This Week in Abortion: The Hyde Amendment Lives
This Week in Abortion: The Hyde Amendment Lives
A collection of good reads, events from the week, and policy insights.
Welcome back to your weekly roundup of good reads, legal updates, and legislative tracking on abortion. The usual format didn’t feel right this week. So we are experimenting…Leave a comment to let us know what you think!
Keep it up Ohio! turnout for the special election is great so far and this week the Secretary of State determined Tuesday that the abortion rights initiative has enough valid signatures to get on the ballot in November.
Ohio voters have until August 8 to SAY NO to an amendment that would make passing a pro-access ballot initiative in November more difficult. If that voter is you, get out there now, not later.
Feature: The Hyde Amendment Lives
Back in May, we asked if this year we’d see The End of the Hyde Amendment, which says the federal government can’t spend money on abortion-related healthcare. We were hopeful but weary at that point that the omission of the amendment from Biden’s budget proposal meant that Democrats were serious about getting rid of the amendment.
That hope is wavering as the Hyde Amendment seems to have re-emerged. The annual amendment passed through the Democrat-controlled Senate appropriations committee this week. It was attached to Department of Labor and Health and Human Service bills (think Medicaid).
The continued life of the amendment in the Senate is not getting nearly as much attention as you’d imagine it would thanks to a carefully crafted budget strategy driven by hard-right house members we summarize as “throw out there as much shit as possible and some of it will get through.” Key to this strategy is a focus on amendments that have very little to do with the country’s fiscal health and everything to do with its cultural shift to the left.
Alice Ollstein writes for Politico, “This year, Republicans have tucked anti-abortion language into nearly every corner of the appropriations process, complicating the delicate negotiations as House leaders race to bring the first of a dozen bills to the floor before the August recess.”
Forbes also details the places where the House is sneaking in restrictions in ways that go far beyond spending. For example, the agricultural spending bill would erase FDA guidance that allows mifepristone to be distributed in pharmacies and by mail.
There is a lot of fighting ahead for Congress. A government shutdown over things that have nothing to do with spending is looking possible. Biden is hoping the Senate can be the adult in the room and keep the push going on a timely resolution. We are worried about the presence of the Hyde Amendment this early in the game.
The amendment can be taken out before a full Senate vote, and it’s possible that this is the plan - get the bills through the bipartisan committee using the amendment then take it out before the final vote. Because for the (let’s say it again) DEMOCRAT-controlled Senate to pass the amendment would be giving away the keys to the building before they’ve even started the negotiation.
What to Watch
The PBS short film festival awarded wins to two reproductive justice films. They are each less than 30 minutes. We recommend a watch.
Under G-d, The protection of religious expression in many states is a tool that was created by the Christian right for the Christian right. This film looks at how some groups are now using these same laws to protect access to abortion with a strong focus on Jewish individuals and organizations. It’s an easy watch and a palate cleanser if you’ve been too closely following the bald Christian extremism on display in Georgia and elsewhere.
WINN, This is a heavier watch, which is usually the case when you’re confronting the reality of a penal, punishment-focused country. The film focuses on Pamela Winn, who was in prison when she found out she was pregnant. (We’ll let her tell her full story.) Winn eventually led the charge on ending the shackling and solitary confinement of pregnant women in Georgia and helped stop the shackling of pregnant women in Federal prisons.
What to Read
The folks at FiveThirtyEight suggest that a growing number of pro-access Americans oppose all government restrictions on abortion services.
They highlight a survey showing that ballot initiatives that allow abortion without limitation are likely to garner more support than initiatives which include a limit after viability. This speaks to one of the big debates in the pro-advocacy camp right now - whether to go to viability or beyond. While the report focuses on changes among supporters, Rachel is also curious about what the numbers look like for opposition — does including no limits move significant numbers from “leaning no” to “definitely voting no?” She suspects it wouldn’t.
After reading the underlying study, Mollie is not convinced that the research is capturing the nuances stated rather than capturing general pro-access sentiment overarchingly. But through the last months of writing this newsletter, her thoughts on this topic have shifted closer to opposing all restrictions, so it is an interesting thought if this proves to be more widespread.
The long-standing anti-access group Operation Save America met in their annual meeting earlier this month.
The group “unashamedly take up the cause of preborn children in the name of Jesus Christ; and we employ only biblical principles.” They also oppose Islam and homosexuality. At the risk of giving them clicks, the video below is worth a watch.
State News Room’s Kelcie Moseley-Morris covered their rally/conference and talked about the group’s on the edge relationship with violence. While they express that they don’t want to see their members go out and murder people (?!?), as one actually did in the 1990s, they are also a key feeder of protests outside abortion clinics and talk about how to “physically” stop what they don’t like (other religious prayers, LGBTQ events, abortions…). Moseley-Morris shared with us that it looked as if attendance was over 200 and about what the organizers expected. Beyond that we don’t have a very good sense of how big this group currently is. (Give us a shout if you do.)
The pinnacle of the gathering was a call for a renewed effort to charge people who get abortions with murder. Probably goes without saying that there was a lot of misogyny on display too.
Quick Hits
This week pro-access advocate and fellow substacker Jessica Valenti highlighted the dangers faced by OBGYNs who were assigned by the medical association to get board certified in Texas. Some doctors who served Texas residents through telehealth are looking at the possibility they will get arrested thanks to laws passed there in recent years.
North Carolina’s 10-12 week abortion ban is being challenged again by Planned Parenthood. Initial hearing dates are set for mid-September and we don’t expect the ban to be paused before then, despite requests for an injunction during the wait.
Crisis Pregnancy centers are getting into the lawsuit game in Vermont, seeking a permanent injunction against the State’s new law subjecting crisis pregnancy centers to false and misleading advertising statutes. Illinois Gov. Pritzker signed a similar law this week which is already facing a lawsuit.
In our feature on unlikely heroes during the legislative session, we highlighted South Carolina’s Republican “Sister Senators” who blocked the total abortion ban from passing. They are now facing primary challenges and the local news highlights what they are up against.