The Rise of Anti-Abortion Conspiracy Theories

12.3.24

Click to skip ahead: Keep An Eye On the intersection between anti-abortion activism and conspiracy theories. In the States, news from Missouri, Ohio, Arizona, and Illinois. In Travel Ban Updates, more on the Idaho ruling that impacts the whole country. In the Nation, the tension between national and local repro groups. Care Crisis has a glimpse of what it’s been like for doctors in Missouri since Roe was overturned. In the War on Birth Control, why women across the country are asking for long-acting birth control and sterilization.

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Keep An Eye On

I know this the last thing any of us need, but I think we should expect a surge in anti-abortion conspiracy theories, especially as Trump takes office. Namely, I’ve noticed an increase in chatter around ‘trafficking,’ and the idea that a huge swath of women who get abortions are actually being trafficked. And while conservatives are using the term in part to distract, they’re also tapping into a fervent (and unstable) online audience.

If you’ve been following my coverage of anti-abortion travel bans, you know that Republicans are calling the legislation ‘anti-trafficking’ or ‘abortion trafficking.’ Anti-abortion activists and lawmakers have also claimed for years that abortion clinics—Planned Parenthood, in particular—aid human traffickers.

In large part, this is a PR move: Republicans are passing wildly unpopular abortion bans and honing in on ‘trafficking’ allows them to pretend they’re protecting women and girls (even as their policies hurt and kill them). It’s also connected to the increase in ‘coerced abortion’ policies that I’ve been writing about.

But there’s something else, too: It’s not a coincidence that conservatives are ramping up ‘trafficking’ rhetoric as TikTok swirls with viral stranger-danger claims about near-trafficking incidents in Target parking lots, and as the QAnon crowd persists with mass-trafficking conspiracies.

They know ‘trafficking’ has become a charged term that drives online engagement and fury. So they’re framing their message for an uninformed, bored, and volatile audience.

And ‘trafficking’ isn’t the only way the anti-abortion lobby is catering to conspiracy theorists. Consider Students for Life’s latest strategy: claiming that the groundwater is poisoned by abortion medication and fetal remains. They even framed the claim as a “Make America Healthy Again” initiative in order to appeal to King Conspiracy RFK Jr, who Trump tapped to be head of the Department of Health and Human Services.

All of which is to say: We’re going to see quite the Venn diagram of anti-abortion/conspiracy theory bullshit over the next few months.

In the States

Now that abortion rights are protected in Arizona’s constitution, pro-choice groups are suing to repeal the state’s 15-week ban. What’s more, Attorney General Kris Mayes has signed documents filed alongside the suit promising that Arizona will not prosecute anyone under the ban until after the case makes its way through the courts. (And likely even after that, since Mayes has made clear she has no interest in pursing abortion-related ‘crimes.’)

As you probably know, Arizona’s ban wasn’t automatically overturned after voters passed Proposition 139—each restriction needs to be repealed one at a time. In this case, the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), and Planned Parenthood are suing on behalf of local abortion providers to overturn the primary ban. From Dr Eric Reuss, one of the providers behind the suit:

“For two years, physicians’ hands have been tied when a patient needs to end a pregnancy after 15 weeks, including when they face serious pregnancy complications. But today we can once again provide care to people who want to end their pregnancy.”

Arizona’s abortion laws came under national scrutiny when the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of an 1864 abortion ban—a law adopted before women had the right to vote. The backlash was so fierce that some Republicans voted alongside Democrats to repeal the law, lest they face voters’ ire on election day. As you can imagine, that controversy provided a whole lot of support for the pro-choice ballot measure effort.

Meanwhile, a similar fight is brewing in Missouri, where voters recently passed Amendment 3 to protect abortion rights until ‘viability.’ But Republicans are already working to undermine the will of the voters.

As I noted yesterday, Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey is arguing that some restrictions—like parental consent laws and protections against 'coerced' abortions—remain constitutional. The idea is to implement onerous restrictions under the guise of protecting women.

Meanwhile, with abortion rights now enshrined in Missouri’s constitution, pro-choice advocates have sued to overturn the state’s total abortion ban. In response to the case’s first hearing tomorrow, Republicans gathered outside of various Planned Parenthood clinics today, demanding Amendment 3 be weakened or repealed. Because of course they did.

