This Week in Abortion: Ballot Initiatives, Baby Olivia, and It's Not Hysteria

A collection of good reads, events from the week, and policy insights.

Welcome back to your weekly roundup of good reads, news updates, and policy insights on abortion.

This week I’m covering an anti-access legislative trend, messaging, and a forthcoming book that looks very cool. Plus, ballot initiatives had quite a week, enough to deserve their very own section.

Good Reads and Media

• I was not prepared for adult uterus ownership. Not for puberty, periods, PCO, pregnancy, postpartum, or polyps. Even from my privileged position as a financially comfortable white woman, the medical system does not care much about holding my (or your) hand. So, I’m excited about a forthcoming book by Karen Tang. It sounds like the friend I needed for the last decade.

• Candace Cabanas (R) is running for Pennsylvania State Rep in a Feb 13 special election - a race that will decide which party controls the PA House. The district leans Democratic and so, Cabanas’s abortion policy appears to be that it’s the voters' decision and it’s her job to represent them. But, she also follows that up by saying “I hope voters come out and vote their values.” I read this as a wink and a nod to anti-access supporters. It’s an interesting listen for those into messaging strategy. 

Top Abortion Updates

• 👎Add “Baby Olivia” to the anti-access workarounds this legislative season. After a successful effort in North Dakota’s legislature last year, the anti-access group Live Action is working to get its slanted animation of “every stage of human development,” into classrooms around the country. One bill is advancing in West Virginia and another was recently introduced in Kentucky. Watch the video below. They want kids to watch this every year starting in 6th grade (11/12 years old). If someone can find (or make) a new version of this video marked up with corrections I would love to share it.

• 👎Following the implementation of its ban, reported abortions in Indiana have decreased to levels that are so low officials are worried about violating patient confidentiality if they release full individual records, especially given how detailed reporting requirements are under the ban.

• 👍In what appears to be a first for the country, pharmacists in Washington state will soon be allowed to prescribe abortion pills. The move is tied to an existing law in the state that gives pharmacists more power to prescribe FDA-approved medications.

Ballot Initiatives

• Now that a pro-access initiative is collecting signatures in Missouri, legislators in the state proposed changes that would make such initiatives more difficult. Changes include increasing the number of votes needed for an initiative to pass. If approved by both chambers, the changes would then need to be approved by voters, likely in the August primary, to effect the November election. 

• Arkansas’s attorney general approved an initiative to secure abortion rights up to 18 weeks of fertilization, allowing advocates to start collecting signatures for their petition to get on the ballot.

• Signature collection also started for Colorado’s pro-access initiative. Colorado is one of the few citizen-led initiatives that does not include viability language. 

• A Nevada judge signed off on a pro-access ballot initiative, but advocates are still waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on a more expansive version of the initiative before moving forward. 

• Mississippi legislators are considering a bill that would bring back ballot initiatives while carving out abortion as a subject matter. They considered a similar bill last year.

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