Attempts To Ban Access to Safe, Legal Abortion Have Soared to an All Time High
BREAKING: As this post was published, Georgia became the third state this year—after Kentucky and Mississippi—to pass a ban on abortion before many people know they are pregnant. The bill passed by one vote. Georgia is just one of 32 states to introduce abortion bans this year as part of a national strategy to outlaw safe, legal abortion.
2019 is barely one-fourth behind us, but one fact is clear: anti-abortion politicians have dropped all pretense of wanting anything less than a ban on access to safe, legal abortion.
In state after state, lawmakers have rushed this year to try to ban abortion access—at a point before most people even know they’re pregnant. These new laws run counter to long-standing Supreme Court precedents, and amount to an effort—in the wake of the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh and other Trump judicial nominees to lifetime appointments—to invite the Supreme Court to overturn or eviscerate the finding, in Roe v. Wade, that access to safe and legal abortion is a constitutional right.
Abortion is health care. But with outrageous bill after outrageous bill—from six-week bans to attacks on crucial reproductive health services such as those funded by the Title X program—politicians have signaled an aggressive new phase in their attacks on reproductive rights.
Here’s what you need to know about this expanding attack on reproductive health care.
1. Opponents of safe, legal abortion are mounting a concerted campaign
News accounts have covered the laws advancing in state legislatures one by one—but when one steps back, a troubling pattern emerges. Through March of 2019, state lawmakers in Georgia, Kentucky, and Mississippi banned access to abortion at six weeks. Four other states—Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee—stand poised to soon follow suit. Politicians have filed proposals for similar bans in eight other states: Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and West Virginia.
2. A “six-week ban on abortion” = a ban on abortion
The rationales offered by politicians in support of six-week bans belie a simple fact: at the six-week point in pregnancy, most people don’t even know they’re pregnant. For those with regular menstrual cycles, such a ban would stop access to safe, legal abortion a mere two weeks after a missed period.
These unconstitutional laws would be awful enough if they stopped there—but they don’t. For instance, the six-week ban proposed in Georgia would subject a person to criminal liability for termination of a pregnancy—exposing a mother to the potential risk of criminal charges over a miscarriage. As a Georgia state senator who spoke out against this outrageous banexplained:
In other words, a pregnant woman who suffers a miscarriage could be subjected to criminal investigation, indictment, prosecution long before a jury is asked to determine whether she intentionally did anything to cause the loss. And if you think everything I just said was exaggeration or hyperbole, I read it directly from a Georgia court case where the implications of prosecuting women for seeking abortions was laid out in no uncertain terms.
3. Efforts to restrict or ban abortion are spreading quickly
Here’s a startling statistic: since January 1, 2019, lawmakers have proposed more than 250 separate restrictions on abortion in state legislatures across the country.
The six-week bans moving through states are part of this wave of anti-reproductive health legislation. The rate at which such unconstitutional bans have spread this year is without precedent:
Prior to this year, six-week bans were rarely enacted, as antiabortion activists and politicians publicly focused their efforts on other restrictions, like targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws, that severely undermine access but are designed not to appear to be frontal assaults on abortion rights.
4. Low-income people and people of color are among those disproportionately affected
States where unconstitutional bans have advanced in 2019 are among those with the nation’s largest populations of people of color.
In Georgia, the nation’s eighth-largest state, nearly 10% of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino—and a full 32% identifies as Black.
In Ohio, the nation’s seventh-largest state, 13% of the population identifies as Black.
In Mississippi, 38% of people identify as Black.
Median household incomes in those states — Georgia, Mississippi, and Ohio — fall below the national average. All three of them report higher poverty rates than the nation as a whole. Georgia and Mississippi have refused the federal Medicaid expansion funds offered under the Affordable Care Act—and both states have among the nation’s highest percentages of residents living without health insurance.
People in these states often already have to travel hundreds of miles, cross state lines, and wait for weeks to get an abortion—if they can access services at all. For many women, these barriers effectively ban abortion, and women of color—who already face significant barriers to health care and attacks on their bodily autonomy—bear the brunt of it.
5. The goal: Permitting every state to ban abortion
The logic behind the rush to enact these unconstitutional abortion bans is simple: with senators confirming judges with views hostile to reproductive health and rights to the federal courts—including the Supreme Court—Roe v. Wade is at risk like never before.
Trump promised as a candidate to choose judges who would “automatically” overturn Roe, and has worked since to keep that promise. Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh has already acted to restrict access to abortion during his brief tenure on the Supreme Court—writing to say that courts should let a state proceed with abortion restrictions that that were ruled unconstitutional just a few short years ago.
