Over 100 Texas Children Forced to Leave the State for Abortion

1.28.25

Read or click to skip ahead “Equal Protection” looks at new fetal personhood legislation and reminds you about the mainstreaming of abortion ‘abolitionists.’

In the States, Over 100 Texas children had to leave the state for abortion care, six of whom were 11 years old and under. North Dakota’s ban is blocked while a legal challenge makes its way through the courts. And in Wyoming, Republicans are throwing everything they can at the wall to restrict abortion rights.

What Conservatives Are Saying reminds us that Republicans want Americans to believe they voted for this post-Roe nightmare.

Mic Check reports that the Republican candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court was caught on tape admitting he supports banning abortion.

In the Nation, Trump illegally froze federal funding and shut down Medicaid portals. More on Trump’s pick for budget director, who was a Project 2025 contributor. And a look at where Trump might land on the anti-abortion movement’s wishlist.

Keep An Eye On Students for Life’s latest campaign to humiliate abortion patients.

You Love to See It gives props where props are due.

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“Equal Protection”

We knew this was coming: After pledging to “leave abortions to the states,” more than five dozen House Republicans have sponsored a total abortion ban. Introduced by Rep. Eric Burlison, the Life at Conception Act (HR. 722) is a fetal personhood bill that declares that fetuses, embryos and fertilized eggs are full humans under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

What’s more, it invokes and centers “equal protection”—a term that’s become Republican code for charging abortion patients with murder. So yes, it’s bad.

That said, I want to make clear that there’s no indication that this bill will pass. (At least not yet.) While I do think that the GOP will push national abortion restrictions, I don’t believe they’ll be putting all their political weight behind legislation this radical. Not when Americans are so pissed off about abortion bans. It’s much more likely that they’ll work to pass a 12- or 15-week ban, which—of course—they’ll call a ‘restriction.’

This doesn’t mean HR 722 isn’t dangerous! It is. The bill is part of a broader move that I warned about in my 2025 predictions: The mainstreaming of so-called abortion ‘abolitionists’ who want the law to treat abortion patients as murderers. These mostly-male extremists are a truly scary bunch—and their mission is gaining steam.

Just a few weeks ago, I reported that four states are considering bills that would charge women who have abortions with murder; three of those states have the death penalty. Those bills were lobbied for and drafted by these ‘abolitionists’—and we can plan to see more like them in other states.

Because they know their beliefs are deeply unpopular, these activists try to hide what they’re doing—in large part through the language of ‘equal protection.’ The term doesn’t just serve them legally, establishing fetal personhood, but gives their backwards values a progressive sheen. After all, who doesn’t like ‘equality’!

And again, they’re gaining rapid power: ‘Equal protection,’ shorthand for calling for legislation that would charge abortion patients with homicide, is used in Texas’ GOP platform and dozens of lawmakers have sponsored bills using the language in states like South Carolina.

I’ll keep you updated on HR 722 as it advances or dies. But it’s vital that we’re paying close attention to not just bills, but language.

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Trump and the GOP are giving anti-abortion extremists the green light to do what they want without fear of arrest:

"God Demands Justice": The GOP's Chilling Plan to Attack Clinics

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In the States

Well, this is just devastating: Taylor Goldenstein at the Houston Chronicle reports that at least six children 11 years old and under were forced to leave Texas for abortion care in 2023. In fact, the state’s most recent abortion statistics show that in the year after Roe was overturned, over 100 children had to travel for care.

What’s more, the Texas Health and Human Services department originally indicated that this data was just from the first half of 2023. It was only after the Houston Chronicle published their story that a spokesperson reached out to say they were actually for the entire year. A bit sketch! Either way, the numbers are likely an undercount.

And as Democratic Texas Rep. Mihaela Plesa told Goldenstein, “These are not just statistics.” She says, “These are real stories about people who are having these traumatic experiences.”

As you know, Texas has no exceptions for rape or incest; that means children who’ve been assaulted and impregnated don’t have the choice to stay close to home while getting the help they need.

The truth is that I’m surprised we’re not seeing more local reporting like this. We know these stories are out there, we know how important they are, and we know that Republicans are desperate to avoid them. Remember when the news broke that an Ohio 10 year-old had to travel for Indiana for an abortion? Republicans across the country rushed to call the account false because they knew how deeply it would affect voters.

We can’t let them run from this. So if you’re a local reporter, consider looking at your state’s abortion statistics and raising the alarm.

Some good news in North Dakota, where the state’s ban won’t be enforced while a legal challenge makes its way through the courts. You may remember that a judge struck down the ban back in September in a pretty epic ruling. From Judge Bruce Romanick:

“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.”

