The Week in Abortion
(2.27.23-3.3.23)
In the states…
Republican bills in Texas and Iowa are seeking to ban pro-choice websites. The legislation in both states would require internet service providers to block any website that sells abortion medication, tells someone how to get abortion medication, or “enables” either. Really, any pro-choice website could fall into that category—but the bill in Texas also goes a step further and lists out specific websites that Republicans want banned. Both bills would allow citizens to sue internet service providers who don’t block websites, and would require that state Attorneys General prosecute abortion funds under the RICO Act. Another bill from Texas would also make it a felony for credit card companies to process purchases of abortion medication.
In better news, the ballot measure from pro-choice groups in Ohio is moving forward and shows all signs of being in front of voters by November. This timing is especially important because activists want it on the ballot before Republicans have the chance to change ballot measure rules to require 60% of the vote instead of a simple majority.
If you’re a regular reader, you know I’ve been closely following what’s happening in Tennessee—both because of how extreme the law is there, and because the national anti-choice movement sees the state’s abortion ban as a model for legislation in the rest of the country. (America’s biggest anti-abortion groups are very much invested and involved in what’s happening there.) You can read some background here, here, here, and here—but the short version is that Tennessee Republicans want to add an exception for women’s lives to the abortion ban, but the state’s biggest anti-choice group has been pressuring them not to. So pro-life! The latest news is that lawmakers have caved: After changing the language of their exception so that it was essentially useless, they’ve now put the entire thing on hold. So Tennessee will continue to have an abortion ban with no exception for women’s lives.
Meanwhile, the Wyoming legislature passed two anti-choice bills this week that will ban abortion entirely in the state: One which outlaws abortion with an exception for rape and incest, and another that criminalizes abortion medication. In case you needed a reminder of how useless exceptions are, consider that bill mandates sexual violence victims to provide doctors with a police report before an abortion is permitted. The state has a Republican governor who is expected to sign the legislation into law. (Another abortion ban in the state is currently blocked.)
Other anti-abortion bills that advanced this week:
Utah legislation mandating that abortions are only performed in hospitals, which would essentially ban clinics in the state, is heading to the governor’s desk and is expected to be signed;
Missouri legislation to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to one year has moved forward, but with the caveat that women who end their pregnancies are ineligible for care;
A Kansas bill targeting telemedicine, which requires a doctor to be physically present to prescribe abortion medication, also advanced;
And North Carolina Republicans are expected to release legislation for new abortion restrictions in the next few weeks.
I’d also keep an eye on what’s happening with the Idaho bill that advanced this week, which would charge anyone who brings a minor out-of-state for an abortion with ‘trafficking’. I did a TikTok about the legislation and conservatives’ chipping-away strategy around the right to travel for abortion care:
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In the nation…
I wrote a column this week about how Republicans are undoing democracy in their efforts to ban abortion. The piece was sparked by the news that Mississippi Republicans were reinstating ballot measures in the state, except when it comes to abortion. But really, this is something happening across the country: Conservative lawmakers know most Americans want abortion to be legal, so they’re trying to keep voters as far away from the issue as possible. If you didn’t read the piece, check it out and let me know what you think!
The news that ultra-Christian reality television star Jessa Duggar Seewald had what she called a ‘miscarriage’ (but was actually an abortion) revived the conversation around what it really means to have an abortion—and demonstrated how desperate Republicans are to redefine it. This is something I wrote about back in July 2022: How conservatives are trying to rebrand ‘abortion’ as an intention rather than a medical intervention. Related and right on cue: A bill in Idaho makes up and uses the term “medically indicated separation procedure” for abortions needed to save someone’s life or health. Again, it’s just an abortion! But Republicans want to use this made-up term as a way to codify the notion that some abortions aren’t abortions.
The last bit of national news is that Walgreens caved to pressure from conservative state Attorneys General and announced that they wouldn’t be carrying or dispensing abortion medication in certain states—even in places where abortion is legal. A nightmare.
Statistics & studies…
New polling shows that 3 in 5 Americans want abortion medication to remain legal, and Data for Progress reported that nearly 60% of voters oppose reversing the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. What’s super interesting (and encouraging) is that 46% also believe the pills should be available through telehealth, mail delivery, and pharmacy pickup—with no requirement to visit a physician in person.
These numbers come right on the heels of the huge PRRI study showing that most Americans (even those in red states) want abortion to be legal more broadly.
Meanwhile, we’re an international embarrassment: A report from the World Health Organization came out this week showing that while other nations are lowering their maternal mortality rate, ours is only increasing.
Conservative strategy…
Back in October, I wrote about how anti-choice organizations and politicians were planning to blame doctors for the post-Roe horror stories that were beginning to come out in earnest—in part because they’re desperate to shirk responsibility, but also because they know it’s just a matter of time before the first death is reported. This week, Louisiana Right to Life proved my point. After Kaitlyn Joshua shared her story of being denied miscarriage treatment by two different emergency rooms in the state, the group came forward to—you guessed it!—blame doctors. A representative from the organization said, “It was just a gross misunderstanding of the law from the practitioners handling the case, unfortunately.” (Meanwhile, doctors across the country have been speaking up constantly—this week in North Carolina, for example—about how these laws are making their jobs impossible and dangerous for patients.)
We are going to see this again and again in the coming months: Politicians and anti-abortion activists blaming medical professionals for laws that they themselves wrote. It’s important that we are calling them on it every step of the way.
Stopping teenagers from leaving the state (with the intention of stopping adults, too) is just a rebranding of the Fugitive Slave Act. More evidence this is a blatant violation of 13a. It is super ironic that they're calling this "human trafficking" when they're literally weaponizing the law to force women into reproductive slavery.
The renaming of abortion so they can fool themselves into believing it’s really not an abortion is also found within the Catholic Church. As they define an abortion of a ectopic pregnancy not as an abortion but as “removal of the tube”. The mental gymnastics the forced birth movement put themselves through defy all logic.