Repro Roundup 01.26.24
February is quickly approaching, and those who have been with us for a while know what that means – bills in the Massachusetts legislature have to be reported out of committee by February 7th in accordance with Joint Rule 10. That means we have two weeks left to fight for all five bills in our reproductive equity agenda!
As a reminder, these bills would ensure that Bay State parents have access to the full spectrum of pregnancy care without cost sharing, protect the location data of patients and providers, ensure MassHealth coverage for doula care, expand birthing justice initiatives, and ensure affordable child care for Massachusetts families. You can get a refresher on these critical items here.
We need our legislators to hear from us on these issues now more than ever. We’re asking you to write to your legislators in support of the full repro equity agenda before February 7th. You can use this link, and it takes less than two minutes!
Now, on to the week’s news—
New England Roundup
→WATCH: Repro Equity Now’s Liz Gustafson talks to NBC Connecticut on Roe Anniversary
Reproductive Equity Now joined repro leaders in Connecticut this past Monday, on what would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, to discuss the work left to be done in the Nutmeg State to advance reproductive equity and abortion justice. We are gearing up for an exciting session in Connecticut, so watch this space for how you can help advocate for repro equity this coming year. Watch the segment HERE.
→Repro Equity Now Fights to Protect Abortion Patients’ and Providers’ Digital Privacy
Last week, we joined our Massachusetts partners for a Week of Action surrounding the Location Shield Act, legislation that would ban the sale of cellphone location data and protect abortion patients’ and providers’ digital privacy. We joined together for a legislative briefing at the MA State House to discuss why it is urgent that we pass this legislation, held a public webinar to educate our communities on what our cellphone location data can reveal, and made calls at a a phone bank to rally support around this bill. We were thrilled that Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell joined the call to ban the sale of cellphone location data, too!
→New Report: Massachusetts Child Care Costs Among the Highest Across the Country
Care.com, a Waltham-based company that helps connect parents to child care providers, released their 2024 Cost of Care report, and it does not look good for Bay State families and parents. Massachusetts is the most expensive state to hire a nanny or full-time child care provider in the home, and is the third-most expensive state in the nation to send a child to daycare. Massachusetts families deserve affordable, high-quality child care. That’s why we’re advocating at the Massachusetts State House for accessible child care options. You can learn more about these bills here, and contact your legislator to urge them to pass Common Start legislation (and our full Reproductive Equity agenda) here.
→More Roe Anniversary Discussions Across New England
Our New Hampshire State Director Christina Warriner joined allies and fellow repro advocates last Friday to discuss the state of reproductive rights and equity in New Hampshire nearly two years after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. As we continue our expansion into New Hampshire, we are thrilled to be part of the effort to pass CACR 23, a constitutional amendment that would enshrine the right to abortion into New Hampshire’s state constitution. It is critical that we advance this constitutional amendment to the state ballot and stop right-wing attacks on abortion in their places.
Image Credit: The Granite Post
To learn more about how to advocate for this constitutional amendment, the New Hampshire Bulletin has created an excellent resource on following a bill and contacting your legislators. Check out “How to follow a bill and share your thoughts with NH lawmakers.”
→Connecticut Continues to Fight Attempts to Close Labor and Delivery Units
Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, Connecticut, has filed a request with the State Office of Health Strategy to close their labor and delivery unit – one of three rural hospitals that have moved to stop delivering babies in the last several years. The OHS denied this request at Johnson Memorial, but approved the closure of the Windham Hospital Labor and Delivery Unit, putting a further strain on an already-overburdened birthing program. Across the country, hospitals have continued to shutter their birthing units due to lack of staff capacity. With patients across the nation finding themselves without high-quality birth care, it is imperative that hospitals in protected states continue to provide birth and delivery services.
→With Maternal Mortality on the Rise in CT, Activists Look for Answers
This past week, advocates and state officials met at the Connecticut Capitol to discuss the recent rise in maternal mortality in the Nutmeg State. The closure of various labor and delivery units around the state certainly is not helping matters, but one particular contributor to this devastating rise in adverse outcomes – and to the drastic disparity of outcomes in maternal health between people of color and white people – is the lack of postpartum coverage for immigrants under HUSKY Health, Connecticut’s Medicaid expansion. Repro Equity Now is supporting work this session to fight for expansion of HUSKY for all families, regardless of immigration status, which will hopefully help curb the rise in birth complications and postpartum health issues. Stay tuned for more information on how to take action this session in Connecticut.
