The Week in Abortion

2.17.25 - 2.21.25

Media Attack on Planned Parenthood

One of this week’s biggest stories was The New York Times hit piece on Planned Parenthood—an article that didn’t just cherry-pick information, but that adopted well-known anti-abortion rhetoric. The reporter called a fetus a 'baby' in a 'womb,' and repeatedly used the word ‘botched,’ including 'botched abortion’—which is one of the most inflammatory anti-abortion phrases there is.

PPFA president Alexis McGill Johnson went on Morning Joe to respond to what she called the “irresponsible piece of journalism.” Later in the week, more than 500 Planned Parenthood staff members published a letter blasting the Times for endangering patients’ health by contributing to “false narratives and stigma” that deter people from seeking care.

And while they say clinics are under-resourced and that staff are underpaid, they write that the answer isn’t “scaring patients away” from care or “handing Republicans the talking points they’ll use to undermine the care happening at Planned Parenthood.” Read the letter here.

As I wrote this week, this whole kerfuffle is just more evidence that we desperately need more reporters with knowledge and experience around abortion issues.

State News

Lots happening on the state level this week, so let’s start with the good news. In Indiana, a judge temporarily blocked the state from making abortion reports public records. If you need background on how in the world this is even a thing, read here and here. The short version is that the Indiana AG has been fighting to make abortion reports public in the same way birth and death certificates are.

Thankfully, two OBGYNs—including Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who I had the pleasure of sharing a stage with this weekend—are suing to block it.

In the meantime, the other state we were watching this week was Missouri, where a judge’s ruling has opened the door for some abortion care to resume. Still, Republicans introduced legislation that would create a state-run registry of pregnant women deemed ‘at risk’ of having an abortion. It’s even worse than it sounds: the bill would also give people seeking to adopt access to that registry.

And as I pointed out this week, the legislation appears to clear the way for anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to run that ‘registry.’ These groups aren’t just known for collecting (and mishandling) women’s private data, they’re also connected to maternity homes and private evangelical adoption agencies—which are known to pressure vulnerable women into terminating their parental rights.

The ‘registry’ part of the legislation got a tremendous amount of public backlash, but the big picture is just as important: Yes, this is about tracking pregnant women. But it’s also about giving crisis pregnancy centers the power of the state to target marginalized people and their parental rights.

In other state news, West Virginia Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the few abortion exceptions available in the state. Iowa Republicans introduced two abortion-related bills: One to ban abortion medication, and another that would force doctors to lie to patients about so-called abortion ‘reversals.’ Florida Democrats introduced symbolic legislation to repeal the state’s 6-week abortion ban (even though they know it won’t pass). And Colorado got one step closer to passing SB 129, which would reinforce the state’s shield law.

Finally, in Texas, ProPublica reports that the sepsis rate among pregnant women has increased by a whopping 50%. If you haven’t read their investigation, please do—it is stark, but vital.

Criminalizing Care

We’ve all been following the attacks on abortion provider Dr. Maggie Carpenter. Dr. Carpenter has been shipping abortion medication to patients from her shield state of New York—which is legal! Still, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton brought a civil suit against the provider, and she was indicted on abortion charges in Louisiana.