Eric Swalwell Is a Case Study on How Women Are Blocked From Power

4.15.26

Click to skip ahead: Georgia AG Says Hospitals Are Lying About Women Dying; In the States: Idaho, Ohio, Missouri, Texas; Eric Swalwell is a Primer on How Women Are Blocked From Power; Ballot Box: Georgia, Michigan, Ohio; Legislation Watch: Louisiana, Iowa, Mississippi; Trump’s 900-Page Gift to the Anti-Abortion Movement

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Georgia AG Says Hospitals Are Lying About Women Dying

Georgia Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Carr claims the state’s six-week abortion ban hasn’t killed any women, and that healthcare providers who say otherwise are lying. In an interview with WABE’s Rose Scott, Carr straight up denied that the law is preventing hospitals from giving patients health- and life-saving care:

“The only hospitals that are [saying] that, doctors, are the ones that are playing politics. I’ll be honest with you. It is crystal clear. The whole purpose of the act is to protect the life of the mother and the unborn child.”

Here’s the truth: Georgia’s own maternal mortality committee concluded that the deaths of at least two women—Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller—could be attributed to the state’s ban. In response, the Republican-led state fired every single person on the 32-member committee.

Carr was attorney general at the time, so he should know.

We’ve heard Republican AGs make these kinds of comments before: when Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador went before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2024 to argue that the state should be allowed to deny emergency abortions, he also accused doctors of lying about women being turned away from life-saving care. Labrador said at the time that hospital administrators and doctors were trying to make a “political statement,” and that “what’s telling is that they never said that under oath.”

It’s almost as if Republicans have been coordinating talking points since the end of Roe!

By the way, that wasn’t the only lie Carr told about the state’s abortion ban. When Scott asked him about Adriana Smith—the woman whose body was forcibly kept alive to incubate her pregnancy—the Republican AG claimed Smith’s family wanted it that way.

“That was a terribly tough situation that was made between the family and the doctor,” he said.

Not only is this demonstrably false—Smith’s mother has been very outspoken about their wishes being ignored—it’s cruel. Comments like this should follow candidates around; voters deserve to know exactly who these men are.

For more on the role abortion is playing in the lead-up to Georgia’s midterms, make sure to read our Ballot Box section of the newsletter today.

In the States: Idaho, Ohio, Missouri, Texas

Idaho voters are one step closer to weighing in on abortion this November: advocates at Idahoans United for Women and Families have collected close to 100,000 signatures to put their pro-choice law on the 2026 ballot.

Remember, Idaho doesn’t allow citizen-led initiatives to amend the constitution, but they can get policies on the ballot. In this case, the proposed law would protect abortion rights, repealing the state’s ban in the process.

The Idaho Capital Sun reports that the signatures put organizers well over the approximately 70,000 needed to qualify for the ballot, but that initiatives will often collect more than needed—knowing that election officials will reject some of those signatures. (For example, if someone’s address isn’t up to date.)

Melanie Folwell, executive director of Idahoans United, says that county officials have already validated over 61,000 signatures and that the group is “very confident that we are going to qualify.”

Idahoans have been hard-hit by the post-Dobbs ban: in addition to losing about a third of the state’s OBGYNs, voters have watched their attorney general go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight for the right to deny women life-saving abortions in hospital emergency rooms.

Like so many other abortion-related ballot measures, this one allows for state interference at so-called fetal viability—after which patients could only access abortion in cases of “medical emergency.” (You all know how I feel about this.)

Don’t miss this in-depth piece from The Columbus Dispatch about Ohio lawmakers trying to override the will of voters by banning abortion. Despite codifying abortion protections in 2023, Ohians have seen their rights thrown into constant flux: judges will rightly block restrictions—like a 24-hour waiting period and requirement that fetal remains be buried or cremated—only for Republicans to come back with ever-more horrific laws.

We’ve been tracking most of those bills here at Abortion, Every Day: like the legislation that would create a registry of pregnant women, requiring healthcare providers to file a “certificate of life” with the Ohio health department after seeing a pregnant patient.

Republicans have also passed bills to restrict telehealth and revive that 24-hour waiting period, while advancing legislation to force anti-abortion propaganda into public school classrooms (aka ‘Baby Olivia’), and allow parents to claim fetuses as dependents (a fetal personhood push).

Ohio even considered an ‘equal protection’ bill last year—legislation that would punish abortion patients as murderers.

The expectation is that abortion will end up in front of the Ohio Supreme Court, where anti-choice activists believe Republicans’ 6-1 majority will weaken the constitutional protections put into effect by voters.

A new bill in Missouri would require hospitals to offer rape victims emergency contraception—which seems like a fairly non-controversial bit of legislation! Especially when you realize that a large chunk of sexual violence victims being treated at ERs are children.

