“We’re Just Waiting for Something Terrible to Happen.”

2.13.26

Click to skip ahead: Ohio Woman Arrested For Pregnancy Loss; Kentucky & South Dakota Attack Abortion Pills & Speech; In the States: Texas, Virginia, Wyoming, Idaho; Legislation Watch: West Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia; Trump’s War on Raped Immigrant Girls; In the Nation: GOP vs. FDA

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Ohio Woman Arrested For Pregnancy Loss

Just days after reporting that a Kentucky couple was charged with reckless homicide over a miscarriage, we have another nightmare criminalization story to share: A 21-year-old in Ohio was arrested last week over her pregnancy loss.

The young woman was charged with ‘outrage of community sensibilities’ and ‘abuse of a corpse’ in connection with fetal remains found in a trash receptacle. Her story follows a similar, devastating pattern: another young, vulnerable woman investigated by the state, arrested, and made a pariah in her community, her mugshot plastered across local crime pages—all over an apparent pregnancy loss.

And let’s circle back to that initial ‘outrage of community sensibilities’ charge. At their core, that’s what so many pregnancy-related criminal charges wind up being about: outrage and spectacle. Law enforcement and community members find discarded fetal remains unpleasant, and therefore, someone—the woman—has to be punished and publicly shamed.

Even the local anti-abortion group, Heartbeat of Lima, decided to weigh in on the case—bemoaning the “disposal of human remains in a dumpster in our community.”

We can’t stress this enough: if our ongoing reporting on pregnancy criminalization has proven anything, it’s that there’s no ‘correct’ way to dispose of pregnancy remains that will protect you from criminal investigation.

It’s unclear what happens next: the young woman has been released, and law enforcement says that the case is being sent to the prosecutor’s office for a possible grand jury indictment. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

Here’s what we do know: Pregnancy-related criminalization is far too common. And according to a new Marshall Project investigation, flawed drug tests have led to at least 70,000 women reported to law enforcement right after childbirth over a six-year period.

The investigation details the story of one South Carolina woman, for example, who had to turn herself in to the local police almost immediately after giving birth… for the ‘crime’ of consuming legal CBD gummies and a topical hemp-based ointment while pregnant.

The outlet notes that most of these referrals didn’t lead to criminal charges. But there’s still the trauma of being questioned in one’s hospital bed and threatened with investigation, arrest, or loss of custody—sometimes just hours after giving birth.

Consider what happened to one Oklahoma woman who tested positive for meth—a false result caused by acid reflux medication the hospital gave her during childbirth. She had to watch armed sheriff’s deputies take her children away.

The report notes that despite laws in at least 27 states requiring hospitals to alert child welfare agencies of pregnant patients’ positive drug tests, no laws require hospitals to confirm the accuracy of tests before reporting them.

Kentucky & South Dakota Attack Abortion Pills & Speech

Kentucky is really on a roll: lawmakers there are considering a bill to classify abortion pills as a controlled substance. HB 646 threatens people who possess the pills with costly lawsuits (with few exceptions) and providers with prison time. Louisiana enacted similar legislation in 2024—a disaster for hospitals, which rely on medications like misoprostol for maternal health emergencies. South Carolina is also weighing its own version.

Legislation like this is a direct response to the fact that abortion pills allow women to sidestep state bans: telemedicine accounts for nearly 30% of all abortions, and the majority of abortions in banned states.

Kentucky’s bill is especially alarming. Bizarre language repeatedly equates abortion pills with assisted suicide. And amid Kentucky’s ongoing legal war targeting billboards and advertisements that inform people about telemedicine abortion, the legislation also bans pro-choice speech.

Under HB 646, the “marketing” of abortion pills would be illegal through “social media platforms, internet advertising, chat applications, and other digital communications”—including by out-of-state providers accused of “targeting” Kentucky residents.

We’ll have more on this nightmarish bill next week, but remember that Kentucky is far from the only state attacking abortion-related speech: South Dakota’s attorney general is fighting to take Mayday Health’s ads down from gas stations across the state. (The ads read: “Pregnant? Don’t want to be?” along with a link to Mayday’s website.)

