The Graham Platner Rape Allegations Shouldn't Shock Anyone

7.6.26

Click to skip ahead: Ballot Box: Repro Groups Call for Graham Platner to Step Down; Idaho Voters Could Repeal Their Abortion Ban in November; Republicans’ Abortion Fantasies; Ballot Measure Updates: Virginia, Nebraska, Nevada, Arkansas; Conservatives Are Fighting Over Abortion ‘Abolition’; Indiana Can’t Make Abortion Reports Public Records

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Ballot Box: Repro Groups Call for Graham Platner to Step Down

Well this is a nightmare: a woman who dated U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner told POLITICO that the Maine politician raped her in 2021. The story, as you can imagine, is horrific. And it’s not coming out of nowhere—just last month, The New York Times reported on Platner’s disturbing pattern of behavior with women.

Let’s be serious: the rape allegations should not be a surprise to anyone. I’m so tired of people shrugging off men’s abuse in the name of political expediency—it’s not only morally wrong, it will always come to bite you in the ass.

Maybe if Democrats weren’t so obsessed with chasing ‘moderate’ voters, we wouldn’t be in this mess. As Michelle Goldberg writes tonight, the same goes for the progressive operatives who “were so infatuated with [Platner’s] identity—a gruff, handsome oysterman with social democratic politics—that they failed to do their due diligence.”

All of those fuck ups are now the country’s problem. (No one is more to blame than Platner himself, of course.)

The fallout has been swift. In an Instagram post, Reproductive Freedom for All president Mini Timmaraju called on Platner to drop out.

“These allegations continue to be horrifying. Survivors should be believed. Women leaders should be listened to. You cannot throw women and our issues under the bus and then turn around and assume women voters will continue to be your margin of victory.”

Then, tonight, Planned Parenthood—which had endorsed Platner just weeks ago—pulled its support. President Alexis McGill Johnson called the accusations “disqualifying”:

“While Planned Parenthood Action Fund remains committed to protecting access to care for Mainers and all Americans, we also unequivocally believe women. …The best path forward for Maine is for Graham Platner to end his candidacy and give voters the chance to elect someone who reflects their values politically and personally.”

And in a joint statement, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and DSCC chair Kirsten Gillibrand called the allegations “incredibly disturbing” and said the party won’t invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner stays on the ballot.

I expect that we’ll see more statements in the coming hours and days.

Idaho Voters Could Repeal Their Abortion Ban in November

One of the strictest abortion bans in the nation might just be repealed this November: Idaho abortion rights activists turned in nearly 110,000 signatures in support of a pro-choice ballot measure last week. If approved by voters, it would repeal the state’s total abortion ban and legalize abortion until ‘viability.’

The Idaho Capital Sun reports that Idahoans United for Women and Families—along with a few hundred activists rallying at the state Capitol on Thursday—submitted the signatures. And while the Secretary of State’s office hasn’t verified all of those signatures yet, Idahoans United executive director Melanie Folwell told the crowd, “Make no mistake, we have qualified to be on the ballot in November.”

Unlike other states where abortion has been on the ballot, Idaho voters would not be amending their state constitution. State law only allows citizen-led initiatives to change legislation—not the constitution. If the issue goes on November’s ballot, advocates just need a simple majority to pass the measure.

Right now, the state’s ban only allows abortion to save a woman’s life (not her health) and in cases of rape—if there’s a police report and the pregnancy is in the first trimester. You can imagine how often those requirements are met.

Idaho has been one of the starkest examples of abortion bans’ broad ripple effects: the state has lost over 30% of its OBGYNs, and is down to just a handful of maternal fetal medicine specialists. Republican lawmakers have refused to include ‘exceptions’ for women’s health, and Attorney General Raúl Labrador fought all the way up to the Supreme Court for the state’s right to deny women life-saving abortions in hospital emergency rooms.

You can read the proposed measure here, but as you know, there’s been quite a lot of discord within the abortion rights movement over ‘viability’ restrictions: most ballot measures have included them, even though they leave out the most vulnerable patients and accept conservative framing that the government should legislate pregnancy.

And in states where voters amended state constitutions, it’s meant that these measures effectively codified abortion restrictions. Since Idaho’s measure will be a law rather than an amendment, I’m curious if that would make it easier for advocates to scrap that unnecessary ‘viability’ language down the line.

Republicans’ Abortion Fantasies

While we’re on the topic of abortion later in pregnancy, I had to share this absolutely bonkers clip of a Missouri anti-abortion activist reminding us exactly what Republicans think of women.

Kate Sickles of Freedom Principle MO is trying to repeal the abortion protections that voters codified in 2024—and claims that Missouri law allows women to have abortion “up until birth” for basically any reason. But it’s the example she gave that I think speaks volumes:

Republicans’ abortion arguments are steeped in misogynist fantasy. Because in what universe is a woman waiting eight months into her pregnancy to leave her home state and spend $15-20k on a two-to-three day abortion procedure? (I made a video about this clip today too, if you’re looking for something to share.)

I know Democrats are nervous to take on abortion later in pregnancy, but they really are leaving their strongest attacks on the table as a result. They should be pointing out the absurdity of Republican abortion fantasies any chance they get—and what those imaginary examples reveal about how the GOP thinks about women.

Consider watching Fox 4’s entire interview with Sickles and Emily Wales, president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, if you want to know more about what’s been happening with the ballot measure fight in Missouri. The short version? Republicans are trying to trick voters into supporting a total abortion ban by calling it Amendment 3—the same name as the pro-choice measure voters passed in 2024.