Still, Republicans found a way to be distressed by the idea that Catholic hospitals might have to actually treat female patients with care and respect. Missouri Rep. Brian Seitz, for example, said that rape victims should be “counseled” on emergency contraception before they’re allowed to prevent a rapist from impregnating them.

“Rape is a traumatic event. You’re not necessarily gonna be in the proper frame of mind to make certain decisions anyway.”

Huh? Leave it to anti-abortion maniacs to make preventing pregnancy from rape seem like a “decision” patients need to be “counseled” on. (It’s also worth remembering that Seitz wants to ban abortion “at conception” and once introduced a bill that would make it illegal to end ectopic pregnancies.)

As bill sponsor Rep. Jaclyn Zimmermann noted, “If people are anti-abortion, this would be something they should champion because this would prevent abortions from occurring in the first place.”

Finally, Frontera Fund executive director Zaena Zamora spoke at SXSW last month about the challenges that Texas abortion patients face when they live in rural areas or border towns:

“People in my community are having to travel more than 12 hours to drive out of state. If they’re taking a bus, that’s a 24-hour bus ride. If they’re taking a flight, it’s a two- or three-hour flight to get their care.”

This is why it’s so vital that we’re supporting abortion and practical support funds—like Zamora’s—that are helping patients get to their appointments.

Quick hits:

• Stateline lays out why 25% of people who leave their states for abortion go to Illinois;

• Great news out of Virginia, where Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed the Right to Contraception Act;

• The Stranger reports on what’s been happening with Washington’s abortion pill stockpile;

• And KJZZ digs into the anti-abortion bills Arizona Republicans are pushing in spite of protections codified in 2024.

Eric Swalwell is a Primer on How Women Are Blocked From Power

Now-former Rep. Eric Swalwell has suspended his California gubernatorial campaign and resigned from Congress. The moves come in response to a fifth woman coming forward to accuse the Democrat of sexual assault.

Lonna Drewes, who filed a police report this week, says Swalwell drugged, raped, and choked her. The other tremendously brave women who’ve shared their stories include a former staffer and a then-college student. In response to the accusations, Swalwell admitted to “mistakes in judgment,” but denied sexually assaulting anyone; he also sent cease-and-desist letters to some of the accusers.

Meanwhile, some journalists and Hill staffers say Swalwell’s misconduct has been an open secret for years.

While Swalwell’s Democratic colleagues swiftly called on him to step down, the online response to the allegations has been alarmingly mixed. Some have questioned the women’s motives, the timing of their allegations, or asked why the women didn’t “just quit.” In other words: the usual, cruel, victim-blaming bullshit. If anything, these responses make clear exactly why it’s so difficult for women to come forward—especially against respected, liberal-leaning politicians with power.

Importantly, this is not just about one abuser: Eric Swalwell is a case study in how men keep women out of power. Consider this heart-breaking quote from one of Swalwell’s accusers:

“He was the foundation of my career. I had nothing to fall back on or anyone to vouch for my skills outside of my colleagues in that office and Eric himself. I knew if I came forward, it would define me and undermine my credibility.”

Workplace sexual harassment victims frequently quit or are forced out of their jobs; consequently, they’re pushed out of entire industries. In male-dominated industries like politics, this reifies male dominance.

That’s not a small factor at all in why our rabidly anti-women policy landscape is what it is.

Ballot Box: Georgia, Michigan, Ohio

As expected, abortion is a key issue across multiple battleground states in the lead-up to November. First up, let’s talk about Georgia—where gubernatorial candidates are sparring over the issue.

Georgia State Senator Jason Esteves wants voters to remember that former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan—who switched parties in 2025—supported the state’s (very unpopular) six-week abortion ban. “Republicans have made it less safe for people to have babies,” Esteves said.

He left the direct attacks to his surrogates, like Senate Minority Whip Kim Jackson, who pointed to Duncan as one of the leaders who “passed Georgia’s horrific abortion ban, which has led to the deaths of black women.”

Duncan claims that he’s changed his mind on abortion. “I was wrong to believe a room full of legislators knew more than millions of women,” he’s said.

One person who doesn’t buy it? Shanette Williams, mother of Amber Nicole Thurman—one of the Georgia women killed by the state’s ban. She didn’t mince words:

“The only thing I see when we talk about Geoff Duncan is him standing behind the governor of the state of Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp, as he signs the bill into law. I see Geoff Duncan smiling and clapping as if this was the right thing to do. How is it that you can run for governor after you were a part of murdering my child?”

Whew.

Also in Georgia: Reproductive Freedom for All just endorsed Miracle Rankin and Jen Jordan for the state Supreme Court yesterday, with group president Mini Timmaraju calling the judges “exactly the leaders Georgians need in this moment.”

Meanwhile, a Christian pastor running for governor over in Michigan told a local news outlet yesterday that he’d work to repeal protections for abortion if elected. The fact that voters codified protections for abortion in 2022 doesn’t mean much to him, apparently.

