Hard to Believe It's Only Tuesday: Access in Flux, Everywhere

Here's what happened in abortion news + takes this week.

July 22, 2022

Here’s another edition of Hard to Believe It’s Only Tuesday, a weekly roundup of the top headlines, tweets, takes, and more in abortion news.

This week’s big takeaway: abortion access continues to be in flux, with some states — Louisiana, West Virginia — getting reprieves from bans, while a federal court has allowed a Georgia ban to go into effect immediately. Some cities (Austin, Columbus) are working on efforts to support abortion access, including attempts to dissuade law enforcement from prioritizing prosecutions, amid the crisis. And in abortion-hostile geographies, medical providers continue to try to navigate so-called abortion “exceptions,” with dire and disturbing consequences for people with higher-risk pregnancies and those experiencing miscarriage.

The Top Headlines

The Tweets

  • The ACLU’s Chase Strangio tweets a thread on organizing across/between/with the movements for trans and reproductive justice: “This is about so much more than language, semantics or equality. It is about how we learn from each other and build meaningful care networks.”

  • Sociologist Amanda Stevenson, as ever bringing the data: “Abortion bans are cruel to everyone, but they impact the youngest especially harshly. Here's the basic arithmetic on the decline in Texas resident abortions by age in the first six months of Texas' 6-week ban.”

  • Rewire News legal expert and Boom! Lawyered co-host Imani Gandy notes that “Black women in Mississippi are now 118 times more likely to die from childbirth than they are from an abortion. 118 TIMES.”

  • ReproAction Executive Director Erin Matson tweets a thread on the danger of anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” (right-wing religious groups which use lies, shame, stigma, and misinformation to dissuade people from accessing abortion) with a particular emphasis on the urgency of defunding these efforts.

  • Writer Charlotte Shane tweets on the anti-abortion right’s efforts to rebrand/redefine “abortion” and its connection to pregnancy/provider criminalization (see the Takes section below for more on this).

  • Here’s a really thoughtful, well reasoned and respectful exchange between writer T.S. Mendola and @RHAVote (activists Erika and Garin) on the merits and drawbacks of taking an incrementalist approach to abortion ban repeals.

The Takes

  • Prism’s Tina Vasquez writes on the impact of abortion censorship and abortion criminalization on support networks, newsrooms, and anyone else who creates communities and resources for and about abortion access: “The strategy is to make people seeking abortion care feel desperate and alone. The anti-abortion movement—and the many lawmakers in their pockets—know it’s easier to force someone to have a child with laws that incite fear and legitimize the surveillance and policing of trusted and established abortion support networks. The way we fight back is also the way we become targets: by educating people on the legal risks associated with self-managed abortion, and sharing information about abortion medication.”

  • The Mary Sue’s Vivian Kane on the anti-abortion lobby’s attempt to redefine “abortion” amid the blowback to bans: “We’re seeing a major revival of this sort of argument, with claims that some abortions—those deemed nice and necessary enough to be tolerated by anti-abortion advocates—aren’t really abortions at all. These semantic gymnastics are, unsurprisingly, being embraced by people who consider themselves ‘pro-life’ and need to justify their own abortions.”

The Fuck Are We Supposed to Do About It?

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 Twitter, and I’ll try to add follow-ups as I’m able.