Texas Ban Driving Up Infant Deaths

6.24.24

Click to skip ahead: In the States, Texas has seen a massive increase in infant deaths since banning abortion. Ballot Measure Updates on Arkansas and Montana. In the Nation, a new $100 million abortion rights campaign. In 2024 news, Biden’s reelection campaign is going all in on the Dobbs anniversary. Finally, in Care Denied, the men who are stepping up.

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In the States

A new study has found that infant mortality in Texas has spiked significantly. Since the state banned abortion, it’s seen a nearly 13% overall jump in infant deaths and a 23% jump in infant deaths to due to congenital anomalies. Researchers say that the increases are largely because of the state’s mandate that women carry nonviable pregnancies to term.

Study author Alison Gemmill, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, told USA Today, “It just points to some of the devastating consequences of abortion bans that maybe people weren't thinking about when they passed these laws.” I actually disagree with Gemmill here: I think these lawmakers and activists knew exactly what was going to happen.

If you’re a regular reader, you know I’ve been tracking the anti-abortion movement’s quiet campaign to force women to carry doomed pregnancies. This has always been a part of their plan—and they’ve been preparing for data just like this one. That’s why the anti-abortion activists who responded to the study all used the same talking point I’ve been flagging for months: that they’re just saving ‘disabled’ babies.

Amy O’Donnell from Texas Alliance for Life, for example, said, “We don't apologize for the fact that we don't support discrimination against children facing disabilities or fatal diagnoses in or out of the womb.” And a representative from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office replied that “now thousands of children have been given a chance at life.”

The law is cruel enough—to insinuate that women who end nonviable pregnancies are killing disabled children is unforgivable. (Remember: the last time a study like this came out about infant death in Texas, an anti-abortion leader said the numbers were just proof that the ban was working as intended.)

Given that mainstream media coverage is often less-than-terrific, I really appreciated this paragraph in USA Today’s coverage of the study, which made the stakes plain:

“The study did not examine the effects of infant deaths on the health of mothers who were legally required to deliver dead babies to term, nor did it look at the mental health effects of carrying infants and delivering them, only to see them die. The study also raises but does not tackle questions about the financial cost to families of carrying and delivering terminally ill newborns.”

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If you missed my column today on the two year anniversary of Dobbs, you can read it below:

Finding Hope in the Room

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Also in Texas, the Texas Tribune looks at the incredible 99.89% decline in abortions in the state. Anti-abortion activists are lauding the number, and claiming that it’s proof that the abortion ban was never going to harm women. O’Donnell (again, from Texas Alliance for Life) told the Tribune, “not a single woman has lost their life.” Now, that’s demonstrably false—but as reporter Eleanor Klibanoff points out, the anti-abortion activists don’t mention the acute suffering women have been subject to because of the state’s ban.

Indiana has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, yet 64% of voters in the state believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 58% think the state’s ban is too restrictive. The poll, by Our Choice Coalition, also found that nearly 80% of Indiana voters want to decide on abortion directly through a ballot initiative or referendum. Just another reminder that Republicans are passing abortion bans against voters’ wishes.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird owes rape victims thousands of dollars in reimbursements after she cut a program that covered the cost of victims’ emergency contraception. The Des Moines Register reports that her office will pay more than 300 stalled claims. Bird reinstated the program after a ton of public pressure.

Meanwhile, Iowa pro-choice activists are anxiously awaiting a state Supreme Court decision that will determine abortion rights in the state. (Iowa’s ban is currently blocked.)

Wisconsin Public Radio looks at what abortion rights has looked like in Wisconsin since Dobbs, where the state’s ban is currently blocked. A legal challenge is making its way through the courts; it’s expected to reach the state Supreme Court, which now has a liberal majority. Judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the state Supreme Court largely because of abortion rights.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued an executive order protecting access to emergency abortions. Under the order, insurers are required to cover emergency abortions and hospitals in the state could lose their license if they don’t provide emergency care. The move comes ahead of a Supreme Court decision on EMTALA—which could be issued as soon as this Wednesday.

Quick hits:

• CBS News on how a North Carolina clinic became a “sanctuary” for abortion patients;

• The New York Times on abortion patients traveling to California;

• A look at post-Dobbs trends in Maryland;

• And a profile of an Alabama woman who’s been advocating for abortion rights since the 1970s.

“I felt really angry that I would have to leave my community. It’s not a shameful thing, it’s a procedure. It’s a medical health care procedure.” - A Missouri woman who self-managed an abortion in secret

Ballot Measure Updates

Pro-choice petitioners have been targeted in every single state considering an abortion rights ballot measure. I’ve told you about the harassment in Montana, the text messages in Missouri and the phone calls in South Dakota.

The latest anti-abortion attacks on democracy have been happening in Arkansas, where 79 petitioners were doxxed a few weeks ago. The Arkansas Advocate reports that signature-gatherers are being harassed in-person, as well. One canvasser, Debbie Tucker, says that she thinks the harassment is keeping people from approaching to sign—they’re afraid for their safety. And in the least shocking news ever, Tucker noticed that the anti-choicers left her alone if her husband accompanied her:

“They back off when there’s a man. That’s sad. But we as women, we know how that is.”

