Jessica Valenti: Abortion, Every Day (3.23.23) Daily round-up of abortion issues

[Nevilledog]

https://jessica.substack.com/p/abortion-every-day-32323?r=bha3&utm_medium=web

In the states…

Good news out of Wyoming: A judge temporarily blocked the abortion ban that had been made into law just a few days earlier, allowing abortion care to resume in the state. Teton County Judge Melissa Owens says, “Wyomingites voted into law that they have a fundamental right to make their own health care decisions.” The way that Republicans tried to get around Wyoming’s constitution, which says everyone has a right to make their own healthcare decisions, was by stating in the legislation that “abortion as defined in this act is not health care.” Owens responded that “the Legislature cannot make an end run around essentially providing a constitutional amendment.” (You may remember that Republican lawmakers were trying to use this bill as a way to give legislators increased power to interpret the state constitution—a blatant unconstitutional power grab.)

Also in Wyoming, an arrest was finally made in the arson attack against a Casper abortion clinic. The 22 year-old woman, who is unsurprisingly anti-abortion, faces up to 20 years in prison. The attack on Wellspring clinic left it with nearly $300,000 in damages.

Tennessee’s Attorney General has sent a letter to Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid warning them against dispensing abortion medication in the state. As you know, other Republican state AGs have been threatening pharmacies over the medication, leading to Walgreens caving to pressure and announcing that they wouldn’t carry the pills in certain states—even in those where abortion is legal.

But what’s notable about this letter is that AG Jonathan Skrmetti didn’t just direct the companies not to dispense mifepristone, but any “abortion-inducing drugs.” He wrote that Tennessee “has unequivocally elected to prohibit elective abortions and to strictly regulate the use of abortion inducing drugs such as mifepristone.” (Emphasis mine) The language is deliberate: Women and girls have already been denied legal prescriptions for a variety of medications in anti-choice states under the guise that they cause abortion, and Republican AGs in multiple states have been conflating mifepristone with other kinds of medication. (We just saw this happen in Texas, for example.) The goal is to confuse, overwhelm, and make broad declarations about what constitutes an abortifacient.

*snip*

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R