Since When is Emergency Contraception 'Controversial'?

5.30.25

Click to skip ahead: Attacks on Abortion Pills looks at a second study on mifepristone that conservatives are hoping will distract from the disastrous flop of their first. In the States, news from Virginia, Nebraska, Kentucky, and more. In Attacks on Birth Control, the cultural campaign targeting young women. Anti-Abortion Strategy has the latest in crisis pregnancy center nonsense from Vermont, West Virginia, and Montana. In the Nation, catch up on what’s happening with Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ bill defunding Planned Parenthood. You Love to See It has good news from Oklahoma and Wisconsin. And in AED News, a very special thank you to Grace.

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Attacks on Abortion Pills

Looks like anti-abortion groups realized their junk science on mifepristone didn’t land the way they hoped—so now they’re rolling out a second study, hoping this one might just stick.

You might remember that last month, a conservative think tank released a wildly misleading report claiming that 1 in 10 people who take mifepristone experience “serious adverse events.” Medical experts immediately panned the so-called ‘study’ from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC): Brittni Frederiksen, associate director of Women’s Health Policy at KFF, said there were so many red flags, “I can’t imagine any medical journal that would accept this.” (And sure enough—they didn’t!)

Abortion, Every Day also uncovered video of EPPC president Ryan Anderson admitting that the goal was to “eliminate” abortion medication—and colluding with national anti-abortion groups to weaponize the fake research.

One of the biggest reasons the study didn’t gain traction—and the critique that caught the most public attention—was that it wasn’t peer reviewed. So color me shocked that anti-abortion leaders are now loudly touting a new “peer-reviewed” study—this time from the extremist Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI).

In fact, the term ‘peer-reviewed’ shows up four times in a Catholic News Agency article about the research—a piece that reads more like a press release than journalism.

This new CLI study takes aim at a popular (and effective) pro-choice talking point: that abortion medication is safer than Tylenol. It’s a fact often shared by reproductive health experts and advocates to underscore how over-policed and unnecessarily restricted abortion pills are.

CLI claims that abortion rights activists are being misleading and “oversimplifying.” Which is pretty fucking ironic, considering CLI is the same group that spits out ‘research’ so terrible it gets retracted in the rare instances it actually gets published.

Here’s the truth: All credible data shows that serious complications with abortion pills are exceedingly rare. Serious adverse events involving medication abortion occur less than 0.5% of the time. And yes—complications from medication abortion are absolutely less frequent than those associated with Tylenol.

Anti-abortion groups are trying to shift the narrative because their original mifepristone study became a national punchline. But the fact that their only “peer-reviewed” rebuttal focuses on a snappy pro-choice catchphrase rather than the substance of their own collapsing argument? That’s just pathetic.

Unfortunately, the junk science won’t stop here. On Monday, Abortion, Every Day will publish a full deep dive into another anti-abortion “study”—one that reveals a lot about conservatives’ next move to criminalize abortion.

In the States

Who said it’s just Republican men who say stupid shit about women and abortion? The Guardian has unearthed audio of Virginia gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears saying that women who consent to sex are automatically consenting to pregnancy.

Earle-Sears, who is Virginia’s current lieutenant governor, said that women who have sex “already made a choice.” She insisted on a podcast—just days after Roe was overturned—that “we need to make our choices before we’re pregnant, not, you know, after.”

The idea that consent to sex is consent to pregnancy is common in anti-abortion extremism. In fact, I wrote a whole column about it:

Sex Isn't Consent to Pregnancy

Earle-Sears has also called abortion “genocide,” and said she wanted a total abortion ban with just an exception for women’s lives.

Her comments aren’t exactly a surprise: Just last week, I told you Earle-Sears refused to say whether she’d sign an abortion ban as governor, and it wasn’t so long ago that she opposed an abortion rights amendment.

But the timing couldn’t be worse for Earle-Sears, who is trying to run away from her anti-abortion extremist beliefs. She’s well-aware that Virginia is overwhelmingly pro-choice, and is several points behind Democratic opponent Abigail Spanberger. The Guardian notes that she’s even scrubbed anti-abortion language from her campaign website.

Remember, Virginia is the only state in the South without a serious ban or restriction—so what happens there is incredibly important not just for people in the state, but the region.

Meanwhile, a Nebraska anti-abortion group is collecting signatures to get a new measure on the ballot—one that would codify a total abortion ban in the state constitution, and grant personhood to fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses.

The move comes just months after anti-abortion groups enshrined a 12-week ban into the state constitution, calling it a ‘reasonable middle ground’. But we knew it would never stop there.

