Republicans Admit They Want to Ban Emergency Contraception

6.5.2024

Click to skip ahead: In The War on Birth Control, Republicans give up the game. In the States, good news out of North Carolina and checking in with Florida. America Supports Abortion looks at how we ask voters about repro rights. In the Nation, a few quick hits. Stats & Studies has more on the decline in residency applications in anti-abortion states. Finally, Care Denied looks at the horror stories coming out of Texas.

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The War on Birth Control

Republicans are trying to pull a fast one on voters. As you know, Senate Democrats held a vote on the Right to Contraception Act today, a move meant to force Republicans to admit that they don’t support birth control. Which they did: the bill failed in a 51-39 vote.

But GOP lawmakers also introduced their own legislation on birth control, the “Allowing Greater Access to Safe and Effective Contraception Act.” Why propose birth control protections instead of just signing onto Democrats’ effort? Because the Republican bill doesn’t protect emergency contraception. Here’s what Sen. Joni Ernst told CNN:

“It does not include Plan B, which many folks on the right would consider abortive services. Big distinction. We want to prevent a pregnancy, not end a pregnancy.”

That’s right, Republicans are admitting that they think emergency contraception is an abortifacient. That is a big deal, especially considering yesterday’s Senate hearing on abortion rights, when the GOP’s star witness admitted the same after being backed into a corner by Sen. Patty Murray.

Now, I’m not sure that Ernst meant to say all this about emergency contraception being an ‘abortifacient.’ After all, GOP lawmakers have spent a lot of time and energy hiding the fact that they want to ban birth control (which we know starts with IUDs and emergency contraception).

That’s why Republican leaders claimed today that of course they support contraception. They only opposed Democrats’ legislation, they said, because protections aren’t necessary. From a statement issued today by twenty-one Republican senators:

“There is no threat to access to contraception, which is legal in every state and required by law to be offered at no cost by health insurers, and it's disgusting that Democrats are fearmongering on this important issue to score cheap political points.”

That statement was always a lie, but Ernst’s comments make it seem downright ridiculous. It’s absolutely wild to accuse Democrats of fear-mongering while outright admitting that you want to define the morning-after pill as an abortion.

Remember: Abortion, Every Day has been warning about this tactic for a while now. For some background, check out the piece below:

The GOP’s Plan to Ban Birth Control (Part I)

In the States

Good news is rare these days so let’s talk about North Carolina! A federal judge has blocked some of the state’s laws restricting access to mifepristone and dictating how it can be dispensed.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles ruled that the law can’t mandate only doctors prescribe abortion medication and struck down a mandate that patients obtain the pills in person. Eagles also ruled that patients don’t have to make a follow-up appointment after taking the pills.

The judge did, however, uphold other restrictions, including a requirement that patients get an in-person consultation 72 hours in advance of taking the pills and an ultrasound.

Still, the ruling is a win for North Carolina. It comes at a time when Republicans are passing as many restrictions as possible on the pills, knowing that women are obtaining the medication via telehealth, and using them regardless of the law. (As they should!) It was less than two weeks ago that Louisiana, for example, passed a law classifying the medication as a controlled substance.

North Carolina Atty. Gen. Josh Stein released a statement about the ruling, blasting Republicans for “their sloppy, chaotic law” and saying that “politicians need to stay out of the exam room.” Stein, who is running for governor, also released his first campaign ads this week attacking his opponent’s stance on abortion. The spot below features Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson chastising women who have abortions as not being “responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” Charming.

It’s been a little over a month since Florida’s 6-week abortion ban went into effect, leaving patients across the South without access. Teen Vogue looks at what life has been like for patients and providers since then, reporting that doctors are having to turn away most patients who come to them for help. The problem, of course, is that most people don’t know that they’re pregnant at just six weeks. From Candace Dye, owner of a Fort Pierce clinic:

“People who get turned away are in shock and cry. They say 'I have to go home and have a baby now?' When they didn't even want to have a baby in the first place.”

Dye told Teen Vogue that in the first twenty days of the ban, the clinic turned away 75% of their patients.

Meanwhile, other states have been doing their best to help Florida patients, and those who would have otherwise traveled to Florida for care from other anti-abortion states in the South.

The New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF) reports that in the month since the 6-week ban went into effect, the group saw “a 460% increase in callers from Florida.” Providers in Illinois also report an increase in patients, along with the spread of misinformation that can keep women from getting care.

Julie Uhal with Planned Parenthood of Illinois told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that some people don’t understand that abortion is legal in other states. “One of the barriers that people face is just even knowing that they have an option and that there are resources to help them get here,” she said.

Quick hits:

• The editorial board of Express-News in Texas says that Ingrid Skop’s appointment to the maternal mortality board “taints” the committee’s work;

• More on the 20-point lead that the pro-choice ballot measure has in South Dakota;

• And Utah has seen a drop in medical residency applications since Dobbs.

