This Week in Abortion: We are back!
This Week in Abortion: We are back!
A collection of good reads, events from the week, and policy insights.
This Week in Abortion is back! I will not try to sum up everything that has been in the news since August. I am just glad to be with you and hope you are ready to continue the journey.
Going forward, I am going to try my best to keep things focused on the most interesting, relevant news of the week. In addition, as brilliant as Mollie and my features have been, there are even smarter interdisciplinary people out there. I am hoping to bring them into the conversation. Stay tuned for the first special guest feature next week.
In personal news, I encourage you to check out my report on Alaska’s election reform, recently published by the Unite America Institute. Election reform is not going to solve every problem the country faces. But, there is evidence that it can open the door to leaders who are willing and able to face the myriad of challenges in front of us and may just temper the influence of special interests like the anti-access lobby.
Finally, a big thank you to Mollie Foust, who was largely responsible for the maturation of this newsletter. She is staying involved in strategy and other behind-the-scenes work but will be doing less of the content for now.
Rachel
Good Reads
#WeCount, which takes on the mammoth task of tracking the number of abortions across the US, found that there was an overall increase in recorded abortions post-Dobbs. Illinois had the largest increase at 21,500 additional abortions. Florida and North Carolina came in second, which is important to keep in mind given FL might ban abortion after 4-6 weeks and NC recently went down to a ban after 10-12 weeks post-conception. There is a cool timeline attached on the homepage of the report which I recommend checking out. One note of caution, these findings are still just a snapshot, and as the report says, “Measuring abortion access and use is fraught with challenges.” Ex: They are only counting the formal healthcare system (docs, hospitals, clinics) so a lot of medicated abortions are missing in this count.
Elections are coming up. More on this next week, for now, you can read our previous explanation of why Ohio, Virginia, and Kentucky are the states to watch. Also, Rolling Stone has a good read on major TikTok investor, Libertarian, Jeff Yass and how his support of “school choice” candidates looks like funding the anti-abortion movement.
By now we all know that Britany Spears published a memoir and that she writes about getting an abortion. Of the many, many opinions out there on this, Jill Filipovic’s “Abortion Benefits Men Too,” is worth a read. Whether or not Timberlake was a jerk in the larger context, Filipovic’s take got me thinking about my own biases.
Top Abortion Updates
👎 Mike Johnson is the new House Speaker, and the Louisiana Illuminator (from his home state) explains why that’s bad for abortion access. Politico says dealing with the abortion bans that Johnson and his colleagues added to the budget will be the very first challenge of his speakership.
👎Georgia’s Supreme Court said the state’s 4-6 week ban can remain in place, but the legal fight is not over.
👎Ballot initiative chaos continues in Missouri. This editorial on the AG is worth a read.
👍Amarillo, TX, a conservative city on the way to New Mexico hit pause on an ordinance banning people from traveling through their city to get an abortion.
👍 At least in some states, Republican candidates for federal and statewide seats are continuing to back away from national bans.
The Wider World of Healthcare and Uteri
👍 Washington is launching a first-of-its-kind study of fetal alcohol syndrome.
👍 A coalition of doctors is calling out male infertility as a global crisis. Funny how everything in medicine evolved around men, except when it came to fertility.
👍 Three Pennsylvania legislators launched a Black Maternal Health Caucus. If that sparks interest you should know there is one in Congress too led by Illinois’s own Lauren Underwood!