Ballot Measure Updates: Virginia, Nebraska, Nevada, Arkansas

Speaking of ballot measures and Republicans’ obsession with keeping abortion away from voters: Virginia’s proposed pro-choice amendment is headed to court later this month. As Abortion, Every Day reported previously, the ultra-conservative Liberty Counsel sued over the measure earlier this year, claiming the amendment process skipped necessary procedural steps.

Read States Newsroom for the nitty gritty legal details, but the short version is that the group is trying to stop the vote from happening on a technicality.

Incredibly, that’s not the only suit trying to stop Virginia voters from having a say on abortion: a Bluefield Town Council member has also filed a suit, this one claiming the amendment’s language is deceptive and needs to be rewritten. (Republicans tried the same strategy in Ohio and Missouri—and failed.)

Over in Nebraska, an anti-abortion group has failed to get the signatures it needed to put a total abortion ban on the ballot this November—a measure that would define life as beginning at fertilization and enshrine fetal personhood. This isn’t the first time that Choose Life Now has tried to codify a total abortion ban in the state constitution, but—not so shockingly—it turns out voters don’t want abortion banned!

Unfortunately, Nebraska does have a 12-week ban: when voters were set to weigh in on a pro-choice measure in 2024, Republicans launched their own ballot measure campaign with a near-identical name. (You didn’t think Missouri Republicans came up with that idea all on their own, did you?) Voters complained that conservative signature-gatherers had lied to them—saying their measure was the ‘real’ pro-choice one.

At least things are looking more positive in Nevada, where voters will likely codify abortion protections this November. Question 6 already won voters’ support in 2024, but Nevada law requires that constitutional amendments pass twice before being enacted.

Naturally, anti-abortion groups in the state are pulling out all the usual stops—like claiming the measure would strip away vital safety protections for women. Not gonna lie, though—this tagline from Nevadans Right to Life had me laughing:

“Risky for women. Dangerous for girls. Deadly for the almost-born. Bad for Nevada.”

The “almost-born”?? That’s a new one.

Finally, Arkansas is one step closer to protecting direct democracy: Protect AR Rights met a deadline to submit signatures for their proposed ballot measure—which would protect citizen-led initiatives in the state constitution.

The move comes in a moment when Republicans have been trying to make the process more difficult, creating rules crafted to stymie campaigns at the signature-gathering stage. As you know, a pro-choice ballot measure was thrown out in 2024—and voters prevented from making their voices heard—on a technicality/paperwork issue.

Other state news:

• Abortions have increased in in Arizona, with Planned Parenthood noting that they’re seeing patients from banned states like Texas, Florida, and Idaho;

• Ms. magazine details the “groundbreaking” legal challenge to Idaho’s abortion ban;

• And Planned Parenthood of Central & Western New York details in an op-ed how abortions haven’t decreased—but access has.

Conservatives Are Fighting Over Abortion ‘Abolition’

One of my favorite ways to get a heads up on anti-abortion strategy is to read through all of their terrible blogs, social media accounts, and press releases. What can I say, I’m a masochist!

I’ve come across quite a lot over the last week—and I’ll share it all with you over the next few days. First up: the debate over punishing abortion patients is everywhere. (I think that New York Times article really got people revved up.)

Over at American Thinker, Arthur Schaper complains that anti-abortion politicians are “tinkering around the edges of ending abortion” without actually doing what needs to get done: “Abortion only stops if women face consequences.” Schaper—who also wants to see LGBTQ people jailed, btw—writes that “none of us should be distracted by misplaced sympathy or compassion when a mother perpetrates an abortion against her child.”

That kind of language is becoming more common: one ‘abolitionist’ group recently accused Texas anti-abortion activists—who’d lobbied Republicans not to include prosecuting patients in the GOP party platform—of “toxic empathy.”

But over at National Right to Life, president Carol Tobias writes that if ‘abolitionist’ efforts continue to gain steam, “the pro-life movement will be destroyed.”

“I assure you, if the effort is to punish women who get an abortion—to put women in jail, and go so far as to suggest the death penalty—this country won’t just turn blue, it will be deep, dark, forever, blue.”

Tobias even gets oh so close to the point, asking how police will be able to tell who deliberately ended their pregnancy—or what it will look like when they jail women who have children, leaving millions of sons and daughters without their moms.

Here’s the thing: what did women like Tobias think was going to happen? You aligned yourself with a movement that fundamentally hates women!

Indiana Can’t Make Abortion Reports Public Records

I can’t believe we needed a judge to step in here, but I’ll take my wins where I can: the Indiana Supreme Court ruled last week that women’s abortion reports cannot be made public, despite the best efforts of Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita and Indiana anti-abortion activists.

For those who might need a refresher: Rokita, along with the anti-abortion group Voices for Life, have been working together to make women’s abortion data public records in the same way birth and death certificates are. The goal was to make women’s abortions publicly searchable—so that Voices for Life could comb through the information looking for “violations” that Rokita could then prosecute.

Keep in mind that abortion is illegal in Indiana, save for very few circumstances. So we’re talking about a handful of patients. And even though patient names would be redacted, the courts have continually pointed out that it would be easy for someone to reverse engineer women’s identities based on dates, counties of residence, age, etc. (Even Indiana’s own Department of Health was against the move—which put the agency in the unusual position of having to fight its own attorney general.)

But last week, the court agreed to let a lower court ruling stand, which prohibited the state from giving Voices for Life—or anyone else—copies of women’s Terminated Pregnancy Reports.

Unfortunately, abortion surveillance has been a growing strategy and something I’ve been tracking for a few years. Remember the Ohio bill that would’ve created a publicly-available dashboard of women’s abortion data? I do!

Something tells me Rokita has no intention of giving up on this particular obsession, so I’ll be keeping an eye on the state.