National Notice
→On the Should’ve-Been Anniversary of Roe, Biden Takes New Steps to Defend Abortion and Contraception
This past Monday, on what would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Biden Administration announced they were taking new action to defend abortion and contraception care. The administration prepared an FAQ-sheet for insurers regarding their obligations to provide contraceptives under the ACA, and HHS Secretary Beccera issued a letter to private insurers, Medicaid/Medicare providers, and CHIPs providers reminding them of their obligations to provide no-cost contraception options.
The Department of Justice also put out a memo clarifying the rights of physicians to perform emergency abortion care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law explicitly granting rights to physicians to perform abortions even under state-level bans in the event of a medical emergency for the pregnant patient. The Department of Justice is currently suing the state of Idaho over its refusal to comply with EMTALA guidance under the state’s effective total abortion ban. This is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court this year.
Finally, the Department of Justice submitted a brief to the Supreme Court arguing the case of Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA presents a threat to the continued function of the FDA and could fundamentally disrupt the American health care system. Danco Laboratories, the manufacturer of mifepristone, also filed a brief making this same argument.
→Anti-Abortion Legislatures Continue to Attack Travel Across State Lines for Health Care
After Idaho passed legislation last year raising the penalty for bringing a minor across state lines for abortion care, other extreme anti-abortion legislatures are proposing similar legislation to interrupt interstate travel for abortion. Both Tennessee and Oklahoma have introduced proposals to create a criminal “abortion trafficking” statute, which would allow district attorneys to prosecute any individual who helps a minor access abortion without parental consent. This can include supporting travel out of state for care, but the language of these bills also appears to be wide enough to cover anyone who even helps a minor access information about care – like Texas’s bounty hunter bill, SB 8., which encourages civil lawsuits against anyone who helps someone in Texas access abortion care.
→Post-Dobbs, Teen Pregnancy Incidence Climbs, More Rape-Related Pregnancies
Two major studies with data on pregnancy incidence post-Dobbs revealed some disturbing statistics. A report by the University of Houston found that teen pregnancy in Texas rose for the first time in fifteen years in 2022, the year in which abortion became effectively fully illegal in Texas. Additionally, reproductive rights researchers have calculated that an estimated 65,000 rape-related pregnancies have occurred in the 14 states where abortion is fully banned since the fall of Roe. The actual number may be significantly higher due to the fact that rape and sexual violence frequently go unreported.
Get Involved!
📍ANYWHERE! Join the Abortion Access Advocates!
The Abortion Access Advocates team is gearing up for their next training on February 12th! At the next meeting, the Repro Equity Now team will be joined by reproductive justice activists to discuss the history of the birth and abortion justice movement and how we can expand our vision as local activists from one that focuses on abortion legality to one that takes an intersectional, justice-driven lens. Register today!
📍ANYWHERE! Reserve your spot for Reproductive Equity Now’s Annual Gala
Save the date (and reserve your tickets today!) for Reproductive Equity Now’s Annual Gala on April 11th! We will be honoring reproductive equity activists from across New England, celebrating our wins from this past year, and honing in on our vision for reproductive equity across the region. We’d be honored to have you join us for what will surely be an incredible night!
📍MASSACHUSETTS! Write to your legislators in support of the Reproductive Equity Agenda!
This week’s roundup begins and ends with asking you to write to your legislators in support of reproductive equity – that’s how important this is! Write to your legislators TODAY in support of the full reproductive equity agenda. Every voice counts!
Our Resources
Need to understand your legal rights to provide or access abortion care? Reproductive Equity Now’s Abortion Legal Hotline will help connect Massachusetts-based health care providers and helpers, as well as patients obtaining care in Massachusetts, with free legal advice and resources about abortion access.
Looking for an abortion provider in your area? Our New England Abortion Care Guide allows you to search by zip code for legitimate abortion clinics near you. It even flags dangerous and deceptive anti-abortion centers to avoid at all costs.
Do you want to help advance reproductive equity in your community? Our Win & Deliver Toolkit offers policy proposals and supporting materials to serve as a starting point for municipal leaders looking to move the needle forward on reproductive equity.
Thank you so much for powering this fight.
We’re grateful to have you in the movement with us.
