Repro Roundup 03.22.24

As you may know, on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case challenging the availability of mifepristone, the first drug used in a gold standard medication abortion protocol. This case represents a scientifically-baseless, politically-motivated attack on medication abortion that could have significant impacts on care in protected states.

Yesterday, we were grateful to join Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Tina Smith, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, Mallory Schwarz of Abortion Action Missouri, and Sarah Lipton-Lubet of Take Back the Court Action Fund for a press conference  to discuss the impacts this case could have on blue states, and how we must restore our democracy in order to restore our care. You can watch the press conference by clicking on the image below!

 On to this week's headlines –

News from New England

→ Connecticut Advanced Legislation to Protect Providers Offering Health Info, Referrals

This past week, the Connecticut legislature advanced a bill that will protect providers in the Nutmeg State from professional disciplinary action at the hands of their employers if they provide medically accurate referrals or information related to reproductive health care. This will empower providers who work for institutions that may not perform abortion care, such as religious or Catholic hospitals, to provide the best standard of care to their patients and will protect patients from being denied life-saving care or information. Check out this article in the Connecticut Mirror to learn more about this bill, and read our Connecticut State Director Liz’s poignant testimony! 

→ Massachusetts Senate Passes the EARLY ED Act!

We were thrilled to see the Massachusetts Senate pass the EARLY ED Act, a bill that would create a framework for the state to ensure early childhood education is accessible and affordable for all Bay State parents. As members of the Common Start Coalition, Reproductive Equity Now spoke at a press conference last week with the Senate President and legislative leaders to share why affordable and high-quality child care is essential to reproductive equity. Now, we look forward to working with the House to get this bill across the finish line.

Taylor St. Germain, our Communications Director, speaking at the Common Start rally in support of the EARLY ED Act!

→ NH Laws Harm Trans and Queer Kids

The New Hampshire House passed a bill Thursday seeking to exclude transgender girls from competitive school sports, which now heads to the Senate. This bill deprives kids of the right to play on a sports team that accurately reflects their identity and lived experience, and directly conflicts the core Granite State values of the rights to privacy and freedom. The New Hampshire State House also narrowly passed a bill last week that requires Granite State educators to give parents the option to opt their students out of curriculum involving sexual orientation and gender, as well as requires educators to answer parents’ questions about students’ identities. This means that teachers may be required to disclose information to parents about their children’s gender identity – information that kids might not be ready to share with their parents yet. Many LGBTQ+ teenagers rely on teachers and counselors in their schools to be a safe person to talk to regarding questions about their identity. This bill now heads to the Senate, where we hope it will be blocked so that New Hampshire students continue to have safe spaces and advocates in schools. 

→ Republican AGs Threaten to Sue Over Maine’s Shield Law

The Maine legislature is working to pass a shield law, similar to the one in Massachusetts, that would protect abortion providers, gender-affirming physicians, and patients who travel to Maine for care or receive care via telemedicine from a Maine-based provider. The bill was featured in a tweet from the far-right account LibsOfTikTok, prompting national outcry from far-right activists, which spurred a group of 16 Republican AGs to submit a letter to state leaders in Maine, threatening to sue the state over this bill. 

 → New Hampshire Residents Wary of Kelly Ayotte’s Stance on IVF

Kelly Ayotte may have recently said she opposes the Alabama ruling designating embryos as “extrauterine children,” but her voting history is leaving many Granite State voters fearful that she cannot be trusted to protect their right to reproductive health care. As an article in the Portsmouth Herald this past week noted, Ayotte sponsored the 2011 Protect Life Act, which would have allowed health care providers to refuse to perform IVF or other reproductive health services, and a 2012 amendment, which would have enabled employers to exclude IVF from the services covered under employer-sponsored health insurance. She also endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2024, who has major ties to anti-IVF activists who intend to restrict IVF and other reproductive health services if he is re-elected this November.