The state wanted the ban to be enforced pending appeal; but the North Dakota Supreme Court declined their request this past Friday. The downside, of course, is that there aren’t any abortion providers in the state right now—just because abortion is legal doesn’t mean it’s accessible. But it’s still a win, and I’m sure a weight off the shoulders of those seeking out care.

In the meantime, Wyoming Republicans are pushing legislation that would force women seeking abortion medication to get a medically unnecessary ultrasound. The bill’s sponsor says that the requirement is about protecting women’s health, yet offered this whopper of a statement: “Abortion is not healthcare, it’s death care.”

Why would anyone need an ultrasound for ‘death care’??

As the ACLU of Wyoming points out, this restriction is a response to a judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s abortion ban; they’re simply trying to make abortion impossible to get anyway.

What Conservatives Are Saying

Knowing full well how unpopular abortion bans are, Republicans have spent months pushing out talking points that insist voters wanted this post-Roe nightmare. (See: ‘consensus,’ ‘the will of the people.’)

Now, despite clear polling and ballot measure wins, the GOP is claiming that Trump’s election is proof that Americans are anti-abortion. At the Iowa Rally for Life this weekend, for example, Gov. Kim Reynolds said “abortion extremism was just resoundingly defeated in the presidential race and in Iowa.”

The truth? 60% of Iowa voters want abortion to be legal and 81% of Americans don’t want the government involved in abortion at all.

They’re going to be repeating this lie quite a lot—especially as more horror stories come out—so we should all be prepared to push back with the facts.

Mic Check

The Republican candidate for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court was caught on tape admitting that he’s already made up his mind on abortion. You can probably guess where he comes down.

Before we get into what he said, a refresher: There’s an 1849 law in Wisconsin that Republicans say bans abortion. When Roe was overturned, they enforced this law—created before women had the right to vote—as a total ban. But in 2023, a judge ruled that the law isn’t actually an abortion ban at all—but “a feticide statute only.” (Meaning it only applies to an attack on a pregnant person that ends the pregnancy, not abortion.)

That ruling opened the door for clinics to provide care again, but anti-abortion groups continue to claim the law is a total ban. Now that legal fight is in front of the state Supreme Court. So you can see why the make up of the court is so important!

That leads us to the Republican running for a seat on the bench, Brad Schimel, Wisconsin’s former attorney general. According to The New York Times, Schimel told the audience at a recent campaign stop that he supports that 1849 law as an abortion ban:

“They’ve got several issues in front of them. One is the 1849 ban on abortions, which, by the way—what is flawed about that law?”

At another stop, Schimel said, “There is not a constitutional right to abortion in our State Constitution. That will be a sham if they find that.”

When contacted by the Times about the comments, Schimel’s spokesperson said the judge would “not prejudge any case” and would “enforce and respect the will of the voters.” (Didn’t we just talk about that line?)

I’ll keep you updated on this one, but in the meantime, a side gripe: Why was the incredibly important scoop about the leaked audio not mentioned until the thirty-first paragraph in the Times piece?

In the Nation

Just your regular reminder that this is not normal. As you’ve likely seen by now, the Trump administration illegally and recklessly froze trillions in federal funding—a move that also took down Medicaid payment portals.

Trump’s spokesperson said the portal would be back up and that the funding freeze wouldn’t impact Medicaid, but 1) Who the fuck believes anything they say? And 2) That still means that money for things like education programs and health research are being held hostage.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez blasted the GOP on Twitter, pointing out that the move wasn’t just Trump’s: “Republican majorities in the House and the Senate are backing this illegal sabotage.”

And while I can’t believe she had to write this at all, AOC also pointed out that “41% of all births in the US are covered by Medicaid.” For a party that says they’re ‘pro-life,’ what exactly do they think will happen to all those pregnant people and their babies if they can’t access Medicaid coverage?

In response to this not-at-all normal illegal action, Democratic Senators called on Republicans to hold off on advancing the confirmation of Russ Vought, Trump’s pick for White House budget director. Sen. Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said, “Republicans should not advance that nomination, out of committee, until the Trump administration follows the law."

In case you need a reminder: Vought is the guy who rewrote the GOP platform’s abortion plank, sneaking in even more extremist language. Called “Trump’s most pro-life cabinet member,” by radical anti-abortion group Students for Life, Vought was also a key author to Project 2025.

Last week, he was grilled by Sen. Murray on his anti-abortion views—including the fact that he calls for the “abolition” of abortion. (There’s that word again! I really am going to have to create an anti-abortion glossary.)

