This Week in Abortion: This Year in Abortion
This Week in Abortion: This Year in Abortion
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. It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over a year since Rachel started this newsletter and eight months since Mollie joined the team. We are humbled by the growth of our subscribers - just seven friends to hundreds of readers - and your engagement with us. Over 60% of you are reading every week - the average for newsletters is around 20%, so this is pretty amazing!
We’ve grown a lot in the last year. (And not just as substack influencers 😉) Our view of what access means and what’s needed in the fight for better policy has evolved.
So, we are pausing the newsletter for a bit to reflect. While we enjoy the last days of summer, we will be thinking about what’s needed next from us and from This Week in Abortion.
If you love this newsletter, now is the time to let us know. Tell us what you find valuable and how we stand out (or don’t) from other newsletters you’ve been getting. And of course any suggestions on what you’d like to see, what you think would be more helpful or interesting, etc.
Features: This Year in Abortion
Both of us were newcomers to the reproductive rights scene - bandwagon jumpers, Johnny-come-latelys, bored-ass white ladies. Whatever you want to characterize it as, we have been learning and we hope readers have learned right along with us.
Over the last year we’ve learned/confirmed:
Bans punish people for being poor and Black. The states with bans tend to have worse maternal health outcomes to start with, rural populations in these states struggle to access increasingly consolidated services, and these states also provide fewer resources and support for families. Add to this a growing realization that Black women have worse outcomes in the medical system as a whole, and you get layers upon layers of hurt.
Living in a “pro-access” state won’t guarantee you get access. In states like Illinois, ensuring a standard level of care for residents and out-of-state patients requires indefinitely sustained resources. In addition, anti-access advocates are working to chip away at access in these states. We’ve seen local ordinances banning abortion facilities, the revival of the Comstock Act, and attacks on the FDA’s approval of Mife.. We expect to see even more creative approaches in the future.
It’s not hopeless. The anti-access movement is more organized, politically ingrained, and extreme than we appreciated, but it’s also smaller and has less popular support than we thought. It’s becoming clear to us that Republican voters care less about pushing extreme abortion policies than their party does.
But it’s not guaranteed that access will win out. To get there, the Republican Party has to be part of the strategy. Whatever surveys say, the reality is that over the last year, more states shut down access than expanded it. Even in Kansas, where voters rejected anti-access ballot initiatives, the legislature continued to pass anti-access policies. The way the map looks today, it’s hard to see America becoming a pro-access country by going around the Republican party - at some point, we have to go through it. That means putting support behind the most pro-access candidate that politics allows across the country and in both parties until Republicans in traditional strongholds stop asking “How low can we go” and start asking “How high can we get.” Not going to happen tomorrow, but hey, girls can dream.
So you don’t miss us in the next few weeks, here is a recap of some of the topics we’ve dug into this year:
Many of you will know this is really two different medications - Mife. and Miso. - and their availability is critical to the future of access.
This is not a real thing, but some anti-access advocates want you to think it is.
Access advocates are increasingly calling for the right to an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, while anti-access groups claim this (and really any attempt to loosen restrictions) is “abortion on demand.” We both came into this thinking there was probably a line we were each comfortable with, but now appreciate how hard it is to mark a clear cutoff.
Once you see them and the damage they cause, you start to see them everywhere.
The Comstock Act and The Hyde Amendment
These are legacy anti-abortion laws that speak as much to the Puritan history of the United States as they do to abortion.
This was a fun subject and an important one. Religious doctrine - what brand you subscribe to or whether you subscribe to one at all - is at the heart of all of this.
And lots more.
We also shared our personal stories (Mollie and Rachel) and heard back from a few of you who shared yours.
We appreciate the community of folks who joined us the past year and are excited to continue the journey after a well-deserved break!
What To Read
If you haven’t seen it yet, Time published a powerful story this week. The piece highlights why exemptions don’t work, even when a 13-year-old is raped. It also lays bare the economic disparity of those harmed by abortion bans and poor maternal care. It’s a heartbreaking story and reminds us there is much work to do.
Then in Peru, Bishops are actually upset that the medical board approved an abortion for an 11-year-old rape victim. Obviously, this was also covered by Vatican News and the Catholic News Agency.
NYTimes opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote eloquently about the interconnections of abortion and political equality. His opening sentence is 🔥 “There is no way to regulate and control pregnancy without regulating and controlling people.”
Annie Lowery from the Atlantic wrote about the interplay between the cost of living and social safety nets (including abortion access). The TLDR is that cheap housing was an impetus for folks to move when social rights like abortion were protected at the federal level. And now that their lives are being immediately impacted by state social policies, they often can’t afford to move away.
What To Watch
A new documentary follows abortion clinic escorts in New Jersey.
State by State by Nation Updates
👎 A Nebraska judge dismissed the lawsuit against the state’s recent 10-12 week abortion ban and gender-affirming care restrictions. While the legal fight is likely headed for an appeal, advocates are also gearing up for a ballot initiative.
As we’ve seen in Ohio and Missouri it’s going to be an uphill battle. But in some relatively good news, UVA’s Center for Politics is comparing ballot issues to partisan races. According to their numbers, in Ohio, Kansas, and Michigan, pro-access votes outpaced Democratic candidates.
👎 Getting an abortion in Guam now requires an in-person doctor’s visit, but there are no abortion providers on the island. Last June the NYTimes quoted Guam’s anti-abortion Attorney General as saying, “Guam is a litmus test. If anti-abortion forces were to succeed anywhere in the United States, I would say Guam would be one of them.”
👍 In Colorado, the law banning “abortion reversal” remains in effect after the State Medical Board determined that the practice falls outside “generally accepted practice.”
Our medicated abortion pill friend Mife. got some action in the 5th circuit court of appeals this week. This is not big news because nothing changes and medicated abortion is available. The Supreme Court already indicated their decision will be forthcoming. But, if you’re interested in the decision, Law Dork has a good analysis.