This week, a federal judge declined to intervene in the case—which South Dakota Republicans are treating like a win. The truth? Judge Katherine Polk Failla gave the issue back to a South Dakota court because of jurisdiction issues, not because Mayday was wrong on the substance. In fact, Failla said that she believes the organization’s website is “noncommercial speech subject to protection under the First Amendment.”

Attorney General Marty Jackley claims the ads are “unprotected speech” that misleads people into believing they can legally get abortions. But those who don’t wish to be pregnant do have options—that’s the objective reality that South Dakota is trying to censor.

For more information on how you can get abortion pills—for now or to use down the line—check out Mayday, Aid Access, Plan C Pills, Abortion Finder, or I Need An A.

In the States: Texas, Virginia, Wyoming, Idaho

A frustrating update in Virginia: The city council of Lynchburg just passed an ordinance to prohibit abortion clinics from operating near schools, churches, public libraries, parks, children’s museums, and day care centers.

According to a map shown in the city council meeting, this now means there are almost no spaces in the city where a clinic can legally build or operate.

The 4-2 vote followed five hours of heated public comment. One local advocate had the nerve to claim the ordinance is reasonable as it “does not ban abortion facilities.” But again: basically nowhere in the city will permit a clinic now.

You can be sure that more and more cities run by anti-abortion officials will try this playbook—especially in pro-choice states, where they’ll use ordinances to circumvent abortion protections.

So long as policies like this don’t explicitly bill themselves as ‘bans,’ conservative activists would have you believe this is a moderate policy. We’ve been following this ordinance for months now, even as it’s slipped through the cracks in national media—by design. This has become typical anti-abortion strategy: weaponizing seemingly boring bureaucracy to pass abortion bans, unnoticed.

Over in Wyoming, Republicans are still fuming over the state Supreme Court’s ruling last month protecting a right to abortion. Remember, the court not only struck down the state’s two abortion bans—but said abortion is healthcare. In response, conservative lawmakers tried to put a constitutional amendment in front of voters that would empower the legislature to define healthcare. (Thankfully, the bill to get that measure in front of voters failed this week.)

GOP legislators also introduced a ‘fetal heartbeat’ ban, while the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus made clear they have no intention of stopping their war on abortion regardless of the court’s decision. Gov. Mark Gordon also addressed the issue in his State of the State address, saying, “Protecting life is among the most serious responsibilities entrusted to government.”

Chief Justice Lynne Boomgaarden seemed to address the simmering tensions directly at a legislative breakfast this week:

“The public has heard rhetoric suggesting retaliation against or defunding of courts because of the outcome in one high profile case. There is no greater threat to a stable system of government than the weakening of the judicial branch for political gain.”

Meanwhile, a case before the Texas Supreme Court shows where the anti-abortion movement’s obsession with absolute parental control is headed. As The New Republic reports, the case centers on a state constitutional amendment Texas voters approved in November, establishing that parents have an “inherent right to exercise care, custody, and control” over their children—blocking any state action that “interferes” with those rights.

The court will now decide whether that language shields plainly abusive behavior, including “food deprivation, beatings with a belt, and forced wall sits that lasted hours,” from state intervention.

This is all part of the state’s broader war on children’s bodily autonomy. As recently as 2024, a federal appeals court determined that Texas teens need parental permission to access birth control—with the judge citing his (weird) personal opposition to minors being able to have premarital sex sans parental permission.

Finally, a bit of good news: A federal judge just blocked Idaho’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the state’s abortion ban. The ruling will allow the suit—brought by a maternal fetal medicine specialist—to go to trial.

Dr. Stacy Seyb is seeking protections for medically necessary abortions. As you may remember from our past coverage, Attorney General Raúl Labrador claimed that Dr. Seyb didn’t adequately “educate himself” about Idaho’s ban, saying, “his patients suffered from his lack of understanding, not because of our laws.”

Federal judge B. Lynn Winmill disagreed, saying the physician “has established a genuine dispute of material fact,” and that even the court was confused by the so-called ‘exception’ for women’s lives.

Legislation Watch: West Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia

• The West Virginia Senate has passed SB 173, a bill that would make it a felony to ship abortion pills into the state.

• After weighing legislation to severely restrict medication abortion this week, Iowa Republicans just set a hearing date for a total abortion ban.

