Anti-Choice Group: "We Are Drinking Other People's Abortions"

5.8.25

Click to skip ahead: I’m So Tired because what in the world did I just watch out of Texas?? Stats & Studies has new maternal mortality data from the CDC—and it shows exactly what you’d expect. Extremism Rising highlights some new important reporting on abortion ‘abolitionists’. In the States, news from South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and more. In the Nation, some quick hits. Keep An Eye On right-wing content creators trying to indoctrinate young women. Finally, watch a panel conversation in You Love to See It.

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I’m So Tired

Let’s be real: Most days I do this work, I’m writing about something batshit insane. But I don’t know that I’ll ever beat today’s news.

While giving testimony in support of an anti-abortion bill in Texas today, Kristi Hamrick of Students for Life told legislators, “Let me be clear, we are all drinking other people’s abortions in the wastewater.”

✋(·•᷄‎ࡇ•᷅ )

Kristi, please—no.

Let’s back up. Hamrick was in Texas to support HB5510—the House version of SB2880, the GOP’s latest Trojan Horse bill. The legislation is part of Republicans’ plan to bring back a 1925 abortion ban that would let them prosecute patients and anyone who helps them—even if the abortion happens out of state. That’s right: if they succeed in reviving this zombie law, Texas could arrest women who leave the state for care.

For a refresher on just how dangerous this legislation is, read below:

Texas Republicans Move to Prosecute Abortion Patients & Criminalize Travel

But as you likely already know, that’s not the only wacky thing Texas Republicans are up to right now. Last month, Abortion, Every Day broke the news that Republicans had introduced legislation to test the state’s wastewater for birth control pills, abortion medication, and hormones associated with gender-affirming care. Sponsored by the lawmaker who crafted the state’s abortion ban, the bill lays the groundwork to restrict those medications by claiming they’re harming the environment and local wildlife.

And you’ll never guess where this legislative tactic came from: that’s right, Students for Life. The anti-abortion, anti-contraception organization has been pushing this bullshit for years—knowing that protecting the environment is a hell of a lot more popular than banning abortion. (Especially with young people.)

Most of the time, they try to keep somewhat sane-sounding. Like other anti-abortion activists and groups that spout bunk, Students for Life is eager to be seen as scientifically and medically credible. But this time around, they just couldn’t keep it together.

In their release about Hamrick’s testimony, for example, Students for Life complains that there were “witches” in the audience mocking and interrupting her. And after her warning that we’re all “drinking other people’s abortions,” Hamrick claimed that abortion medication in the water could be making women infertile.

I want to be clear: Students for Life is one of the most powerful and ‘mainstream’ anti-abortion groups in the country. And this is one of their primary campaigns. That should tell you everything you need to know about this movement.

If you can stomach it, watch Hamrick’s testimony below:

Stats & Studies

In some truly unsurprising news, provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that maternal mortality in the U.S. is on the rise.

The maternal mortality rate is up to 19 deaths per 100,000, up from 18.6 the year previous. We all know why: a combination of abortion bans and the ever-expanding maternal health desert—especially in rural areas. That, too, is happening because of abortion bans: OBGYNs are leaving states where they can’t practice without fear of arrest, which in turn makes it hard to staff hospital maternity wards.

This data comes on the heels of a study showing that women are twice as likely to die during pregnancy in states with abortion bans. In a state like Texas, for example—where the maternal mortality rate rose by 56% after they enacted an abortion ban—the death rate is 155% higher than California’s.

While the maternal death rises, Republicans are doing everything they can to hide that increase: Disbanding their maternal mortality committees (Idaho), firing everyone on said committees (Georgia), stacking the committees with anti-abortion extremists (Texas), or refusing to collect data for certain key years (also Texas).

Consider this just another reminder that some of the most insidious work the anti-abortion movement is doing is bureaucratic—seemingly ‘boring’ shit that they think no one will notice.

Extremism Rising

Just yesterday, I wrote about the rise of abortion ‘abolitionists’—a growing extremist sect of the anti-abortion movement that wants to see patients punished as murderers, even if that means giving women the death penalty. Today, NPR published a deep dive into the movement, laying out just how radical, organized, and misogynist they are. It’s a terrific article (and I promise I’m not just saying that because I’m quoted!).

What I appreciate most about this piece is that reporter Odette Yousef relays the very real danger these men pose. Too often, they’re treated like radical outliers no one takes seriously, even as their bills gain traction and co-sponsors. And as Yousef makes clear, it’s not just their legislation we should be afraid of—but the men themselves, who don’t bother hiding that they’re ready to break the law and get violent.

In fact, part of their strategy is to lobby local leaders—like mayors, sheriffs or council members—to break laws they consider “immoral.” Take Jason Storms, director of Operation Save America (OSA)—once known as the domestic terrorist organization, Operation Rescue. During a recent meeting in South Carolina, Storms told his followers to read The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates—which has been gaining popularity among the ‘abolitionist’ sect. From NPR:

“Its author, a militant anti-abortion rights activist and pastor in Wisconsin named Matthew Trewhella, is Storms' father-in-law. In 1993, he co-signed a statement endorsing the use of force to oppose abortion and calling the murder of a women's doctor outside a health clinic ‘justifiable.’ In his book, he claims that Americans have three ‘boxes’ with which to resist tyranny: the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box.” (Emphasis mine)

And despite their best attempts to pretend otherwise, ‘abolitionists’ are virulent misogynists. I know, this should go without saying: they want to give women the death penalty for abortions, of course they’re sexist. But it’s worth relaying the depth of that disdain: One young woman told Yousef about what happened when she shared a few thoughts during a convening of activists hosted by an ‘abolitionist’ pastor:

“Afterwards, before people had left, he started yelling at me for speaking in the presence of men. I was like, What? It was awful. It was humiliating.”