But that’s not all: Missouri’s Secretary of State has filed a motion to move that hearing to Cole County, where a judge previously struck Amendment 3 from the ballot. And the Missouri Independent reports that Republicans have prefiled at least 11 proposed amendments that would undo Amendment 3. One measure from Rep. Justin Sparks would define personhood as beginning “from the moment of conception,” while another would ban both abortion and gender-affirming care for minors.

Missouri Republicans are far from alone in disregarding the will of the voters. In Ohio, Attorney General Dave Yost is fighting to reinstate a 6-week abortion ban after it was ruled unconstitutional. Thanks to Issue 1’s win last year, a judge overturned the ban—but Yost has appealed, arguing that at least some of the restrictions in the law are still valid.

In better news, Illinois Planned Parenthood clinics are partnering with abortion medication telehealth provider Hey Jane to increase access in the state. The collaboration means that Planned Parenthood patients can use Hey Jane to get abortion medication, and Hey Jane patients who qualify for procedural abortions can go to Planned Parenthood.

In a statement, Hey Jane CEO Kiki Freedman said, “Illinois has long been a haven for reproductive health care, and our hope with this partnership is that we can address the current—and future—influx of abortion-seekers to the state…”

Telehealth has been a vital resource for abortion providers in pro-choice states, who are overwhelmed with patients traveling from states with bans. (Abortion medication means that doctors can focus on those who can only get procedural abortions.)

Trusted abortion medication providers: Hey Jane, Aid Access, Plan C Pills, Abortion Finder, I Need An A.

Quick hits:

• MSNBC on how Texas and Georgia are trying to hide their maternal mortality numbers;

• A closer look at Michigan’s abortion numbers;

• And The San Francisco Chronicle with more on the new abortion rights protections proposed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Travel Ban Updates

Okay, let’s talk more about the Idaho travel ban, which a federal appeals court partially upheld yesterday. To recap: The law criminalizes “recruiting, harboring, or transporting” a minor to help them obtain an abortion. The Ninth Circuit ruled that the state can enforce the 'harboring and transporting' provisions but struck down the 'recruiting' clause, which they found overly broad and a violation of free speech rights.

The travel ban, which Republicans call an ‘abortion trafficking’ law, is an attempt to criminalize anyone who helps teenagers get care. Conservatives claim that the law is meant to stop predatory adults from taking minors out-of-state for abortions, but the language of the legislation is so broad that the state could prosecute someone as trafficker simply for advising a teenager on where to get an abortion.

In this way, the ban isn’t just about travel—it’s an unprecedented attack on free speech.

Here’s the good news: The court’s rejection of the 'recruiting' provision means that those who share information with teens on where and how to get an abortion should be safe from prosecution. And the fact that this happened in a federal court is a big deal! It’s not just good news for Idaho, but for all of us.

The big question now is how Idaho’s Attorney General will interpret 'harboring' and 'transporting.' Could abortion funds that book or raise money for a teen’s bus ticket or hotel be prosecuted?

We’ll find out more as the case moves forward; this ruling only addressed the injunction, not the merits of the challenge itself.

In the meantime, attorney Wendy Heipt, who represented the abortion rights groups challenging the law, emphasizes how important this ruling is. She calls it “the first line in the sand” against states prosecuting people for this type of speech. “It’s a national landscape question,” Heipt says.

After all, we know that multiple states are trying to do exactly what Idaho did. Tennessee passed a similar law that’s currently blocked, and several states proposed near-identical bans targeting teens and speech in the last legislative session. You can bet we’ll see those efforts again soon.

Regardless of what happens next, it’s vital that we keep reminding people what this law really does: traps vulnerable young people in a state where they can’t access reproductive healthcare, forcing them into pregnancy against their wills. Here’s Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, Idaho director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates:

“We need to call this ban what it is—a minor travel ban made possible by gross government overreach and invasion of privacy that goes against our American democratic principles. AG Labrador’s claim that this ban ‘protects mothers’ is pure hypocrisy…”

In the Nation

The man Trump picked to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is about as bad as it gets. Mother Jones reports that former Florida Congressman David Weldon is seen as an ally by both anti-abortion and anti-vaccine activists. From reporter Julianne McShane:

“[B]oth the anti-abortion site Live Action and the right-wing Daily Signal ran pieces highlighting Weldon’s anti-abortion record, following Trump’s announcement. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told the Daily Signal that Weldon ‘is a proven leader for life, and we look forward to working with him.’”

How fitting. As you know, the CDC tracks abortion data from states—and I’m deeply concerned about the anti-abortion agenda for data collection and tracking. Beyond the state-level attacks we’ve already seen, Project 2025 outlines conservatives’ plan to mandate state reporting of abortion information to the CDC. So I’ll be following this appointment closely.

States Newsroom has a rundown of the anti-abortion Republicans who flipped the U.S. Senate. They’re all frustrating, but the two races that I found particularly obscene were in Ohio and Montana. In Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown was ousted by businessman Bernie Moreno—a man who said that women were “crazy” for caring about abortion, especially those over 50 years-old because, “I don’t think that’s an issue for you.” Tim Sheehy’s win over Sen. Jon Tester in Montana also stung, especially given that Sheehy called young women “indoctrinated” over abortion rights.

Finally, The New Yorker has done a deep dive into the “asymmetry of resources” between well-funded national abortion rights groups and local abortion funds. Essentially, the big national groups are getting the vast majority of the funding—much of which goes towards policy fights—while smaller organizations are struggling to survive.

“Advocacy is what sells, it’s politics, it’s sexy, and you can see it happening in front of your eyes. We are small grassroots teams and our work is not as visible, nor do we have the capacity to go out and find rich people to help us.” -Bree Wallace, Tampa Bay Abortion Fund

That conflict seems to have come to a head around the election, as local activists watched donors give hundreds of millions of dollars to ballot measure fights while they struggled to simply get patients care. Olivia Cappello from Planned Parenthood told The New Yorker, “It is really tough to know that electoral campaigns cost so much money, and that we have to pour so much money to win back rights, little by little, when we also see such a tremendous direct patient need.”

It’s definitely worth reading the whole piece.

Quick hits:

• KFF Health News reminds us that Trump doesn’t need Congress to make abortion inaccessible;

• Amanda Marcotte writes at Salon about the anti-abortion attacks on maternal mortality review committees;

• And The Nation has an interview with abortion providers Curtis Boyd and Glenna Halvorson-Boyd, authors of We Choose To: A Memoir of Providing Abortion Care Before, During, and After Roe.

Care Crisis

If you want to know what it’s been like for doctors in Missouri these last two years—and why abortion rights protections are so important—check out this profile of maternal fetal medicine specialist Dr. Betsy Wickstrom:

“Ever since [Dobbs], when she enters an ectopic pregnancy diagnosis into the electronic medical record, a large red banner pops up asking if she’s sure the diagnosis is accurate. If the embryo or fetus has a heartbeat, she has to consult an attorney. In the case that the mother is already starting to bleed, Wickstrom said, ‘time is life.’ Sometimes, she has to refer the patient to a provider in Kansas.”

The state even dictates how she can talk to patients about abortion. Wickstrom’s solution? She keeps a water bottle on her desk with a sticker attached that lists national abortion hotlines. Healthcare shouldn’t look like this.

War on Birth Control

If there’s one trend that’s come up again and again since Trump was elected a few weeks ago, it’s the spike in women seeking long-acting birth control and sterilization. Across the country, women don’t trust that access to contraception is safe.

In Kentucky, reproductive health clinics saw a huge jump in requests for long-acting contraceptives after election day. In fact, by November 6th, 26% of their appointments were for long-acting birth control. A nonprofit group in South Carolina reports the same—that demand for long-acting contraception has spiked, especially among young women.

We’re even seeing the trend in pro-choice states: As I reported yesterday, Minnesota’s Planned Parenthood has seen a 150% increase in appointments for long-acting contraception; and in Oregon, Planned Parenthood has seen “a sharp increase in appointments” for IUDs and vasectomies.

The trend is notable enough that Newsweek spoke to five women who have gotten, or plan to get, sterilization procedures in the wake of the presidential election. Naturally, conservative columnists are already up in arms, claiming that women are overreacting.

This comes at the same time that The Hill flags the way that emergency contraception has been pulled into the abortion debate—largely because most Americans don’t know that the morning after pill is different than abortion medication. And as you know if you’ve read my book, anti-abortion activists are using that confusion to their advantage. Their plan is to target birth control by conflating it with abortion.

For more on how Republicans will ban contraception by redefining certain types as ‘abortifacients,’ read the first part of Abortion, Every Day’s birth control series below:

The GOP’s Plan to Ban Birth Control (Part I)