Hard to Believe It's Only Tuesday: She Needed an Abortion; the Judge Told Her 'No.'

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.

📣 Action item note! I’m presenting at Press On’s virtual Snack & Learn event, “Harm reduction for abortion justice reporters,” on Wednesday, December 14th with Kate Bertash of the Digital Defense Fund, moderated by Facing South’s Elisha Brown. If you cover abortion or abortion politics or are an assignment editor who commissions pieces on abortion or abortion politics, please sign up and spread the word! Register here by Wednesday, December 7th.

The big takeaway: It’s a lot of fuckery out of Indiana. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a TRAP law that forces abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains, and the state’s AG is attacking a doctor who provided care to a 10-year-old sexual assault survivor earlier this year. UPDATE: and some good news out of Indiana! This news just broke Friday afternoon — the ACLU, representing Hoosier Jews for Choice and five individual plaintiffs, has been granted a preliminary injunction against the statewide ban. Their suit argues the ban violates the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This injunction comes on top of a another ruling issued in September that initially blocked the ban from going into effect.

The Top Headlines

• “She wanted an abortion. A judge said she wasn’t mature enough to decide.” (ProPublica/New York Times Magazine) — This very thoughtful long-read will sadden and enrage and horrify you. As I noted on Twitter, it’s unusual to see a young person’s experience being denied abortion care taken truly seriously.

• What’s happening with clinics and providers:

  • “Indiana attorney general asks medical board to discipline abortion doctor” (New York Times) — The anti-abortion AG wants Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who provided abortion care this summer to a 10-year-old from Ohio, to be “disciplined” for, apparently, an Indianapolis Star report on the girl’s case, of which the Times notes “Dr. Bernard has refused to discuss the details of the girl’s case, and has not revealed her identity.”

  • “For-profit abortion telemedicine start-ups are proliferating in wake of Roe” (Truthout) — Behold, what We Testify’s Renee Bracey Sherman has called “the techbro-ification of abortion.”

• What’s happening with abortion laws and restrictions in the states (and cities):

  • “Indiana Superior Court temporarily blocks abortion ban” (WAVE) — This news just broke Friday afternoon — the ACLU, representing Hoosier Jews for Choice and five individual plaintiffs, has been granted a preliminary injunction against the statewide ban. Their suit argues the ban violates the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This injunction comes on top of a another ruling issued in September that initially blocked the ban from going into effect.

  • “Court reinstates Indiana’s abortion burial, cremation law” (KSLA News 12) — The law, championed by Mike Pence, forces abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains.

  • “North Dakota high court asked to lift injunction against abortion ban” (AP)

  • “Abortion case certified to the state Supreme Court while intervenors denied” (The Sheridan Press) — The state in question is Wyoming.

  • “Controversial abortion ordinance passes first reading in Pueblo” (KRDO) — Texas’ Mark Lee Dickson, who goes around trying to establish “sanctuary cities” where abortion banned, is trying it in Colorado.

  • “Where abortion will be on the ballot in 2024” (Washington Post)

  • “Cities and states are acting fast to blunt the impact of Dobbs” (The Nation)

• “U.S. Senate panel deadlocks on abortion rights lawyer’s judicial nomination” (Reuters) — Julie Rikelman argued the Dobbs case; Biden has nominated her for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

• “Googling abortion? Your details aren’t as private as you think” (The Guardian)

• “Apple won’t let staff work remotely to escape Texas abortion limits” (Wired)

The Tweets and Toks

• ANSIRH director and abortion provider Dr. Daniel Grossman — commenting on the Texas judge who forced G., the young person at the center of this ProPublica report, to get an ultrasound (and still denied her the care she needed) — notes that forced ultrasounds do not dissuade people from choosing abortion care: “No one should be forced to see a judge to have an abortion, especially one as wrong on the basic facts as he is. @ANSIRH studied ultrasound viewing: 57% of patients chose not to view the ultrasound. Of the 43% who did, 98.41% continued with their abortion.”

• < looks directly into camera >

The Takes

• Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky is in Slate with a look at a new paper in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology that details the consequences of abortion bans for people with pregnancy complications — bans that, as Karkowsky puts it, force doctors to simply wait “for something terrible to happen.” She writes: “The people who suffer most because of limitations in good obstetric care in these states are, of course, the patients. The paper was written by doctors who are no longer allowed to provide the care they trained for years to provide. And in that setting, they wrote this paper to document the suffering and danger they see, which they could have offered choices to help prevent. This is a medical publication of data about that compromised medical care. It is a paper full of evidence. It is also a paper full of the rage and grief of being forced to offer substandard medical care to patients who are suffering. It won’t be the last.”