• Ohio Republicans are advancing a bill that requires medication abortion patients to sign a form with anti-choice propaganda about the safety of abortion pills.

• Finally, the Virginia bill that would require abortion patients to be told about ‘baby boxes’ thankfully died in subcommittee this week.

Trump’s War on Raped Immigrant Girls

Amid ICE’s ongoing war on U.S. cities, pregnant immigrant women and girls are among those most vulnerable. At the same time, conservative media is lauding the Trump administration’s move to deny abortion care to pregnant, unaccompanied minors in detention centers, Houston Public Media reports the administration is now “sending all pregnant unaccompanied minors” to a single shelter in South Texas.

This is despite “urgent objections” even from within Trump’s own HHS and child welfare officials—especially since at least half of the girls were impregnated by rape.

Since July, at least a dozen pregnant minors have been sent to the facility, seemingly to wait out their forced pregnancies and give birth. One health official who ran the unaccompanied children program in Trump’s first term said, “This is 100% and exclusively about abortion.”

Another source within the administration said: “I feel like we’re just waiting for something terrible to happen.” They’re knowingly gambling with pregnant, unaccompanied minors’ lives. Another official added: “It’s just cruel. They don’t care about any of these kids. They’re playing politics with children’s health.”

And there’s this devastating appraisal from a Texas-based nurse midwife:

“It’s not good to be a pregnant person in Texas, no matter who you are. So, to put pregnant migrant kids in Texas, and then in one of the worst health care regions of Texas, is not good at all.”

In Minneapolis, where ICE has already killed two people and spent weeks terrorizing the community, the consequences have been devastating: Immigrant patients are delaying or even forgoing critical reproductive care, including prenatal care and abortion—because ICE agents are present at hospitals and clinics after the Trump administration revoked medical facilities’ sanctuary status.

Pregnant immigrants are even being forced to choose home births to avoid potential contact with ICE agents, putting their health at risk and also raising complications to establish their newborns’ citizenship.

The 19th reports a nearly 10% increase in ‘no-show’ rates to Planned Parenthood’s Minnesota clinics, ever since December—when ICE drastically escalated their presence in the state. This is the largest spike in no-show rates recorded by the organization in recent history.

In the Nation: GOP vs. FDA

Republican senators are pissed that Trump’s FDA hasn’t banned abortion pills yet, meaning today is a day that ends in ‘y.’ What is it this time? Politico reports that GOP lawmakers had a closed-door meeting with FDA officials about the agency’s decision to pause their sham ‘safety review’ of mifepristone.

Sen. Josh Hawley, who’s been leading the charge, said he emerged from the meeting convinced the study is a “dead end” and that the “FDA is not serious about it.” Sen. Bill Cassidy called the lack of movement “disappointing.”

Anti-abortion politicians believed the study would be a first step toward banning telemedicine medication abortions. But since Abortion, Every Day first broke the news of the so-called review, the Trump administration has made it fairly evident that the study was just a way to keep the anti-abortion movement off their back.

In December, for example, we found out that the agency was deliberately delaying the study until after the midterms. And a few weeks ago, Trump’s FDA asked a judge to pause Louisiana’s anti-mifepristone lawsuit until the ‘safety review’ is completed.

Let’s be clear: the Trump administration is as anti-abortion as Hawley is; they simply disagree on strategy. White House officials have repeatedly conceded that banning abortion is a losing issue, especially in a crucial midterm year. They want to stay in power to continue chipping away at abortion access. As ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project’s Julia Kaye told us:

“The Trump administration isn’t defending medication abortion—it’s just defending its own authority to restrict access to mifepristone if, when, and how it sees fit.”

Quick Hits:

• Yet another devastating yet obvious study shows abortion restrictions linked to higher maternal mortality rates;

• This new Politico interview with Justice Samuel Alito has some speculating about the far-right justice’s future plans;

• Finally, big congratulations to Dr. Maggie Carpenter, who was just named one of the TIME 100 Health Leaders. Carpenter, co-founder of Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine (ACT), was the first shield-state provider criminally charged (by Louisiana) and targeted with a civil suit (by Texas)—all for ensuring patients can get care regardless of where they live.