The GOP's Plan? Fake Abortion 'Complications'

12.16.24

Dec 16, 2024

Click to skip ahead: Let’s start with Attacks on Providers and some updates on the Texas lawsuit against a New York abortion provider. Anti-Abortion Strategy looks at how Republicans are trying to redefine abortion ‘complications.’ In the States, news from Massachusetts, Texas, Maryland, Kansas and Tennessee. In the Nation, a few quick hits. Finally, A Friendly Reminder about abortion medication.

Attacks on Providers

Let’s start with some updates on the Texas lawsuit against a New York abortion provider—an attack we’re sure to see more of from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is desperate to go after the blue state doctors shipping abortion pills to Texas patients.

Luckily, shield laws will protect abortion providers like Maggie Carpenter, the doctor targeted in Paxton’s suit. But as law professor Mary Ziegler points out, the goal is to have a chilling effect on those who prescribe and ship abortion pills. “Will doctors be more afraid to mail pills into Texas, even if they might be protected by shield laws, because they don't know if they're protected by shield laws?" she said. (To hear more from Ziegler on this suit, listen to her interview with WBUR’s “Here & Now”.)

Anti-abortion groups are also hoping that Paxton’s case will inspire other AGs to go after doctors. Katie Daniel, director of legal affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement, “We hope [Paxton's] example will embolden other pro-life leaders and begin the undoing of the mail-order abortion drug racket.”

Remember, there are two important pieces to this case that you might not see get covered elsewhere: The fact that Paxton appears to be lying about the patient suffering abortion ‘complications,’ and the story of how this case fell into Paxton’s lap.

As I noted last week, anti-abortion activists have been searching men’s rights groups and meetups to find an aggrieved ex-boyfriend or husband who is pissed off about a woman getting an abortion without his ‘permission.’ It seems clear to me from Paxton’s brief that this is what happened here. I’d love to see a reporter from a mainstream outlet dig into this, because it demonstrates how this has always been about men wanting to control women—whether it’s an ex-boyfriend or an attorney general.

I also am hopeful that mainstream outlets will stop repeating Paxton’s claim that the woman who took abortion medication suffered serious complications.

Because according to the legal brief, all that happened is that the young woman went to the hospital because she was nervous about how much she was bleeding. That’s not a ‘complication’! But if reporters repeat that lie uncritically, Paxton is getting what he wants: Americans reading a story about a young woman being harmed by abortion medication.

It didn’t take long for anti-abortion groups to glom onto the lie, either: Texas Alliance for Life released a statement using the case as ‘proof’ that abortion medication is dangerous:

“This shows we will enforce our laws and I hope that it’s a deterrent for people who don’t care about the harm these drugs can cause women when they illegally move them into our state.”

That’s why it’s so important that we’re talking about this next section…

Anti-Abortion Strategy: ‘Complications’

One of the anti-abortion movement’s biggest problems is that abortion isn’t just popular—but safe. In fact, you’re more likely to have a serious complication getting a wisdom tooth extracted. To get around that medical and scientific reality, Republicans have been redefining what an abortion ‘complication’ is. (I get into this in-depth in my book, by the way!)

Consider the research that anti-abortion groups brought all the way to the Supreme Court on mifepristone claiming that the medication is dangerous because “one in 25 women who take abortion drugs will visit the emergency room.” But a visit to the emergency room doesn’t mean that someone was treated at the emergency room. In fact, it’s quite normal for someone taking abortion medication at home to be nervous about the bleeding and go to an emergency room to make sure everything is okay.

But anti-abortion groups are trying to turn a mere visit to into proof of a serious health complication or danger. And now we have politicians like Paxton using that lie in legal briefs in order to mislead reporters and everyday Americans.

The other ‘complication’ tactic Republicans are relying on has to do with data collection: they’re forcing doctors in states like Texas to report fake abortion ‘complications’ to the state.

For example, let’s say you go for some kind of surgery in a Texas hospital and while doctors are taking your medical history, you mention that you had an abortion five years earlier. Later, during your surgery, you have a bad reaction to the anesthesia. Your doctor is now legally mandated to report that bad reaction to the state as an abortion complication.

Obviously one has nothing to do with the other, but because Texas’ law lists “adverse reactions to anesthesia” as an abortion complication, doctors have to pretend that there’s a connection or risk losing their license. Read more in my investigation below, which I think has proven to be depressingly prescient:

Texas is Fabricating Abortion Data

Jessica Valenti

May 4, 2023

Read full story

One of my predictions for 2025 is that we’re going to see an increase in legislation requiring ‘complication’ reporting—bills that will dictate exactly how broad they consider a ‘complication’ to be.

