Welcome to The Week in Reproductive Justice, a weekly recap of all news related to the hot-button issue of what lawmakers are allowing women to do with their bodies!
In an eventful week for women in leadership, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth—whom you may know as the first disabled woman elected to Congress, and first Asian-American woman elected to Congress from Illinois—announced her second pregnancy. Duckworth could become the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office—a crucial, historic first that could help to destigmatize pregnancy for working women and foster dialogue about meaningful reform for family leave policies and improving representation of women in Congress.
The day after Duckworth’s monumental announcement, numerous reports said Cecile Richards would announce her resignation as president of Planned Parenthood after 12 years of impressive fundraising and advocacy. It’s early to speculate what this could mean, but it’s big news nonetheless for the future of the organization.
And on the state-level, big things are happening, too; here’s what you may have missed:
Satanic group challenges Missouri anti-abortion law
In some news that I’m shocked hasn’t gone national yet, a Satanic group officially filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to challenge a Missouri law requiring women seeking abortions to receive a pamphlet stating life begins at conception. Mary Doe, the woman at the center of the lawsuit, contends that the state law violates her religious freedoms, namely “her belief that a fetus is not an independent being, were violated by the state law.”
And honestly, where is the lie? Regardless of your personal beliefs about Satanic cults, the point the Satanic Temple is making in its lawsuit is valid: Required, state-funded educational material shouldn’t be used to push ideology, religious values, and inaccuracies on women who are trying to access a basic medical procedure.
While the lawsuit seems specific to this state requirement that women receive propaganda prior to having the procedure, there are plenty of other awful laws around abortion in Missouri. Its requirements for not only an ultrasound, but a three-day waiting period, make it one of the most extreme states in the country, not only placing what can be a tremendous inconvenience on women who are required to travel great distances for the procedure, but also shaming and infantilizing women by suggesting they’re incapable of thinking through and decisively making their own decisions. If you think Satanism is extreme but policing women’s bodies isn’t, consider taking a step back and reevaluating your world view.
Indiana Senate Judiciary committee passes sweeping abortion regulations
On Wednesday, Indiana’s Senate Judiciary committee passed SB 340, which will require more inspections of abortion clinics, additional information from those applying to open clinics, additions to informed consent forms for patients seeking abortion services, and reportage of any complications associated with abortions to the Indiana Department of Health.
As the regional Planned Parenthood has already noted, the additional requirements are meant to send the inaccurate message that abortion is unsafe and comes with complications, furthering the stigma around the procedure. The requirements will also further inconvenience and burden understaffed clinics with inspections and paperwork, while lengthier informed consent forms are likely meant to shame and extend anti-abortion propaganda to women seeking the procedure.
The state Senate will vote on SB 340 on an unspecified date in the future, and given its long record on passing harmful, anti-woman legislation, its chances of passing and being signed into law by the state’s Republican, anti-choice Gov. Eric Holcomb are decent.
Oklahoma state legislature will focus on abortion
As the Oklahoma state legislatures prepares to convene on Feb. 5, a series of proposed measures already reveal a key focus of this year will be abortion. According to an Enid News & Eagle Report from Wednesday, roughly eight bills restricting abortion access have already been proposed. One would make the sales of aborted fetal tissue illegal, and another would ban abortion for women whose fetuses appear to have down syndrome or genetic abnormalities and punish doctors who provided the service.
Each of these restrictions has a fair chance of passing in the state of Oklahoma, and will have their own fair share of consequences—outlawing the sharing of fetal tissue could stall critical medical research, while an abortion ban on fetuses with abnormalities is exactly what it says it is: an abortion ban.
Oklahoma’s legislature has previously weighed in on male partner consent laws for abortions, justified by a GOP state representative famously claiming that while women “feel like that is their body,” that they are “hosts.” Legislators have also considered a requirement on costly, taxpayer-funded anti-abortion signs and educational material in all public restrooms and facilities.
In 2017 alone, the legislature considered more than a dozen anti-abortion proposals, which they could still potentially vote on come Feb. 5.
Washington will vote on required birth control coverage
For the fifth year in a row, Washington’s state Legislature will vote on SB 6219, the Reproductive Parity Act. The bill would require health care plans offering maternity coverage to additionally cover contraceptives, such as birth control pills and IUDs, as well as abortion. The bill would additionally offer state funding for birth control and abortion care for low-income people.
Activists and the bill’s supporters have reportedly been chanting, “reproductive justice is an economic issue,” according to the Peninsula Daily News. Long-term, reliable birth control can cost up to $1,300, and abortion can cost up to around $1,000 without any coverage, too. The ability to exert control over one’s body has increasingly become an economic issue, especially considering the costs associated with giving birth and, of course, raising children. Federal law prohibiting public funding for abortion, and the Trump administration’s decision to repeal the contraceptive mandate protecting women from discriminatory coverage, last year, have largely left the fight of reproductive justice to the states.
A similar bill providing public funding for abortion for all women, including undocumented women, was signed into law last year in Oregon,nother state with fairly liberalized laws and culture around reproductive health care. Even in Illinois, a state with a Republican governor, last year, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law a bill permitting and expanding public funding for abortion.
Tune in next week to see what lawmakers will try next in their never-ending mission to derail reproductive justice!
(image: Shutterstock)
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