This Week in Abortion: Court Cases & More
This Week in Abortion: Court Cases & More
A collection of good reads, events from the week, and policy insights.
During a bill signing in Michigan this week, State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky said that she regrets talking publicly about her own rape and pregnancy scare, “It made the wrong point. Trauma is not a requirement for bodily autonomy…I long for a day where female elected officials do not have to open up their wounds on the chamber floor to appeal to the humanity of our colleagues.”
There is a long journey ahead and a lot of pain to get through before that day comes. This could not be clearer as we approach the end of the year with two women bringing their pregnancies to court. This week, the good reads start with the coverage of Kate Cox’s case in Texas from both sides and, in the news section, an update on a case that’s ongoing in Kentucky.
Good Reads
In Texas, Kate Cox’s saga is exposing the practical realities of anti-access laws. What happened to her can happen randomly and without cause. Read about it in her words. Her case is a powerful demonstration of what can happen when pregnancy is criminalized and how off the rails most current abortion bans are compared to what the American public actually wants. From a pragmatic standpoint, if you live in an anti-access state exceptions might seem better than nothing, but most are just superficial facades and, as Mary Zeigler explains, “Exceptions almost always leave out other tragic circumstances.”
On the anti-access side, there are two main trends in response to the Cox case:
The first is covered by this anti-access opinion piece, which supports Cox’s decision while seeking to scapegoat Paxton as the bad guy, asking for tweaks to the law that he and the Texas Supreme Court are enforcing. Nikki Haley said something similar when asked about the case.
The second is the, “they did it” argument, which paints Cox’s situation as not all that bad and focuses on stories about people who decided to go through with risky pregnancies and were lucky enough, and resourced enough, to see everyone survive and thrive.
With all the court news this week, it seems like a good time to share David Kirkpatrick’s long-form profile and interview (40 min) with the leader of the Alliance for Defending Freedom, the law firm behind most of the country’s anti-access legal cases. Sophie Resnick of States News also published a profile of the org this week (13 min).
Top Abortion Updates
👎A week after Kate Cox, another woman brought her pregnancy to court, this time in Kentucky. In her words, “I am angry that now that I am pregnant and do not want to be, the government is interfering in my private matters.” Days after the woman filed her suit the embryo “no longer had cardiac activity.” It’s not yet clear what will happen with the case.
👎 Arkansas serves as a strong reminder that we can’t vote our way out of abortion restrictions with ballot initiatives and blue waves. As we speak, officials are working on building an anti-abortion monument on state grounds. Props to Republican Steve Unger, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who opposes abortion but, according to Antoinette Grajeda, also opposed the monument saying, “Public memorials to our nation’s wars where we faced an external threat are right and proper…A memorial to an ongoing culture war where we seem to be shooting at each other is not.” Amen, Pastor.
👎 As you probably know by now, the Supreme Court is taking up the Mifepristone case. Read more from fellow substacker Chris Geidner on Law Dork. And, be assured that, for now:
The overall approval for Mife is safe, what is at stake is the increased access granted after 2016. And,
Misoprostol, the drug that does most of the heavy lifting in the twosome, is not touched by this case.
👍 In better news, the Supreme Court declined a case that challenged the constitutionality of bubble zones, physical areas of protection for individuals entering clinics.
👍 Congress passed a bill to fund defense spending without controversial provisions that attacked service member access to abortion and would have inserted other small-dollar “culture war” issues into the bill. Fun side note, Sen Tuberville cosponsored a related bill providing backpay for all the military promotions he held up.
👍 Gov. Whitmer signed a bill repealing onerous restrictions on abortion providers and restrictions on abortion-related insurance coverage, another step in Michigan’s transformation from an anti-abortion state to a pro-access leader.