In the States

If there’s anything I’ve learned in the two-plus years of writing about abortion every day, it’s that Americans support abortion—even in red states. In fact, one of the biggest myths about abortion is that it’s an issue the country is split on. We’re not, not even a little bit.

Take the latest Vanderbilt Poll out of Tennessee, which found that 53% of people in the state identify as pro-choice. Support for abortion in the state has been steadily increasing over the last ten years, with a spike after Roe was overturned. What’s especially interesting is voter certainty: 40% of Tennesseans say they’re “definitely” pro-choice and 13% say they’re “somewhat” pro-choice. (Only 30% say they’re definitely ‘pro-life.’)

There was also overwhelming support for abortion in cases of rape, incest, and nonviable pregnancies—none of which are legal in Tennessee.

For more from Abortion, Every Day on polling, read:

While we’re talking about abortion rights support in red states, let’s take a look at what went down in Texas this weekend. One of my favorite organizations, Shout Your Abortion, teamed up with local abortion rights groups to demonstrate at The Alamo. They held up flags reading “Abortion Pills: Come and Take It,” and distributed information on abortion medication and the site You Always Have Options—an incredible one-stop shop for resources and info on self-managing an abortion.

The action was in part a response to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against a New York abortion provider. From Shout Your Abortion director Amelia Bonow:

“The lawsuit filed by Ken Paxton is a stark reminder of how far Texas is willing to go to enforce its anti-abortion agenda. By gathering at the Alamo, we’re shining a light on the state’s hypocrisy and sending a message of defiance: no law, no lawsuit, and no politician can stop abortion access.”

New data shows that Kansas saw a 58% jump in abortions thanks largely to out-of-state patients seeking care from anti-abortion states. Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, says, “The report reflects what we’ve seen and shared since the Dobbs decision: patients from states that have denied access to critical, life-saving care continue to rely on Kansas as an access point during a national crisis.”

This is part of the reason that it’s so important to fund not just states with bans—but pro-choice states where doctors and clinics are being overwhelmed with out-of state patients. Earlier this year, for example, I reported that Maryland would be spending over $10 million to train nurses and physician assistants to perform abortions—a move to help increase trained providers and lessen the load across the state’s reproductive health workforce.

This week, Baltimore’s public radio station, WYPR, interviewed both a nurse practitioner who completed the training and Dr. Jessica Lee—an OBGYN professor who has been leading the training program. Listen here.

Finally, Massachusetts leaders are trying to quash a lawsuit from an anti-abortion center that claims the state is infringing on its free speech rights. What kind of free speech is “A Woman’s Concern” suing over? Their right to lie to women, of course!

Essentially, Democratic leaders in the state launched a campaign warning people away from crisis pregnancy centers, pointing out (accurately!) that they don’t give real medical care and often peddle in scare tactics and misinformation to convince women not to have abortions. In response, crisis pregnancy centers sued the state—claiming that they were being discriminated against and that their First Amendment rights were being violated.

As I’ve written before, this is part of a broader strategy that we’re seeing across the country (to varying degrees of success): anti-abortion groups are using free speech lawsuits to battle back against regulations that stop them from lying to women and against buffer zone ordinances that prevent them from getting too close to the patients they harass outside of clinics.

If you’re looking for last-minute gifts, consider giving someone a subscription to Abortion, Every Day! It’s easy, quick, and thoughtful. You’d be gifting them access to a pretty incredible feminist community: Paying supporters can join the conversation in comments, participate in live-chats, and hang out with abortion rights activists in video live-stream interviews:

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In the Nation

Semafor reports that RFK Jr.’s abortion waffling may be a real problem for him, as anti-abortion groups lobby hard against his nomination.
While some anti-abortion activists are pissed off at Trump’s latest comments on abortion medication, most are betting that they’ll get what they want regardless of what he says.
Rewire has advice on how folks can protect their reproductive rights and health under the incoming Trump administration.
Ms. magazine looks at how the Trump administration plans to use the Helms amendment to enforce “total global abortion bans.”
Finally, watch PBS Newshour’s segment on why Americans are stockpiling abortion medication below:

A Friendly Reminder

It’s a really good time to order advance provision abortion medication! This week, NOTUS reports that the United States Postal Service says it will continue to ship abortion medication “so long as” the DOJ still interprets the Comstock Act in the same way. In other words, their willingness to ship the pills is dependent on whether or not the incoming Trump administration tries to use the zombie law to ban the mailing of the pills.

A spokesperson for the USPS declined to tell NOTUS whether they’d be requesting new guidance from the Republican-controlled DOJ.

If you want to order advance provision abortion pills, here are some trusted sources who can help: Aid Access, Plan C Pills, Abortion Finder, I Need An A