In a moment when these assholes are claiming their bills are simply about closing legal loopholes, it’s important to remind Americans what this is really about.

Read the whole piece, and check out the article I shared yesterday from The American Prospect. While the topic is chilling, it really is so heartening to see more and more media coverage of this ‘movement’.

In the States

Since we’re already talking about the rise of extremism, let’s get into what’s happening in South Carolina. Twenty-nine members of the ultra-conservative Family Caucus have resigned over a push to ban abortion in the state entirely.

This total abortion ban, sponsored by caucus leader Rep. John McCravy, has no exceptions for rape victims or those carrying nonviable pregnancies. But it’s not really the radical legislation that Republicans took issue with—it was the aggressive lobbying tactics of Students for Life:

“Chief among our concerns is your continued refusal to condemn the deeply troubling behavior of out-of-state, third-party groups that have descended upon South Carolina churches to provoke and disrupt worship services.”

Apparently, anti-abortion activists from the group went to a legislative session with plastic spines—the idea being lawmakers needed to “grow a spine”—and showed up at legislators’ churches to put fliers on their windshields.

Organization president Kristan Hawkins also tweeted that House Speaker Murrell Smith should be primaried in the same way three Republican female senators were after they publicly opposed an abortion ban.

And wow, did they hate that. “Your silence as the moderator of this caucus, along with your continued support and engagement with the groups that employ those tactics, is unacceptable,” the letter says.

It reveals a lot that Republicans don’t really have a problem with forcing women to carry doomed pregnancies to term—they just don’t want to be bothered about it outside of work hours.

Meanwhile, Texas Republicans are advancing legislation that would erect an anti-abortion statue at the state Capitol so that Texans could “celebrate the beauty of human life.”

The ‘beautiful’ piece Republicans want put up? An eight-foot bronze statue of a woman who appears as if she’s cradling a fetus in a dog dish. (I’m sorry, but am I wrong?)

If the Texas GOP is successful in getting this statue at the Capitol, I sure hope people show up with some art that actually reflects the state’s values around women. Maybe a few photographs of the women killed by the state’s abortion ban? I mean really—maternal mortality has skyrocketed, and Republicans want to pat themselves on the back about ‘life’?

While we’re talking about Texas, just a reminder that Republicans there are pushing forward legislation that would allow health care providers and pharmacists to deny patients birth control if it violates their personal beliefs.

Under SB 619, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others could refuse to prescribe or dispense contraception if they had a ‘moral’ objection. What’s more, the legislation would allow them to deny a patient information about contraception—or even a referral to another healthcare provider who would give them birth control.

Then there’s SB 1985, which would allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception.

Between these bills, the ‘birth control in the water’ bills, and the ‘charge women with murder’ bills, Republicans aren’t even bothering to hide their extremism anymore.

Finally, just some brief news out of Virginia, where Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears recently noted her objection to an abortion rights amendment. Earle-Sears, a Republican, has to sign bills passed by the legislature—but in this case, wrote a handwritten note on top of her signature saying, “I am morally opposed to this bill; no protection for the child.”

The Virginia Mercury reports that the lieutenant governor did the same thing last year when she had to sign a bill that stopped public officials from denying marriage licenses to LGBTQ+ couples. (Charming!)

Earle-Sears isn’t alone, though: remember, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin just vetoed a bill that would have codified the right to contraception in the state.

Quick hits:

• The Burlington Free Press on why half of Vermont's Planned Parenthoods have closed in the last three years;

• Rewire on the attacks on democracy in Missouri;

• And a bill to ban all abortions in North Carolina didn’t make the legislative cut (thank goodness).

In the Nation

• HuffPost reports on a new survey showing that abortion bans are disproportionately hurting LGBTQ+ people;

• Reproductive Freedom for All announced their first slate of 2026 endorsements;

• Andrea González-Ramírez at The Cut digs into why the Trump administration is asking a court to drop the mifepristone suit against the FDA (and no, it’s not because they’re “defending” abortion medication);

• And finally, more on Republicans’ anti-abortion attacks on democracy from the Associated Press and NPR.

Keep An Eye On

One of the biggest takeaways after November’s loss was just how badly progressives need to invest in social media and content creators. Conservatives are indoctrinating the next generation of voters in video after video, spreading disinformation, and cultivating a stable of powerful anti-abortion voices. Us? Not so much.

I was reminded of this gap in two recent articles: This one, from The Guardian on the anti-feminist ‘womanosphere’; and this piece from The 19th about the rise of young Catholic female content creators.

What struck me about both was the focus on young women, in particular. It’s clear that conservatives—who have already successfully brought young American men into the fold—are now trying to kill the political gender gap and reach young women.

Banning abortion and consistently elevating rapists to the nation’s highest offices will make that difficult, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. As I’ve written before, it’s clear to me that the anti-abortion movement is thinking twenty or thirty years ahead—fostering/indoctrinating young people now.

I don’t want us to take young women’s support for granted and then be surprised in a few years when they start voting Republican.

You Love to See It

Last month, I spoke on a panel at Woodstock Bookfest with some of my favorite feminists: Journalist Clara Bingham, author of The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973; Jamia Wilson, executive editor of Random House and author of Make Good Trouble; and Marianne Schnall, author of What Will It Take to Make a Woman President?

Marianne shared some highlights of our conversation over at Ms. magazine, or you can watch the whole chat below: