Texas Is Building a $210 Million Anti-Abortion Surveillance Machine

4.18.25

Click here to skip ahead: Indoctrination Nation has the latest state advancing a ‘Baby Olivia’ bill. In the States has news from North Dakota, Illinois, Texas, and more. Extremism Rising looks at some recent national coverage of abortion ‘abolitionists.’ In the Courts has what you need to know about the case before Wyoming’s Supreme Court. In the Nation, Catholic employers can now discriminate against workers for their reproductive health decisions. Listen Up to a podcast interview with the founders of Plan C.

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Indoctrination Nation

You’re probably sick of hearing about ‘Baby Olivia’ by now, and guess what—me fucking too. But as long as Republicans keep passing these bills, I’m going to have to keep writing about them. (Sorry.)

For those who need a reminder: This is a legislative trend that forces an anti-abortion video produced by Live Action into public school classrooms. Disguised as a science lesson on human development, the ‘Baby Olivia’ video and bills are part of a broader attack on national education standards.

This week, the unlucky schoolchildren are from Iowa, where Republicans advanced a bill through the state House. Here’s something interesting: Unlike most of the other states considering this legislation, the most current version of Iowa’s bill doesn’t mention Live Action’s ‘Baby Olivia’ video by name—it just repeats the language of those bills, essentially word-for-word.

I’m hoping that—thanks in part to AED’s reporting—it’s because ‘Baby Olivia’ is starting to become more widely understood as blatant anti-abortion propaganda. But that propaganda shines through Senate File 175 regardless of whether it name-checks ‘Baby Olivia’.

Iowa Democrats point out, for example, that because the bill would exclude teaching anything from groups that provide abortions or are affiliated with abortion providers, credible, leading institutions would be banned in classrooms.

From Rep. Austin Baeth, a Democrat and doctor:

“This bill bans the use of information that came from institutions like the Mayo Clinic, The Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins University. This bill bans the use of research-based information when teaching our kids about pregnancy and the development of the human body and the origins of life."

Just this week, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a similar bill, though Republicans in the legislature swiftly vowed to override her veto. ‘Baby Olivia’ bills have also been passed in North Dakota, Idaho, and Tennessee; and lawmakers are weighing their own bills in New Hampshire, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

Quick question: If you say ‘Baby Olivia’ three times while looking into a mirror, do you think it summons Phyllis Schlafly?

In the States

While we’re talking about anti-abortion propaganda videos, let’s get into the latest news from North Dakota: Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed a Med Ed bill into law this week—one that mandates doctors watch an ‘educational’ video about the state’s ban.

The idea is to make it look like anti-abortion states are working to ‘help’ doctors understand the law and provide patients with life-saving care. In reality, these bills—which are also seeing pop up across the country—codify anti-abortion disinformation and allow extremist groups to dictate when and how doctors can save women’s lives.

Just look at what happened when South Dakota passed their Med Ed bill: The state health department enlisted the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) to make their so-called educational video. That’s a group that doesn’t believe abortions are ever necessary to save women’s lives! You can be sure we’ll see a similarly nightmarish collaboration in North Dakota.

In related news, North Dakota Republicans have advanced an amendment that would allocate $1 million of the state budget to create a “life education committee” and “life education campaign.” The North Dakota Monitor reports that this program would teach the public about the state’s abortion laws and policies “supporting life,” as well as resources for pregnant women. The committee would also oversee the Med Ed video.

Like so much of the money we see allocated for anti-abortion campaigns, programs and groups—this funding would go to a third-party contractor. (A hundred bucks says it’s an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center.)

Katie Christensen of Planned Parenthood North Dakota Action Fund blasted the move:

“North Dakotans are facing real struggles accessing sexual and reproductive health care, and yet politicians obsessed with banning abortion care about one thing: pouring money into their misguided priorities.”

Meanwhile, Northern Public Radio flags something interesting from the Guttmacher Institute’s report on abortion in 2024: Illinois is treating nearly a quarter of all American patients who leave their states for abortion care. In 2024, the state provided 23% of abortions for those traveling—more than any other state in the country.

I know we focus a lot on states with bans—for obvious reasons—but there’s no overstating the incredibly important role pro-choice states are playing right now. The post-Roe care crisis is already a nightmare, but without the providers in states like Illinois, things would be downright unimaginable.

Finally, let’s check in on Texas, where lawmakers are desperately grasping at straws to justify additional restrictions on abortion pills and birth control pills by baselessly claiming that both are polluting the water supply. Earlier this week, Abortion, Every Day broke the news that the Texas Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs heard arguments from state Sen. Bryan Hughes on his bill, SB 1976.