One of the petitioners who was doxxed, Destiny Sinclair, said the same. “The protesters like to target the women…They like to target the women when they’re alone,” she said.

In better ballot measure news, Montana activists have turned in nearly twice the number of signatures they need to get abortion on the ballot. Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights organizers submitted 117,000 signatures gathered from every county in the state. (The requirement is 60,000 verified signatures.)

Abortion is legal in Montana, and the state’s constitution has strong privacy protections that have kept abortion rights safe for decades. But the Republican attorney general and governor have been on the constant attack, trying make abortion illegal and impossible to get regardless. The ballot measure would offer another vital level of protection.

From Akilah Deernose, the executive director of the ACLU of Montana

“Montanans have made it clear that they are sick and tired of anti-abortion extremists interfering with their private medical decisions, and so today, we could not be more excited for where we are.”

In the Nation

The Dobbs anniversary came along with some big announcements on abortion spending: A coalition of reproductive rights and justice groups have come together to form Abortion Access Now, a $100 million, 10-year national campaign to restore and protect abortion rights.

POLITICO has the full story, but it’s exciting stuff. The coalition is comprised of some real powerhouses, like Reproductive Freedom for All, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, In Our Own Voice and more.

Abortion Access Now says it will ensure that everyone, “no matter who they are, where they live, or where they come from” will be able to make reproductive health decisions “on their terms, without government interference, and with dignity and support.”

POLITICO reports that there’s some concern from abortion rights activists that the effort will be a “Roe 2.0” that allows for restrictions later in pregnancy. I’m hoping the group’s emphasis on “without government interference” means that won’t be the case.

After all, we already know that Americans support abortion throughout pregnancy; it’s just a matter of whether we’re willing to fight for what voters really want and need. More on the campaign soon…

In more abortion-related spending news: The Democratic National Committee is investing $8.3 million in state parties in a move to campaign on abortion rights and reach women voters. CBS News reports it’s a 25% increase in spending since 2020.

DNC communications director Rosemary Boeglin says, “The DNC is committed to ensuring that every woman in the states that will decide this election understands what a second term of Donald Trump means.”

Planned Parenthood has also announced that it will spend $40 million in the lead-up to November to help President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats. From Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes:

“Abortion will be the message of this election, and it will be how we energize voters. It will be what enables us to win.”

The Associated Press reports that Planned Parenthood will target specific swing states with outreach to voters via canvassing, phone banking, and digital, TV and mail ads.

Quick hits:

• Vox has some useful charts and graphs about the two years since Dobbs;

• US News on where Americans go to get abortions;

• Axios with data on the distances patients are traveling for care;

• And The New York Times on the incredible PerryUndem poll I told you about last week.

2024

As you can imagine, Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is using the two year anniversary of Dobbs to remind voters about the nightmare Donald Trump’s presidency created. In a statement, Biden blasted Trump for “ripp[ing] away the fundamental freedom for women to access the health care they need and deserve.”

Biden’s campaign has been focusing heavily on women’s personal stories—something that’s proven a powerful motivator for voters. Today, they released a ad featuring Kaitlyn Joshua, who was denied miscarriage treatment at two Louisiana hospitals, attacking Trump:

“He’s now a convicted felon. Trump thinks he should not be held accountable for his own criminal actions, but he will let women and doctors be punished.”

You can watch the full ad below:

Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with Haley Duvall from Kentucky—the young woman whose appeared in a campaign ad for Gov. Andy Beshear and is credited with winning him reelection. Duvall spoke in the ad about being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, and has been fighting for rape and incest exceptions in Kentucky ever since. Now she’s campaigning for Biden-Harris:

“Women today, if they’re walking in the shoes that I was in, which was pregnancy from rape, then they don’t have any option in a lot of states, and they’re at risk for having no options after the election. And that’s very terrifying.” 

Vice President Harris was campaigning in Maryland today, and also went to Phoenix to focus on Latino voters. (Arizona got national attention recently when the state State Supreme Court allowed an abortion ban from 1864 to be enacted. It’s since been repealed.)

First Lady Jill Biden spent the anniversary talking about abortion rights in Pennsylvania; U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren campaigned for Biden in Wisconsin, along with Amanda Zurawski, who was denied miscarriage treatment in Texas.

And Think Big America, the group founded by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, released an ad today about the danger of post-Roe America and a second Donald Trump presidency.

Care Denied

Not too long ago, I published a column calling on men who consider themselves ‘protecters’ to step up and fight for abortion rights. It resonated with lots of folks who seemed to feel the same way:

Where Are the 'Protectors'?

That’s part of the reason I loved this piece so much from WUSF about Derick Cook, who has been out there fighting ever since his wife’s life was endangered by Florida’s abortion ban. Anya Cook was denied miscarriage treatment when she was 16 weeks pregnant, and ended up delivering a fetus in the bathroom of a hair salon the next day. She nearly died from blood loss.

Derick says, “I would rather step up and protect my wife as much as possible because she's already been through enough, and with my voice I can raise awareness with other men and get them to speak as well.”

He’s been working with the excellent group, Men4Choice. “We're out here fighting and fighting because we believe in freedom, we believe in choice,” Cook says.