The Omaha World Herald reports that Choose Life Now started petitioning in February. And while the group doesn’t have the serious funding that most ballot measure campaigns start with, their strategy is to target church congregations.

If you want a sense of who this group really is, consider that spokesperson Rose Kohl said Nebraska is being punished for codifying a ban that allows abortions in the first few weeks of pregnancy:

“She pointed to strong storms that have wreaked millions of dollars in damage in the state in recent years, and to the extreme and worsening drought that has rattled the state's agricultural industry…”

Sometimes I can’t believe people like this exist.

This is interesting/too bad: The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has dropped their legal challenge against the state’s abortion ban. You may remember this case: Late last year, the group sued on behalf of ‘Mary Poe’—a pseudonymous woman who wanted an abortion, arguing that the state ban violated her right to privacy and self-determination under the Kentucky constitution.

She later traveled out of the state to end her pregnancy, but remained a plaintiff in the suit. Today, the Kentucky ACLU dropped the challenge, noting in a release that they won’t be providing details about the dismissal; they just reiterate that “decisions about health care are and should remain private.”

Executive director Amber Duke says they’re strategizing next steps:

“In the meantime, our work to address the commonwealth’s maternal mortality rates and lack of widespread paid leave coverage will continue as long as Kentucky remains a forced-birth state.”

For information on how to get an abortion, check out AED’s Resource page and YouAlwaysHaveOptions.com.

Finally, New Orleans Public Radio has a story on the fantastic billboard campaign that The Brigid Alliance is running in Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia. The group also has mobile billboards driving around college campuses. All of the ads tell people that they can still get abortions—and direct them on how to get help.

If this campaign sounds familiar, it’s because conservative media went on a tear about it earlier this month. Multiple outlets accused the Brigid Alliance of “targeting” college students and crisis pregnancy centers…by running billboards near them. (Who’s a snowflake now??)

The Brigid Alliance’s executive director Sara Sipple makes clear what the priority is:

“It's really important for people across the U.S. to know and understand that there is support for them if they cannot afford to travel to their abortion care, that there are organizations who will support them to help them get there.”

Quick hits:

• Colorado abortion clinics have seen an uptick in harassment and trespassing;

• More on the lawsuit challenging the Kansas law that overrides pregnant women’s advance directives;

• And love to see abortion care workers unionizing in Pennsylvania!

Attacks on Birth Control

We all know the anti-abortion movement has contraception in its crosshairs. And while Republicans are too smart to try to ban birth control outright (so far, at least), they have no problem making less obvious moves: like lawmakers blocking legislation to protect birth control, or falsely conflating birth control and abortion.

Some of them manage to do both at the same time: Who could forget when Sen. Joni Ernst voted against the Right to Contraception Act, lying that the bill would “mandate access to abortion drugs for women and girls of all ages.” She was talking about emergency contraception. 🤡

What I worry about most these days, though, is the cultural attack against contraception—namely, the rise of TikTok and Instagram influencers posting anti-birth control bullshit aimed at young women. What makes this particular cultural campaign so insidious is that it’s often couched in feminist-sounding rhetoric about medical sexism and ‘listening to your body.’ Not to mention, it’s delivered by young, aspirational women themselves.

Consider the latest big TikTok trend: Mostly-female creators posting videos that jokingly and not-so-jokingly list “propaganda I’m not falling for.” The lists are mostly beauty and wellness trends—think lip filler, pilates, or raw milk. But more and more, women are posting videos that list “birth control” as the ‘propaganda’ they refuse to fall for. Yes, birth control—one of the most important advances for women’s health and freedom. Propaganda.

I shouldn’t be surprised: TikTok is rife with anti-birth control nonsense. The disinformation was so bad, in fact, that the platform finally had to delete troves of videos. But naturally, more videos just popped up to replace them.

And it's not just social media. Check out this headline in the popular financial news website The Street: “Target, Walmart quietly sell controversial birth control product.”

Since when is emergency contraception something “controversial” that pharmacies need to “quietly” sell? We’re talking about a birth control method that was approved in 1998, and went over the counter nearly twenty years ago!

As much as I’d like to write this off as just another clickbait-y headline, we can’t ignore that this is just part of a broader anti-birth control cultural panic—a panic designed by conservatives to provide justification for restrictions on contraception.

I mean, it’s not a coincidence that all this is happening at a time when Republican governors like Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin are vetoing birth control protections, or when the official policy of the Trump administration is that everyone needs to get pregnant and give birth right-fucking-now.

Mark that down as propaganda I’m refusing to fall for.

