Along the same lines, USA Today has a piece this week about how attacks on abortion rights are impacting voters in pro-choice states and what they plan to do come November. The takeaway seems to be that women voters, in particular, are very much aware that their relative safety from abortion bans is tenuous. From eighty-three year-old Carol Godwin:

“I can't just sit back because everything's fine with me. I'm not going to be getting pregnant, but you know, I have granddaughters, and if something were to go wrong, I'd want the best care for them.” 

Quick hits:

• MSNBC on Republicans’ “sneaky strategy” to ban birth control;

• The Hill with more on the ACLU’s $25 million spending on abortion rights;

• The Conversation looks at anti-abortion activists’ new strategy now that Roe is overturned;

• And All Things Considered speaks with a doctor who left an anti-choice state.

“I want to be transparent with you about why I am leaving. It has become increasingly difficult to practice safe and effective medicine due to lawmakers interfering with our exam room, the ones you and I share, in our medical decision-making about what’s best for you.”

OBGYN Dr. Harmony Schroeder, in a letter to patients explaining why she’s leaving Idaho. The state has lost nearly a quarter of its OBGYNs since Roe was overturned.

2024

Donald Trump is out there doing exactly what I said he would do on abortion rights. Last year, I predicted that the disgraced former president would start taking credit for pro-choice wins, claiming that his role in overturning Roe allowed people to have a say. From my 2023 column:

“Trump loves nothing more than taking credit for wins—any wins. I can very easily imagine him at a campaign rally or in a Fox News interview, saying that the only reason Ohio voters were able to get abortion in their state constitution was because of him. He gave the decision back to the states! Wasn’t that generous?!”

Lo and behold, here’s Trump this week in—you guessed it—a Fox News interview:

“Now the states are deciding. And by the way, in many cases, like Ohio, it became…more liberal or progressive than people would have thought. But the people of Ohio decided. The people of Kansas decided. The people are now deciding.”

What makes this messaging so dangerous is that it’s working to a certain extent: we know that voters are confused about Donald Trump’s position on abortion. Which is really frustrating! Because despite all of the nonsense from Trump about him being ‘moderate’ on the issue, he’s been repeating increasingly extreme talking points.

In the same interview that Trump told Sean Hannity that Republicans’ extremism and inability to talk about abortion had hurt the party, for example, the former president also made the claim that Democrats are “passing legislation where you can execute the baby after birth.”

It’s vital that those are the quotes that get headlines—not his bullshit about being reasonable.

Anti-Choice Strategy: Attacks on Doctors

Since Roe was overturned, we’ve been watching anti-abortion lawmakers and activists increasingly blame doctors for the harms that abortion bans are causing. (A tactic that’s been a long time coming.)

When the Texas Supreme Court ruled against twenty women whose lives were endangered by the state’s ban, for example, the justices said that the issue was doctors misunderstanding the law—not the law itself. And this week’s Senate committee hearing on abortion rights put that tactic on a national stage. 

Republican Senators spent their time blaming the post-Dobbs health crisis on doctors for their interpretations of abortion bans—including the pro-choice doctors there to testify. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican ranking member of the health committee, for example, blamed the doctors sitting before him for “fear-mongering” and misleading the nation.

“There is no law in any state preventing a doctor from treating a patient going through a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy or from preventing the saving of a life of a mother. That is called healthcare. That is not an abortion…That is why I find it frustrating that fellow physicians are misleading on these facts or corrupting the truth for political viewpoints.”

Throughout the hearing, Republicans tried to find a ‘gotcha’ moment while questioning the OGBYNs. In one tense exchange, Sen. Roger Wayne Marshall chastised Dr. Allison Linton, saying, “I'm not asking for a lecture. Is there any distress in your mind or your heart after doing an abortion?”

We know that this kind of rhetoric puts providers’ lives in danger. In fact, at the hearing Dr. Nisha Verma described “how dangerous misinformation about the practice of medicine is for our patients, for physicians.” 

But for Republicans desperate to escape blame, the consequences for healthcare providers aren’t as important as finding a scapegoat.

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Today’s section on ‘Anti-Choice Strategy’ was contributed by AED researcher Grace Haley.