This Week in Abortion, January 21
A collection of good reads, events from the week, and occasional insights from me, Rachel Leven.
Good Reads
The Gender Equity and Policy Inst. released a report this week that is getting a fair bit of coverage. But, the headlines tend to tell the wrong story - something like “More Women Die in States That Ban Abortion.” So, here is the deal:
What the report finds: “There are two Americas for people in their reproductive years and their children,” with women in states that have bans experiencing significantly worse outcomes for many possible reasons including, the report speculates, failure to expand Medicaid.
What the report doesn’t find: That rescinding these bans will fix the main problem. GEPI itself says, “it’s important to underscore that the differences and divergence were well established before the Supreme Court overturned Roe and abortion bans were enacted and enforced beginning in 2022.”
The report is an important baseline and a reminder that America’s maternal health problems did not start last summer and unfortunately will not be solved with abortion legislation alone.
Alternative View: Conservative media had a very different narrative on the house votes last week. This Fox segment features Melissa Ohden who was a chief advocate for the House Bill last week. She talks about being the child of a failed abortion through a method that today makes up less than .1% of abortions in the country.
Events in the News
NYC has started to offer free abortion pills in its health clinics.
Siobhan Dunnavant, a Republican in Virginia’s D-majority senate, broke ranks with the Youngkin administration in order to support her own relatively progressive abortion bill. Sen. Dunnavant’s bill would ban abortions after 22/24 weeks or to save the mother’s life. Virginia’s current law allows abortions up to about 26 weeks, so the bill is more restrictive. Still, her move is a remarkable example of the post-Roe, post-election world we are in and, hopefully, just one of many to come.
According to the AP the March for Life “appeared smaller than in past years but bore multiple hallmarks of previous marches in the enthusiasm of the gathering, the large numbers of young people from Catholic schools around the country and plenty of banners representing different churches and religious orders.”
In Maryland, new Gov. Wes Moore released $3.5 million…to “fund training for health practitioners besides physicians.”
Legal Updates
13 Christian and Jewish leaders are challenging Missouri’s abortion ban. According to the lead attorney, this lawsuit is unique among the many brought by religious groups around the country in that it argues that the whole law violates the separation of church and state, citing statements of “religious intent” by the legislators that sponsored the legislation.