The legislation would require wastewater treatment plants to test for abortion medication and hormones commonly found in birth control. We all know what they’re up to: further laying the groundwork for state surveillance of pregnant people and abortion patients.

But that’s not all: the bill also lists estrogen and testosterone, hormones that can be connected to gender-affirming care. Sarah Corning, legal fellow at the ACLU of Texas, tells the Houston Chronicle—which picked up the story this week—that the bill poses a direct threat to trans youth. After all, the legislation comes at a time of rising, conjoined attacks on access to both abortion and trans health care. From Corning:

“The aim of SB 1976 is to surveil Texans—to track Texans’ pregnancies, Texans’ use of birth control and medication abortion, and transgender Texans receiving hormone therapy. Texans are within their rights to take any of these medications in the privacy of their own home. This program would be an egregious violation of that privacy.”

The timing of SB 1976 is uncanny: Last week, the Texas House approved a whopping $70 million increase in taxpayer funding for the state’s anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. If approved, the state’s budget for CPCs would jump to $210 million.

And remember: CPCs aren’t just disinformation-peddling fake clinics—they’re also the central surveillance apparatus of the anti-abortion movement. As one legal expert put it, the groups exist solely “to reach people experiencing unintended pregnancies and collect extensive digital data on their clients and their reproductive histories.”

With $210 million behind them, that’s an anti-abortion infrastructure. They’re essentially building what amounts to a state-sponsored surveillance arm—one designed to monitor, manipulate, and report on pregnant people.

(If you feel like getting even angrier, read this ProPublica investigation detailing how none of this funding actually helps pregnant people and families in Texas—but sure does pad the pockets of wealthy anti-abortion leaders!)

Quick hits:

• The Center for Reproductive Rights has more on the Idaho ruling that (slightly) expanded the medical exception to the state’s ban;

• The Arizona Republic reports on a now-dismissed fetal personhood lawsuit;

• Virginia residents held a roundtable at a community library this week in support of the Right to Contraception Act, which is still sitting on Gov. Youngkin’s desk;

• Finally, The Times (UK) has a chilling investigation into how Utah has become a “human marketplace” for adopted babies.

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Extremism Rising

Okay, this is great. We’re finally starting to see some big national coverage about the rise of so-called abortion ‘abolitionists’—the extremists who want to see abortion patients prosecuted for murder. You all know this is something I’ve been banging on about for a long time: ‘Equal protection’ bills have been introduced in a dozen states since January alone, with little national coverage in response.

Until now. Over the last week, both the Associated Press and NOTUS carried big pieces about the increasing power of these absolute maniacs—from the way their bills have more support than you’d think, to how they’re getting elected to state legislatures.

Both publications also dug into the intra-movement fight over punishing women. And while the official stance of most mainstream anti-abortion groups is that they don’t want to see abortion patients jailed, it’s clear that position is one they’d gladly abandon if they thought they wouldn’t lose public support and funding.

Take Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life—who admitted that she’s “working to change culture” so that states can start prosecuting women. In a podcast episode flagged by NOTUS, Hawkins says there are three schools of thought on punishing women:

“There’s those who say prosecute women and abortionists now, right now. There’s those who say prosecute abortionists now and, perhaps, women later after culture and laws are changed. And there’s the third class of folks that say never prosecute women, but you can prosecute abortionists now.”

She continued to say that “the vast majority” of the anti-abortion movement—including herself—are in the second category. Just to make this as clear as possible: This is the president of one of the country’s leading anti-abortion organizations admitting that most of the movement would like to see women prosecuted if they could just get the culture on board.

It’s quotes like these that we need to be saving on some Pinterest board of assholes so we can find them at the ready—and remind Americans what this movement really stands for. (Another Hawkins quote I’d pin? Her claim that “sexual assault actually helps prevent a lot of pregnancies itself because of your body’s natural response.”)

But here’s the thing: That culture change? It’s happening. Dana Sussman, senior vice president at Pregnancy Justice, told the AP that the rise in support has been “remarkable.” She pointed out that when an ‘equal protection’ bill passed a Louisiana House committee in 2022, there was a national backlash. Now—not so much.

“Because they are normalizing this idea, what was shocking then is no longer shocking,” Sussman said.

And that’s exactly the point: A few years ago, I read an interview with one of the anti-abortion activists who drafts these bills. The reporter asked why he kept working on this legislation, knowing it never passed—why use all of that time and energy working on bills so radical he knew they would never make it to a vote? This guy answered without hesitation: Every time his bills are reintroduced, he said, voters in the state get that much more used to seeing them, and get less outraged over time.

