Hard to Believe It's Only Tuesday: Florida Teen Denied Abortion Care by Court

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. Remember: you can always email me ([email protected]) or @/DM me on twitter with action items — rallies, trainings, fundraisers, block-walks, petitions, etc. — to include in the The Fuck Are We Supposed To Do About It? section!

This week’s big takeaway: nobody’s reproductive decisions should be left up to the fucking government! Sorry! That’s all I’ve fucking got!

The Top Headlines

• “Parentless Florida girl, 16, not ‘mature’ enough for abortion, court says” (Tampa Bay Times) — If you heard about one abortion story this week, it was probably this one. If the idea of young people’s reproductive autonomy being left up to some stranger on a court bench is new to you, and it very well might be because young people’s abortion access is a longtime bargaining chip among ostensibly ‘pro-choice’ lawmakers, avail yourself of the opportunity to learn more from Jane’s Due Process, Advocates for Youth, and If/When/How.

• “Abortion providers would like you to please stop interviewing anti-abortion propagandists” (Jezebel) and “Abortion Opponents Don’t Want You To Read News About Abortion” (Mother Jones) — Abortion providers across the country and a coalition of news outlets (including Rewire, The Nation, HuffPo, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and Capital B) issued two separate, but related, missives this week demanding journalists who report on abortion not play the “both sides” game when it comes to this integral part of reproductive health care.

• “Abortion ban stalls in West Virginia after protesters pack public hearings and the Capital” (Waging Nonviolence) — This is why you don’t tell people to “just move” out of ostensibly abortion-hostile geographies, and why you don’t boycott states where people are doing the hardest work on the ground! From the story, about repro justice activists who occupied state offices for 11+ hours: “‘I don’t care what anyone says. If we weren’t here, this wouldn’t have happened. Do not tell me protest and emails to legislators do not work. I just saw it,’ tweeted Jamie Miller, an abortion escort and executive assistant at ACLU-WV.”

• News on abortion ban statuses in the states:

  • “Judge: Prosecutors cannot enforce Michigan abortion ban” (AP)

  • “Idaho’s top court allows strict abortion ban to kick in” (WaPo) — The ban becomes active on August 25th.

  • “Federal judge reinstates North Carolina’s 20-week abortion ban” (CBS News)

  • “South Carolina Supreme Court temporarily blocks abortion law” (WRDW) — Meanwhile, South Carolina Republicans have proposed a new, more restrictive ban, which passed out of committee this week.

• “Kansas to recount abortion vote by hand, despite big margin” (AP) — Kansans’ tax dollars at work: spending time and money at the behest of an anti-abortion group on the general GOP tip of trying to illegitimize perfectly legitimate votes.

• “How one progressive city is fighting to decriminalize abortion” (The Nation) — The city in question is Austin, but lots of others, such as San Antonio, Denton, and Dallas, are mirroring efforts.

• “Abortion funds have been inundated with donations and volunteer requests, but some are still struggling to survive” (Prism) — This is a tough needle to thread, but Tina Vásquez pulls it off, as always. It’s a worthwhile longer read featuring interviews with abortion funders on the front lines who are honest about the logistical and legal struggles of individuals and organizations who are trying to fund abortion under bans. Notable get is real talk about the National Abortion Federation’s decision to stop funding abortion, putting local funds in a bind despite NAF’s relatively safe position as a national entity. (NAF is not the same as NNAF, the National Network of Abortion Funds.)

• “Trans men talk about why they got abortions” (Buzzfeed News)

• “Louisiana woman is forced to carry headless fetus to term or travel to Florida for legal abortion” (Jezebel) — Stories like this are fucking awful and sadly proliferate post-Dobbs, and no pregnant person who experiences something like this should be forced to go through this trauma, feel obligated to share their story lest the failure to do so be a detriment to the movement to end abortion bans, or be the reason why anybody thinks abortion bans are bad in the first place, bans are fucking bad because they’re an assault on human rights, period, end of.

• “All three Louisiana abortion clinics are leaving the state, staff say” (WWNO)

• “How gender-affirming care may be impacted when clinics that offer abortions close” (NPR)

The Tweets

• Texas-based abortion provider Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi lays out why physicians and news outlets are asking journalists not to bend to “both sides” on abortion:

• Rewire legal expert Imani Gandy on why that news out of Florida about a 16-year-old being denied her application for an abortion by the courts because she’s not “mature” enough is fucked the fuck up, but for real:

The Takes

• American University’s Cynthia Miller-Idriss in MSNBC on the fundamental white supremacy of the political movement(s) to ban abortion: “While the rape of white women by nonwhite men is used to generate outrage and a ‘rallying call to unite and fight back,’ rape is seen by some on the far right spectrum as acceptable, even desirable — if it produces white babies. Voluntary reproduction matters too. In far-right forums online, users have discussed the ‘pro-white’ approach of having large families of white children, thus promoting their goals and ideology ‘through procreative means.’”Subscribe now

The Fuck Are We Supposed To Do About It?

• North Texas: Avow Texas is organizing a deep canvassing event in Richardson on August 29.

• Bay Area: Check out this cool music-drinks-fashion event in Oakland on Thursday, August 25th, proceeds benefit Access Reproductive Justice.

• North Texas: Get you a tattoo for reproductive justice at Vato Loco Tattoos in Arlington on Saturday, August 27th. Proceeds benefit the Texas Equal Access Fund.

• New York City: A Is For’s annual gala, Broadway Acts for Abortion is coming up on October 2nd, and it sounds like a wild time. Folks with deeper pockets can sponsor a table.

• Austin: Eat delicious meals from L’Oca d’Oro’s Pasta Paisanos!: Collaborative Dinners for Abortion Rights series benefitting the Lilith Fund, on September 6th, October 4th, and November 1st.

• Anywhere: Get you an Abortion Showers zine!

• Anywhere: Get you some gear from Two Little Pills, which works to scrub out dated, harmful coat hanger imagery in favor of celebrating safe medication abortion. Proceeds go to Elevated Access, a group of volunteer pilots working to make sure folks can get to the abortion and gender-affirming care they need.

• Anywhere: Order your own INeedAnA promo stickers to share with folks in your community.

• Anywhere: Buy something off the wishlist of an independent clinic, abortion fund, or clinic defense group.

• Anywhere: read this guide (for journalists, but useful for everybody) on using trans-inclusive language when talking about reproductive health care, from ARC-Southeast and the Transgender Law Center.

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

• Anywhere: familiarize yourself with this Digital Defense Fund guide to keeping your abortion private and secure, and share it widely.

• Anywhere: Folks in Austin, TX have created model language for city-based protections for abortion that could be replicated just about anywhere. Check out this TikTok for more, or flip through this Instagram FAQ slide show from Jane’s Due Process.

• Texas: sign and share Avow Texas’ petition demanding county district attorneys pledge not to prosecute people for providing abortions, or because of a pregnancy outcome.

• From your wallet: Donate to support abortion funds; this link distributes your donation to 90+ funds around the country, or donate to support independent abortion providers.

• Anywhere: Here’s a big list of action items and info created by @RHAVote.

• Anywhere: Buy one of @PrisonCulture’s shirts supporting the National Network of Abortion Funds.

• Anywhere: Request a copy of Rosie’s Zine to learn more about Rosie Jimenez, the Texan, college student, and single mom who died in 1977 after having an unsafe abortion when she wasn’t able to afford clinical care thanks to bans on abortion coverage. The zine supports efforts to expand insurance coverage for abortion care.

• Texas: Join the Texas Abortion Hype Squad

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.