Abortion Makes It On The Ballot In Ohio *\o/*

Here’s another edition of Hard to Believe It’s Only Tuesday, a weekly roundup of the top headlines, tweets (for now!), toks, takes, and more in abortion news. You can always email me ([email protected]) or DM me on instagram with action items, takes, and news clips. This post is probably too long for email, so click on the links up there ^ above the headline to open in your browser or the Substack app. You don’t want to miss this week’s Good Night and Good Dunk!

The big takeaway: Abortion! Is! On! The! Ballot! In! Ohio! Incredible, incredible work by Ohio advocates! Yes!

The Top Headlines

• “A Growing Share Of Americans Think States Shouldn't Be Able To Put Any Limits On Abortion” (FiveThirtyEight)

• “Maternal Deaths Are Expected to Rise Under Abortion Bans, but the Increase May Be Hard to Measure” (ProPublica)

• “Exclusive: Sens. Murray, Duckworth Reintroduce Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act” (Rewire News)

• “Male anti-abortion religious leaders mull murder charges for pregnant people at national event” (Missouri Independent)

• “These states are using fetal personhood to put women behind bars” (Mississippi Today)

• “Senate OKs defense bill, setting up clash with House over abortion, LGBTQ measures” (Politico)

• “Thinking of Counter-Protesting Abortion Protesters? There Are Better Ways to Help” (South Seattle Emerald)

• “Abortion Denied: Reproductive Injustice Behind Bars” (The Nation) — Everyone, absolutely everyone and by absolutely everyone I mean incarcerated folks!!, deserves full bodily autonomy.

• “Testifying against Texas, women denied abortions relive the pregnancies that almost killed them” (The Intercept) — This was lead news last week, but you’ll never catch me not linking to Mary Tuma’s excellent work.

• “No plans to change abortion policy despite GOP demand, Army secretary says” (NBC News)

• “Gen Z Roiled by Supreme Court Rulings on Student Loans, Abortion” (Bloomberg Law) — Young people care about abortion access and don’t you forget it!

• “Texas Border Agents Allegedly Laid Traps That Ensnared Miscarrying Pregnant Teen” (Jezebel)

• 🇺🇸 What politicians and politicos on the national stage are doing and saying about abortion in advance of the ‘24 election:

  • Ron DeSantis is lying about “post-birth” abortions the same way he’s lying about everything else! (Politifact)

  • “Harris to hold Iowa event on abortion opposite GOP gathering featuring Trump, DeSantis” (The Hill)

  • “2024 GOP candidates forced to grapple with a 6-week abortion ban to win Iowa” (NBC News)

  • “Biden threatens VA budget bill veto over limits on abortion, LGBT care” (Military Times)

  • “Nikki Haley Answers a Thorny Abortion Question: Should Women Be Punished?” (NYT) — CAN SOMEONE PLEASE ASK THIS QUESTION TO LITERALLY ANYONE ELSE IN THE ‘24 GOP FIELD, PLEASE

• ⚖️ What’s going on with abortion bans, legal challenges, and bills at the state and local levels:

  • 🟢 “Ohio abortion rights amendment headed for November ballot” (Ohio Capital Journal) 

  • 🟢 “Nebraska lawmakers urge Nebraska AG to clarify stance on reproductive health privacy” (Nebraska Examiner)

  • 🟢 “Misleading clients on abortion could cost Illinois pregnancy centers” (ABC News)

  • 🟢 “Dane County [Wisconsin] covering abortion-related travel expenses for county employees” (Wisconsin Examiner")

  • 🟡 “Republican Kehoe open to amending Missouri abortion ban to add exceptions if elected governor” (Kansas City Star) — Remember: abortion exceptions aren’t.

  • 🔴 “Block on Iowa’s strict abortion law can be appealed, state Supreme Court says” (AP)

  • 🔴 “Anti-Abortion Activist Caught on Camera Detailing Plan to Keep Abortion Off Missouri Ballot” (Jezebel)

  • 🔴 “Anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers sue Vermont over reproductive shield law” (VT Digger)

The Takes

• In The Fallout, Rewire News’ legal eagle Jessica Mason Pieklo brings dark tidings about a new move from the anti-abortion Becket Fund to make it even easier to harass abortion providers.

The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having—or Being Denied—an Abortion by Diana Greene Foster, PhD

This week I’m excited for a lucky reader to win a (signed!) copy of The Turnaway Study, Dr. Diana Greene Foster’s essential look at what it means when people are denied abortion care. It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of Dr. Foster’s work in helping us understand the absolute necessity of making abortion available to anyone who needs it. Read more about Dr. Foster’s work in the New York Times.

I’ll draw a winner’s name from my subscriber list at random on Thursday, August 3rd. (Sidebar: HOW IS IT ALMOST AUGUST???) Stay tuned!

The Tweets/Toks/Grams

• The Lilith Fund unpacks what’s really behind new findings that Texas saw 10,000 additional births following the passage of the state’s “bounty-hunter” abortion law.

• Physicians for Reproductive Health has a word: IF TRAUMA PORN WORKED, IT WOULD HAVE.

• Via @Clozilee: we still need abortion clinics and the expertise of abortion providers even in states where abortion is banned!

The Fuck Are We Supposed to Do About It?

• 👕 SWAG OF THE WEEK! 👕

  • Get you some I ❤️ Abortion Pills stickers in many, many languages, via Women on Web!

• 📱 Online: Tune into Advocates for Youth’s panel on reproductive injustice and the prison industrial complex on Wednesday, August 2nd.

