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Fighting back against extreme abortion bans

Wmc Features Tammy Boyd 100919
Tammy Boyd, chief policy officer of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, is among the leaders creating coalitions to fight for abortion rights and access. (Photo courtesy of Tammy Boyd)

Faced with a surge of abortion bans this year, pro-choice advocates and health care providers are working tirelessly to find ways to continue to provide abortion care and also widen the network of support for abortion rights and access.

“Right now, the fire has been lit under the United States, and it feels like we are in a boiling pot of water,” said Julie Burkhart, founder and CEO of Trust Women, which provides reproductive health care, including abortions, in underserved communities and operates clinics in Wichita, Seattle, and Oklahoma City. “There are so many moving parts right now” in the effort to combat the deluge of abortion bans.

“We are seeing an increase in coalition building, especially with the health care industry joining in, as well as the business community and corporations,” said Tammy Boyd, chief policy officer of the Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI). “We are trying to be proactive, but there are so many things coming at us. We could be on Capitol Hill talking about other urgent issues like breast cancer. Instead we are having to deal with this onslaught of extremism.” BWHI is working to ensure that black women’s health and wellness, including access to comprehensive reproductive health care, is a major issue in the 2020 elections through their recently released Black Women Vote: National Health Policy Agenda, a blueprint for policymakers.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) supports clergy to speak out about the necessity for abortion access, and was part of a July blessing at the Whole Women’s Health clinic in Austin along with other interfaith clergy, the Whole Women’s Health Alliance, and the Texas Freedom Network. “For the workers who are subject to so much spiritual abuse, to have a group of clergy come in and bless their work is really powerful,” said Sue Ellen Braunlin, co-president of the Indiana affiliate of the RCRC and a member of its national board. “I do see more urgency by young women physicians to be involved, and that is new.”

“There used to be this perception that what we were dealing with here was so outrageous and so ridiculous, it would never happen elsewhere,” said Braunlin. “But things that happen in red states are now of national focus. Here in Indiana, we've been living under Pence for years. We red states are in so much trouble, we need more attention from out of state to help us.” 

Pro-choice groups in progressive states are working on legislative initiatives to help people living in states with extreme bans and anti-choice politicians in charge. In July, the Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution that calls on their city attorneys to file amicus briefs to legal challenges to bans in Alabama and Ohio.

“Oregon is a beacon for reproductive health access and hailed as one of the most pro-choice states in the country, and with the huge success of the Stop the Bans rallies here, we wanted to take direct action,” said Kimberly Koops, the policy director for NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon. “The resolution was a way for Oregonians to [do that] and sends a message that bans aren’t welcome here. We are hoping to see similar resolutions in other progressive cities. If you live in a state that has good access to comprehensive reproductive health care, you still have to work to keep it that way. Last year we soundly defeated Measure 106, a backdoor ban on abortion, and just this legislative session we fought 11 anti-choice bills. Just because your state is blue now doesn't mean that it will always be like that, and you need to keep your pro-choice elected officials. People can't be complacent.” 

On September 13, the California State Legislature approved SB 24, which will require all on-campus student health centers at California’s public universities to provide access to medication abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. “With the national threats on abortion care, including this year's unprecedented surge of state abortion bans in the South and Midwest and years of politicians passing restrictions in others states, Senate Bill 24 is an opportunity for California to continue leading when it comes to abortion access,” said Noël Jones, a senior at UC Berkeley and leader of Berkeley's Students United for Reproductive Justice, one of the over 130 organizations that support the bill. “This bill will reduce the shame and stigma around abortion, inspire students to advocate for their needs, and improve access to care at student health centers. Because queer people lead this campaign and gender-neutral language is used in the bill, our efforts will also help make the reproductive health movement more inclusive and egalitarian.” California Governor Gavin Newsom has until October 13 to sign the bill.

The business community is a growing ally, and advocates are applying pressure to companies that claim a commitment to gender equity, but don’t back that up with specific support for reproductive freedom. In August, Equity Forward, a reproductive rights watchdog organization, launched the Defund the Bans campaign, which calls on 66 major companies to stop making political contributions to the lawmakers behind the extreme abortion bans, including in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Missouri. (On October 1, a federal court temporarily blocked implementation of Georgia’s six-week ban, and on August 27, a federal judge blocked several provisions of Missouri’s abortion bans one day before they were to go into effect.)

“We wanted to show which companies were complicit in funding” the bans, said Mary Alice Carter, senior advisor to Equity Forward. “Companies are realizing that for millennials and Gen Z, it's not only important that they like their product, but they have expectations of the companies to share their values. It's so much easier now to find out who is giving to what, and then people can use their power as consumers. Companies tend to be cautious and don't want to take a strong stand in support of abortion because, they say, then they have to also support the other side. But there is far more support for safe and legal abortion than for the abortion bans. It is clear what employees and consumers support, and it’s not laws that restrict access to health care.” In fact, new research by the Harris Poll conducted on behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America found that employees want their workplaces to publicly support women’s reproductive freedom. 

And on June 10, 187 CEOs and business leaders from major companies including Bloomberg, Yelp, and H & M, signed onto a full-page ad in The New York Times denouncing the abortion bans. “Never before had leaders from major companies, including publicly traded, privately held, and B corps, spoken out on the importance of reproductive health care,” said Jen Stark, senior director for corporate strategy at the Tara Health Foundation, which is dedicated to improving access to reproductive health and the well-being of girls and women and was part of the coalition effort behind the campaign. “The corporate community can play an instrumental role in advancing social progress ... to lead when government cannot or will not.” 

Meanwhile, reproductive health care providers are strategizing for an even more dire future, including if and when the extreme abortion bans actually do go into effect and the possibility of similar extreme bans are passed in other states. “We have been looking at what our staffing needs will be if more clinics are unable to provide abortions in neighboring states,” said Burkhart. “We need to onboard people, and we're finding that there is increased interest among [doctors] in providing abortion care. Next year, we are looking at potential ballot initiatives that restrict access in all the states that we operate in, and we started building coalitions this summer to fight them. I've been connecting with people who are tenuously pro-choice and haven't in the past been outspoken on this issue who now want to be involved.”

Advocates are bracing for a possible increase in charges brought against women who end their own pregnancies. “While the recently enacted abortion bans do not explicitly authorize the criminalization of people who have abortions, they are sowing seeds of doubt and confusion,” said Jill E. Adams, the executive director of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, a national legal and advocacy organization. They have had an increase in visitors to their Repro Legal Helpline, especially from people in states where abortion bans have passed, and are preparing for even more if the laws go into effect. “People are inquiring about laws related to self-managed abortion — but also about the legality of abortion writ large,” said Adams, who points out that even before the bans, people in at least 20 states had been criminally investigated and charged under “laws manipulated and misapplied by overzealous prosecutors hellbent on punishing someone who may have ended their own pregnancy. It’s reasonable to expect that the more restricted, stigmatized, and inaccessible clinic-based care becomes, the more people will need to self-manage abortions at home. Many reproductive health care providers and advocates have come a long way from viewing self-managed abortion as potentially unsafe, or a threat to their model, to now embracing it as a safe option and necessary component of abortion care.”

Advocates urge people to make their voices heard not only through activism, but also by simply opening up about their abortions and experiences with reproductive health care in general. “The attempt to block access to abortion really shows the disconnect between the electorate and elected officials: Poll after poll shows people want abortion access,” said Burkhart. “What's important now is that everyone needs to be leaning into abortion and talking about it. By not talking about abortion and reproductive health, we let these legislators set the agenda.”



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