America Supports Abortion

If we’ve learned anything about voters’ beliefs since Dobbs, it’s that they overwhelmingly want abortion to be legal. Over 80% of Americans don’t want the government involved in abortion at all—but for it to be a decision between a patient and their doctor. That’s why I get a little bit frustrated by some of the polling coming out of states that don’t ask the right questions.

News coverage of a new Arizona poll, for example, reports that about half of voters in the state support abortion rights and that it “depends on variables.” That’s largely because the poll adopts Republican framing, asking under what circumstances and how far into a pregnancy abortion should be allowed.

But the real question isn’t when pregnancy should be legislation, but if it should be. By phrasing questions this way, pollsters are implicitly accepting the idea that the government has a role in making decisions about our bodies. They don’t.

Polls like this also influence politicians’ messaging and policies. If candidates and lawmakers see numbers indicating that voters support abortion until a certain week, they’ll shape their policies accordingly. But if we can show that voters don’t want the government involved in pregnancy at all, we’ll be that much closer to getting legislation that reflects that truth.

For a comprehensive look at abortion polling in 2023, read below:

The Year in Abortion: Polling & Democracy

In the Nation

The ACLU is going to spend over $25 million on state races across the country, in a plan to “go on offense” on abortion rights. The group reports that this is their biggest-ever investment in an election cycle. NBC News reports that in addition to state legislative races and state Supreme Court races, the ACLU plans to put money towards abortion rights ballot measures heading to voters this November.

Earlier this week I flagged a new report from the National Domestic Violence Hotline showing how the end of Roe impacted domestic violence victims. (Along with this terrific Jezebel article on the research.) Alanna Vagianos at HuffPost has more on the study this week, and you can read the full report here.

Finally, NBC News reports that Donald Trump’s search for a running mate is down to four men: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and Sens. Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and JD Vance.

Stats & Studies

Since Roe was overturned, Missouri has seen a 25% drop in OBGYN residency applications. Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for the regional Planned Parenthood, says, “the need for more OB-GYNs is going to be at a crisis point here soon.”

The shocking statistic comes from research I’ve written about before—a study from the Association of American Medical Colleges. It showed that anti-abortion states saw a drop in all residency applications, not just those related to reproductive health. But unsurprisingly, it was fields specific to women’s health that saw the biggest decline in applicants, and states with the strictest bans that had the largest gaps.

In Alabama, for example, there was a 21.2% drop in OBGYN residency applications. Louisiana saw a nearly-18% drop in OBGYN residency applications since Dobbs. Doctors there likely have the concern they have in Missouri, where McNicholas says students and residents ask her how they’ll be able to get appropriate training in a state that bans essential healthcare.

From executive director of Medical Students for Choice, Pamela Merritt:

“I don’t know anybody who’s invested close to half a million dollars in their education who wants to walk into a residency program in a state where people with absolutely no background in medicine are drafting regulations that deny your ability to care for your patients.”

The states with bans, she says, “are reaping what they sow.”

Care Denied

In the wake of the Texas Supreme Court ruling against 20 women whose health and lives were endangered by the state’s ban, one of those plaintiffs is warning other Texas women. Jessica Bernardo, who was denied an abortion despite her fetus having a fatal condition, had this message:

“If you’re at risk for that heart-breaking tragedy, have that money set aside for your need to travel out of state in order to save your life or your vital organs.”

It’s hard to imagine anything much more dystopian than that. Despite the Court’s decision that the state’s abortion ban is perfectly fine as it is, horror stories continue to come out of the state.

You may remember Ryan Hamilton’s viral thread about the nightmare his wife faced in Texas trying to get miscarriage care. Hamilton is speaking up again, blasting the state for denying his wife care even when her fetus didn’t have a heartbeat. Watch his interview with CBS News below:

As these stories continue to pour out of Texas, there’s something to keep an eye on: blaming doctors. Mary Ziegler wrote in Slate this week, for example, about the Texas Supreme Court ruling:

“The court’s message was that physicians were the problem. They had misunderstood what the court portrayed as a perfectly clear law. Doctors were the ones who had refused to act reasonably and denied help to the patients that the court thought were deserving…”

Ziegler warns that “Republicans may well borrow the same strategy,” which is absolutely already happening. This is a tactic I started warning about in 2022, one that anti-abortion lawmakers and activists have been building on ever since.

The Houston Chronicle editorial board clocked the same thing, pointing out how Republicans are shirking blame onto physicians—providers at risk of losing their medical licenses and very freedom if they make the ‘wrong’ decision.

It’s worth noting that most of the people who have come forward with horror stories aren’t blaming physicians, but politicians. Hamilton and his wife, for example, aren’t bringing a suit against doctors; they’re putting the blame where it belongs: with the legislators who started this nightmare.