Now, here we are. I’m just hoping the increase in national coverage will move the needle.

In the Courts

Let’s talk about what’s happening in Wyoming, where the state Supreme Court heard arguments this week about whether abortion is protected in the state constitution.

The short version: After Roe was overturned, Republicans passed two abortion bans (yes, two!)—one that banned abortion generally, and another that was specific to abortion medication. But in 2024, a Teton County judge ruled that the laws violated the state constitution, which protects people’s right to make their own healthcare decisions. Judge Melissa Owens said that the bans “impede the fundamental right to make health care decisions for an entire class of people, pregnant women.”

Obviously, the state appealed. Their argument is that abortion isn’t healthcare because “it’s not restoring the woman’s body from pain, physical disease or sickness.” As I’ve noted before, this is a growing talking point from anti-abortion organizations and lawmakers—the idea that pregnancy isn’t illness. (Never mind that it can kill you!)

Republicans were so hot-to-trot on this ‘abortion isn’t healthcare’ claim that they even tried to pass a law that codified as much. The effort failed miserably because legislators wrote it in a way that could have made surgeries and chemo illegal!

This broader conservative goal of divorcing abortion from healthcare is everywhere: It’s why Republicans are trying to codify terms like ‘maternal fetal separation’, redefine ‘abortion’ to exclude treatment for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies—some anti-abortion activists have even started to call life-saving abortions 'elective’!

Meanwhile, even though abortion is officially legal in Wyoming, two new Republican TRAP laws have effectively stopped the state’s lone clinic (Wellspring) from being able to provide care: One requires clinics to be licensed ambulatory centers, the other mandates patients have an ultrasound 48 hours before taking abortion medication.

The law also requires Wellspring to have hospital admitting privileges—a deliberately difficult hurdle. I wrote about this particular requirement in The Guardian over a decade ago (I can’t believe we’re still talking about it). Basically, it can be difficult for providers to get admitting privileges both because hospitals don’t want to deal with the controversy of abortion rights and because abortion providers don’t bring in enough patients to make it profitable for the hospitals. That’s right, abortions are too safe to get providers hospital admitting privileges.

There’s a different suit challenging these regulations making its way through the courts; I’ll keep you updated on that, and the Wyoming Supreme Court case.

In the Nation

A federal judge ruled earlier this week that almost 10,000 Catholic employers across the U.S. are exempt from federal regulations that protect their employees’ rights to seek abortion, birth control, and fertility treatments like IVF.

You may remember that last year, the EEOC issued guidance making clear that the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires employers to give workers “reasonable accommodations” related to pregnancy, childbirth or abortion. The federal law only applies to businesses with more than 15 employees, it doesn’t require them to pay for an abortion—it doesn’t even require they give workers paid time off! Really, it’s just about ensuring workers can take time off for appointments and recovery without fear of losing their jobs.

But asking employers to be decent human beings is apparently a step too far.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor permanently blocked these regulations from applying to Catholic employers, claiming the law violates their religious freedom. In other words: The ruling allows Catholic employers across the country to discriminate against employees for seeking reproductive healthcare.

It won’t surprise you to learn that Traynor is a Trump appointee—but what you might not expect is that the judge also served as a board member of the North Dakota Catholic Conference. Yup, that’s the organization that represents the state’s Catholic bishops!

But let’s be real: Traynor’s ruling should concern you regardless of who your employer is. This decision is part of a prolonged war on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. (You may remember that 17 Republican-led states have also been trying to undo the federal rule.) But to Republican leaders and men like Traynor, they’re the real victims: In a preliminary injunction, the judge wrote that “it is a precarious time for people of religious faith.”

You know what’s actually precarious? Being pregnant in America.

Quick hits:

• The Independent reports that TikTok has removed some videos spreading misinformation about birth control;

• TIME on the Trump administration crusade against veterans’ abortion rights—including for rape and medical emergencies;

• And in more our-country-is-a-hellhole news: The Trump administration launched a ‘tip line’ for people to snitch on trans children getting gender affirming care.

Listen Up

Need a palate cleanser? Same. Big thanks to Abortion, Every Day reader Leah for flagging this great podcast interview with Elisa Wells and Amy Merrill, the cofounders of Plan C. They’re talking to Techdirt about abortion rights through the lens of disruptive technology—and it’s well worth a listen. Check it out below: