The Week in Abortion
7.29.24 - 8.2.24
Whether you missed some newsletters this week or just like to have a refresher before Monday hits, “The Week in Abortion” is here to give you a (brief!) overview of everything you need to know. So let’s get into it.
In the States
Iowa’s 6-week abortion ban went into effect on Monday. The law’s so-called exceptions are deliberately vague, making it difficult for rape victims and those with doomed pregnancies to get care. Guidelines for doctors from the state medical board are similarly unhelpful (and cruel), with mandates that OBGYNs interrogate sexual violence victims to find out if they were really attacked.
The 6-week ban is expected to decimate access across the entire region, and neighboring pro-choice states are already reporting an uptick in Iowa patients. Experts are also expecting that OBGYNs will start to flee Iowa in the same way they’ve left other anti-abortion states.
Click here to read Abortion, Every Day’s explainer of the 6-week ban, and please don’t forget to donate to the Iowa Abortion Access Fund.
In better news, Utah’s Supreme Court ruled this week that the block on a total abortion ban can remain in place while a challenge over the law’s constitutionality is heard by a lower court. If enacted, the ban would only allow abortions when the pregnant person’s life is at risk and when there’s a fatal fetal abnormality. (And that ‘exception’ for nonviable pregnancies is deliberately vague.)
The Republican legislator who wrote the total ban is working to introduce a 6-week ban as a back-up, just in case his original ban is ruled unconstitutional.
In North Carolina, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson—who has chastised women who have abortions to “keep your skirt down—has released a campaign ad where he shares his wife’s abortion story. It’s a craven attempt to curry favor with voters who oppose abortion bans, and an even more disgusting move than usual given Robinson’s stance on the issue.
Finally, an anti-abortion group touting abortion ‘reversal’ is suing California for what they say is an attack on their free speech. First Amendment lawsuits are a growing a tactic both by crisis pregnancy centers and activists suing to end clinic buffer zones.
Ballot Measures
A new poll shows that 69% of Florida voters support Amendment 4, the abortion rights ballot measure. That’s an increase of 7 points since November! The poll results are important because Florida pro-choicers need at least 60% of the vote to pass the proposed amendment. Abortion rights activists in Florida have also petitioned the state Supreme Court to throw out the misleading financial impact statement that voters will see this November.
In New York, pro-choice activists have been pushing for the word ‘abortion’ to be included in the ballot language for an Equal Rights Amendment headed to voters. But the board of elections voted this week to exclude the term from the ballot summary.
In more general ballot measure news, both The Hill and POLITICO published roundups this week of the recent Republican attacks on pro-choice amendments; and Axios reported on the massive spending for abortion rights ballot measures across the country.
Abortion, Every Day released an explainer on Project 2025 and what it means for abortion and women’s rights more broadly. (Hint: It ain’t good!) This is an important one—so definitely make a few minutes to read it, if you haven’t already.
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