That explains why a state like Mississippi, which courts blocked from enforcing an unconstitutional 15-week ban in 2018, would advance an even more stringent ban on safe, legal abortion a year later. Anti-abortion politicians believe that Trump’s judicial nominees may overturn Roe v. Wade—and intend to test just how far judges will let them go to restrict people’s ability to access their constitutional right.
There have been more than 250 abortion restrictions introduced in this country since January.
Pair those with the effort to undermine Title X—the nation’s only program dedicated to affordable reproductive health care—by gagging doctors from referring patients to abortion services, and the pattern is undeniable. Even as seven in 10 Americans consistently say they favor abortion access, opponents of safe, legal abortion think they can achieve a ban on abortion nationwide within the next few years.
These attacks are only the beginning. We can count on politicians to introduce unconstitutional abortion bans in other states. It’s up to us to stand united against this unprecedented effort—and to fight back.
8/19/19: Today, the Trump administration is forcing us out of the Title X program — our nation’s program focused on family planning, of which we serve 40% of patients. This is a *direct attack* on Planned Parenthood and on our health and rights, and we will not stand for it.
We’re working to make sure that all patients can still get the health care they need. Contact your local health center to find out how much a service costs and ask if there are other ways to get your care covered.
We aren’t throwing in the towel and we won’t give up on our patients. Being forced out of Title X won’t stop us from referring for or performing abortions, prescribing birth control, or any of our other services. Our doors are open and we are fighting against the gag rule.
The most important thing: Congress can take action to right this wrong. Make your voice heard to ensure that patients can continue to get the care they need. Stand with Planned Parenthood — we stand with you.
To Planned Parenthood patients, activists and supporters:
I have never met a group of people more dedicated to real work, more passionate about the mission or more committed to service, so I wanted to reach out to you directly.
Yesterday, the board of directors for Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) appointed me the acting president and CEO of PPFA and Acting President of PPAF. I am so grateful, and really humbled, for the board giving me this opportunity.
I have been part of the Planned Parenthood family for nearly a decade as a volunteer board member and board chair. In that time, I have had the chance to travel across the country and see the incredible work that happens every day at Planned Parenthood health centers. Planned Parenthood doctors, clinicians and staff at 600 health centers open their doors to care for more than 8,000 people each day, providing birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and safe, legal abortion. Planned Parenthood educators give people the information they need to make decisions about their bodies, their health and their lives. And Planned Parenthood volunteers, activists and organizers empower communities to fight for their rights, including the basic human right to access health care.
I have watched this work happen, and every day I am proud to be part of this organization and this movement. I’ve spent my career working at the intersection of academia and racial justice, and I used to tell my students: We find leadership in everyday experiences, but sometimes you see a good fight and you just want in.
So nearly 10 years ago, I jumped in at Planned Parenthood.
For more than a century, Planned Parenthood has been fighting forward, innovating and striving to better serve our patients and the people who depend on us to lead the fight for reproductive rights.
Today, we are defending access to sexual and reproductive health from attacks on many fronts — from the attempt to shut down access to abortion in states across the South and Midwest; to sexual and reproductive health crises including skyrocketing STI rates and rising maternal mortality rates; to attacks by the Trump-Pence administration. Monday, the administration promised to begin enforcing their harmful Title X gag rule, and we’re fighting back in every way we can. The communities we serve face attacks as immigrant families are ripped apart and dehumanized, LGBTQ people — especially trans and nonbinary people — face continued discrimination, and people of color are openly vilified from the highest office in the country.
The stakes are high.
But I would not have agreed to take on the daunting task of leading Planned Parenthood if I did not already know that this organization and this movement are more than equal to the challenge. We are 13 million supporters strong, and we have a long history of taking on big fights — and winning.
And we know the country stands with us. One in five women in this country has been to Planned Parenthood for care in her lifetime. Support for abortion is at a record high, with 77 percent of Americans saying that the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade and protect access to safe, legal abortion.
Planned Parenthood is strong because our people are strong. Our service is what gives us our power. Our patients trust us to be there for them even when politicians try to stop us from providing care. Our supporters come through for us when the attacks come at us fast and furious — rallying in Georgia, in Alabama, in Missouri, and everywhere our rights and autonomy are threatened. Every day our staff recommit to our mission: to provide excellent, compassionate sexual and reproductive health care, and to ensure that all people, no matter who they are or where they’re from, can access the care they need.
The bottom line is this: Our work and our mission isn’t about one person or even one organization — our work is about the millions of people who need access to affordable and comprehensive health care.