And in Ohio, all eyes are on the state Supreme Court this year—where the abortion fight is sure to end up as Republicans continue to pass restrictions in spite of protections enacted in 2023. As The Columbus Dispatch notes (in the piece we mentioned earlier the newsletter), Democrats are hoping to unseat Republican Justice Dan Hawkins while Republicans are looking to oust Democrats’ sole judge on the court, Justice Jennifer Brunner.

“We have an opportunity in Virginia to make sure that every person has the ability to make decisions about when and how to start a family, and access to care that can be lifesaving. We have an opportunity to make sure doctors and nurses are also protected and can focus on their patients’ needs.” - Heather St Amand, The Virginian-Pilot

Legislation Watch: Louisiana, Iowa, Mississippi

We just can’t escape ‘Baby Olivia’, huh? AED told you last month about HCR 26 in Louisiana, which would require public schools to show an anti-abortion propaganda video in science and health classes. Why those particular classes? Well, unlike sex education—there’s no clear way for parents to opt their child out of the misleading lesson. (So much for parental rights!)

If you need a refresher on ‘Baby Olivia’, watch my video about the legislative trend here or read past coverage here. The short version is that the video is produced by the extremist anti-abortion organization Live Action, and has been thoroughly slammed by experts as biased and non-scientific.

That’s why Louisiana’s bill doesn’t name ‘Baby Olivia’ outright. Just as we’ve seen in other states, the legislation avoids mentioning the controversial video—but lays out requirements so specific that it’s essentially the only thing that fits. And remember, this isn’t just about one video—’Baby Olivia’ is part of a broader plan to indoctrinate young Americans as early as possible and change educational guidelines around fetal development.

Over in Iowa, Republicans are advancing a bill (House File 2563) that would require abortion pills to be dispensed in-person and force doctors to give patients false information about the medication under the guise of “informed consent.” What’s more, the bill would create new reporting mandates around abortion pills—requiring providers to submit detailed information about so-called “complications.”

As we’ve long warned, these reporting requirements are deliberately crafted to collect misleading (or fabricated) data that can later be used to justify even further restrictions—or target providers themselves. Read more about that strategy below:

Texas is Fabricating Abortion Data

Finally, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has signed legislation (HB 1613) that classifies the shipping and distribution of abortion pills as drug trafficking. Under the law, it will be a felony to prescribe, distribute, or even possess abortion-inducing medication. “Intent” to distribute the pills would also be a crime—opening up a whole new can of free speech worms. (The good news is that law professor Mary Ziegler says intent “is really, really hard to prove.”)

The goal is clear: Republicans don’t just want to criminalize, but terrorize. In a moment when abortion pills by mail are helping women sidestep bans, anti-abortion legislators and activists want to create a chilling effect that makes people too afraid to help each other.

Trump’s 900-Page Gift to the Anti-Abortion Movement

The Department of Justice has released a nearly 900-page report claiming that the Biden administration “weaponized” the FACE Act to “advance a pro-abortion agenda” and target activists “with traditional Christian views.”

As Abortion, Every Day wrote yesterday, the goal here is to blur the line between anti-abortion violence and protected religious expression—and to ultimately shield extremists from accountability.

We’re making our way through the report now, and it’s a doozy. Not only does the DOJ claim that the Biden administration targeted “peaceful” activists, but that they “collaborated” with abortion rights groups to “track pro-life activists’ First Amendment activity.”

What do they mean by tracking and collaboration? Well, that abortion rights organizations contacted the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (CRT) to report threats, harassment, and concerns about upcoming protests or specific dangerous extremists.

In other words, standard information collection and communication is framed as underhanded plotting. For example, the report notes that the CRT “‘monitored’ pro-life activists for years before charging them.” Isn’t that called due diligence?

It’s especially rich to see the administration attacking pro-choice groups for compiling “dossiers,” given that anti-abortion activists and crisis pregnancy centers have long maintained databases targeting—and even doxxing—abortion patients and providers.

The report also accuses the Biden DOJ of double standards in FACE Act prosecutions, alleging harsher sentences for anti-abortion activists. But that’s an apples-to-bananas comparison: anti-abortion activists have murdered providers, bombed clinics, and terrorized patients for decades.

The “pro-abortion” crimes cited here? Mostly graffiti and property damage. The few examples of truly serious incidents—like attempted arson—were prosecuted, not ignored.

Even mainstream outlets aren’t buying it. CBS News reports that the Trump administration has “scant evidence” of any wrongdoing, while The Washington Post notes that, “despite its assertion of widespread prosecutorial misconduct, the report cites few episodes that would meet that definition.”

Not-so-coincidentally, this report comes as Republicans are pushing to make crisis pregnancy centers immune from regulation and scrap clinic buffer zones, all under the banner of “free speech.”