• 📖 Anywhere: Read Dr. Autumn Asher BlackDeer’s new report, “Towards an Indigenous Reproductive Justice: Examining Attitudes on Abortion among American Indian and Alaska Native Communities.”

• ⛰️ Southwestern Virginia and Appalachia: The New River Abortion Access Fund is looking for volunteers!

• 📱 Online, for “any and all Muslims who have had abortions or want/need an abortion”: The Ad’iyah Collective’s next abortion support circle is Sunday, August 6.

• 📱 Online, for students: United States of Women, End Rape on Campus, and It’s On Us are hosting a training on on-campus abortion advocacy on Wednesday, August 9th.

• 🥂 St. Louis: Abortion Access Missouri’s annual gala is Friday, September 29.

• 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Anywhere: The Take Root: Red State Reproductive Justice 2023 conference in Louisville, KY is now open for proposals! This is an incredible organizing, collaborating, and community space for folks who are passionate about reproductive justice.

• 📱 North Texas: The Texas Equal Access Fund is looking for bilingual Spanish-speaking volunteers for their text line. Here’s where to sign up.

• 📞 Anywhere: Apply to be an All-Options talkline volunteer!

• 📥 Anywhere: Looking for a job in repro? ReproJobs can help you spruce up your resume!

• 🧑🏾‍⚕️ Anywhere, for medical residents training in abortion care: Obstetricians for Reproductive Justice and others will fund residents who need to travel out of state for abortion care training through December 2023 (or retroactively since July 1, 2022). Here’s how to apply.

• 🤠 Texas: Local teen-friendly businesses in in Bryan, College Station, Lubbock, or San Angelo can become pickup spots for repro kits assembled by Jane’s Due Process. Here’s the application form.

• 💸 From your wallet:

  • Donate to support the Austin Women’s Health Center and their essential repro health services, including miscarriage management and abortion referrals!

  • Donate to ensure Desert Star Family Planning in Phoenix can keep providing essential abortion care to folks in the Southwest!

  • Contribute to the Repro Worker Aid Fund (or apply to be a recipient!)

  • Donate $$ and pads to Just the Pill’s mobile clinic.

  • Donate to the Online Abortion Resource Squad, which supports the R/Abortion subreddit 24/7/365.

  • Donate to Elevated Access, which transports folks for abortion and gender-affirming care.

  • Find your local abortion fund and donate!

  • The Valley Abortion Group is a new all-trimester abortion facility fundraising to open in New Mexico — donate to the GoFundMe.

  • Buy something off the wishlist of an independent clinic, abortion fund, or clinic defense group, or donate to support abortion funds. This link distributes your donation to 90+ funds around the country. Or donate to support independent abortion providers!

• ✍️ Sign and share:

  • Anywhere: Use All Above All*’s form to tell your congressperson to support the Abortion Justice Act.

  • Texas: Join the Frontera Fund in telling your Texas lawmakers that you’re not having it with the “border fence” and “migrant” surveillance.

  • Anywhere, but especially for Alabamans: Sign the Yellowhammer Fund’s petition against a bill that would allow the prosecution abortion and even some forms of pregnancy loss as homicide.

  • Anywhere: Sign this multi-org-backed petition demanding Google stop “collecting and retaining location data and aiding abortion prosecutors.”

  • Anywhere: sign the Fight for the Future petition to demand better digital safety and security on Slack!

  • Anywhere: Sign the RJ Response to Stop Cop City.

  • Anywhere: All Above All*’s petition to lift outdated restrictions on medication abortion.

  • Anywhere: UltraViolet’s petition calling on pharmacies to provide medication abortion access where it’s legal to do so.

• 📖 Anywhere, resources edition:

  • Who Not When’s guide to reporting on later abortion is just great.

  • Subscribe to the No Body Criminalized podcast from the Repro Legal Defense Fund’s Rafa Kidvai.

  • Read this solidarity + organizing brief from Interrupting Criminalization and a coalition of repro and anti-criminalization orgs.

  • I Need An A’s new “stories” section provides resources, support, and information for folks seeking abortion care.

  • Plan C Pills has published a self-managed abortion field guide in super fun, accessible zine form.

  • Physicians for Reproductive Health has a wide-ranging messaging guide to talking about a variety of issues, from later abortion to self-managed care to insurance coverage for abortion.

  • The Repro Legal Defense Fund and the Community Justice Exchange have an extensive, attractive, and fact-filled guide to abortion criminalization in both English and Spanish.

  • Check out the “Pro Choice, But” campaign to better understand how to talk with folks who are, well, pro-choice … but.

  • Read the National Immigration Law Center’s know-your-rights-guide to abortion access for immigrants and share widely.

  • Familiarize yourself with this Digital Defense Fund guide to keeping your abortion private and secure, or check out the If/When/How Repro Legal Helpline guide to internet safety.

  • Read this guide on using trans-inclusive language from ARC-Southeast and the Transgender Law Center.

  • REPRO Rising Virginia has a thorough guide to updating your protest signs to make sure you’re using the most forward-thinking, respectful, and impactful language around abortion.

  • Here’s a big list of action items and info created by @RHAVote, and another big list of action items and info created by Alison Turkos.

That’s all for this week. I’m sure I’ve missed something you’d like to see featured in this roundup, for I am but one woman with a computer and an abortion-news-induced drinking problem. Holler at me — [email protected], or DM me on Instagram, and I’ll try to add follow-ups as I’m able.