As Planned Parenthood’s acting president, I will honor what each of you do for this organization and this movement. Because you’re not just doing this for the 2.4 million people who get care at Planned Parenthood each year — you’re doing it for my two daughters, and for the next generation who deserves access to care. I will keep us moving forward, toward a more just, equitable future where every person’s health care decisions are their own.
That is my commitment to you.
Our doors are open — today, tomorrow, and into the next century. No matter what.
For some of us, motherhood is neither an option nor desire. Autism for me means feeling disconnected from even those closest to me, but with the complications of being cognizant of that gap. I could never love a child the way a child should be loved, and I have no desire to try. I know what it feels like to be unwanted, and to realize that my parent is unable to provide affection or appropriate parental support even if they wanted to try. It isn’t always “different when they’re yours”, and that isn’t a gamble I’m willing to take on someone else’s life.
So to the countless strangers, colleagues, and minor acquaintances who seem obsessed with my uterus, fuck off. My reasons are valid, but they are none of your business. The least you could do is be grateful I’m not contributing to overpopulation or risking increasing the social burden of my physical conditions by sharing my DNA.
Parenthood is difficult enough when you love and want your children. I have so much respect for autistic parents who are out there doing their best to raise beautiful people. I support your decisions, so please - I hope you’ll be respectful of mine.
Multiple gynos refused me an IUD because “oh, it hurts so much to put in when you’ve not had kids! We don’t want to put you in pain!!”
I was at a 7-9 on the pain scale regularly for my periods, and the docs were determined to make me run the gauntlet.
“But what about the pill?”
“Symptom-swap.”
“Have you thought about depo?”
“Mood drop.”
“And the patch?”
“Family history of breaking out in rashes.”
“Well, what about the nuva ring?”
“How will that NOT give me the same symptom-swap issues?”
“…”
“Look, I’m in pain so bad I wake up in the middle of the night. I’m in pain so bad I didn’t know I had appendecitis. I need SOMETHING.”
“Have you tried an ibuprofen protocol?”
“YES.”
“There are yoga poses that help with cramping.”
“I can’t uncurl from the ball of pain I’m in. How the hell am I supposed to hold position?”
“Well, how much caffeine do you drink? That could be a factor.”
“I have three cups of coffee a day and drink lots of water.”
And so on.
Then, one day, I made an appointment and went to Planned Parenthood.
“Yeah. Hi. I have incredibly painful periods that are fucking crippling me, and I need an IUD.”
“Okay. Do you have a chart of your periods I can look at?”
“Yup.”
“Okay. Looks like you have regular, heavy periods where the pain is worsening. Is that right?”
“Yup. And the fatigue. And the mood swings. And all of it.”
“Fatigue and mood swings, too?”
“Yup.”
“…is there any history of endometriosis in your family?”
“Yup. I’ve never been diagnosed, though. They say it takes a biopsy.”
“The biopsy can confirm tissue, but if you don’t have excess tissue, it doesn’t really help. You can have endo without excess tissue.”
“Okay. So, what are my options?”
“I suggest Mirena. Paraguard can make period symptoms worse even though it’s got no hormones while Mirena has a low-dose hormone that should help with all your pain and other issues. Here’s all the info on both of them. Here are models of both of them. Why don’t you take everything with you, read through it, then call if you have any questions? We can go ahead and schedule for insertion before you leave, and you can just call and say which type you want after you’ve read up. Is that okay?”
“…Yeah. That’s. That’s fine.”
“Do you have any questions right now?”
“Um, I got told a bunch I shouldn’t get an IUD because the insertion will hurt too much because I haven’t had kids.”
“Looking at the pain you’re usually in, I think you can handle it. It will definitely hurt, but it should only last about twenty seconds.”
“Twenty seconds?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve been refused the best option for dealing with my symptoms because of TWENTY SECONDS?!”
“Sadly, we hear that a lot.”
Planned Parenthood treated me like a PERSON who was in pain, not a walking uterus bitching and moaning about womanly things. Planned Parenthood showed me respect and kindness and respected the knowledge I brought of my own medical history to the conversation. Planned Parenthood respected my autonomy where other doctors rarely had and paid attention when I explained why I felt the IUD was the best choice. Planned Parenthood showed me I mattered, and I want to show how much they matter to me.
There’s absolutely no evidence showing that smoking weed affects birth control, including side effects and how well it prevents pregnancy. The only marijuana-related birth control problem you might have is forgetting to use your birth control correctly because you’re high. So just make sure you stay on top of your birth control, no matter what.