National Notice

→ Medication Abortion Use on the Rise Nationally

Guttmacher, a national think tank and research hub on reproductive health policy and statistics,  released an important report this past week that showed two critical findings. Abortions are actually at an all-time high nationally, and are performed at a higher rate than before the Dobbs decision, which speaks to the resilience and creativity of the abortion access movement in the face of immense barriers posed by post-Roe policy. The other crucial finding in this report is that medication abortion has risen in incidence since Dobbs as well, now making up 63% of abortion care performed nationwide. This highlights the importance of both telemedicine providers who use shield laws to ensure patients in states with little-to-no access can still receive timely, life-affirming, life-saving abortion care, and also makes clear the importance of mifepristone itself, which is used in nearly two-thirds of abortions post-Dobbs. As we approach the oral arguments of the case attacking mifepristone, it is important to remember both how medication abortion is an instrument for liberation for so many people, and that the abortion justice movement will continue to find ways to ensure patients get the care they need. 

→ Judicial Conference Curbs Judge Shopping 

It’s no secret that lobbyist groups have taken efforts to file public interest lawsuits in districts where judges might be friendlier to their case, but when the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine filed suit in a Texas district over which only one judge – the notorious Matthew Kacsmaryk – presides, it became clear that curbing this practice is necessary to restore public faith in the judiciary. New federal judicial policy instituted this week will prevent these single-judge districts from having unilateral control over cases filed in their locality, which will prevent activists from being able to file suit under a judge they are confident will side with them. This is an important court reform, however, there is more we must do to fix our tilted judiciary and restore democracy.

→ Kamala Harris Visits Abortion Clinic

In a historic first, Vice President Kamala Harris became the first executive leader of this country to visit an abortion clinic when she toured a Planned Parenthood location in Minnesota. The vice president also spoke to press after her tour about the national public health crisis plaguing this nation in the wake of Dobbs, and the importance of clinics like Planned Parenthood and independent abortion providers for not only providing abortion care, but a wide spectrum of reproductive and sexual health care at an affordable cost.

→ Arizona Senator Testifies About Her Abortion Experience

A stunning and inspiring video out of Phoenix, Arizona this week showed State Senator Eva Burch speaking on the Senate floor about the process she had to undergo to seek abortion care for a nonviable pregnancy. Senator Burch noted that she was actively engaged at the moment of her testimony in the process of pursuing abortion care, describing the many hoops state policy had forced her to jump through, such as a mandatory waiting period, a medically unnecessary and invasive transvaginal ultrasound, and mandated anti-abortion counseling, despite Senator Burch having already confirmed her pregnancy was not viable. The Senator also spoke about how she had almost been denied miscarriage care in an earlier pregnancy two years ago, in the wake of Dobbs. We are deeply inspired by Senator Burch’s bravery in testifying on her experience seeking abortion care, and urge you to check out this video.

Get Involved!

📍ANYWHERE! Register for our Virtual Community Briefing on the Mifepristone Case

Join us after oral arguments on April 3rd to hear from legal experts, abortion providers, community advocates, and movement leaders from throughout New England about threats this case poses to mifepristone access and how patients can continue to access medication abortion care. This event is co-sponsored by the ACLU of Massachusetts, the ACLU of New Hampshire, the ACLU of Connecticut, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, and Hartford GYN Center. Now more than ever, our community needs to be prepared and ready to defend abortion access in New England. We hope to see you there! Register here: bit.ly/MifeCommunityBriefing

📍ANYWHERE! Purchase Tickets for Reproductive Equity Now’s 2024 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 across New England, celebrating our wins from this past year, and honing in on our vision for reproductive equity across New England. We’d be honored if you join us for what will surely be an incredible night!

📍NEW HAMPSHIRE! Purchase tickets for our Concord Screening of Preconceived

We’re thrilled to bring a screening of Preconceived, a film exposing anti-abortion centers’ deceptive practices, to Concord’s Red River Theater next week! Purchase your tickets for our Concord screening and post-film panel on March 28th!

Check out this review of Preconceived from its debut at SXSW and this article in Jezebel about the film. 

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.

 If there’s anyone you know who might be interested in receiving this newsletter, they can sign up here!