This Week in Abortion - February 11, 2023
A collection of good reads, events from the week, and policy insights.
It is Black history month, which gives us a good hook to talk about something we should be talking about far more and in spaces well beyond this newsletter. Spend your morning with the first item below.
Good Reads
“The abortion industry preys on Black women.” This is a common talking point for anti-access activists. It carries power because it is grounded in truth. Margaret Sanger’s belief in eugenics and other problematic alliances are well known and fully acknowledged by Planned Parenthood. Not to mention forced sterilization and slavery itself. But, too often these stories of repression are the only ones that get told. For a more complete picture, Kim Gallon made the case last fall for why “Black women’s voices must be central to the battle for abortion access,” starting with the fact that they have long have been central, and yet still overlooked.
About this time last year Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor also reminded us that “in the late sixties…[Black feminists] Toni Cade Bambara, Frances Beal, Alice Walker, and Barbara Smith, argued that real equality could be achieved only by expanding the parameters of what constituted ‘reproductive justice’ to include the entire context within which decisions about having or not having children were made.” This continued into 1994 when @DrToniMBond @AbleMable56 @LorettaJRoss gathered with others in Chicago and launched the Reproductive Justice movement. Taylor again, “Black women activists not only took up the immediate questions concerning reproduction but they also raised issues about child care, employment, welfare, and the other material necessities that could help women take care of their children and choose to bring them into the world.”
In an interview with Vox, the Co-Founder of the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline says many women who call them are having a miscarriage but are afraid to go to the emergency room. She notes that if they did use pills, “it’s impossible for anyone in the emergency room to figure out…[And, medical personnel] are not supposed to [report patients] because it would be a HIPAA violation.”
Save their number in your phone in case you find yourself in a state where you are unsure about how to get care or services 1-833-246-2632.
We are here in this post-Roe world thanks to a careful, years-long effort to appoint and elect anti-access judges. Now, Slate explains, “A single [far-right leaning] judge could outlaw the abortion pill nationwide…in a jurisdiction that was intentionally chosen by the anti-access plaintiffs. This is why we’ve been covering the Wisconsin Supreme Court Race where Emily’s List just endorsed Janet Protasiewicz.
“For the first time in Gallup’s trend, pluralities of Catholic (38%) and Protestant (37%) Americans…express dissatisfaction with abortion policies and a preference for less strict laws.”
In Florida, people under 18 must have parental consent to get an abortion, or go through a judge - 1 in 10 of those who do, are denied access. “State data show that a young person’s ability to obtain a judicial waiver is significantly determined by the county in which they live.”
Events of the Week
In this week’s State of the Union Address, President Biden spent more words on abortion than in previous speeches. Some argue he did not go far enough to lay out a clear policy agenda. While the bar is low, it’s worth remembering that it took until the 18th President of the United States (Grant, 1873) to mention women at all.
The funding battle is heating up as WV, TN, KS, IA, and IN look at funding for anti-abortion centers. But, in addition to funding such centers more anti-access politicians are also starting to take a more holistic approach to family support in planning. ex: The Iowa bill also supports more paid parental leave for state employees and would allow for over-the-counter birth control. The NYTimes has a profile of some conservatives who are even pushing to expand to Medicaid. This is going to become a minefield for pro-access politicians in anti-abortion states.
Legal Updates
The Church at Planned Parenthood has been ordered to pay Planned Parenthood groups in Washington and Idaho nearly $2 million for interfering with patient care. These lawsuits confirm important precedents, first that these are healthcare facilities and second that protestors must act with a minimum amount of respect.
A Michigan man was sentenced to 5 years in prison for setting fire to a Planned Parenthood in Kalamazoo, MI.
An abortion provider is “seeking to overturn West Virginia’s near-total ban, saying it is unconstitutional, irrational and causes irreparable harm to the state’s only abortion clinic and its patients.”
A lawsuit against the National Archives and Smithsonian alleges that several people were told to remove or cover their clothes with anti-access messages when entering the institution buildings. Both institutions apologized for the incidents.