“Nodding to fetal personhood may be a way for Trump to get anti-abortion leaders off his back without taking the kind of dramatic action that would be unpopular or even cost the GOP in the 2026 midterm.” - Mary Ziegler, MSNBC

The anti-abortion movement has a long wishlist for the Trump administration. Whether it’s a national ban, outlawing the mailing of abortion medication, or even preventing Medicaid patients from getting pap smears at Planned Parenthood—anti-abortion activists and lawmakers have an aggressive policy plan for the next four years. And while they’re pleased as punch with Trump’s gift of free reign outside of clinics, that will only tide them over for so long.

Last week, a group of thirty anti-abortion activists and organizations—everyone from Live Action and AAPLOG to Americans United for Life—sent letters to the heads of the FDA and DOJ demanding action on abortion medication.

In their letter to acting Attorney General James McHenry, the groups called on the AG to use the Comstock Act to ban the mailing of abortion medication. The letter cited some of the nonsense talking points and fake studies we’ve tracked here, like claims that shipping abortion medication enables domestic abusers and that the medication is unsafe.

The activists made the same false claims in their letter to the FDA, where they demanded that the agency revert to pre-2016 restrictions on mifepristone. That would mean that the drug would only be approved up to 7 weeks of pregnancy instead of 10 weeks, and that patients would be required to see a provider in-person (a way for them to quash abortion medication by mail).

It’s still unclear what the Trump will do next—though most political journalists believe he’s trying to steer clear of backlash, knowing that most Americans support abortion rights. In a piece on “Trump’s careful abortion calculus,” The New York Times notes that his moves last week to give extremists the green light to attack clinics “were nothing like the shock-and-awe approach Trump took to immigration or D.E.I..”

I think it’s right that he’s trying to avoid anything too splashy at the moment, but I’m not holding out long-term hope. After all, he’s basically been checking off Project 2025 directives for the past week—like the global gag rule and the Hyde amendment.

The most recent evidence that the Trump administration is going down their Project 2025 checklist comes from the Department of Health and Human Services, which announced yesterday that they’re going to “strengthen enforcement” of “conscience” rules. In plain language? They’re going to make it easier for doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, etc to deny women abortions and birth control, or to turn away LGBTQ patients. Vile.

Quick hits:

• Republicans want to codify the Hyde Amendment.

• To no one’s surprise, Donald Trump reinstated the Global Gag Rule.

• Over at The Cut, reporter Andrea González-Ramírez covers Trump’s anti-abortion actions so far.

• And if you want to read more about the way Trump declared open season on abortion clinics, check out coverage in Slate and Jezebel.

Keep An Eye On

Our favorite anti-abortion wackadoodle Kristan Hawkins made a ‘joke’ this week about running for office. (Did the air in the room just get colder??) Hawkins, president of Students for Life—an extremist anti-abortion group that also wants to ban birth control—spoke to NOTUS about the movement’s mixed feelings on Trump’s moves so far. At the very end of the piece, she says, “I mean, who knows what’s in the future. I haven’t run for office yet.”

YIKES. Hawkins also published a Townhall column this week where she outlined her organization’s priorities for the new administration—with a focus on “medical waste.”

“In this next round of legislative efforts, a new focus on the environment will be front and center as the Food and Drug Administration must give account for refusing to conduct environmental screenings and for failing to deal with a de facto license to dump pathological medical waste—chemically tainted blood, placenta tissue, and human remains—in the water supply.”

I’ve written about this nightmare strategy many times before, but it’s worth repeating: Students for Life knows that no one likes abortion bans—but that folks do like environmental protections. So they’ve come up with this baseless and downright creepy argument that abortion medication and fetal remains are poisoning the groundwater.

In keeping with their penchant for punishing abortion patients, the group wants women who’ve taken abortion medication to be forced to bag up their bleeding and bring it back to their healthcare provider as ‘dangerous medical waste.’ Never mind that—as many who have had an early miscarriage or abortion can tell you—it’s near impossible to distinguish embryonic or fetal tissue from general bleeding.

Let’s be clear about what this is really about: Women who take abortion medication rob anti-abortion activists of their favorite past-time—shaming women. They hate the idea that women can end their pregnancies in the privacy of their own homes. So if they can’t call women sluts and murderers outside of clinics, they’ll humiliate them using fake ‘environmental protection’ concerns.

You Love to See It

Since I gave The New York Times a hard time today, I’ll share a compliment as well: This headline about Republicans’ ‘born alive’ bill is a really good one. It takes the focus off of inflammatory conservative rhetoric and puts it back on to what the legislation would actually do.

As you can imagine, anti-abortion organizations were furious over it. They also didn’t appreciate reporters’ fact-check about the horrific consequences of the bill. Good.