• Physicians for Reproductive Health CEO/President Dr. Jamila Perritt and If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice ED Jill Adams are in MedPage Today with a piece I missed back in November but is a must-read in light of the new AJOG paper referenced above, emphasizing how important it is that clinicians, emergency room staff, and other medical providers understand they are not required to report their patients to law enforcement if they believe may have had a self-managed abortion: “We believe there is no place for the criminal legal system in healthcare spaces. The fear of criminalization and/or reporting to law enforcement agencies keeps people from seeking care and causes harm. It pits patients against providers. It is antithetical to care and misaligned with medical ethics and public health principles. There is absolutely no mandate to report patients to law enforcement for having an abortion or experiencing pregnancy loss. In fact, there is no underlying crime in nearly all states. As If/When/How's research shows, investigations and arrests typically involve overzealous prosecutors misusing criminal laws that aren't meant to apply to self-managed abortion.”

• Chloe Samillano, an URGE student journalist writing for the EmURGEing Voices blog, urges (!) Californians not to succumb to Blue-state complacency. She writes: “Living in California, a blue state with a reputation of being a ‘sanctuary’ for abortion rights, made me feel a sense of relief the day Roe was overturned, a “Thank God, I’m not there,” when it came to seeing all the red states with trigger laws. This type of thinking, I find, can be quite dangerous because it can easily perpetuate a survival of the fittest mentality that contrasts the reality that all of us are connected and affected by this ruling, no matter where we live. Folks in red states, of course, feel and experience the repercussions differently. I echo Onyemma Obiekea, a Policy Analyst for the Black Women for Wellness Action Project, when she stated in the LA Times, ‘We [in California] don’t have as many restrictive laws, but we need to recognize all of the hurdles that folks still have to navigate.’”

• This Adoptees Disrupting Adoption Narratives series from Tina Vásquez in Prism puts adoptees’ experiences center stage in conversations on reproductive health, rights, and justice. Start here: “Time and time again, the solution offered to state violence is adoption, yet we fail to center adoptees whose lived experiences and areas of expertise touch every injustice and systemic problem our movements battle against. This is especially true when it comes to reproductive justice. While efforts are being made to explicitly discuss adoption as a reproductive justice issue, adoptees’ voices are still not being uplifted in these conversations. Adoptees are building their own movements—including groups like Adoptees for Choice—but will movements for sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice invite them into the fold?”

The Fuck Are We Supposed To Do About It?

• Anywhere: Get you a free pair of Wildfang coveralls with a $250 donation to Indigenous Women Rising!

• New York: The New York Abortion Access Fund is looking for new board members — apply by Monday, December 5th.

• Online: I’ll be presenting at Press On’s virtual Snack & Learn event, “Harm reduction for abortion justice reporters,” on Wednesday, December 14th with Kate Bertash of the Digital Defense Fund, moderated by Facing South’s Elisha Brown. Register here by Wednesday, December 7th.

• Anywhere, for playwrights: A Is For’s one-act play contest for reproductive justice is on! Submit by December 31, 2022.

• Georgia: Join Atlanta’s Feminist Women’s Health Center for a legislative advocacy workshop in person on Saturday, January 7th or online Saturday, January 14th. Tickets are $10, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Register here.

• Anywhere, for health care providers: UCSF’s Dobbs Impact Study is looking at instances of “poor-quality medical care since the Dobbs decision,” and they’re encouraging providers to submit de-identified stories.

• Texas:

  • Join the Texas Abortion Hype Squad.

  • Jane’s Due Process is looking for volunteers in Bryan, College Station, San Angelo, and Lubbock to distribute repro kits containing emergency contraception and other essentials. Sign up here — and they’re looking for local businesses to volunteer as pick-up sites, too.

• Anywhere, swag edition:

  • Grab holiday-themed abortion gear from JEN, the South Dakota abortion and practical support fund. The guinea pig shirt is precious/hilarious.

  • New gear from the Texas Equal Access Fund, including sweatshirts!

  • 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.

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

• Anywhere, best practices edition:

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

  • 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.

• California, Texas, or Georgia: SisterLove, Inc. is looking for English- or Spanish-speakers between the ages of 15 and 49 who “recently found out [they] were pregnant’” as part of a paid study through the University of Pittsburgh. Here’s the intake survey to find out if you qualify.

• Sign and share:

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

  • Anywhere: All Above All*’s petition asks President Biden take immediate steps to ensure abortion justice for immigrants.

• From your wallet: 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!

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.