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The Week in Abortion

(3.14.23-3.17.23)

Jessica Valenti

Mar 18

Cross-post

In the states…

Lots happening this week, starting with Utah’s governor signing a law that will ban abortion clinics in the state despite abortion being legal. The move is part of a broader effort by Republicans to undermine democracy by any means possible in order to ban abortion against voters’ wishes. Clinics in the state are hoping that they can change their licenses to adhere to the new law, but it’s unclear whether they’ll be successful.

In Florida, the 6-week abortion ban that would criminalize anyone who “actively participates” in an abortion moved forward. The bill is incredibly unpopular—60% of Republicans oppose the measure.

One state trend we saw this week was Republicans trying to use abortion ban exceptions—which we know aren’t real—as a way to deflect from all the bad press they’re getting as more and more women come out with horror stories of being denied care.

Tennessee Republicans, for example, pretended to add an exception for women’s health and lives to their total abortion ban. The language they’ve proposed is so weak that Tennessee Right to Life—the organization that’s been fighting lawmakers on adding any exceptions to the ban for months—agreed to endorse it. What’s especially abhorrent is that conservatives claim the bill would allow doctors to treat miscarrying women, which is absolutely not the case. The language only says that physicians can remove a dead fetus, which doesn’t stop one of the biggest post-Roe dangers to women’s health: Treatment denied to miscarrying women whose fetuses still have heartbeats.

Wisconsin Republicans also lied about their abortion ban this week when they made a big show of proposing an exception for rape and incest that they knew would go nowhere. It was all done for the chance to hold a press conference, and pretend as if they’re trying to ‘compromise’ with Democrats. (That didn’t stop anti-abortion groups in the state from freaking out, however, and releasing statements saying that women never need abortions to save their lives, and that being forced to carry a doomed pregnancy to term is “healing” for women.)

It’s a good reminder that Republican lawmakers are absolutely terrified of the polls showing that Americans support abortion rights—and that we’re pissed about the harm their bans are causing.

Speaking of how afraid conservatives are: In Ohio, anti-abortion groups have joined up to form an initiative that will spend $5 million in advertisements targeting the pro-choice ballot measure likely to go in front of voters this November. Because anti-abortion activists know how popular abortion rights are, they’re not focusing on abortion as much as they are ‘parental rights’ and anti-trans talking points. The first advertisement they’ve released claims that the ballot measure would allow minors to get “sex change” surgery without parental permission. Meanwhile, pro-choice advocates are in the process of collecting the over 400,000 signatures needed to move the measure forward.

This week, we also saw more women speaking out about their experiences being denied care in anti-choice states: A wrenching piece in ProPublica about a Tennessee woman; an op-ed from one of the women suing Texas over being denied care; a NPR segment about woman in Texas; and a Los Angeles Times column from a law professor in Tennessee denied care despite her fetus having no heartbeat.

Let’s focus on some good news for a minute: In North Dakota, the state Supreme Court upheld a block on the state’s abortion ban; New Mexico’s governor signed a law to prohibit local governments from enacting abortion restrictions and bans; legislation to enshrine abortion rights in Maryland continues to advance; multiple bills in Colorado that would protect abortion providers and patients passed out of Senate committees; and California Democrats are pushing legislation to protect doctors who ship abortion medication out-of-state.

Other notable state updates:

Arkansas continued to discuss a bill that would criminalize not just abortion, but miscarriages that the state deems were ‘caused’ by women;
The Ohio Supreme Court will hear questions about the state’s ban;
Florida Republicans want to stop girls from learning about their periods;
And in Oklahoma, Republicans want to mandate that health care providers upload patient records to a state-run database.

In the nation…

The biggest national story, of course, is the abortion medication lawsuit. This week we saw Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk try to hide Wednesday’s hearing from the public in an attempt to stop Americans’ ability to protest. At the hearing itself, Kacsmaryk made clear that he found the plaintiffs’ argument persuasive, calling the FDA’s multi-year process to approve mifepristone “accelerated.”

In response, abortion medication providers from clinics to telehealth companies released statements to assure women that they would continue to dispense mifepristone regardless of Kacsmaryk’s decision—unless instructed otherwise by the FDA. (For more information on the lawsuit and potential outcomes, check out the explainer put together by Abortion, Every Day researcher Grace Haley.)

The other big story we saw this week was that the maternal mortality rate went up 40%, with the biggest jump in the death rate among Black women. Depressingly, we know these numbers are only going to get worse; these latest statistics from the CDC were taken before Roe was overturned.

Keep an eye on…

We are starting to see more stories of anti-choice states losing doctors, medical students and residents. Just this week we heard from physicians and students in North Carolina and Idaho who don’t know that they want to study or practice in a state where they can’t give their patients adequate care.

Texas OBGYN residents are also struggling to find abortion training—necessary to be able to treat their patients and to be properly accredited. Many are even paying out of their own pockets in order to travel out-of-state for the education that they need.

With that increasing maternal mortality rate, the last thing we need is more maternal health deserts and improperly trained doctors—but that’s the reality of living under Republican abortion bans. Please remember that we’re going to continue see attacks on doctors from conservatives as more horror stories come out, and we can’t let people fall for it.