Anti-Abortion Strategy

If there’s one thing conservatives love, it’s funneling money to crisis pregnancy centers—and letting them operate without any real oversight. Just look at what happened in Vermont this week: lawmakers rolled back a law that was meant to stop these fake clinics from lying to women.

The original law banned deceptive advertising by crisis pregnancy centers. But anti-abortion groups sued, claiming the rules violated their free speech rights. Instead of fighting it out, the state made a deal to dismiss the lawsuit by weakening the law.

Worse still, this isn’t just a Vermont problem. We’re seeing a disturbing trend: states and cities backing off regulations on crisis pregnancy centers after getting hit with lawsuits. Their argument? That they have a First Amendment right to mislead women.

A case like this is unfolding right now in California—and more are sure to come.

Meanwhile, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey just signed a new law into effect that expands state funding and support for anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. SB 537 creates the “Mothers and Babies Pregnancy Support Program,” which provides $3 million to programs that shame and lie to women.

West Virginia Sen. Rollan Roberts said, “If we’re going to have these mothers have their babies, we’re going to have to do something to help them.”

Here, let me fix that: “If we’re going to have these mothers force these women to have their babies, we’re going to have to pretend to do something to help them.”

Finally, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a law called the “Pregnancy Center Autonomy and Rights of Expression Act,” which is just as bad as it sounds. The law bans local governments from enacting pretty much any regulations on crisis pregnancy centers.

In the Nation

• The biochemist responsible for the development of mifepristone, Étienne-Émile Baulieu, has died at 98.

• Rachel Cohen at Vox reports on the “unlikely alliance” of organizations supporting a bill to make childbirth free.

• A coalition of over 150 anti-abortion groups are urging Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. Assholes.

• Finally, do you want to catch up on what happened with Republicans’ ‘big beautiful bill’ defunding Planned Parenthood? Watch Democracy Now’s segment with Reproductive Freedom for All president Mini Timmaraju, who says this “crisis of forced birth” is all by design:

You Love to See It

If you need a reminder that good things can still happen, I’ve got you covered:

Starting November 1, Oklahoma will require health insurance plans to cover six months of birth control pills at once. The change is thanks to SB 176, which became law this week—though without the signature of anti-abortion extremist Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Idaho passed a similar bill back in January. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a third of female contraceptive users missed taking their birth control because they couldn’t access their next supply of pills in time. (It can be especially difficult for those who live in rural areas.) Having access to months of a prescription at once can prevent that from happening.

Finally, Wisconsin is about to get its first nonprofit, independent abortion clinic! Care for All Community Clinic will open its doors in Milwaukee next week and start seeing patients on June 10. They’ll be offering abortion care up until 21 weeks and 6 days (the state limit).

The timing couldn’t be better: a release from the group reports that in Wisconsin, “just three full-time brick and mortar clinics have shouldered the entire state’s demand for abortion care.” That means patients leaving the state, and long wait times for those seeking care.

Executive director Ali Kliegman says, “Public support for abortion access remains consistently high throughout our nation.” (She’s right!!!) “Wisconsin residents deserve easy and timely access to abortion and other sexual and reproductive health care services.”

“The abolition movement is part of the personhood movement..In their view, if the anti-abortion movement is serious about the idea that a fetus is a person just like any other, then we can’t avoid punishing women, because we punish women for any other homicide.”

- Mary Ziegler, author of Personhood: The New Civil War Over Reproduction, in an interview with Mother Jones

AED News

In the early days of Abortion, Every Day, I got a very kind email from a reader offering to help with research for the newsletter. I couldn’t believe my luck—this young woman was brilliant, driven, and had the exact skills I was in desperate need of. That reader was Grace Haley, who went on to become AED’s incredible researcher—and the fact-checker for my book, Abortion.

For those who’ve been reading for a while, I’m betting you’ve chatted with Grace in the comments section or in AED live chats on debate nights. So it’s no surprise that a few of you have written in lately asking where she’s been.

The good news is that Grace hasn’t gone far—she’s now the Managing Editor at Abortion in America (AIA), where she’s documenting the personal stories of people impacted by abortion bans. It’s one of the most important abortion rights projects happening right now, and I couldn’t be prouder that AED played even a small role in Grace’s journey there.

And don’t worry, this isn’t goodbye. I’m confident that we’ll be collaborating with AIA in the future, and—of course—Grace will always be part of the AED family. (In fact, keep an eye out for a project coming soon.)

“Doing this work—alongside this community—has been a rare kind of joy with the country being what it is around us,” Grace told me. I hope you’ll join me in thanking her in the comments, and keep up with her work over at Abortion in America or on Bluesky.

THANK YOU, GRACE! ❤️